Riccardo (19 page)

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

RICCARDO

Why the fuck I came here was beyond me. After what this fucker did to me and Lorena, I just wanted to kill the bastard myself. I would have if Stefano hadn't held me back. Sebastiano had plans for Joey, and we all had to just bide our time and suck it up in the meantime. My injuries were still raw. My chest was starting to ache again and I knew I was pushing myself by being at the barbecue, but I’d felt like I needed to get back to normal. I’d been out of action long enough. I was on my way back from taking a piss, when I spotted Matias heading for the pool. He was crawling right to the edge. Forgetting my pain, I ran through the open gate, but I was too late. Matias fell over the side, landing face first into the water. Time seemed to stand still as I threw myself in after him.

Grabbing him in my hands, I steadied my feet on the floor of the pool and lifted him out the water. He coughed and spluttered a few times as I patted him on the back, and held him against my chest until the coughing subsided. He looked up at me with a bewildered look. It was then that I regained my focus on my surroundings and I heard Sierra screaming and Sebastiano swearing every obscene word he knew. I glanced up to see the both of them rushing over. Sierra leaned over the side and tugged him out of my hands, before clutching him and sobbed into his neck. Sebastiano pulled her into his arms and comforted her in an unusually calm voice. “He’s okay, sweetness. Let's go inside and get him dry,” he said as he walked them towards the house.

Lorena appeared in front of me holding a towel. “Oh, my God, Riccardo, if you hadn’t seen him…” She trailed off her sentence without finishing the thought. We were all thinking it, and it wouldn’t have ended well for Matias. Her lip trembled and I climbed out so I could console her.

“I saw him. We don’t need to think about the what-ifs.” I pulled her into my arms, neither of us caring about me soaking her. I looked over her head to see Stefano walking towards the gate.

“Who the fuck left their beer bottle near the gate?” Stefano asked menacingly.

I looked down at the ground and saw what he was talking about, the gate had been propped open with a bottle of beer. It was a Peroni bottle, the brand Aldo and Joey always drank. I ran my eyes over the garden looking for either suspect. Aldo was holding his mother, who was hugging her granddaughter, with a terrified look. No doubt thinking that it could have easily been their little Maria that had fallen in the pool. Joey wasn’t far from Aldo, I caught his eye and I saw it written all over his face.

Guilt.

He must have seen the rage on my face, because he chose that moment to run. He ran through the garden and down the side of the house and headed towards the gate.

“Joey!” I shouted, pushing Lorena aside and following in pursuit. It was no good, I couldn't run as fast as I normally could. By the time I made it to the front garden, I was breathing raggedly. I stopped and watched as I saw his car drive away. “Fucker.” I held my chest as my adrenaline dropped. Damn, I hurt like a bitch.

“Jesus, Capo, you’re meant to be taking it easy,” Vincenzo said, walking up to me.

Not giving a crap about what I should or shouldn’t be doing, I made my way over to Aldo and got right up in his face. Thankfully, he’d already sent his mother and daughter into the house, because I didn’t give a shit about what they witnessed. “You better tell us where your father is headed?”

He looked at me in terror. “I don’t know, honest. I didn’t think he’d stoop that low. I… I…”

He had known Joey was planning this? I ground my teeth together, before I asked my question aloud.

Stefano jumped in. “You fucking knew about all this?”

“No. No…this wasn’t the plan he informed me of. All he told me was that he wanted to take Sebastiano down. He never mentioned harming Matias,” he backtracked.

His words only made me angrier. I stepped forward, backing him into a support post of the patio. I felt Lorena come up behind me, placing her hand on my back, as if to calm me.

“Babe, you need to try and relax. Let’s all go inside and talk about this calmly. My father will want to hear this. Let’s go find him,” she suggested, while rubbing her hand up and down my back.

I took a second to steady myself and take as deep a breath as I could, without causing too much pain, before stepping back and motioning for Aldo to lead the way inside. “Let’s go find The Don,” I agreed.

The walk into the house was silent. Aldo’s hands visibly trembled by his sides. I wasn't so convinced he hadn’t known his father was up to something. The fact that Matias could have died ran through my head, taking any sympathy I had for Aldo away as soon as it appeared.

We found Sebastiano in the lounge, comforting Sierra as she held Matias tightly. Lorena, who had kept her hand on my back the whole time, finally let go and walked over to Sierra, pulling her and Matias up and out from Sebastiano’s embrace. “Daddy, you need to go talk to Aldo,” she suggested, nodding in our direction.

With no questions asked, he stood and headed over to the men, with his signature murderous look he sported when he was angry. Aldo cowered beside me for a second, until he seemed to resign himself to his fate and stood up straighter.

“We’ll talk in my father’s office,” Aldo suggested, walking away and expecting us to follow.

I followed Aldo into the office. Sebastiano stopped at the door and turned to Raphael. “You and Paulie stay with Sierra and Lorena. Don’t let them out of your sight,” he ordered. “Take them all home. The party’s over,” he added. He looked across at Vincenzo and Stefano, gesturing for them to enter the office before himself. Once we were all in the room, Sebastiano closed the door behind him and turned to address Aldo. “Talk.”

