28. Tito
28
TITO
T ony drives us to Don Hector's house, but we can't even get onto the block. Smoke rises from the back of the house and the street is lined with firetrucks and first responder vehicles. Aria is frantic, trying to jump from the moving car, but I hold her down, pinning her against my side as she cries and pleads audibly with God to protect her family. She didn't even react like this when Jasper died. That was more of a silent, inward mourning that she couldn’t even speak of. This is loud and painful to watch.
"Hey, look, the security team would have told us if it was really bad. This is just a home and it can be repaired." I try to encourage her with the full knowledge that she's still angry with me and probably will be for a long time. She has reason to terminate our agreement now, proof that I harmed her family and in doing so broke one of the clauses that would permit her to leave me.
But she won’t.
With the way the Russians have moved in, she needs me. She needs to stay with me to continue to tap into the strength I can provide, and tonight, I'm thankful for that. Just holding her as she cries and panics makes me want to erase suffering from the face of the planet just to help her feel better.
"What if they're dead? My God, Tito! How will I live?" Aria's words are barely intelligible. Her face is covered in tear streaks and snot. I offer her my handkerchief, and she mops up the mess, but it will return, as it has so many times. She emptied the glovebox of the restaurant napkins stored there for emergencies.
"I don't think they are, baby, but if they are, I won't rest until they are avenged." I pull her head into my chest, and she buries her face there, as if none of the previous argument had even happened. She clings to me, a shuddering leaf in a violent tornado, and I am her refuge.
I mean it, too. No one who harms the woman I love this much emotionally will live to tell about it. The crushing guilt of my part in this night's emotion tempers my anger toward her for lashing out. How can I blame her? We both understand this business and how things work. Jasper did something that crossed a line and my men dispatched him without a care in the world. All at my order.
"My God…" She sobs, and her hands claw my shirt into tight fists that don't let go until the car stops.
"We're as close as I can get." Tony's eyes look at me through the reflection in the rearview mirror, and I nod.
"Come on, baby…" I don’t have to tell her twice. She slides out the door with me, and still trembling, clings to my side as we walk around the police barricades. My men have been on this house for more than a month now for various purposes, but in the wake of the skirmishes with the Russians, I’ve had to decrease security here to avoid wearing them out. It was a foolish move. I know that later on, Aria will learn of it and be even angrier.
"Sir, you can't go back there!" I hear, but I ignore it. My wife needs to get to her parents as quickly as possible. "Sir!" the officer shouts again.
"It's my wife's parents' home. She has to get to them, please." I continue walking even when I see him reaching for his radio to call for backup. I'll knock him out if I have to, but luckily, he only radios in that we're breaching the line. He doesn't attempt to stop us, likely because he has to stay by the barricades to stop others.
The neighbors are out in droves, staring at the flames shooting out the rear of the house. First responders bustle about in full fire gear. A few EMTs sit in the back of an ambulance treating someone, I can't see who, and one firefighter mans a long hose that snakes between houses toward the fire in back.
The entire block is lit up with flashing lights and spotlights from the tops of cars and trucks. In the chaos, it's easy for us to slip through unnoticed, and when we get to the front of the house across the street, I see Hector standing next to an EMT with an oxygen mask on his face. Aria notices him at the same time, and I can't even restrain her. She's a wild animal, tearing past the crowd to crash into him.
"Papa," she sobs, clinging to the older man's chest. She nearly knocks him over with the force of her hug, and he lowers the mask to wrap his arms around her.
"Aria…" Hector coughs, and Aria pulls away when the EMT puts the mask back on his face.
"Papa, where's Mammina?" She stands back as the EMT straps the plastic tubing down around Hector's jawline and neck, securing the mask with elastic straps around his ears. As he speaks, the mask fogs.
"She's going to the hospital. She has a few burns and cuts. I have to stay here, find my men." His coughing rivals my father's. He doubles over, and the EMT forces him to back up and sit on the wide bumper of the ambulance. Aria stumbles along with him, trying to cling to him and fawn over him.
"Aria, you should go." I look up at the ambulance with the EMTs working on someone and know it has to be her mother. "Go to the hospital with your mother."
