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Anger spiked to the surface of my skin as I listened to the man who murdered him speak as if they were fucking friends. When I didn’t respond but continued to glare at him, trying to hold onto my control not to put a bullet in this fucker’s head right here and now, he spoke again.
“We happened to be in the same club one night in Venice. Obviously, that should have ended in bloodshed but your father sent a bottle of whiskey my way and asked for a night of peace so he could enjoy his evening with your mother. I was blown away by the gesture from such a notorious rival and he gained my respect that night.”
“So much respect that you put out a hit on him and tried to kidnap my mother,” I hissed, my voice so deep and laced with aggression I noticed Lorenzo slightly shuffling in his seat.
Riccardo’s eyes became serious as he held my gaze, never backing down from my aggressive stance. “That is what you have been made to believe. That is why you are here. So, we can set the record straight.”
I scoffed loudly and stubbed out the cigar in the ashtray on the table. “So, you are here to plead your innocence? Let me guess, you have heard rumours that my uncle is seeking revenge and you are shitting your Armani pants?”
“I would love for Salvatore to attempt anything towards my family. I am sure you are aware our family has grown recently,” Lorenzo interrupted with a sly smirk. I smacked my lips together as I moved my burning gaze to him.
“I hear congratulations are in order. Although, please send your wife my deepest sympathy,” I snapped back causing his smile to fall.
“That is not why you are here Giovanni. Yes we are aware that Salvatore is taking measures to target us hence our alliance with Barbieri. I am sure you can understand we are only protecting our backs in case it ever comes to a war. Just like your alliance with the Aianis. But I am hoping it will not come to that,” Riccardo leaned forward, his scarred face shining under the artificial lights.
I ran my tongue along my teeth as I folded my arms over my chest and glared at these men. “Go on then, let’s hear you pin my father’s death on someone else… Who is it to be? Francesco? A lower rank family member? A drug lord?”
A heavy silence fell between us as the room thickened with sudden tension and I grew more and more impatient by the second.
“Firstly, we are not pinning your father's murder on anyone. We are here to tell you the truth and the facts. What you choose to do with it is up to you,” Riccardo spoke seriously as Lorenzo pulled out a large file and iPad from his briefcase. He placed it on the table and slid it towards me. I narrowed my eyes as I stared at it and back at them.
“What’s this?”
“This is all the information we have gathered from our investigations over the last two years on the death of your father. This is all the evidence that points towards the people who are responsible for that night.”
I didn’t move as I tried to understand what this meant. If they were telling the truth, they knew they were being framed for Vinny’s death and had been doing their own investigations to clear their name. But why were they giving it to me? Their rival?
“If this is everything you say it is…, why have you not taken it to the commission? Why give it to me?” I questioned suspiciously.
Lorenzo spoke first. “Because… if someone killed my father, I would want to know first so I could be the one to bring justice, not the commission.”
My heart started thundering in my chest as I saw no malice or distrust behind his eyes. He was telling the truth. Whatever was in this file was the truth. I was feeling more and more certain. Leaning forward, I moved the iPad off the top of the file and opened the binder. No one spoke but I could feel their gaze on me as I skim read the first page of a CCTV report. It was in Leone’s garage and the date on the still video shots were the day before my papi’s shooting. The white vans with the Leone number plates were lined up in their garage. The same vans that stopped my father’s security and killed them. I flipped to the next page and saw footage of two men with black balaclava’s breaking into the garage.
“Two of our vans were stolen from our out of city garage a day before the shooting. We believe those vans were used in the attack on your father,” Riccardo stated the obvious. This proved nothing. The Leone’s could have easily set this up themselves to make it look like a robbery. I flicked the next page where there was evidence that the vans were reported stolen the next day by Riccardo himself. They were found, burnt and abandoned a week later by police.
“This does not prove your innocence. My mother heard one of your men say your name out of their lips that night. That you wanted her alive.”
“Keep reading,” Riccardo stated calmly. I flicked through more pages of CCTV footage of the city and froze when I saw the vans pulling out of an abandoned car park the night of the ambush. The licence plates had been changed but they were the exact same model of the stolen vehicles. Except they weren’t leaving Leone's territory. They were leaving the Aianis. My head snapped up and widened as I glanced across at Riccardo. He nodded.
“Play the first video on the iPad.”
My hands were starting to tremble with rage as I picked it up and pressed play. The CCTV footage had zoomed in on the driver of one of the vehicles. A brown-haired man with green eyes. I didn’t recognise him as anyone I had ever met.
“We did a background check on that man. His name was Quintin Vallis. He was one of Francesco’s head soldiers. He was leading the ambush and the man who attempted to kidnap your mamma. I believe Salvatore shot him during the attack, although his death is said to have been a drug deal gone wrong in our findings.”
The Aianis. They were behind this all along? They killed my papi? But why? Sal was trying to do a deal with them at the time of the shooting. I remember vividly that was what I was arguing with my father about. He didn’t want to form an alliance with them but Sal and I thought it was best to gain more power. Is that why they killed him? Just because he was against it?
Fury blazed through my veins like red-hot lava as I realised that Francesco was already dead. I would never get to torture him or kill him at my own hands for what he did. But I couldn’t tell the Leone’s that or I would be corrupting my uncle.
“So, Francesco did this because my father was standing in the way of an alliance?” I gritted through my teeth.
“That is what we thought but we wanted to be sure. We sent an undercover spy into their family posing as a soldier,” Lorenzo stated, and my eyes widened. Cami said that one of her father's soldiers had suddenly gone missing. He must have been their spy and come back to the Leones now. That was fucking risky but brilliant.
“And?”
The two men looked at each other carefully before Riccardo sat up straight and clasped his hands on the table, staring deeply into my eyes. “Our man climbed up the ranks quickly. He became one of Francesco’s most trusted men. He managed to gain important entail and record conversations in meetings as well as phone calls. This is not going to be easy to listen to Giovanni but you deserve the truth.”
My blood ran cold as I realised this was it. This was the moment everything would change. I would find out exactly who killed my papi and why.
