2. Faustino
Faustino
The drinks were flowing, and the smiles and laughter were in abundance too. Faustino looked across the table and cast his eyes over Justin. He was sexy, sassy, and had a twinkle in his charming blue eyes that could have lit the darkest cave in the largest mountain.
“How about we finish desert and go for a walk?” Faustino asked, smiling as he reached across the table and rested his hand on Justin’s far more delicate hand. “I could say it was Daddy’s Orders if that helps…”
Justin giggled and took one last spoonful of lemon sorbet in his mouth before nodding in agreement.
Faustino hadn’t known Justin for too long.
It must have been two months, maybe a little more.
But the pair of them had formed a bond that seemed destined to go the distance.
Both fairly new to the Daddy and Little world, Faustino and Justin were navigating the new and exciting way of life together.
It was still early days, but there was no doubting in Faustino’s mind that this could lead into something very special indeed.
As the pair of them got up from the restaurant table and made their way outside, Faustino draped his hand over Justin’s petite shoulders and the two of them began to walk down the busy street together.
It was late evening and there were plenty of people all around them, reveling in the night and out and about having fun and good times with one another.
“Club?” Faustino asked, looking into Justin’s eyes and smiling once more as he looked back at him with a mixture of lust and longing. “Or maybe my place?”
“I think I’d like to go back to your place, Daddy,” Justin said, his voice trembling just a touch as he uttered the D-word to Faustino for the first time. “I think I want to stay the night.”
Faustino didn’t need telling twice.
With his heart thumping and every inch of his body telling him that this was the green light he needed to give Justin the best night of his life, he swiftly looked around for a nearby cab to hail.
“Damn. There’s always a ton of cabs when you don’t need one,” Faustino said, a wry smile on his face. “But there’s never a single one when you do. Come on, let’s walk for a bit. We’re not too far from my place. If we see a cab, we’ll take it. But if we don’t-”
“You’ll let me ride on your shoulders?” Justin smiled, sassily nudging Faustino in his side and then flashing his impossibly sweet smile in his direction.
“You know what? Sure,” Faustino laughed. “Daddy knows how to treat his boy right.”
With that, the two of them walked and talked their way for a couple of blocks.
Suddenly the crowds that had surrounded them outside the restaurant were gone and the streets were a lot quieter.
This was no big deal to Faustino. Other people might have been scared about walking the streets late at night alone, but Faustino was a Fendi.
No one would touch him. As far as Faustino was concerned, these streets were his to do with as he pleased.
He might have been a young street soldier, but Faustino was already developing the kind of reputation that would make even the most grizzled veteran want to steer clear of him.
“Are we nearly there yet?” Justin asked, a slightly impatient tone in his voice. “I want some fun with Daddy!”
“Hey, so do I, believe me,” Faustino said. “And, yes, we are nearly home. Just one more block. Come on, let’s cross over here.”
However just as Faustino and Justin were about to cross the road together, a blacked out SUV pulled up and slowed right next to them. Before Faustino knew what was happening, he was diving and pulling Justin with him as gunfire rained through the night air.
“Stay down, I’ve got this,” Faustino said, pushing Justin behind a metal bin and locking and loading his trusty pistol.
“I love you, Daddy,” Justin replied, a smile on his face that Faustino would never forget.
It didn’t take long for Faustino to force the mystery gunmen into retreat as his accurate shots were more than a match for their wild spray of bullets.
Faustino was about as skilled a marksman as it was possible to be and actually took his training in the Fendi ways seriously.
There were too many henchmen and thugs out on the streets who barely knew how to reload a gun, let alone master how to fire one.
Still, that was for another time. All Faustino cared about was getting back to his boy and making sure that he was okay.
The likelihood was that Justin was bruised or maybe even sprained something as Faustino brought him to the ground, but other than that he would be just fine after a hot cocoa and snuggle back at home.
But when Faustino saw Justin lying on the floor, his body still, he knew that it was much more serious than a sprained wrist…
“No, no, no, no, no!” Faustino shouted, quickly realizing that not only was Justin not responding to him, but he wasn’t breathing either.
Faustino felt everything go black as he turned Justin onto the side and saw bullet wounds that must have caught him on the way down.
Everything else fell into the background and Faustino held onto Justin and cried out for him, praying to a God he didn’t even believe existed to bring him back and let him live once more.
Even as pedestrians slowly started to approach and offer their help, Faustino couldn’t believe what had just happened.
He knew from that moment that life would never, ever be the same again.
And, more than that, Faustino knew that he would never be the same again either.
