Chapter 17
Chapter Seventeen
Dante
F or her safety, and my own sanity, with my Beretta in hand, I’d watched as Giovanna returned to the boat she’d come from. As she’d stepped across the gangplank, I’d sighed with relief. With her onboard, I was convinced that even though Ariti’s security was lacking for the next few hours at least, I could keep her safe.
‘You may think this is the end, amore mio… but there will never be an end to you and me. This isn’t goodbye, we don’t say goodbye.’ I spoke out loud, hoping my voice would travel on the breeze and find her heart. The one I knew I’d just broken into pieces.
Then, with my eyes still unwavering from the floating vessel, I’d secured another boat, and organised some of my best men to be onboard to follow Ariti’s home. All I had to do was to get Ariti to travel the short voyage back to Calabria, and make sure I had a tracker on board when he sailed.
It took me less than two hours to get the shipping magnet’s mooring permit rebuked, on a technicality of over booking, using a huge amount of cash as a backhander. I’d observed from the deck of my boat as they had gone aboard, giving them the instruction to leave. They had also been told that the nearest safe port they could sail to would be Port Calabria, as luckily for me there was a probable storm blowing in within the next twenty-four hours. Ariti himself hadn’t seemed too fussed one way or another, as the harbour master apologised for any inconvenience for over booking the mooring, and with his apology he had also offered free mooring for a few other times. But my interest had been piqued at the way Valentina Ariti, formerly De Luca had gone completely berserk at the inconvenience and the shameful way her family were being treated. Perhaps she was angry at being sent to somewhere she knew she couldn’t disembark from? Despite my pain over sending Giovanna away, I had practically laughed out loud when she’d finally ended her tirade with a loud shout of ‘Do you not know who I am?’
When Peter had taken hold of her arm in a quiet gesture, she had pulled herself away from his grasp, given him an icy glare and stormed off. If I hadn’t been nursing the pain of losing Giovanna once again, I was certain I would have found it even more amusing to watch, but as it was, I needed their vessel gone, fathoming that it should give me a few hours of knowing she was safe.
My phone going off in my pocket brought me out of my trance like state, staring across the sea at the boat that held the woman I loved.
‘Ciao,’ I answered brusquely, angry at the interruption.
‘Dante.’ I heard the worried tone of my papa.
‘Papa?’
‘Something has happened. Your mama and I need you back here.’ In the background I heard my mum wail, as she released her pain into the world. It was a pain I’d heard from her twice before; when she had lost her first child, Zeno, and when she had miscarried her last pregnancy.
‘What’s happened?’
‘Alessio’s car was ambushed this morning.’
So, its started. I closed my eyes to find the composure I was renowned for.
‘No.’ I shook my head and gripped hold of the safety rail, making my knuckles turn white with the strength of my hold. ‘He’s alive?’ I questioned, already knowing what it was like to lose an elder brother.
‘He is… but barely.’ I released an audible sigh for my intelligent, gentle brother, who had only been married to his wife Luna for a couple of years, and then my head pictured the photograph he had sent me of their first child, a son named after our papa. ‘They ambushed him in Palizzi.’ My mind went back to the day when I had nearly run over a small boy in the same village.
‘A Giordano, shot in Palizzi? Do they have no respect?’ I demanded, as I banged a hand down onto the railing and listened to my anger vibrate along the stainless steel.
‘It wasn’t the villagers, of that I and Salvatore are certain.’
‘That’s good.’ I thought back to the young boy, who would now be a teenager, perhaps being questioned for the attack and losing his life to a Giordano after all.
‘Whoever they were shot at the car, it’s riddled with bullets. Somehow, it seems Alessio managed to clamber out and roll into a rain ditch to shelter, but that wasn’t before he took six hits in various parts of his body.’ I heard my papa inhale deeply, and I waited. His heart condition very often left him breathless and with the added stress I was afraid it would be the end of him. ‘Dante, they… whoever they are… meant to kill him, I’ve no doubt about that. It leaves our family weak; we need you home.’
‘He’s consigliere,’ I stated. ‘Everyone knows his position is non combative.’ Although what I said wasn’t completely true. Alessio had headed up our family when our papa had been incapacitated after his heart attack. He had moved back to the role of consigliere, at our papa’s instructions, but I was certain he did far more than was asked of a normal advisor, as our papa no longer had the strength he had once had.
‘It appears these people have no respect for our traditions—we, I… need you home.’
I let his words resonate for a few seconds.
‘Then that’s what’s going to happen—How’s your security?’
