Mafia's Redemption: Terzo - Chapter 45: Chapter 45

TERZO
“I don’t like it. I feel like he’s planning something, Terzo. We’re supposed to be meeting him together. Why does he only want to meet you?”
I scratched my head. She knew the obvious answer, but she kept asking. We were on the way to the place her father agreed to meet. Francesco was clever. I admired his tactics, but I had a strategy up my sleeve as well.
The moment he received our message through a mutual friend, he answered immediately, and we only had an hour to prepare before I would meet him— that way, we didn’t have the time to scout the place and plan our approach.
“Hey.” Dani shook me, who was sitting next to me. “Cancel this meeting. I really have a bad feeling about this. He would not agree if he didn’t have the advantage. I swear, Terzo, he has motives. Let’s make another plan.”
“I’ll be fine.” I looked right into her eyes. She was deeply worried. She had the right to be worried. One wrong move, and this whole plan would crash before us.
“I don’t like it, too, signora, but the boss has to meet your father, otherwise, it would make a bad impression to be the next don if he cancels or he doesn’t show up on time.”
“Fuck impression, MarcoGi. I don’t care. We still have options. I want my husband alive. And come on, boys, he’s your boss. Aren’t you worried about him? Don’t you guys have an army to protect him?”
“Where did you learn that, MarcoGi?” Marco asked from the front seat, amused and surprised.
“Excuse me? Is this some kind of exclusivity that I haven’t earned the badge to call you?”
I smiled. “It was a joke at first. We were drunk. Marco and Gio started singing a Jay-Z song. It was awful, by the way, but I was drunk to even stop them. So after that song, Gio said, I wanna be a wrapper.”
“And then?” She smiled in amusement. Glad I could shift her attention before I met her father.
“Celestina was watching us get drunk. It was there in the garden. She asked them and told them that they should have one. So, what’s your rapper name, Gio? You, too, Marco.”
Gio started laughing behind the wheel. “I swear I couldn’t even remember, boss.”
“They came up with a lot of terrible names.”
“The worst was Marc G,” Marco said.
“Like Cardi B. So what are their surnames? I know Gio is short for Giovanni.”
“They are Sicilianos.”
“What?” Her hand on my arm tightened, eyes widening. “They’re your cousins?”
“Yeah. I thought it was obvious, but if people ask them, they use Brunetti.”
“Our fathers were first cousins. They died when we were teenagers.” Marco brought back sad memories. “There was a shootout at the race track. My father and Gio were there. If Terzo wasn’t sick at that time and Zio Gaetano didn’t arrive late, he would have been dead with them, too.”
“I’m so sorry, Marco, Gio.” I felt the sincerity in her voice.
“Grazie, signora.”
And then she turned to me. “You’re diverting me, Terzo.” Oh, fuck.
“This is now, or we won’t get another chance. Besides, he’s meeting me alone. No guns. That’s what's among his demands. He knows I’m faster than his men, and even without weapons, I can take him down.”
“He did it on purpose so that he could kill you. He probably contacted a mercenary to shoot you.”
“I promise, I’ll be very careful.” I kissed her head.
“Not good enough. Promise me you’ll come back to me alive, Terzo. I need to hear it.”
“Dani, I can’t do that. I don’t wanna break—”
“Just say it, Goddamn it!” Her voice vibrated inside the SUV. The silence was deafening. “I just want to hear it. It makes me feel a lot better, please?”
I stared at her for a moment, capturing her image in my head. She was beautiful, her eyes so expressive. This woman, my wife, just became the reason why I wanted to be alive. She gave me hope. She gave me the reason to live and to wake up everyday and work my ass off.
I cupped her head and kissed her softly. “Okay, Danielle. I promise.”
“Just Dani.” She nodded. Her chin trembled. “I swear, if something bad happened to you, I will scour the earth to find him and bring his head to your father.”
I chuckled. “I have no doubt, Dani, but I’ll make sure you don’t have to do something like that.”
Gio parked the car in the parking area of the beachfront hotel. I helped Dani get out of the car. When I checked my watch, I only had fifteen minutes to get to the place where we would meet.