From that night on, Faustino was determined to be the most feared, crazed, ruthless psycho killer that the Fendi family had ever produced…
PRESENT DAY
The time was ticking slowly, but Faustino was more than able to handle it. In fact, Faustino felt as serene as was possible in his life as he patiently staked out his next victim, watching on from his car while his trusted sideman Owen sat across from him.
“You do know we’re not killing this asshole, right?” Owen chuckled wryly, no doubt drawn to the fact that Faustino’s hand was twitching as it rested on his trademark shotgun.
“Bullshit,” Faustino replied, in no mood to take orders from anyone – least of all his brother Michael and cousin Matteo.
“Come on, Michael and Matteo were very clear,” Owen answered, a note of real caution in his voice. “You know that I’m down with you no matter what, but they made their feelings clear. This is a stakeout. No more, no less. And definitely no killing.”
Faustino snarled.
He didn’t know when or how it had happened, but since their coup and takeover of the family, Faustino had found himself somewhat on the outside looking in.
With Matteo and Michael assuming the lead, Faustino’s role had been limited to street-level actions, and even then Faustino felt like he was being kept on a tighter leash than he used to be before, when they weren’t even in charge of things for themselves.
Fuck those guys.
They’re family, and I love them…
But fuck them.
Faustino was forty-one years old and hated the fact that he was somehow destined to always be seen as the little brother or junior partner in the triumvirate of him, Michael, and Matteo.
It wasn’t right. Faustino knew that he had contributed just as much any anyone to taking down the old regime.
This was supposed to be his time in charge, running things, and making all the big calls and plays.
But so far, the only thing that Faustino had run was surveillance.
And without the fury of gunfire and death to follow, Faustino was getting very bored indeed of his watching brief…
“I know you’ve got my back,” Faustino said, looking across to Owen.
“We’ve been to hell and back together. So I’m saying to you this…
if you want to get out of this car now, you can do.
I wouldn’t blame you and there’d be no problems for you down the road either.
But if you’re riding with me, then ride with me. ”
Faustino looked across and saw Owen stare right back at him. The two of them were like soulmates in some ways. Both loved the violence, risky operations, and fighting against the odds. And the pair of them were truly deadly shots too.
“Hey, do you even need to ask?” Owen chuckled. “Of course I’m down with you, my man.”
“Okay, so the plan is we hit this motherfucking den and leave with cash,” Faustino grinned. “And if a few low-down bodies hit the deck full of our bullets, then so be it.”
Faustino laughed and watched as more men entered the gambling den.
It was likely that there would be way more than cash inside, and Faustino knew that if he could get his hands on some diamonds then that would really make it a great day.
The fact of the matter was that this was an illegal game on Fendi territory.
Such a thing simply couldn’t be allowed to stand.
And this was despite the family making it very clear that there would be a zero tolerance approach to all things like this in the future.
“Matteo and Michael are going to be seen as weak,” Faustino said.
“I know they want to do this whole political thing of trying to make peace across the city. But fuck that. I’ve been around as long as them.
I know how this works. You only ever find peace through death. That’s the way it’s always been.”
“I hear you,” Owen answered. “I know I’m not family, but I’ve always seen the Fendi clan as ruling through the gun. There’s no other way. It’s not like we’re in a world of offices and police and all that shit. The rules are different for us. Step out of line, you get got.”
Faustino nodded. Owen could see exactly where he was coming from, and it was making Faustino more and more frustrated that apparently his own closest family couldn’t see it for themselves.
Maybe it was the fact that they were now heading up the family, but Faustino couldn’t help but feel that Matteo and Michael had changed.
And Faustino didn’t like change. In fact, it was the thing he hated the most.
Justin’s death was ten long years ago, but Faustino still hadn’t been able to move on.
He knew that Justin was never coming back.
He also knew that they hadn’t even been together long when he died.
But that changed very little. All Faustino knew was that he had opened his heart to a wonderful boy, only to see his heart wrenched out and crushed while the light of Justin’s beautiful heart had been extinguished in the cruelest of ways.
But Faustino knew that this wasn’t the time to be in his feelings.
Faustino gritted his teeth as he saw yet another pair of men enter the building, each one followed by a security guard holding a heavy, thick duffel bag. Money, diamonds, whatever else… it was all good.
“It’s time to work,” Faustino said, locking and loading his shotgun as he stepped out of his car.
With Owen by his side and the element of surprise too, Faustino felt ready and able to cause the worst kind of chaos – and he didn’t give a God damn whether Matteo and Michael approved or not.
Faustino didn’t take orders. Not from anyone.
And when he was done taking lives and money, Faustino knew there would be one more thing on his hitlist –
It would be time to party like only Faustino Fendi could…