‘Our Don moved your mama, Luna, little Alessandro and me into the De Luca compound an hour ago.’
‘You left our villa?’ Somehow, I couldn’t imagine him leaving there, but knew he would have had no choice. One disabled man in a wheelchair, was not going to be enough to fight off a sudden attack against him, two women and a nine-month-old baby, however many soldiers he had with him.
‘I…’ His voice sounded hesitant and feeble and immediately I was ashamed of the question.
‘Papa, I shouldn’t have asked that. Of course, you needed to do your Don’s bidding. You did the right thing in going. I take it Serafina and Mia are also there?’
‘They are.’
‘And Alessio, what’s the prognosis?’
‘He is critical,’ he replied and I heard my mum wail again.
‘I’m coming home, Papa.’ I nodded with absolute conviction that it would be so. ‘Tell Mama, I’m coming home.’
I knew, with what we’d found out over the previous twenty-four hours, that today I would be leaving Malta for home, but now I had an added reason.
‘Elio, keep your eyes fixed over there.’ I jabbed a finger in the direction of Ariti’s boat.
‘Boss,’ I heard him reply.
I disconnected the call as I made my way back inside the boat. Just as soon as my feet hit the wooden floor of my stateroom, I inhaled the faint perfume of the woman I had hurt beyond measure and sent away. Its floral signature wrapped around me, soothing and riling me in equal measure.
‘One day, Giovanna, our time will come… I promise, amore mio.’ I spoke the words out loud before opening a closet door and pulling out a large, black leather holdall. Throwing the holdall onto the still unmade bed, I moved around the stateroom hurriedly, finding Giovanna’s shoes and kicking them to one side before grabbing at my Mac and any clothing and toiletries I would need for an imminent departure. Like a pennant monk, I picked up her panties from the floor and tucked them in an inside pocket, knowing it was my way of keeping her with me and punishing myself at the same time. With the bag full, I pressed the digits I needed on my mobile and held it between my shoulder and chin, while I zipped up the bag. The international dial code sounded, and I waited the couple of rings I knew it would take to grab Salvatore’s attention. When it rung only the once, I instantly knew he’d been waiting for my call.
‘Ciao,’ he answered.
‘Salvatore.’
‘You’ve heard about Alessio?’
‘I have. Thank you for taking my family onto De Luca land.’
‘I did what was necessary for my children’s Nonno and Nonna.’
‘My papa said Alessio was ambushed in Palizzi, but that the villagers aren’t under suspicion?’
‘That’s correct. Bruno and some of his men have questioned several.’ I had an idea just what that said questioning would have involved from one of Salvatore’s most trusted men. ‘He and I believe that many of them are innocent, whether it’s all of them remains to be seen. But they know that they are no longer beneath our radar. One step out of line and what has always been a strong hold of our family will be brought crashing to the ground and they know it.’
‘He also said Alessio is critical?’ I knew that a man like Salvatore would have no problem telling me exactly how it was and would answer truthfully without fear of upsetting me.
‘Correct. If he survives, he won’t be the man he once was. He’s had an operation to remove a couple of the lodged bullets, one of which entered through his cheekbone, embedding in the skull and grazing his brain.’ Instinctively, I touched a hand to the small cut Giovanna had created a few hours before on my cheekbone as he carried on, ‘Alessio has lost a lot of blood, and they have since found that he is still bleeding internally. Serafina has seen him and has spoken to the doctors at the hospital.’
‘Is she still with him?’ I questioned.
‘No, my wife is here at our home with our children, where I can keep her and them safe.’
‘Of course.’ I nodded my agreement, even though I knew he couldn’t see me.
‘They will be taking him back to theatre in…’ I heard him pause as though he was checking the time, ‘twenty minutes time. I’ll get your papa to update you when there is news.’
‘My papa is an old man.’
‘He is, and this has weakened him further,’ Salvatore added.
It was as I feared.
‘I’m coming home,’ I stated.
Completely ignoring me, he carried on his chosen path.
‘I received the email containing the books in the early hours of the morning. It made interesting reading, but it’s far from the concrete evidence I would need to go against a man who has worked tirelessly for my family for nearly three decades.’
‘I agree,’ I concurred, knowing he was talking about the false accounting I had asked Marco to send over. ‘But in the early hours of this morning something else came into my possession.’ My mind couldn’t help but picture Giovanna beneath me, even though I was talking about something else entirely. ‘Which I believe completes the jigsaw you asked for.’
‘Interesting, and that is?’
‘A recording.’
