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PROLOGUE
Salvatore Falco was seven years old and learned that Santa Claus did not exist when his father, Leonardo (The Lion) Andolini, was killed on Christmas Eve. On December 28, 1964, Salvatore, Salvo to all who knew him, stood dressed in a black suit and navy blue tie beside the closed casket of his father. The viewing service was held at the church where his mother, Coletta Falco, took him on Sundays and she sobbed and wailed, overcome with sadness at the loss of the only man she loved and who gave her a son.
Enrico Andolini was Leonardo’s younger brother who stood near the ornate golden casket. Enrico looked very similar in the face to his dead brother, only he was shorter and more slender in build. He was Salvatore’s uncle, and the Andolini family called him Uncle Nico.
Salvo sensed an awkwardness in the eyes of some of the men and women in the church, especially, Leonardo Andolini’s wife, Simone Andolini. She glared at him with disdain, as she sat in her chair crying with her little daughter, Gemma, standing beside her who looked older than him. Salvo learned that Simone was his father’s wife and the little girl was his daughter, Gemma. He understood even at a young age, that his mother was his father’s girlfriend, and that he was not an Andolini.
The young boy wanted to see his father one last time, but he was not allowed to. He would learn later when he grew older that the reason for the closed casket was that even though the mortician did the very best they could, his father’s face was unrecognizable from the bullet wounds. Coletta told him to remember his father as he was on Christmas Eve.
Salvo smelled the large flower bouquets surrounding Leonardo’s casket and saw many people who were friends and family offering condolences. He clasped his little hands together and looked down at the shiny black patent shoes he wore on his feet as a tear spilled down his right cheek. He remembered the last time he saw his father, on Christmas Eve, when he came to visit. It was snowing outside that evening as Leon entered Salvo's home he lived in with his mother, carrying boxes of wrapped presents in his arms.
"Salvatore, you don't have the Andolini name, but my blood runs through your veins. You're my son, and I will always be proud that you are."
The little girl, with long curled locks of dark brown hair, approached and stood beside him. She looked a few years younger than Salvo, when he turned his head to look at her.
"Why are you crying?" she asked.
Salvo pointed at the casket, "My father is dead, and he's sleeping forever in that box."
"Why did he die?"
Most boys his age would have told the little girl to go away, but Salvo looked into her green eyes and felt a bond with another child. "I don't know why. And I'll never see him again."
The little girl's hand reached over and took Salvo's hand, then leaned her head on his shoulder. "I'll cry too."
CHAPTER 1
December 1984
Salvatore Falco loosened his tie and rolled up his shirt sleeves as he looked down at the dance floor from the mirrored window in his office at the nightclub that he owned called Gold Lion. On Saturday nights, the club was very popular and there was a line of people waiting to be let in. Salvo hired two big men, his associates, Tom and Diego, as his bouncers who checked IDs and kept things in order outside.
Strobe lights pulsed above the dance floor as loud music boomed from huge speakers suspended in all four corners of the club. Women wore tight, shiny, or colorful dresses accentuating their figures, and men dressed in suits or the latest fashion of stone-washed jeans and collared shirts as they danced.
Salvo's eyes roamed the crowd as he rubbed his chin when he spotted a young woman with long dark brown hair. She wore a tight-fitting red velvet dress that was so short if she bent down, everyone would see what she wore or didn't wear underneath. He watched as she swayed her hips to the bass-pounding music, but he instantly recognized her when his eyes steered up to her face. She was Bianca Capello, the daughter of Roman Capello, Consigliere to Salvo's uncle and boss of the family, Enrico Andolini. He hadn't seen Bianca in a few years, and the side of his lip lifted when he remembered her as a little girl…
Looking at her green eyes as she held his hand and cried with him when his father died.
Salvatore had seen her at birthday parties and special occasions when they grew up with other children and their families in Staten Island.
Salvo snapped back to the present when a man with jet-black curly hair approached Bianca on the dance floor. He looked like a perverted asshole when he stood behind her, placed his hands on her hips, and then began to rub his crotch against Bianca's backside.
Salvo looked down to see his own hands clenched tightly at his sides. Finally, he couldn't stand there any longer and turned to storm toward the office door just as one of his soldiers, Tony the Tank Liotta, walked in.
"You look like you're about to clip someone," Tony said as Salvo passed him.
"I'll use my bare fucking hands," Salvo replied.
Tony grumbled, slapping his hands together and praying above as he whispered in Italian, then followed Salvatore out of the office.
He tried to keep up with Salvo as he descended the flight of stairs leading to the club's bottom floor. Tony knew Salvo to be calculated with every move, but something was happening on the dance floor that flipped a switch in his Capo.
By the time Tony rolled his sleeves up, Salvo had jerked a tall man with curly black hair by the back of his shirt and spun him around. Salvo's fist landed a hard left jab into the man's face, and blood spewed from his nose and lip.
When the man fell to the floor, a woman screamed as Bianca turned around and staggered back with her mouth opened wide with surprise.
Salvo stood over the man, punching him a few more times. Tony pulled Salvo off, then yanked the man as his face bled, and hauled him toward the entrance door of the nightclub.
Before Bianca could speak, Salvo took her arms and pulled her to slam into his tall and solidly built body. "That was reckless and stupid letting that fucking scumbag put his hands on you!" Salvo shouted as his dark eyes bore into hers.
