23. Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Three
YOU WILL DIE TODAY
Antonio
“You know she’s gonna chop your balls off, don’t you?” Alessandro asked.
His voice was full of humor. I could tell he wanted to laugh, but he also knew what I was about to do. I was on the verge of launching an attack on the Grasso compound. It wasn’t a laughing matter.
I let out a groan as I wiped my hand across my face. “I know she’s gonna be pissed, but I couldn’t put her in danger, Alessandro. She can’t be a part of what I’m about to do.”
“It’s Aaliyah, Tony. Grasso should be the one that’s scared. She’s fucking terrifying when she wants to be.”
That was the truth. She was the female version of Abasi Sefu when she needed to be, but I couldn’t in good conscience bring her with me. I couldn’t knowingly put her in danger because I wanted her by my side.
“This is different.”
It was a war. This wasn’t killing someone in my study. I wanted to keep her far away from it. Far away from it so she wouldn’t be taken away from me or worse.
“How far out?” I asked Luca who was driving.
We were coming in heavy. Locked and loaded. I had over fifty Rizzo soldiers with me, Abasi, and some of his men. I knew this fight wasn’t going to be easy, but it needed to be done. Grasso had killed the Rizzo Don and tried to kill Aaliyah. It was time to make a statement with his death.
“Ten minutes out,” Luca responded.
“We’re almost there, Alessandro. If this goes to hell, you know what to do.”
“Are you thinking about dying or something?”
The humor vanished from his voice. He knew what this life was like. And being at the top, someone was always looking to take me out. I’d come to terms that any day could be my last. So did everyone around me.
“Nobody’s promised tomorrow, little brother. Make sure you end this with Agent Grasso’s head on a stake and she’s taken care of if something happens. She rules if anything goes down.”
“You know that’s not going to go over well and that ain’t how shit works.”
“And I don’t give a fuck. She can run this Family better than anyone. She has the respect of our men. Nobody else does. These are my wishes.”
“We’re here, Don,” Luca said.
I responded to Luca with a nod. “I got to go, bro. Everything you need is in my safe.”
I ended the call. There was no reason to say goodbye to him. He understood the life we lived. And goodbyes wouldn’t make this any easier. It was hard enough slipping out of bed without waking Aaliyah. All I wanted to do was pull her into my arms and tell her how much I loved her just in case this was the last time. But I couldn’t. This needed to be taken care of with no distractions.
The sound of my phone ringing made me groan, knowing it could only be one person. I checked the caller id. I could not answer it, but if I didn’t could I live with myself?
I let out a sigh before responding. “ Bella ?”
“You better not be doing what the hell I think you’re doing!”
“My love...”
“Don’t you pull that shit with me Antonio! How could you leave me behind?”
“I had no choice.”
I wiped my hand down my face. I hated hearing the hurt in her voice but what I’d done was for her benefit.
“You had a fucking choice, Tony. We’re in this shit together. You don’t do things alone.”
“This had to be done without you, baby. This is war. I couldn’t in good conscience bring you with me. I need to keep you safe, and I can’t do that if I’m worried about you.”
“If you haven’t noticed, I can take care of myself, Tony.”
“I know you can, Aaliyah. But not this time. It’s time that I take care of you.”
There was a period of silence, and it was clear she had no desire to bring this conversation to a close, especially with an argument. I might not return. It was a real possibility.
“Abasi’s here with me. I’ll be fine, Bella .”
“Don’t lie to me Antonio. Is my father really with you?” she asked, unable to believe it.
“Yes. He’ll keep me safe.”
“If you don’t come back to me, Tony, I will kill you myself.”
I couldn’t help but burst into laughter. “I’ll make sure to remember, Bella . Got to go sweetheart. We’re here,” I said, as Luca slowed the car to a stop a few miles down the road from the Grasso compound.
She let out a sigh. “Come home to me, Tony.”
“I will, Bella . I love you. Always and forever.
“And I love you. Always and forever.”
I hung up the call without saying anything else. Franco opened my door, and I stepped out. I wasn’t wearing my usual business attire, but I was dressed for battle. Just like my men, I dressed in black tactical pants, black boots, and a black shirt.
Abasi came over and gripped my shoulder. “We leave none of them alive, son.”
Abasi was the first person, other than my father, to call me their son, and it felt natural. It made me feel closer to the man who raised my wife as his own.
“Agreed,” I said. “But Grasso is mine.”
***
It fucking paid off to have a gun trafficker as your father-in-law. We had everything from mortars, grenades, automatic rifles, to handguns. I believed if I asked Abasi for a damn tank, he’d be able to provide it. There was no way in hell anyone could defeat us with this amount of weaponry.
