Chapter 30
Leo
We all know it’s a trap I’m walking into, but what choice do I have?
The air is tense inside the car. Mattia’s in front, with the driver. Daku is accompanying us, my companion in the back seat. We’re going to a standoff with an Albanian, and I need a witness to see I didn’t provoke anything that’s already happened tonight and is also going to happen once we reach our destination. There was no time to ask for anyone else to come, so he’s with us, although he has already apprised his council of what’s going on. Their men are supposed to apprehend the older Abrashis while we deal with the wayward son.
I can’t believe this fucker of Jasir is doing this. What does he have to gain? Revenge? He’s an arrogant pig and self-righteous, and he doesn’t know how to take defeat lying down. Their honor, it’s already been washed clean in the war. My father died for this very reason, to bring closure to this rift between our mobs.
This bastard is a dead man walking. At the first chance I get tonight, I’m killing him. And this time, my moves are sanctioned by the Albanians. He doesn’t stand a chance.
My jaw clenches as I think of what’s awaiting me. I don’t stand much of a chance, either, but I have to do this. It’s for Bianca, for Enzo, and for the greater good, too, to remove Jasir Abrashi from this world.
“Leo, please,” Mattia starts as he turns to me. “Don’t go in alone.”
“You know we’ll be dead the second they spot us if we walk in as a crew.”
“But us spreading out to then breach, it leaves you too exposed,” he continues. “At least wear a vest.”
A snort escapes me. “It’ll be obvious I’m wearing Kevlar. I can’t risk…”
Silence stretches until he nods. I’m a big man. Putting on a vest will not blend in on my frame. No, I need to be seen as vulnerable as I go in. Otherwise, there’s the risk those assholes may hurt Bianca. That can’t happen.
Up ahead is the turn onto the path that’ll take us to Remick’s Church. I know this place—Mattia and I used to come here when we were freshmen in high school. Then we got bolder as we became juniors then seniors. This church, it was too small-time game for us and our crew of friends. Once we discovered the condemned hospital on Roosevelt Island, we abandoned this place, and Bianca’s posse took over it further down the line. We were young and free, and we turned a blind eye to these kids going through the same rite of passage we took as we grew up.
This place, it used to spell good memories. Tonight, these get tainted as the horror of what’s unraveling in its walls dawns on all of us. Jasir Abrashi is marrying Bianca. If there’s one bond that’s sacred in both our worlds—Italians and Albanians—it’s that of marriage. I’m hoping I’ll get to kill the fucker before he’s made her his by vow. But it doesn’t matter, in the end. Bianca is mine, and no man will have her. I’ll kill whoever steps between us.
The car comes to a stop. Luigi and his men are following in three other cars, but I’ve advised them to stop a few hundred feet from us, so it can somewhat look like we’re one lone car coming up against the lot of them. If they’re not anticipating this, they’re idiots, but one thing I’ve learned, sometimes, people really are idiots and intelligence is given too much credit.
“Let me come with you,” Daku says as we alight.
I shake my head. “I can’t risk this.”
He nods, and I exchange a look with Mattia. He hands me a semi-automatic I tuck into my side, within easy reach. It’s a Glock, so I don’t need to worry about the safety being on as the whole mechanism is located in the trigger itself—squeeze it hard enough, and the bullet will fire.
Eerie quiet buffers the surroundings. The wind is whispering gently around us, whistling softly in the fissures of the church’s stone structure.
My feet are leaden as I take my first step. This must be what the last walk in the corridor of death feels like. However, I drag my legs up and ascend the steps to the threshold. The doors are closed, and I push one panel just enough to pass through. I’m hoping this way, whoever’s inside won’t see what’s happening out here, like my men surrounding the building.
It’s strange how there’s no one on lookout. Unless…it’s in their plan. They knew I’d come, and I’m going to be a sitting duck inside this church where all of Jasir’s men will be. But this is something I have to do. Four years ago, I didn’t fight for Bianca. This can’t happen again. I won’t let it, even if I have to die to make it happen.
The interior is dark, lit by the glow of a few candles burning around the perimeter and at the end of the aisle where stands an old Orthodox priest in full vestal garments, a couple in front of him. My breath hitches when my eyes land on Bianca in an ill-fitting white-gone-sallow-yellow old wedding dress.
This is a nightmare. This can’t be happening, yet here she is, a bride, marrying another man.
Jasir Abrashi stands across from her in a three-piece suit doing nothing to hide his muscled bulk. In hand-to-hand combat with a man bearing such a honed frame, I’d be going against a formidable opponent. I’d win, certainly, but not without taking a thrashing during the fight. As such, I know not to underestimate him. Plus he’s got a fucked-up mind, and I need to think outside the box with the likes of psychos like him.
“Stop,” a low voice says as soon as I’m inside.
It’s a man to my side, pointing a gun at me. I glance around the room, seeing men all over, weapons cocked in my direction. Only Jasir and the priest don’t seem to be packing tonight.
I don’t lift my hands, though I stay put and still.
Jasir laughs, a sound that chills my bones.
“You’re too late,” he says. “I’d hoped you’d get to be a witness, but…” He shrugs, as if it’s my loss I didn’t get to see him exchange vows with his bride.
My throat clenches, making me have to force down a gulp. This means they’ve already said “I do” which makes them married.
So far, he’s not touching Bianca. Maybe Mattia and Luigi will find a way to sneak in from the back. Once I spot them, then I can try something. Though there’s more than fifty feet between where I’m standing and the altar. It must be why Jasir had his man stop me here—he thinks it’s far enough away from him for me to try anything.