Her eyes are full of fire as she stares up at me. The same anger that heated her gaze at home is there, defiant and burning through my soul. "I'm staying here with my father. They won't let me ride with her anyway, and she'll be getting treatment for a while. I can go in a little bit." Her harsh tone warns me that I'm going to get nowhere, but I have to try. This place isn't safe. If the Uhkovs are anywhere close, there could be a shootout, and I need her to be away from here.
"Tony will drive you."
"No," she says sternly and glares at me. "I'm staying here. We will find who did this and we will take them down together, and don't cross me, Mr. Ramiro. If you do, you won't live to regret it."
Even Hector is surprised by his daughter's outburst. His eyebrows rise and I see him struggling to breathe. He takes her hand and gently pats it.
"Aria, please listen to your husband. He's only trying to keep you safe." The words are muffled through the mask, but I know she hears them. Her shoulders droop a little then stiffen again as she stands.
"I will do whatever he says, but here, not at the hospital. I have to know how this happened and why. It was Uhkov, wasn't it?" She keeps hold of his hand, and he nods.
"Find Nigel and he will help you. My men, they're at your disposal, Tito. Perhaps I'll let them take me to the hospital. With you in charge, I trust things will be handled."
Aria looks hesitant at her father's words, the same hesitation I noticed in Jasper's expression before his death when he protested our financial merger. She fears my leadership of her father's family, and for good reason. She still believes I'll take over, and she has no clue I've had a change of heart, how good this will be to truly merge our families and eventually become one by blood, not by force.
"You have my word, as a man of my honor, Father." When I call him that, Aria looks up at me with pain and confusion in her eyes. "I will protect your daughter, my wife, and I will find who did this. They will pay." Only this woman could do to me what is happening, my heart changing, my loyalty shifting. Seeing how she loves her family makes me love her family as much as I love her.
"Sir, let's get you into the ambulance. You're going to need more rest…" The EMT takes over, pulling Hector away from us, and I walk away, heading out to look for Nigel, one of Hector's top men. Aria stomps along beside me, her feet slapping the pavement.
"Why did you say that? Who are you trying to fool?" She's hurt and angry. She still thinks I’m manipulating him. I will only prove my altruism by action, not by words.
"Why do you question everything I do? When will you trust me?" I continue moving with purpose, seeing Nigel's face in the distance among a cluster of Peralta family members just on the other side of the police barriers.
"When do you trust a snake?" she hisses, and I stop short and turn around so fast that she runs into my chest. I grab her by the biceps and shake her hard.
"This is my territory, Aria. If you can’t trust me, at least have the decency to respect me and your father. He trusts me, and for good reason." I'm angry, but I know she's going through things. "I fucking love you, alright?" My voice is low, a gravelly anger seeping through my tone. "I never intended to kill Jasper. If I wanted him dead, I'd have taken full credit immediately and owned your family and you by force. But I haven't done that. And I won't."
She trembles, then her lip quivers. Then she turns away from me and dry heaves, bending toward the pavement and coughing as nothing comes up, but her body doesn't stop. The emotion overwhelms her so much, her body has symptoms, and I hate this but I can't stop it. I stand next to her with my hand on her back until she rights herself and nods at me.
"Are you okay?" I ask sternly, as if she were one of my men, not my wife. Because right now, in this situation, she's one of the guys and she has to be treated as such.
"I'm fine," she growls. "Let’s find and kill those bastards."
When we start moving again, I know it's as a unit. The two of us have one purpose, to recompense the evil perpetrated on our family. And we won't go home without vengeance on our plate.
We approach her family who all look to me with expectation. They've seen me around enough to know who I am and that Don Hector trusts me. For now, they've lost their leader, and they have to collect themselves to move forward. But what I don’t expect is the warm welcome I receive.
They all shake my hand and ask me for direction, and I have no trouble issuing it. "Tonight, we're going hunting. The men who are responsible will pay, and we will avenge our trusted leader and friend, Don Hector Peralta."
A cheer goes up and draws a little attention from the police, but we're not backing down. With Aria by my side, I'll lead them into battle and come out victorious. And if not, I'll die trying.