Aldo spilled the beans on his father’s master plan. He was planning to cause a perforation in our
famiglia
by playing us off against one other. One of his major plans was to send Matias to a family in Italy so Aldo could take Sebastiano’s position as The Don in The Mafia. Aldo was adamant he didn’t know anything about what happened today and I was hard pressed not knowing whether to believe him. When he offered to call his father and try to find him for us, we didn’t argue.

Holding his phone out on his hand, we all listened to the ring tone through the speaker. Joey answered after a couple of rings. “Aldo?”

“Dad, what the hell did you do?”

“I did what needed to be done. It was all going according to plan until that fucking bastard Capo decided to be a hero,” he complained. Aldo opened his mouth to talk but Joey interrupted him and kept going. “I’ll have to do things a little differently next time to ensure he keeps away. Perhaps I’ll have to resort to killing Lorena first. That’ll fuck with both their heads and I will easily get to the kid then.”

Listening to him talk about Lorena and Matias like that and not react was so hard. I bit my lip to stop myself from making a noise. Blood swam in my mouth as I bit down hard. We heard horns beeping through the phone and Joey swore.

“Shit, I’ll call you back. I’ll need your help.”

The phone went dead and Aldo looked at Sebastiano, like his death warrant was already written. “He’s lost it. I don’t even
want
the role of The Don. I…I…” he trailed off.

Sebastiano walked over to the window and looked at the pool. The sight of it made me wonder if Joey had come up with today’s plan while standing right where Sebastiano was, or if it was a spur of the moment idea. We stood in silence, trying to process the events of the day. An easy three minutes passed before Sebastiano broke the silence.

“This is what’s going to go down. You are going to wait for your father’s call and when he tells you what he needs, you’re going to play along with him. He will most likely want you to help him get the fuck out of the country. You will do whatever it takes to get his location. You end the call, leaving him to think you are going to turn up. Then you call Riccardo and he’ll deal with him.”

“But—”

“No buts. Your father’s life is over. It's been a long time coming. You and the rest of your family are still safe, if, you do as I say,” Sebastiano said, cutting him off.

Aldo took a minute to mull things over. He knew as much as I did that what Sebastiano had said was true. There was no longer a way out for his father. He’d already hammered the nails in his own coffin the minute he started to devise his plan. “Okay,” was all he said.

Sebastiano ignored Aldo and addressed Vincenzo. “He doesn’t go anywhere without you. Not until we have his father’s exact location.”

Vincenzo nodded, opened the door and directed Aldo out, knowing when they’d been dismissed. Once the door had clicked shut again, Sebastiano took a seat in Joey’s chair and I sat opposite him.

“Are you going to be okay doing this?” Sebastiano asked.

“Of course,” I replied.

He scrutinised me before questioning me again. “Are you healed enough to do this? You seem to be holding yourself stiffer since you went in the pool after Matias.”

“I’m sore, but it won’t stop me killing the bastard. I’ll make sure of that,” I said, not bothering to hide the pain I was in. It wouldn’t be the first time I’d carried out a hit in pain and I was confident it wouldn’t be the last time either.

He nodded his approval, taking me at my word.

“Do you have any requests on how you want me to carry this out?” I asked, knowing Sebastiano often had ideas on how he wanted certain hits to go.

He shook his head. “No, just make it painful.”

“Oh, I plan to.” Already, a range of ideas flowed through my mind.

I'd make that fucker suffer.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

RICCARDO

After Sebastiano and I discussed our plans on how to deal with Joey, we left Aldo and his family under the watchful eye of Vincenzo. We trusted Aldo wouldn't have second thoughts on delivering his father to us. Vincenzo would make sure of that. We went back to the mansion and sat in the lounge watching Matias play innocently with his array of toys. Understandably, Sierra was still shaken up.

My phone vibrated in my pocket and saw Aldo's name flash across the screen as I pulled my phone out. I hoped he was calling with Joey's location. Not bothering with a greeting, I answered and grumbled, “Where is he?" I stood up, motioned to Sebastiano to remain with his family and I walked out of the room, closing the door behind me. I didn’t want anyone to hear anything they shouldn’t. Mainly the girls. They'd be able to predict what was going to happen to Joey, but they didn’t need to know the finer details.

"He's heading over to the church, thinking it'll be safe there. He said he'll wait for me in the confessional. He instructed me to take his passport and some cash,” Aldo offered.

“I need a time. An exact time.”

“In one hour, which gives you roughly forty-five minutes by the time you drive there and all.” A tremor laced his voice.

"You've made the right choice."

“What are you going to do?” Aldo asked.

“It’s better you don’t know,” I snapped before disconnecting the call. Sebastiano joined me in the hallway just as I was shoving the phone back in my pocket.

“It was Aldo, wasn't it?” he asked.

“Yes, he's expecting Aldo to meet him at the church in just under an hour.”

“Damn! In a public place like that? It's best you take one of the men with you. You never know what predicament you could end up in, especially in a church. Do you have any preference on who you want to take?”