‘A recording of?’
‘You need to hear the evidence I have. I trust no one else but me with it. Something is going down; and I believe our conjoined family is at risk. We need to move fast and as one. My family need me, and our family need us together—I’m coming home.’ I played my hand, and I believed I’d played it well.
Silence came back at me down the line, before a deep roar of laughter.
‘Finally, Dante… you might just have grown a pair of fucking balls. You have put others safety and needs before your own anger. You have your Don’s permission to return. Come home, your family are waiting for you. Calabria and your Don will welcome you with open arms.’
‘I’ll be there in a few hours.’
The call ended abruptly, just as I knew it would.
I took the shower I knew I needed, and reluctantly washed the scent of her off my skin. Leaving the ensuite, with a towel around my waist and one in my hand rubbing at my hair, I caught sight of the hideous engagement ring and the phone she’d smashed by dropping it and sighed loudly.
‘How the hell do I keep in contact now?’ I questioned, just before an idea formed. Quickly, knowing time was of the essence I crossed the floor and picked up the ring, before searching in a drawer beside my bed. Finding exactly what I was looking for, I coated one side of the tracking device in the wax I’d left out to put through my towel dried hair and pressed the small disc up and underneath the set gemstone. Holding the offensive object between my thumb and forefinger I shook it a few times and smiled when the tracker didn’t move. Luckily, it was such a perfect, tight fit, I understood it would stay where I’d put it.
‘Elio.’ I almost shouted into the intercom next to where I stood, as the whole of my hand leant on the button.
‘Boss.’
‘Come down.’
‘But, Dante—the boat?’
‘I’ll take the risk.’ I hated pulling his eyes away from her ticket home, but knew it was necessary.
I listened as his footsteps grew closer and finally a knock sounded at my door.
‘Yep, come in.’ I looked up as I wrapped my wristwatch around my wrist, as he entered. ‘I want you to take this to Ariti’s boat.’ I held up the ring I had held tightly in my palm with two fingers as I’d fastened the wristwatch.
‘Okay, Boss.’ He held out his hand. I dropped the ring and watched his fingers close over the shiny gold.
‘You need to hurry, and you’re to say you found it close to their boat and assume that someone on there must have dropped it—understood?’
‘Yes.’ He nodded.
‘Take it and go.’
As the door closed behind him, I released the towel from my waist and started to dress. Light grey suit, white shirt and a tie I knew brought out the blue of my eyes. As I fastened the buttons on the shirt, I suddenly understood I was dressing for the occasion of going home, and momentarily my fingers stopped in their task. Turning my head, I looked at myself in the large mirror and took note of exactly what I was witnessing.
I had made my choice, like I always knew I was destined to do. I’d always known that one day I would choose between England and Italy, and this was that moment. By going back to Calabria after all this time, I comprehended that I was choosing which of my blood ties meant the most to me. My heart began to pound with the knowledge that I might talk like an Englishman, but my heart resided in the rugged area of my Calabrian birth. The Italian country held my heart, and the woman that owned me body and soul would soon be on her way back there too.
I finished dressing and picked up my bag, before slinging it over my shoulder and creating a text to Marco letting him know where to meet me.
“Meet me for a Moretti.” I sent my text and awaited his response.
It was a message that if intercepted would mean nothing to anyone else. But just as soon as we’d set foot on the island of Malta, Marco and I had come up with an escape route, using a very small, private airport. It would take me twenty minutes to reach the place by car and from there about forty-five minutes until I would once again touch down on the soil of my birth. It didn’t escape my notice that in the time it would take me to get home, my brother would be fighting for his life on an operating table and might well be leaving our home and going back to the arms of his maker.
Fight, Fratello, fight hard.
My phone vibrated in my hand.
“Sure thing,” Marco replied.
Running up the steps to the deck, I looked to the left to find the car that I’d ordered to be brought over, and finding it I moved onto the gangplank, before momentarily stopping. My eyes searched the pier, to find the boat that carried her was now on the move. Looking closer, I ascertained that Elio was jogging his way back. I looked intently at him and just as soon as he was near enough to see, I raised my eyebrows in silent question. As he nodded his head just the once, I knew he’d been able to do my bidding.
So, there I stood, impotent to do anymore at that given time, as Giovanna left Malta. I allowed myself a few minutes more; to stare at the gleaming white boat, knowing I would have to break Maltese speed limits to catch up to where I needed to be, but it was worth it. I watched for a little longer as it moved out of the harbour and headed towards the horizon, safely taking her out of harm’s way.