24. Matteo
Chapter 24
Matteo
The rain was lashing down harder and harder as Matteo and Steele drove back towards the city. With Steele following closely behind in his souped-up truck, Matteo was pushing his Porsche as hard as he could given the weather.
‘Give me a fucking break,’ Matteo barked as he drove toward the bridge that would connect him back onto the final stretch into the city only to see the lights turn red.
Briefly, Matteo considered busting the lights and hoping that he could make it across the bridge without hitting any of the oncoming traffic. But this was a fool’s errand. Matteo knew that he had to ensure that he got back to Kyan in one piece.
Kyan was being looked after by Faustino and Michael back at the townhouse. And while Matteo knew that his life was now under serious threat following the failed hit back at the lodge, Kyan’s situation was Alphonso still believed him to be dead, so he wouldn’t be a target. Matteo wanted to get home as quickly as he could in order to plot his next step, but there was no sense in putting his own life at risk in doing so.
‘Hurry the hell up,’ Matteo growled as the red light seemed to be stuck.
As the rain continued its torrential downpour, Matteo did his best to calm himself. If he learned one thing from his many years of working as a hitman it was that a cool head and controlled demeanor was always preferable to an emotional outburst or succumbing to frustration.
Control what you can control.
Use this time to plan.
Alphonso took a shot and missed. Now it’s my turn…
Matteo looked in his rear view mirror and saw Steele staring back at him. Moments later, a message came through on Matteo’s cell phone and it was from none other than his hulking ally…
Steele: My best guess is that someone’s been watching you. Probably one of the spies that Alphonso has been using from outside the family. I’m messaging my sources now to try and find out more. We have to consider the possibility that your house has been under deep surveillance. You’re a smart guy and observant as hell, but if someone has been watching the house without you noticing them, then that gives me reason to worry. But we’ve got this. Whatever happens, we’re going to come out on top – just like we always do.
Matteo could see that Steele was worried about the situation back at the townhouse. And as much as it irked him to admit that someone might have been spying on him undetected, it was the only logical way that Matteo could explain how Alphonso might have known that there was something going on.
As Matteo typed out his reply to Steele, he paused in his tracks as he saw a message come in from Faustino. And it was the kind of message that Matteo never, ever wanted to receive…
FAUSTINO: House under attack. We’re safe but outnumbered. Defenses could be breached at any moment. Going to put the boys in the panic room and retreat to high ground on third floor. Wherever you are, brother… hurry the hell home.
And as the traffic light finally changed from red to green, Matteo floored the accelerator and began what would be the most important car journey of his life. Time was running out, and Matteo knew it. Faustino and Michael were expert marksmen and loyal warriors – but if they were truly outnumbered by Alphonso’s best men, then there was only so long that they could hold out for.
The boys might have been safe in the panic room for now. But if Alphonso had even an inkling that they were in there, it would only be a matter of time before he got his murderous hands on them.
Matteo loved Kyan more than life itself – and as he drove back toward the city, he was willing to make the ultimate sacrifice to prove it too…
Matteo pulled up just around the corner from his townhouse. And within seconds of getting out of his car, Matteo heard the sound of a door been broken down.
‘They’re in,’ Steele said, jumping down from his truck, his heavy combat boots hitting the wet sidewalk. ‘They could be hitting up the house to make a statement. Or they could know that Faustino and Michael are there and are taking them out.’
‘They could know that Kyan is there too,’ Matteo said, his mind taking him to a very bad place indeed. ‘We need some kind of angle. And we need to think of it fast.’
With that, Matteo and Steele approached the house as stealthily as they could. With the front door having been battered open, there was the obvious route of simply walking in and hoping to catch the attackers unaware. This was a big play – and a risky one too. Alphonso wasn’t stupid, and neither were his best men. There would surely be a man guarding the entrance.
‘Any ideas?’ Steele asked. ‘I’m thinking potentially we could scale the house from the rear. Maybe break in through an upper floor window.’
‘We could… if my own security efforts hadn’t made that virtually impossible,’ Matteo answered.
But if Matteo was getting frustrated at his own good security, then he was about to be given an unexpected boost from a most unlikely source…
‘Mr. Fendi,’ came the voice from the nearest ground floor window. ‘ Pssst . Here!’
‘Mrs. Goldstein,’ Matteo answered, crouching next to his neighbor’s house with a pistol in his hand and a conspicuously armed Steele only a pace behind him. ‘I…’
‘Oh, Matteo, drop the act, I wasn’t born yesterday,’ Mrs. Goldstein replied. ‘My family has been in this city long enough to know how things work. And I know a good man when I meet one too. Inside, and make it quick. I might just have the answer you’re looking for…’
Matteo exchanged a look with Steele.
This was an opportunity directly from leftfield and given how the odds were stacked against them, Matteo and Steele were in no position to turn it down either…
‘Now you may or may not know that our houses used to be one residence,’ Mrs. Goldstein said, walking up her staircase with Matteo and Steele behind her. ‘I only sold the other half to free up some funds. What we have here is the old staff door.’
Mrs. Goldstein stood at the bottom of a small staircase and smiled knowingly.
‘This leads up to your loft?’ Matteo asked.
‘It does. But it also has a door that will open directly into your guest bathroom,’ Mrs. Goldstein replied. ‘All you’ll need to do is squeeze past some dusty old pipes and maybe even break through a couple of old wooden slats.’
