Chapter Five
At Breakfast the next morning....
The room remained almost silent and as Leon forced himself to eat something.
Evelyn stared at him from across the table. “Leon, you need to sleep.”
He shrugged. “I cannot yet, mia cara. This is more than the usual trouble.”
“Usual?” his daughter Meena asked. “Does this have anything to do with the fact that I cannot get ahold of Calderone?”
Evelyn looked from her to Leon. “Does it?”
“Yes, it does,” he answered her honestly.
The two women gasped.
“He is okay though.” He was telling them something he sensed. Not what he knew for a fact. “I cannot explain it all yet,” he hedged.
They knew how this went. He was a part of the mafia and often, they didn’t want to know what that was doing.
“We are still going to worry,” Evelyn told him. “So, when it is over, please tell us it is?”
He gave her a nod.
Meena glared at him. She wasn’t so easy to calm about family being safe. She coveted all the family she had. She had missed having one for most of her life. She loved her brother Calderone too much to go easy about this. “I also want to know if Willow is okay?”
He nodded. “She is safe.” He wasn’t in the mood to feel glad about anything but he admired Meena’s’ spirit, as it matched his own. He loved this girl from the moment he saw her and that wasn’t when she was a baby, he had been robbed of all that...
Three Years ago...
Meena stopped and turned her fear filled gaze toward Evelyn. “Mom?” She shook her head to clear it. “Is it really you?” She threw herself into her mother’s arms. “Oh Mom, I found you!”
Evelyn hugged her daughter closer and kissed her cheek. “Oh baby, I’m so glad you did.”
Meena just let her mom hold her for a minute. Then she turned her head and spotted Leon. Sitting up, she just stared at him for a moment before she asked, “Are you...?”
“I’m Leon Vincinti. We just talked twenty minutes ago, my dear.”
Meena smiled. “You are real, aren’t you?” She reached out to touch him. “You’re real and I finally get to meet you. Oh, my God!”
Leon chuckled. “Yes child, I’m real.”
“And you do know that you’re my dad?” Meena asked in awe.
“I am so glad to see you are okay.” Leon smiled softly. “And yes, I am your father.”
Meena shook her head. “Not my father, that’s too harsh. You’re my daddy. That’s what mom always called you in her stories. She would tell me about you and my brother Calderone every day.” She turned to look at Calderone. “Are you him? Calderone? My big brother?”
Calderone nodded and smiled. “And I’m guessing you’re Meena.”
“Dominica Lysette Druggan at your service, so to speak.”
Calderone looked shocked and turned his head to stare at his father. “Dominica Lysette?”
Meena turned to look at Leon. “Mom named me that for a reason. She always told me that I was named after your mother. She said you lost her and that while you would always have a small piece of her in your heart she wanted you to have a living piece of her too.” She looked at him for the longest time then she asked, “Is that all right?”
Leon felt a single tear roll down his cheek as he nodded. “That’s perfect.” Turning his head, he gazed tenderly at Evelyn. “I don’t know how to thank you for this.”....
Leon now watched both his wife and his daughter at the breakfast table. They were the most precious gifts he’d ever received.
After he answered their questions, the two women look relieved as they then went on eating their breakfast.
Leon sipped at his coffee. He had been thinking about Jelly Bean’s offer and wondered if her people were all around them. That could be why he saw those flashes.
At the end of the meal, John stopped to whisper in his ear, “We need to follow up on our guests.”
Leon nodded.
After a few minutes, they left the dining room. They walked down the two hallways separating the living area from this part of estate, then to the door leading to the basement and the cells.
When they reached the cell area they stopped at the three wooden crosses that held the three men they had taken prisoner.
Henry looked up and the pain in his eyes from last night was very apparent. “You are a real monster, aren’t you?” Henry growled at Leon.
Leon smiled and stared back. “You have no idea.”
Henry looked away and said, “You were willing to skin me last night.”
