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‘Tell me.’ I yanked his hair again and felt some of it rip out from its follicles. A loud bang sounded and all I could see was smoke coming from the hole in his forehead. I looked up to find the man who’d fathered me pointing a gun in our direction.
‘Vincenzo said to end it,’ he said as he lowered his Beretta and I nodded at him just the once in understanding.
Zeno went limp in my hand, but his death was too easy for a piece of scum like him. I pulled my knife from my boot and ran the sharp blade from one of his ears to the other. As his life blood burst from its constraints and poured out over his starched, white shirt, I released my hold and shoved him face forward to the dirt where he belonged.
‘It’s always about blood, Zeno. Nowyoumust understand that,’ I whispered his own words back to him.
‘Papa!’ Alessio shouted above the din. Looking up, I watched as clutching his heart, Alessandro Giordano fell to the floor.
Men moved quickly around us. Some secured the room, making sure our Don was safe, others went to help the Giordanos. On instinct, my eyes went to my grandfather’s and as he nodded at me, I knew I’d done what was needed. With determined strides, avoiding the chaos that was all around us, he walked towards me and took me into his hold. Our connection was brief, before he slapped me on the back and released his hold on me.
‘Salvatore, my blood, my grandson.’ His voice sounding out was strong and determined and I knew that although it hadn’t been loud, enough ears had witnessed his words.
The next few years in Calabria would be bloodthirsty. I knew alliances would be forged and broken, but I also knew that sometime soon my grandfather would take his rightful place as our boss and I would stand on his right side as I defended my future position.
But first, I had a debt to pay.
Falling to my knees, I gently swept Sophia’s hair away from her face and brushed my lips to her forehead as I said my goodbyes. Then, as gently as I could, I closed her eyes and whispered my thanks. Slowly, I got back up onto my feet and stood up tall as the turmoil continued all around me. Sheathing my knife, I left the building. After crossing the courtyard, I removed and rolled up my suit jacket and secured it to my bike. Then I pulled up the leg of my suit trousers and climbed aboard my Ducati. Jerking my bike into life, I ignored the commotion which had spilt outside, and rolled it forwards off its kick stand.
What had just happened inside the building behind me, was exactly what I’d set out to do, although Giordano apparently having a heart episode had made it all the sweeter, but now I needed to find the girl who was always in my thoughts.
When the news came in and it broke her heart, I wanted to be there to witness it, or at least that’s what I hoped was behind my sudden fucking need to see her.
CHAPTER TEN
SERAFINA
‘No more.’The two words escaped my mouth accidentally.
‘What?’ Mia questioned.
I sat up quickly and swung my legs over the edge of my bed and grinning straight at her, I spoke again. ‘I just thought that we’ve been in here long enough… no more.’ I moved my hands as I tried to convince her with my words. ‘Do you want to come down to the beach with me? I thought we could swim.’
‘Yes!’ Her excitement was evident as she jumped off her bed and began to look for her bright red swimming costume. ‘Shall I shout for Dante to come too?’
‘Just call, don’t shout. We don’t want to wake mum.’
With her left hand clasping her suit, Mia disappeared from our room and moved down the hallway that all the bedrooms ran off, until I heard her discussing our plans with Dante. I looked up from staring at my bare feet when eyes as turquoise as my own peered around the door.
‘I wanna go. Do you think we can get away with it?’ he questioned and raised his eyebrows at me at the same time. His London accent never ceased to amaze me. While my accent would change to reflect wherever we were at the time, his stayed one hundred percent British.
‘Yes. We must have at least an hour.’
‘I’ll be ready in five,’ Dante replied and disappeared as quickly as he’d arrived.
I knew what he was asking without him putting it into words. Today was the most important day of our whole holiday month. Today was the annual meeting of the Ndrangheta, the organisation that our Calabrian family belonged to. Today they would elect a new Boss. They would sort out grievances, punish those who had walked their own path without permission, discuss new business and generally make plans for the next twelve months. Historically, our mum would feel so unwell with the stress of how important the day was to our family, she would take to her bed and not appear again until after Papa returned home safe and sound. Even us children, as we grew older, knew how important the day was to us.
Is our family still in favour?
And more importantly, after hearing of others who had lost the head of their family at the meeting in previous years, would our papa return at all?
He had left early this morning with a huge reassuring smile on his face, as always. His right arm was draped around the shoulders of Zeno, his eldest son, and his left around Alessio, who was studying to become our family’s consigliere. Our whole house had been cleaned to within an inch of its life after they’d left, under our mum’s orders, in case this year the newly elected Boss chose our home to eat in that evening.
As our papa left for the Aspromonte region, the three of us had as always been left with strict instructions.
Leave Mum in peace and stay inside the house until we were told otherwise.
But surely, one swim won’t hurt?
