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After a while, with nothing else to do, I wandered over to the window and had a look out at the Marchiano estate. It was opulent, but it was still a prison.
The grounds appeared to be extensive with expansive green lawns and lots of trees stretching into what looked to be a wooded area. There was an outdoor swimming pool, as well as an impressive glasshouse containing an indoor pool, and I imagined that the indoor pool was the preferable option during the cold Chicago winters.
I could see a large garage block, probably filled with multiple black SUVs. There was also a helipad with a chopper on it—the perfect way to escape, I thought, had I known how to fly one. What I couldn’t see though, was the boundary of the estate. Damn, that meant that it must be pretty large. Not being able to see where the boundary and exit were, made it all the harder to plot my escape.
Being too distracted with my concern over Jess to think about an escape plan right now, I let my eyes wander back over the gardens and tried to let the serene view calm me.
I hadn’t seen much of the outside of the house when we had arrived because of the darkness, although I had been able to make out that it was a large modern property which was a short drive from the guarded perimeter gates. I wondered if there was more than one exit. Probably not, because that would make security harder and a man like Marco Marchiano would have many enemies he would want his family protected from.
One thing I had noticed upon our arrival was the huge traditional statue of the Virgin Mary on the front lawn, standing out in blatant contrast to the modern house. It must have been nearly ten feet tall.
This statue was incongruous not only with the mansion but also with the man I’d met. I was surprised that Marco even had a statue of a saint in his front yard. He could hardly be thought of as devout—I mean, come on, he killed people for a living.
I turned my gaze back from the gardens to look around the bedroom. I could have been in a hotel. High-end dark furniture stood out against the muted walls, the sheets were high count Egyptian cotton, and the comforter was so light that it must have been filled with the finest down feathers. I ran my hand over the two armchairs in front of the windows, enjoying the caress of the velvet fabric and of the cashmere throws draped across them. Who said that crime didn’t pay?
For a few minutes I just stood there, trying to push the despair from my body—but, failing miserably, I felt tears overcome me and roll down my cheeks.
MARCO
After watching Juliana shower and taking her breakfast, I left the bedroom. I couldn’t trust myself to be around her while I was still furious about yesterday.
She would wait. Juliana and the Società had played me for a fool. They had made me look weak. They had made it look like I couldn’t keep my family and men safe.
Fuck, three men died yesterday. That could easily have been one of my brothers or Debi. They were my whole world—I would lay down my life for them and kill anyone who threatened them.
I made my way downstairs to eat breakfast with the rest of the family.
My brothers were all talking at once. Alessio was trying to talk to Camillo about a business issue; however, Camillo was ignoring him and instead talking to Danio about baseball. I looked across at Debi and couldn’t help but notice that she was quieter than usual.
As we sat around the kitchen island and I watched my siblings, I felt that all too familiar stab at my heart, particularly when I looked at Danio and Debi.
They were growing up without their mom—and that was all down to me.
They were better off with my father being dead, but no child should have to grow up without their mom. My worst guilt was about Debi. She had no real female role models in her life. Instead, she was surrounded by four guys who could never replace the maternal love she’d lost, no matter how hard I tried to fill the void.
Once we’d finished breakfast and everyone started to get up from their seats, I turned to my youngest brother. “Danio, have you managed to get the church CCTV yet?” He was the technical genius of the family and who we went to with all our I.T. issues. He even dressed the part, with jeans, sneakers, and a hoodie being his outfit of choice.
“The Società deleted it, probably not wanting us to watch it and get a clear idea of what went on. But I managed to retrieve the deleted file from their server because they forgot to delete it from there.”
“Good job. Get it up and we’ll watch it now.” I sat down next to Danio, and we watched the footage together on his laptop. It felt strange watching the start of the wedding ceremony on the CCTV. I saw Debi when she had waved to me from the pews and I had winked back at her. It made my blood run cold to think that the shooter probably also had her in his range yesterday.
We continued to watch the footage, seeing the start of the ceremony. Then came the gunshots. “Freeze the video.” We froze the video and replayed it several times in slow motion and from the different angles of the cameras. “As I thought, the Società were aiming for me with their first shot. There was a sniper up in the eaves of the church,” I said, pointing to the shooter shown in the corner of the screen.
“Well, either Juliana is a very good actress, or she was genuinely as surprised by the shooting as we were,” commented Danio.
“Shut it, Danio, I’m trying to watch this.” I was irritated that he was probably right, I reluctantly admitted to myself. Juliana definitely didn’t look as if she had expected or been prepared for any of it. She looked completely shocked by what happened.
That didn’t change the fact though, that she was part of a family of traitors. She hadn’t wanted to leave L.A. with me, despite the fact that she had signed herself over to me in the contract. I had been forced to drag her away from the church yesterday.
She would need to be taught obedience at the very least. She would need to learn that her loyalties were to me now, not the Società.
“Man, that poor girl who got shot instead. That was Juliana’s sister, right?” asked Danio. Trust him to be concerned about the Società girl who got shot.
He was still young, but he would toughen up as he got older. After our parents had died, Alessio and I had brought up Camillo, Danio, and Debi very differently from how we had been raised by our deranged father.
Danio was impatient to be initiated into the Fratellanza, but Alessio and I had decided we wanted our younger brothers to have as long a childhood as possible before being initiated into the Mafia world. Therefore, Camillo had not been initiated until he was sixteen, and Danio would also have to wait until he was sixteen to enter the Fratellanza.
I was glad we had waited to initiate Camillo—he might look like a tough guy, and he certainly did his Enforcer role without hesitation due to his family loyalty, but he didn’t lust after blood the same way I did.
