AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I hear shouting from both on and off stage, and people yelling about how some of the crime families have had enough of watching this play air all of the mafia’s personal and private business to the general public, whether in fictional form or not.
One man who barrels onto the edge of the stage is yelling about how Vari wasn’t effective in shutting this production down and that’s why Brutus and his borgata are here to end things once and for all. I don’t know who half of these people are or why they’re so angry, but the ravenous look in their eyes strikes an immediate terror in me. Whoever they are, they’ve decided to take matters into their own hands.
“See?” Brutus shouts as he stands over what appear to be men following his command. “We’ve started a war inside the theatre, and we’ll kill every single member of the Irish Mob in the audience and then make our way to the stage to find and kill Hector Wales too. They’ll regret the day they ever thought this was a good idea!”
Cheers erupt from his followers who are still swinging knives and metal bats at other people in the audience. The carnage is quickly turning the theatre into a bloodbath. And everyone else inside the crowd who isn’t part of this fight is going to unfortunately be nothing more than collateral damage. I don’t think I’ve ever been more terrified in my life, and I start to panic because I can’t see Vari anywhere.
But just as I go to turn and run behind the stage, I can hear his voice calling from me. I turn around quickly and see him standing at the edge of the stage with his hand outstretched. I make a run toward him but slide to a fast stop when a shot is fired so close to me that it deafens me.
One of my fellow performers drops to the ground. His eyes roll into the back of his head and blood spills from his mouth as if he was a bottle of merlot that suddenly became uncorked. I scream and freeze in place. My rational brain knows that standing here in a frozen state on the center of the stage after someone was gunned down right next to me is not a brilliant idea, but fear is keeping my feet from moving. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Vari jump up on the stage. He races toward me, grabs my hand, and pulls me into the wings to safety. “What’s happening?” I ask.
“The mafia’s trying to take down the show, and Brutus and his loyalists are trying to slaughter as many Irish mobsters as possible at the same time,” Vari answers as he scans our surroundings. “We need to get out of here now. You’re a target for both the mafia and the mob. And I can’t protect you here against all of these people without backup. I need to get you somewhere safe and amass my men to tackle this escalation.”
I follow Vari as he heads for the doors, but all the doors are locked, even the back door that leads out into the street behind the theatre. “Shit,” he curses as time continues running out.
“I know another way out,” I say suddenly as I remember that there’s a door at the back of the costuming room below the stage that opens out into a below-street-level loading dock. “Follow me.” Vari is right on my heels as we snake in and out of the chaos to get beneath the stage. The costuming room is used only during pre-production and there isn’t anyone down here now. In all the panic and chaos above us, no one in the cast but me even remembered that this room exists.
Sure enough, the door at the back of the costuming room is unlocked. As soon as we get out onto the street, Vari calls Alessio to inform his crew about what has happened and tell them to prepare in case Brutus and the other mafia families need their help. “We’ll be ready now,” Vari says with certainty when he hangs up the call. But when he looks back down at the screen his face grows pale.
“What is it?” I ask nervously. I look down at his phone too and see several missed calls labeled under the contact entitled “Nanny.” Vari quickly opens his voicemail and listens to the message, putting it on speakerphone so that I can hear it too.
“Hello Mr. Roberto. I accidentally locked myself and Lucas out of the apartment when I took Lucas for a walk in the park. Since the park is so close to the theatre, we will just walk over to the show and wait for the intermission so that we can get the key from you there, if that’s okay with you.”
Vari looks at the timestamp on the voicemail. “No,” he whispers. Enough time has passed for the nanny and Lucas to have already arrived. “They’re inside the theatre.”
We stand there on the street, so close to being able to get the hell away from here, but now there’s no other choice but to go back inside for his son. “Dahlia,” he says with an unmistaken appearance of the dark side in his voice that I’ve heard so much about. “There’s a side of me you haven’t seen yet. I need to save Lucas, and as soon as I get inside that building, I’m prepared to take out every single person who stands in between me and getting my son back, without hesitation. Maybe you should stay out here with a few of my men once the borgata arrives. You’ll be safe with them, and it’ll spare you from seeing a part of me that I’ve tried to keep hidden.”
Vari’s soldiers finally arrive, and he says, “Petre, you stay here with Dahlia, and Alessio, you and I will go in for Lucas.” He pauses only for a moment to look around. “Where’s the rest of the crew?”
“They’re here,” Alessio reassures him. I’ve stationed them outside every door to the theatre so that we all don’t get apprehended at once. If we can get to and open the other doors from inside, they’ll flood into the theatre and take control of the crowd.”
“There’s too many of them inside,” I say. “There’s no way your singleborgatacan gain control. There are several mafia families and like half the Irish Mob in there.”
Alessio grins at me. “Oh, you just wait and see,” he says. “You haven’t seen the Roberto crew at work yet.”
“It’s a good idea,” Vari compliments him. “That way you can try to get some of the innocent bystanders out of the theatre as well. Many have died already. Let’s not let this be any more of a bloodbath than it already is.”
Without another word, Vari heads inside the door to go get his son. I watch him disappear into the dark underground room below the theatre.
20
VARI
This is my worst nightmare, something happening to Lucas because of me. If anything happens to him, if a single hair on his head is ruffled because of this, I’ll never forgive myself. And I’ll kill every single person responsible for harming my son. I race through the dark hallways beneath the theatre and back up the staircase to the main floor. Then, with Alessio at my side, I charge back inside the auditorium. Between the two of us, we’re able to bust through the door and knock down the guard at the other side.
“You go and open the doors to the outside,” I shout at my brother as a few of the mobsters try to take us out. “Let the rest of our crew in and get the civilians out of here!”
Alessio effortlessly thwarts a guy coming toward him with a knife clenched in his fist, nods, and heads to do exactly as I’ve instructed.
I turn around and eye the crowd of chaos. It’s even worse than it was a few minutes ago when Dahlia and I left. It’s nothing but a sea of carnage and fighting tooth and nail. I scan the theatre seats to try and spot Lucas and the nanny, but I see nothing other than grown men fighting and bloodied bodies slumped against the ground and chairs.
So, I start to do exactly what I came back inside here to do—slaughter everyone in my path until I find my son. Whoever gets in my way is fair game. Until I find Lucas, everyone is an obstacle between me and my son.
I use every bullet in my pistol, each one targeted for a direct kill without wasting a single one. And when I run out of bullets in that gun, I pull out another one from my jacket pocket. My aim is meticulously accurate and each person who tries to come at me is repaid with an instant bullet to the head. Even with all the murderous attacks going on, the crowd is still too thick to see through and the flurry of fighting too chaotic. I still can’t find Lucas and I get more and more panicked and furious with each passing moment.
When all of the guns in my possession are used through, I pull out my knives and start cutting people down. I’m not picky about who I slash through. Every person I clear makes it easier for me to clear out the clutter and find my son. This is what I didn’t want Dahlia to see, this indiscriminate slaughtering. She wouldn’t understand how it’s necessary in order to quickly find Lucas and why none of these lives of random people matter to me when my son’s life is in danger.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see the rest of our crew flood into the theatre, several at a time, as Alessio manages to get the doors open. The people who aren’t part of this fight and who don’t want to be engaged in the bloodshed all run for the doors to get out of the building. And as the rest of my men do what they do best and take control over the situation, the theatre begins to clear enough for me to see things better. But still, no sign of my son.