Leon shrugged. “I only took a small piece of you. I could have done worse.”
“You aren’t even going to deny it?” he exclaimed.
Leon shrugged. “You seem to think you are the only bad ones here. Sure, you can beat a woman alright, I have no doubt about that. I’m even sure that you went to prison for much worse crimes, but you are toddlers in the real world.
The world I live in. I hope you have made your peace with your God because you won’t be alive too much longer. ”
“So, you are gonna kill us?” Julius asked.
Leon shrugged. “If I do not, I’m sure the men watching this place will.”
Myron looked puzzled. “What do you mean, the men watching this place?”
“I found out a few hours ago who ordered the hit that was supposed to kill me. I’m sure the master plan was to shoot me then storm the gates here and kill everyone inside my home.
That’s just the way this guy does things,” Leon told them.
“He and his father are old school. They admire the ways of Al Capone and the likes of Bugsy Malone... those idiots. He thinks that’s what the Familia should go back to.
But those days were over many years ago. ”
Julius stared at him. “If they were. Why did you strap us to these torture devices?”
Myron nodded. “Did you ever hear the story about that mobster guy who collected for loan sharks? Back in the 70’s.
Then he was accused of ratting the mob out.
What they did to him was so unspeakable that no one can even say it on YouTube.
They hung him up on a meat hook and let’s just say it was by the seat of his pants and leave it at that.
So, if the mob has changed from being that gruesome, why would you skin a man alive? ”
Julius groaned. “Myron why the hell would you ask him that?” He looked up at Leon. “Please. You have to protect us.”
Leon stared at him then shook his head, wondering if this man was really that stupid. “And why is that? Why would I protect the same men that took two women by force and against their will? If these men get to you, they will kill you. I believe that was their plan from the beginning anyway.”
John scoffed. “And why would he protect you from a bullet someone else might shoot you with?”
Julius shook his head. “You don’t know that for sure. When we were told to cause a disruption or our loved ones would die, we felt like we had no choice. Except for Henry here. I don’t know what they promised him and I don’t care.”
Leon nodded. “But the man behind those orders would instruct his men to shoot you after the fact anyway.” He looked over at John and asked, “Were you able to ascertain anything about them taking his mother and Myron’s wife?”
John nodded. “They were telling the truth.” He slowly shook his head and added, “But...”
Julius looked up at him and asked with panic on his face, “But what?”
“One of the women was freed and the other...”
“What?” Myron shouted. “I-is my wife...”
“The older woman apparently died of a heart attack.”
Julius gasped. “My mom?”
John nodded.
Julius closed his eyes.
“Your wife is in the hospital being checked over,” John told Myron.
He looked so relieved.
Julius had tears leaking from his eyes as he exclaimed in disgust, “Just go ahead and kill me. I don’t care. I tried to save my mother in the only way I knew of. All because some Italian dickwad wanted power!”
Leon and John stared at him then looked at each other.
Leon glared at him, “Si, it was about power. You were supposed to cause a disturbance while a second set of men were supposed to shoot me down then come in and kill my family. The same scenario was supposed to happen in Italy. And after the dust settled, someone the family was never going to accept into their ranks, would have walked in and taken over.”
Myron released a long breath and shook his head. “And we would have been paid in bullets, right?” He’d accepted that fate.
“Si you and your friends would have been gunned down in the streets or a dirty alley with no one else to witness your deaths. They would have left your bodies where they laid and let the night animals feast on your remains. No one would have found enough of you to bury,” Leon assured them.
He then locked gazes with Henry. “So yes, I would have ripped a few slices of skin off your back and I would have slept like a baby afterwards. I am Leon Vincinti. I am Familia that you know nothing about. I can be a bastard when it comes right down to it. These power grabbers will soon know that.”
“But you protect the innocent, right?” Julius asked. “I’ve lived here for years and I happen to know that is a fact. But my mom was innocent and she died because of this power grab.” He closed his eyes and cried silently.