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“Better than New York,” I replied, my tone clipped as I plumped onto the couch opposite from him. I didn’t mask the bitterness I was feeling. I was still wound up about being forced to cut the trip short.
“So I’ve gathered. I hope she was worth the risk you took by traveling solo.” There was a scold in there somewhere, but I couldn’t bring myself to give a fuck.
I was blinded by an emotion I’d yet to experience in my life, something that turned smart decisions into stupid impulses. Those still left a sly smile plastered on my face each time her face popped into my brain.
“Damn right, she is.” My words were dry, but the grin plastered on my face spoke much louder.
“Fuck. You’re a goner.”
“Proudly so. She knows everything, Matt. I told her, and she still came back. She still found it in her heart to fucking come back.” It was still unbelievable to me. How could such an angel accept a darkness that would surely stain her wings in crimson? “I’m happy when I’m with her. When was the last time I said that word? When I was ten?”
“You love her?” Matt’s eyes were softer, holding something resembling pity.
“I do.”
“Jesus fuck.” He leaned forward, his fingers cradling his temples as he shook his head left and right in some sort of denial I didn’t understand. “You just made this so much harder.”
“What are you talking about?” I demanded, leaning forward in a match of his position, supporting my elbows on my legs.
“The Amatos decided what they want in exchange for keeping the peace.” My eyes fluttered closed in preparation for whatever blow was about to come my way.
“Spit.” I finally said, half ready for whatever was weighing so heavily on his shoulders, while the other half dreaded the sentence I knew was coming.
“They want you to marry Enzo Amato’s niece, Francesca, tying the families together.” My heart sank to the pit of my stomach and my blood ran cold in my veins. I couldn’t fucking believe this was happening.
“FUCK NO!” I roared, springing up from the couch in protest.
The Amato Family controlled Detroit’s territory, and Enzo Amato was their undisputed Don.
By blood you enter by fucking blood you leave.
My Omerta´ hung heavy on my shoulders ever since that dreadful day a couple of months ago. The one that stole my life away from my grip as I still waited for my sentence.
The wait was over, this was it.
Not even my grandfather, the mighty Giancarlo Battaglia, could save me from this one.
Only a week shy from meeting Jamie, I had met a girl in a white dress at one of the 7-Elevens we provided protection for up in Tremont. We started talking in one of the back aisles, flirting, setting a date for me to take her out, when out of fucking nowhere, a group of masked kids came in to rob the place.
Three came right in through the front door while the other two came from the back. I was alone with her and completely surrounded.
I fought them off as best I could, taking their blows as if they were throwing feathers instead of punches. My gun was on the floor, taken from its holster as soon as they got to me. They didn’t seem like experienced criminals, but they weren’t stupid either, and leaving me with a gun would have been a huge mistake.
Three to one wasn’t good odds, but I tried anyway. When the other two were added against me, it took less than a minute before my face was scrunched against the dirty, tiled floor, the barrel of a gun snuggly pressed against the back of my skull.
If I closed my eyes, I could still see the image of the dirty soles of the Chucks that pressed my cheek into the slimy floor.
My fate was sealed, right then and there, until the girl in white charged at them with a bottle of booze in a feeble attempt to get them off me long enough for me to escape my certain death.
Several shots rang in a row, half my damn magazine emptied into the beautiful creature who had dared to try and save the devil. One of the thugs had picked up my gun and aimed to kill.
Three damn shots to the chest.
The silence that followed was deafening, only to be broken by the shattering of the bottle she held in her hand seconds before her body hit the ground.
Two seconds too late, Jimmy and Mike came running into the place, the five boys escaping through the back door. I hustled up and nestled her slim body in my arms, trying to stop the flow of blood that left her chest in torrents.
She died in my arms, staining me, my soul, and my conscience with her blood.