“Remind me never to piss you off, Abasi,” I mumbled.
He grunted his response as we moved swiftly and quietly approaching the Grasso compound.
The security measures for the ex-Camorra leader were not at all what I expected. I thought there would be more guards, but there were only ten, and we outnumbered them. Right as we were preparing to move forward, shots were fired.
“Hit it!” Abasi yelled over the sound of gunshots.
One of his men kneeled down in front of us with a shoulder fired rocket. We all watched in awe as the smoke, fire, and screams filled the air with the explosion. It was fucking awesome to watch, but we didn’t have time to enjoy the show. We killed man after man. They were definitely more than we had first believed.
Smoke, gunfire and fire filled the night sky, and it wouldn’t be long before the Guardia di Finanza showed up since they were the part of the Italian police in charge of dealing with anything related to the mafia.
We made it inside, taking out the guards who had been protecting the inside of the palatial estate.
“Spread out!” I yelled. “Find him!”
I approached one of the guards who was still alive but wouldn’t be for long. I gripped his blood-stained shirt by the front. He definitely didn’t have that much time left.
“Where’s Salvatore Grasso?”
The commotion around me had become more subdued. Every so often, a gunshot would ring out as Abasi, his men, and mine eliminated Grasso’s men. All that was left to do was kill Salvatore, then get the hell out of here.
“Don’t know,” he groaned.
I inserted my finger into one of his gunshot wounds, causing him to scream. “Tell me where Grasso is, and I’ll end your life. No torture. No pain.”
I removed my finger from the wound. He was struggling to breathe, his breaths heavy and difficult. Either way he wouldn’t have that much more time to live.
“Up... upstairs. Room at the end... of hall. Safe room.”
“Code?”
“54...2378.”
I released my grip on his shirt, and he dropped to the floor. I pointed my gun at his face, and his eyes widened as I fired.
I hurried up the grand staircase, gripping the black iron railings. When I reached the top, there was a hallway that sat in the very center. However, there were also possible paths to the left or right that seemed to lead to different sections of the house.
Without too much time to decide which was the correct way, I rushed down the hallway in the center to the end. I thought there would be a door. To the naked eye, it appeared to be just a wall. The only way I knew it was a room was because of the dead guard.
I searched the drywall for any concealed keypad and eventually found it. There was a pin prick-sized red glow shining through the scone. I tugged on it, and it revealed a keypad when it opened. Without wasting any time, I keyed in the numbers the guard gave me and the door clicked.
I inhaled deeply before gradually opening it. The sound of gunshots filled the air. The pain was immediate, but I was still able to get some shots off as I made my way into the room. My head felt light, and my body swayed but there was no way I was leaving this house or this world until I saw this through.
The old man scowled at me from his chair. “I wasn’t expecting you.”
The safe room was a room that was neither too big nor too small. It had all the amenities anyone could want. He lounged in his chair, seemingly at ease, but his comfort was about to end.
Stepping over the bodies of the two men who had opened fire on me, I could see their blood pooling onto the rug that adorned the room’s center.
“You should have.”
I gritted my teeth, feeling the intense pain surge through my body, but I refused to let it stop me from doing what I needed to do. I had to end this for Aaliyah. Even if I didn’t make it, she’d never be able to live in peace if this man didn’t die.
“All your loved ones will die for what was done to my son,” he seethed. “You will pay for the sins of your father.”
Gripping the gun tightly, I pointed it directly at him, feeling the slight vibrations of the black polymer in my hand.
I lifted my shoulders in a shrug. “Maybe. Maybe not. But either way, you will die today.”
I squeezed the trigger, and the deafening sound of gunfire filled the air. His head snapped backward, and crimson blood streamed down his face from the deep wound to his head.
I fell to my knees, releasing a groan of pain. “Fuck!” I let out a loud yell, my hand pressing against one of the painful wounds on my body. The pain told me that I had been shot multiple times, although I couldn’t say exactly how many.
I was losing a shit ton of blood. As the room spun around me, I felt my life slipping away. The only regret I had was that I wouldn’t be able to grow old and gray with Aaliyah, our dreams of a lifetime together shattered.
Memories of our life flooded my mind. We had to fight to be together, but it wasn’t all bad. I would do it all over again just to see her face one more time.
As fatigue set in, my eyelids became increasingly difficult to hold open until they gave in and closed. I wasn’t sure if I’d wake up from this but if I didn’t, I hoped beyond anything that she’d forgive me for leaving her.