Chapter 30
Gia
“Everyone, get down!” Castor is on his feet just as fast as Marco. He shoves me and my mother to the far wall and takes the dining room table in one hand. Without a thought, he flips the entire beautiful dinner – splashing sauce, ziti, and all against the newly paneled walls – and barricades us behind it. “Go, Randy, behind the table.”
The sound of guns cocking scare me half to death.
Marco and Castor hide behind opposite inlets, signing to one another and peeking out into the growing smoke in the living room. I pray it’s not some kind of paralyzing gas or something.
There’s a gigantic hole in the center window where the smoke grenade was thrown through, and lots of screaming coming from outside.
“Motherfucker! I know it was you, Bullion!” an Italian accent echoes into the house.
Tht! Tht! Tht! Tht!
Bullets fly, and I scream into my mother’s arms. Randy uses his gigantic body to protect us, which makes me want to cry for different reasons. He’s shaking he’s so terrified, which in turn triples my angst. I’m not a religious person, but you best believe I’m praying.
“Two, at least,” Castor tells Marco. “You recognize the voice?”
“It’s fuckin’ Dito Bells from the Rigiano crew.”
“Fuck, this is revenge for Salty Dom. Marty haunts us from the grave,” Castor growls, ducking the next round of automatic bullet fire.
Tht! Tht! Tht! Tht!
Debris from the ceiling falls all over the dining room. It’s like they’re just spraying for the sake of scaring the shit out of us.
Crrk!
The door kicks in, and my mom holds me tighter.
I peek against the force of two bodies shielding me, and glimpse Castor duck into the fading smoke.
“No!” I cry.
Gunshots deafen me for a second – the flash of a spark showing that Castor is still upright. Marco peeks out of his inlet – on one knee – and shoots at the window when he sees someone about to hurl another grenade in.
Bang!
Blood splatters over the glass, making me exhale with relief. My brother’s a good effing shot.
When Marco jets to the window to finish what he started, I wriggle out of my mother’s grasp, wanting to make sure Castor is okay. Her fingers dig into me so tightly to keep me protected in her arms, she scratches me – I don’t even feel it, moving closer to Castor without thinking.
“Gia, get the fuck down!” Castor glances at me as his gun is pointed toward the door. I notice it’s facing the floor, which tells me there’s a body there. He turns to my brother. “We clear, Marco?”
“Don’t see the pussy. Must’ve ran off with one hand.” He laughs his psychotic laugh. “I’m going to paint every last Rigianofor this. In my mother’s fucking home. Mother fuck. You better run!” he shouts out the window.
Castor throws Marco a phone. “Get Rachet on the line. Tell him to call our police connections and divert any calls to this address somewhere else. Get the rest of the crew over here, now.”
“On it.” Marco puts the phone to his ear while pointing his gun outside, scanning for the guy who ran off.
I hide behind the inlet, clasping my hands together to stop them from shaking. My mother is peeking over the table, silently yelling at me to get back to her.
My heart thunders through my chest, but I feel oddly safe with Castor standing upright. As he stomps toward the door, I can now see someone awkwardly sprawled over my mother’s carpet, bleeding out.
Blood drains from my face. I’m no stranger to the sight because of these men in front of me, but it never gets easier.
“You killed Dom, you prick. I know it was you.” The man coughs in between his words.
“He was on borrowed time,” Castor snarls at him, whipping around to hold the barrel of the gun straight at his face. “And now because of a stupid fucking mistake, yours is up too.”
“Why’d you do it?” the dying man asks, trying to inch back upright. “We were all cleared from the fallout with Marty. Why?”
“Wasn’t me. But I do know it was all business,” Castor says.
“Greedy fuc—Ah!”
Castor steps on one of his wounds. “My turn to ask questions. Did the Shadow put you up to this?”
“Fuck Ronny. Fuck your Stallion. You all ruined the damn family.”
“That’ll do.”
Bang!
Castor executes him pointblank for trespassing on forbidden territory. He then straightens, looking around to make sure Marco is okay, then, “Gia?”
“Fine. We’re fine, Castor!” My hands clutch my chest before I peek out again. “That was insane—” My whole body tenses when I see Marco drop his phone and sprint toward Castor.
I stand up to glimpse what he saw. Oh my God. The shimmer of an automatic rifle stationed over the hood of a car across the street makes me shout a soundless scream.
“Cast!” Marco dives.
Tht! Tht! Tht! Tht!
I gasp when blood splashes over the wall. Marco and Castor go down, and my body goes numb with fear. Tears leak down my face as I crawl to them. “Castor! Marco!”
My brother rolls off of Castor, and that’s when I see it. Blood all over his white polo, centered around a wound in his stomach.
“Oh my God, Marco, no!” I crawl faster. “No, please God, no.” I’m sobbing trying to get close to them, hearing cars screech in front of the house.
Tht! Tht! Tht!
More gunfire resounds from outside while Castor sits upright. His teeth are gritted as he lifts Marco’s shirt to assess the wound.
“Fuck. Hang in there, brother.”
“Bull! All clear!” Big Ace shouts from outside.
I squeeze Castor’s arm then cup my brother’s face. “Is he going to be okay?”
“I need to get him to a surgeon, Gia.” Castor lifts him and rushes outside. “Ace, we need to get him to Doc Rio, now.”
“Shit. C’mon, I’m driving.”
My hands are over my mouth as I say more silent prayers for my brother. A dark thought asks me why I think God would ever save someone as shitty as him. But I still have to try. He’s my blood. It wasn’t always like this between us.
I stand dumbfounded when Castor shuts the van door and Ace pulls away.
What’s left is two trucks of mobsters scoping out the street and doing various unthinkable tasks. Two lanky guys I think I’ve seen before drag the dead body into a car across the street while another guy scrubs blood from the sidewalk. Another is knocking on the neighbor’s door to assure them everything is okay, I imagine. There’s already a glass company truck coming down our block. I’m left dumbfounded. I’ve heard of clean-up crews, but this is insane.
Marco…
Please be okay.