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Chapter 5
If there was anything that could shatter his world, it would be seeing his brother’s beaten up dead body in that morgue. There would be no more brother moments, no more pep talks, or his brother’s guidance. Neo sat silently in the back-passenger seat of the car as they headed back to the DeLuca home, a place that would be cold and dark without the return of Nino.
The buzz of the cell phone messages app jarred him out of deep thoughts of his brother. He was recalling the last time Nino was home and they had spent the weekend bonding before he went off to Jamaica. That was a few days ago. Reluctantly he drew his mind away from Nino to check the messages. In a daze he glanced at the count-down timer displayed across the screen with the words, ‘time is running out.’ At first, he was confused, and then he recalled what happened that morning.
Although Neo would rather slink into obscurity in order to process it all and mourn his brother, he knew he had to get it together. He needed to find his parents. Not only that, the reality of Nino’s death was slowly sinking in and he had questions.
“Who the fuck kills a DeLuca?” he uttered. “Who the fuck dare touches a DeLuca!” his voice rose several decibels that the driver braked, turned his head and stared at him. “Turn the fuck around and keep driving,” he yelled at the driver.
The driver complied, keeping his eyes on the road and never once glancing back. Neo checked the count down timer again and noticed he had four hours to solve the riddle, a riddle he could not remember. Closing his eyes, he tried to recall the conversation with the woman on the phone, but he could not. Things had happened at lightning speed where he was unable to catch his breath.
Replying to the last message, he requested a repeat of the riddle and ask that they also send a video of his father so he knew Adriano was alive. When there was no response after ten minutes, Neo knew there was no message forthcoming. Panic started to set in, but he could not afford to fall apart at the seams now. He couldn’t be seen as weak when his parents needed him most.
As soon as the car pulled up outside the front porch, he didn’t wait for Frankie to get out and open the door. He alit the car and rushed into the house, retreating to his bedroom away from the crew in order to catch a break. As soon as he was inside his bedroom, he leaned his forehead against the door frame and inhale a few sharp breaths.
“I must try and recall that conversation,” he muttered. “Think, Neo.”
His brain was completely blank of what the woman said. All he could think about was his brother’s dead body lying in that cold morgue. Why? Who? Those questions plagued his mind to the point where he felt like he was going mad. That woman, did she murder his brother to get to his parents? What did she want?
He tried sending another message but the first one remained unread. The next two days were spent waiting for the phone to ring or beep. But nothing. Neo started to lose his mind because he wasn’t sure at this point if his parents were dead or alive. The communications seemed to have stopped for some reason.
Loosening his tie, he tossed it aside and paced the room. “What would Adriano DeLuca do in this situation? What would mom do? What am I supposed to do?” he cried. “What am I supposed to feel?”
Inside was numb again. He could barely think clearly, or feel anything except once in a while he felt a hint of what seemed to be anger, but it would quickly dissipate once his brother’s dead corpse entered his mind.
Two days went by with Neo in a daze. Frankie had the troops on standby for his orders, but what should he order them to do? Frankie suggested that they trace his father’s phone, but that turned out to be a dead end since his father had his phone encrypted to be come untraceable. There were men scouring the streets to get info on both his brother’s murder and his parents’ disappearance. They hadn’t returned with any information as at the two day mark.
Then came the arrival of his uncle.
* * *
The morning after Uncle Robert arrived in Sicily, a meeting was called. Neo got no sleep that night and was having a pounding headache. He stayed up all night trying to remember the conversation with the woman but to no avail. At around five that morning, he showered and changed into jeans and leather jacket, something he hardly ever wore, then rode out on his Harley.
“I will find those responsible, Nino. I will bring our parents back and avenge you with my last breath.”
Having no clue where he was headed, he just took the road, needing to clear his head and get rid of that splitting headache. A headache made worse by that woman Antonique. Just the very thought of her made his blood boil. He was surprised that the moment she entered his mind, every emotion that was non-existent since the last two days, came crashing into him all at once.
The grief, anger, despair and utter confusion, exploded in him, causing his mind to go into overdrive. As all emotions and even memories surfaced, he accelerated, pushing the speedometer to breaking point. It was too late to slow when the wheels hit a bump in the road. The impact threw both him and bike into the air, his life flashing before his eyes as everything seemed to slow in that moment.
The bike came down first, with him following a close second. He hit the ground with a hard thud, the wind knocking out of him. He lay there for a minute trying to catch his breath and utterly flabbergasted that he was still conscious. Easing himself up into sitting position, he pulled off his helmet and looked around him. He’d been thrown several feet off the road onto the plush grass in front of a large brownstone building.
“Are you okay?” a man who was tending the garden asked.
“Yeah, I’m fine thanks.”
Neo scrambled to his feet, feeling the effects of the fall, but thankfully no broken bones. A pain in his hip and his right shoulder was the only sign that he’d been in an accident. He counted it down to being a miracle. Nevertheless, it was the first time in days he’s felt like a living being as he hopped over to the roadside to where the wreckage of his beloved Harley lay. There was no way he could ride that thing home now.
Taking his cell phone from his jacket pocket, he was thankful that it was still intact. He still couldn’t believe that he was alive after such a fall. Without thinking, he dialed Frankie’s number and waited for the captain to answer.
“Boss, where are you? We were worried that…,” he trailed off, and Neo knew what he was thinking. “Where are you?” he repeated.
Neo gave Frankie his location and asked that someone come and get him. While waiting for his ride, Neo pulled the motorbike onto the side of the road and sat on the concrete. It was while recalling the seconds in which he thought his life was over, that he remembered the riddle the woman gave him to solve. What do you do when your faith is weak? He whipped around and stared at the brownstone building in front of which he landed a few minutes ago. The large cross sitting on the spire was an eye opener.
“What do you do when your faith is weak?” he repeated. With a chuckle he also answered his own question. “Go to church.”
Hoping that he wasn’t too late and that the woman hadn’t already iced his father, he wrote the answer in a text and set to his father’s phone. A few seconds went by before the familiar beep alerted him that she’d replied.
‘You took long enough. Fortunately, I’m not a monster. Seeing you are dealing with a death in the family, I’ve been quite patient.’
‘Now I got the answer, tell me where my parents are.’
‘I will let you find your dad. Your mom now belongs to someone else. But you can find your dad in church.’
‘Which church? And what do you mean my mom belongs to someone else?’
‘The one where you were conceived, silly,’ she replied, ignoring the last part of his question.
If this was supposed to be funny, Neo wasn’t laughing. The next text message he sent got no response and was left unread. He knew her game by now, that he would have to figure this one out on his own. She gave him the answer, it was just for him to find out which church his parents apparently had sex in twenty-seven years ago.