“Guys, please keep her safe.”
“Promettere, cogino.”
Dani hugged me tightly. By then, she already realized she meant more than anything to me that I would risk and give my life for her. “Be careful.”
“You, too, mia bella. You do as they say, okay?”
She nodded against my chest.
Before I left, I watched them enter the hotel lobby. If Francesco were to betray me, at least she and the guys could get out alive.
You know, when facing imminent danger, I always offered my life to God. If it was my time, then it was my time. I couldn’t cheat death.
I made it to the beach, I scanned the place, couples, groups, families that acted weird and too obvious, but so far, they were hotel guests, and some were just by themselves, and they were not aware of the danger surrounding them.
Francesco’s stature appeared. I was taller, but he was stocky. My father was older than him, but Papa took care of himself and watched his diet. He sometimes said he wanted to take care of his grandchildren first before he died.
So far, so good until I was three yards away from him, out of nowhere, someone came out of the swimming pool and stopped before me. He was dripping and asked, “Are you carrying a gun?”
I took off my suit jacket, raised my pants to show him I abided by his demands. “Do you want me to take off my shoes?”
“You’re good.”
I finally stood beside Francesco. I didn’t have to carry a gun to take someone’s life, but I was the one who set this meeting, and I wanted to end the tension between our families now that Dani was in my life.
“I could have killed you if I wanted to. You didn’t take my words seriously. You broke the code. You killed my son. You didn’t meet my first demands, instead, you took my daughter away from me and brainwashed her into marrying you. You did not just betray me, you also humiliated me. And I don’t approve of this marriage.”
I sighed and slipped my hands into my pockets. “I know, that’s why I want to make things right. I am here to offer you something.”
“What do you think you can offer that makes me stop from killing you?” He was ruthless, yet his words remained calm. And this was something more terrifying than a raging bull or a madman than this man. His actions were unpredictable. And chaos was inevitable.
I faced him. “Francesco, I know you will do anything to protect your family, and if there’s a way to take your son back, you will do it for Dani’s sake, but that choice is impossible. So, before you kill me, think about the retaliation. My father has accepted Dani into the family. He respects Dani and treats her like his own daughter. So here’s my offer.”
He looked at me as if reading my thoughts.
“Do you know your son owed money to Deckard Humphries? The son of the governor who’s running for senator. Dani’s ex-boyfriend, who doesn’t know your children’s relationship until now.” I saw a little surprise in his eyes. And I couldn’t see any features Dani got from him, like they didn’t even share the same DNA or blood. The same went to his bastard son.
“So what does this Deckard want?”
“He’s looking for your son. He trashed his apartment. Sooner or later, he will find out Tomas’s connection to Dani. Of course, I will protect my wife with my life.”
“Like how you protected her last week.” He knew it triggered me. He knew how to hit a nerve. Son a bitch.
I stiffened. This man was pure evil. I looked at him as anger bubbled up inside me. I wanted to punch his throat, instead I told him truthfully, “I will make sure it won’t happen again, because honestly, Francesco, I never would have thought you would do something like that to your daughter. The trauma alone that she has endured, she will carry it for a long time. And your men, they didn’t care or see her as your flesh and blood.”
He shifted uncomfortably. “Get straight to the point, Terzo. I have somewhere else to be.”
“I will pay what he owed. A hundred grand. If Humphries wants interests, I’ll pay it. Also, my wife doesn’t have the book, and I trust her that she has no idea what book it is. Tell me a little detail and let me help you find it. I have resources that might make the process faster.”
“That’s all?”
“My wife asks me to tell you to stop sending men for her and my family. I’ll give you what you want. I’ll marry her before you if that’s what you wanted.”
“Do the first two. If you are successful, then we’ll talk about the wedding. Just make sure your men stay where they should be to avoid clashes.”
“You’re in my territory, Francesco. Tell your men not to touch my wife. That’s the line they should never cross. Ever.”
He gave me a side glance and nodded. “The book is very important to me. If Dani doesn’t have it, then someone else stole it from me, someone close who knows how important it is to me and the value of it. It’s one of the oldest prints of Medea by Euripides.”