AllFreeNovel
Share Us
‘I know this, because I’ve helped to clean up the rooms after their sexual games have gone wrong.’ I watched as Sophia’s head dipped forwards momentarily. ‘There is so much blood.’ I knew by her voice that Sophia was crying.
‘Have you never questioned your madam?’
‘No.’ Fear tainted her voice. ‘I work hard, I do as I’m asked and I keep myself out of things that aren’t my business.’
‘Yet today, here you are,’ Enzo reminded her.
Sophia looked over her shoulder to find me. In response, I nodded at her just the once to go on.
‘I’m here, because I don’t want to be taken against my will ever again.’ Sophia shook her head rapidly as she reiterated her point. ‘And who knows when my time will run out.’
Low murmurings started amongst the many men in the room. Quickly, I glanced around and took in their many expressions. With a small amount of relief, I exhaled by blowing air through my parted lips.
‘Sophia. You are telling us there are two men?’
‘I know there’s more… soldiers, I think. I only see the young one and hear the older one.’
‘This is rubbish. What proof do we have that this isn’t just a story she’s telling for the bastard behind her?’ A voice sounded from somewhere to the left of where I stood.
I felt the hackles on my back rise, but talked myself down when I knew what she was going to say next would soon provide proof enough.
‘In May of this year, I met a girl of fourteen. She was beautiful, with long, dark hair that she was made to bleach blonde. They called her Eta, but she told me her real name was Margherita Conti.’
‘NO!’ I saw Marco Conti move, before I heard his voice. He was just a lowly soldier, but an extremely loyal one who worked hard and had no intention of moving up through our ranks. I knew he’d be here today and had discovered a few months before that his only daughter had been sent to live with her grandmother in Rome after the death of her mother, but she’d never arrived. It had been thought that she’d run away—but not anymore.
My heart felt his pain and by the looks of the faces around us, so did the majority of the congregation. Vincenzo walked forward and wrapped Conti up in his arms as a show of unity.
‘Tell me the name you have!’ bellowed Vincenzo over Conti’s shoulder, before he released his hold on the grieving father.
‘His name…’ started Sophia.
Moving as fast as I’d ever seen him travel, Zeno Giordano broke rank from behind his father, and he came around the end of the table and lunged for Sophia. With his flick blade already in his hand, he stabbed violently towards her and plunged the flick knife deep into her chest.
A scream left her along with, ‘Zeno Giordano.’ She collapsed to the floor, mumbling my name on the bubbles of blood that burst from her body. The last oxygen she would ever breathe allowed her to fulfil her duty to me, as it left her ruptured lungs. I couldn’t have asked any more of her, she had effectively signed Vincenzo’s name to Zeno’s death warrant.
I knew that I could have probably got to him before he reached Sophia, but poor Sophia was never going to be leaving this room—she knew too much to see daylight again, and it was best she went not knowing I would have done my duty to my Don and removed her with my own hands.
Poor Sophia, she had deserved more from her young life. I knew I should have been upset at her loss, but it wasn’t in me. Instead, all I could do was to appreciate that I had given her a purposeful death.
One step behind my normal pace, but catching up fast, I caught hold of Zeno’s outstretched, closed hand, twisted it behind him and snapped through the radius of his forearm. His fingers opened and the metal of the blade he'd been holding fell to the floor, cutting strangely through the noise around me as it almost musically chimed out its landing.
‘Fuck…’ Zeno screamed like a girl for the congregation to hear. ‘Papa… please.’ He pleaded to his father, who was standing stoically in front of the chair he’d risen from, knowing his eldest son had sealed his own fate and understanding that he could do nothing to stop it. As he caught my eye and I saw a prayer being uttered on his lips, I offered him a wry smile.
Then I mouthed back at him the words I believed I’d heard him whisper the night he’d stolen my mama away, ‘Pensa ai tuoi peccati.’
A son for a mama.
But I knew it wasn’t enough. Only when I’d brought the man, who’d stolen my childhood from me by taking my mama, down to his knees, would my life become my own. Until then, I swore, I would only exist.
This is just the start, Giordano.
‘Finish him,’ Vincenzo shouted out above the commotion.
‘Who’s paying you, Giordano?’ When he made no reply to my question, I grabbed hold of his hair, pulled his head backwards to expose his throat and kicked out to the side of his legs, busting his kneecap and making him fall quickly to the floor.
‘I asked who’s lining your depraved pockets?’ I had to delve further… the opportunity had presented itself. I was sure it would have been the older man who would have orchestrated my mama’s disappearance and I wanted to hear him mouth the name of his papa in front of the many witnesses.
Fear filled Zeno’s eyes at the knowledge his death was so near, and the stench of his urine reached my nostrils as he pissed himself.