I’m tempted to growl at him to let her go, but I don’t. I’m not in the position of power here, but my silence is still somewhat a weapon at this point. I must continue to appear unfazed.
I don’t even allow myself to glance at Bianca, to meet her eyes. I’ll lose it if this happens. So I stay focused on the man across, my enemy.
“You lost, Leo,” he says with a laugh. “I can call you Leo, can’t I? And I can’t believe you lost twice, too.”
My jaw clenches, though I stay put.
“You know, she was always going to be mine,” he continues.
Curiosity piques me. What does he mean by this? I let him talk—it seems like he enjoys the sound of his own voice.
Indeed, he doesn’t disappoint me.
“Ardian was to marry her, yes, but he had his little side piece. In order to marry his slut, he would’ve then had to divorce this one.”
He glances at Bianca with such a lascivious, hungry look, everything inside me is boiling over. I’m rearing to jump, but not yet, though. I have to give my men time to breach. Jasir and his men don’t want to kill me, or I’d be dead already. No, they want me to watch him gloat, and that’s what I’ll do, biding my time while he rambles on.
“Like I was telling her earlier, she’s not my usual type.” He shrugs. “But she would be my wife, and I could work with that.”
An old church, an Orthodox priest—it clicks in my mind that Jasir is a religious man, or at least one who lives by traditional values. The woman who is his wife will be his to do with as he pleases, and she’d have no say in what happens to her. No one would, really, because a husband is ordained by God to treat his wife as he alone deems fit.
“My brother was a little pussy, though,” he says, and this makes me lend a closer ear. “So much potential, so much he could do to a wife, yet he couldn’t see beyond his dick, couldn’t think with his head and not his cock. I tried, you know…” He sighs then.
Something is working in my head. I think of those torture porn photos on Ardian Abrashi’s computer. Strangely, the P.I. found such trash only once on his hard drive—he wasn’t a regular on any such sites, as the full report stated when I read it after Bianca’s disappearance.
Ardian wasn’t into this shit. It’s Jasir who sent the material to him.
Jasir was showing him what to do with a wife.
He was also telling his brother what he’d do to Bianca once Ardian divorced her, and he swooped in to marry her. After all, the alliance meant the Abrashis tied a marriage knot with an Italian-American Mafia family thus establishing a truce between our two mobs.
Four years ago, Bianca would’ve become this sick pervert’s plaything, in the end.
Today, I’m not going to let this happen.
Jasir laughs again, which brings me back to the moment, my entire focus on him. When he reaches for Bianca, I flinch. In my peripheral vision, I can see the gun close to me moving a bit. No brusque moves , I remind myself.
“You know what?” he continues. “Me? I’m not divorcing her. Ever. You lose, Leo.”
Jasir pulls Bianca to him. I’m fully expecting him to kiss her in front of me. Instead, he licks the side of her face, all the way from her jawline to her temple. She flinches, and his hand tightens around her arm.
He’s gone too far. No one does this to a woman, much less mine.
“You don’t need a divorce if you’re dead,” I say calmly, my voice echoing sonorously in the cavernous church.
Here’s what Jasir doesn’t know. I’m a damn good shot. Even from fifty feet away, in the dim interior lit by only the halo of a few dozen burning candles, I can down a man with just one bullet.
It’s over in a matter of seconds: I’ve pulled my gun out, aimed, shot, and Jasir Abrashi is going down, toppling forward, a single hole in his forehead, the back of his head a gory mass of exploded brain matter as I didn’t use a hollow-point bullet that stayed inside his cranium.
Bianca yelps and jumps out of the way as he falls. I’m already off my feet and running in her direction when a hail of bullets explodes in the surroundings. The sound is deafening in the hallowed space, but I don’t let it hinder me. I need to get to her.
However, the burning pain in my side? It slows me down. I’m still crawling to her, though, angling my body against the side of a pew for some support.
“Duck!” I yell. “Stay down!”
But I’m sure she can’t hear me in this ruckus. Fire is now erupting from my side, and flames are scorching down my chest as I try to breathe. Every hiss of air is like a red-tipped blunt knife see-sawing into my torso.
“Leo!” I hear a woman scream.
It’s Bianca, and she sounds so far away.
Stay put , I want to yell at her, but no sound is coming out of my lips. I’m not even sure they’re moving, to be honest.
A sound overlays the hail of bullets that’s been raining so far. It’s a mechanical rat-tat-tat. Good—Mattia and Luigi are here. My men are carrying machine guns today. They’ll get to those bastards and take Bianca out of here.
“Leo! Leo!”
It’s a hardship to open my eyes, which I didn’t even realize I’d closed. When I blink up, my vision is hazy, yet I can still see her, make out the outline of her beautiful face. Bianca is hovering over me, her hand warm on my cool cheek.
“Come on!” she seems to be screaming. “Stay with me! Don’t leave me, Leo!”
I don’t want to , I yearn to say, and again, the words don’t breach the barrier between my brain and my lips.
My left side feels wet and warm, and the pain is beginning to feel debilitating. Every breath I try to inhale is a pitiful wheeze that however burns like acid down my throat, my chest compressing as if a heavy weight is pressing down on it. Black stars are bursting in front of my eyes, obliterating the blurry image of Bianca. They’re even there when I close my eyes.
Pain… Everything becomes just pain even as I feel myself being lifted, then rocking side by side as if in a vehicle rushing ahead at full speed. I think I can feel someone’s arms around me, my head nestled in a soft lap.
I hope it’s Bianca’s.
It dawns on me then: I’m dying.
I don’t want to die. I’ve only just found Bianca again, and we have a son. We have our whole lives ahead of us.
But as the darkness encroaches, I know I’m fighting a losing battle. This one, I just might not win…