‘You never thought to tell me this before?’ Matteo asked, perplexed but ultimately happy to have this unexpected avenue of attack. ‘It doesn’t matter. Thank you.’
‘Yup. We owe you one,’ Steele added, respectfully bowing his head.
‘You do,’ Mrs. Goldstein replied. ‘I accept cash, cakes, and flowers. In that order.’
Matteo smiled before heading up the stairs and walking down the narrow corridor and toward the barely visible heating pipes.
‘Looks like Mrs. Goldstein wasn’t lying,’ Steele said, standing next to Matteo as the pair of them quickly but carefully pushed the wooden slats out and made their way into the guest bathroom.
Matteo listened as he heard shots being fired.
‘Faustino and Michael are on the floor above us,’ Matteo said. ‘My guess is that Alphonso’s men are…’
There was no time to waste. Matteo and Steele burst out of the bathroom and used the brief element of surprise to open fire on Alphonso’s men from behind as they shot up toward Faustino and Michael.
‘Push down,’ Matteo hollered, his voice just about audible over the gunfire. ‘Michael. Faustino. Push down. We’ve got them in a pincer.’
And as Matteo and Steele worked with Faustino and Michael to take down Alphonso’s men, Matteo was shocked to see Alphonso’s most senior right hand man lying in a pool of his own blood…
‘Why?’ Matteo asked, towering over the fallen henchman. ‘Why did Alphonso do this?’
‘Because… because…’ the henchman said, spitting blood, his eyes closing. ‘Because… he knew you were the king in waiting. He needed a reason to kill you. The boy was just part of the plan.’
As the dying henchman shut his eyes for one last time, Matteo sent him on his way with a merciful shot to the temple. Matteo was a ruthless man, but a man of honor. And Matteo could see that the henchman was only following orders – from both of their points of view, it was clearly nothing personal.
As Matteo covered the dead henchman’s eyes, he heard a familiar call from above.
‘Daddy! Daddy! You came!’ Kyan shouted, bursting out from the panic room and charging down the stairs and into his arms. ‘I was so worried. I thought you might be dead. I thought I was going to…’
Kyan burst into tears and buried his head deep into Matteo’s blood-splattered chest. The young man was overwhelmed, and Matteo knew that he would need to keep a check on his own sense of triumph in order to make sure that Kyan was handling the situation as best he could.
‘It’s okay, darling, you’re safe now,’ Matteo said, placing a soft kiss on top of Kyan’s head. ‘Daddy’s here. No one will ever hurt you again.’
‘Matteo, I’m getting some news,’ Steele said, reading a message on his cell phone as he spoke. ‘It’s Alphonso. The car he was in was gunned down and firebombed as it made its way to Fendi House. It’s over. The whole thing is over.’
‘Are you sure?’ Michael enquired, walking down the stairs with Faustino and the other boys not far behind him. ‘How do we know for sure?’
‘Trust me, this is from a cast-iron source,’ Steele said. ‘Alphonso’s gone. It’s done.’
Matteo felt a weight lift off his shoulders. The main threat to both his and Kyan’s life was gone now – and gone forever. There would be a lot more to deal with in the coming days and weeks. A power vacuum at the top of any mafia family was a perilous and unstable time, and this was even more true with the Pirlo clan looking so dangerous.
However the first thing on Matteo’s mind in that moment was the fact that his darling boy was safe. Everything else seemed unimportant. There was one thing left for Matteo to confirm though – and now was the time to make it happen…
‘Baby boy,’ Matteo said, gently lifting Kyan’s head so that the pair of them were looking at one another in the eyes. ‘I know this is all a bit scary. And I know that your head is probably all over the place. But I must tell you something.’
‘Yes, Daddy?’ Kyan asked, his tears gone and a smile on his face.
‘I love you,’ Matteo said. ‘I’ve loved you from the moment I saw you. And I want you to be mine forever. If that’s what you want too, then I want us to make a life together that lasts for the rest of our days.’
Matteo was a man whose life was ruled by hard, emotionless decisions. Kill or be killed. But when it came to Kyan, it had always been a different story. Matteo had found his dream partner, a boy who he could cherish and look after until his dying breath. The only question was whether Kyan truly felt the same way about him…
‘Daddy, I love you so much,’ Kyan said, his eyes filling with emotion once more – but this time they were tears of unadulterated joy. ‘Of course I want to be yours Forever. Of course, of course, a million times of course!’
Kyan went up on tiptoes and planted a kiss on Matteo’s lips.
The pair of them had been through hell and back, and it had culminated in a day and night they would never, ever forget. But now wasn’t the time to think about the past, or what might happen in the future. Now was the time to embrace, feel the love from their closest friends and allies, and enjoy their perfect moment of Forever Love.
‘Come on, I think we all need a drink,’ Matteo said, wiping the sweat from his brow. ‘And I don’t even want to think about the cleaning bill for this place…’
Matteo, Kyan, and their friends all laughed and walked into the kitchen together. And with Steele making things right with his contacts in the police, they could all be assured that there would be no more unwelcome visitors arriving that night.
But in the morning, there would be a long list of jobs that needed to be done – including arranging a gift for the most unlikely heroine of the whole evening, Mrs. Goldstein…