I shook my head, “No. I trust them all. It won't matter who I take with me.”

“Take Raph then. I think he’s in the gym.”

I turned to look for Raphael when Sebastiano called out to me. “Riccardo.”

“Yeah, Boss.”

“Make it fucking hurt.”

***

Raphael was more than happy to accompany me. Stefano suggested we take Angel’s car, that way Joey wouldn’t recognise it. Or maybe he would. Joey hated Angel. I was amazed he hadn’t yet targeted her. Perhaps that was already on the cards, but it was too little too late. Joey’s time had come to an end. There was hardly any traffic, so it didn't take us long to drive there. We parked near the church and made ourselves incognito, crouching down in the car as we waited for Joey to arrive.

The fucker turned up five minutes early. We gave him a few minutes to organise himself and to head on over to the confessional with the priest. Once situated, we casually got out of the car and followed him in. I pulled on my gloves and tugged them on one finger at a time as I eavesdropped against the priest’s door. I heard their muffled voices but couldn't make out what they were saying.

I slowly pulled open the priest’s door, trying to be as silent as possible, while Raphael stood watching the main entrance of the church. We didn’t want anyone entering and coming in to say The Rosary at this point in time. The priest had just finished speaking when he caught sight of me and the dagger I had pulled into sight. I waved my finger in the air in a circular motion, signalling for him to carry on talking to Joey, so he didn’t pick up on my presence.

Swallowing hard, he did as he was told.

As Joey started giving his act of contrition, I mouthed the words, “Leave now,” to the priest and pointed towards the sanctuary doors. Without any arguments, he nodded in agreement. Raphael escorted him outside. I didn’t have to worry about him or his conscience because I knew Raphael would deal with him, no doubt donating a nice sum of money to the church in order to keep him silent.

Once we were alone, I yanked open the door to Joey’s confessional, exposing a shocked Joey. Not giving him any time to recover from his initial shock, I pushed my way into the booth with Joey.

"It's judgement day," I announced menacingly as I flashed the dagger.

Joey made a move to stand and push past me, but I never allowed him to move an inch. He tried to escape me, but all he did was give me a better angle. I pinned him to the back wall of the booth with my left forearm secured across his throat. "Do you have any final confessions, Joey? I don’t believe you were completely honest with the good priest before.”

Joey was silent.

I didn't care.

It was time to inflict some pain.

"Let me help you to get started," I offered as I readied the dagger in my right hand. "Forgive me," I said on a grunt as I stabbed the knife into Joey’s abdomen and drew it up towards his breast bone. "For I have sinned," I added. I removed the blade once it hit the bone, before twisting and turning, plunging it in once again. I went from left to right, ensuring I carved a perfect cross on his chest.

I'd give it to him—Joey was a tough bastard. He let out an initial scream, but he barely grunted after that. He was a true Morassi and tough as fucking nails. I knew he had to be hurting. I could see it in the way his body sagged as I withdrew the dagger and released my hold on his throat. I had been cautious not to hit any major arteries. I sure didn’t want him to bleed to death and in a church of all places. I stepped back, pushing the door open with my back.

“Are you done already?” Raphael asked, astonishment clear in his voice. He knew I wanted to make the guy suffer. The entire
famiglia
wanted him to suffer for what he did to Matias, and for what he had planned to do to Lorena and Sebastiano.

“Me finished? Don't be ridiculous. That would be too easy.” I laughed. I laced the dagger back in the sheath of my belt. “Drive the car around the back. Try get it as close to the doors as possible.”

Raphael left to bring the car around. I followed him to the front of the church and bolted the doors. Not that I was concerned about Joey attempting to get away. If he tried to move through the pain, his innards would probably fall out. I was more concerned about parishioners entering the church. Once the door was secured, I grabbed Joey off the bench, not caring about any pain I caused him. Blood had flooded his shirt and was oozing down his pants. “You might wanna hold yourself together, or shit might fall out,” I offered, nodding in the direction of his wound.

Grimacing in pain, he held his hands over the opened gash, gasping for breath. I had to work fast before he passed out. I dragged him through the church, and out the door, leaving a trail of blood in our wake. I shoved him in the back seat, and he groaned in pain, clutching his abdomen, as I slid in bedside him. Thankfully, Raph had thought ahead and covered the backseat with thick blankets, obviously anticipating lots of blood. He knew me too well.

“Where to, Capo?” he asked as he looked at me through the rear-view mirror.

“Death Valley,” I said, naming a place in the Blue Mountains we often used to dispose of bodies we didn’t want anyone finding out about. It was only known as ‘Death Valley’ to us, but being
famiglia
, Joey recognised the name and made a sound that I could have almost sworn was a sob. “Drive fast. We haven't got much time. I still want him alive and coherent for the next stage.”

Raphael drove like a madman, shaving off a few minutes from the normal fifty-minute drive. I wanted the bastard dead. I still had plans to make him suffer.

I've murdered a lot of people, bad men who deserved to die because they had done heinous things, or had turned their back on our
famiglia
. But killing
Zio
Joey was different. I was doing this because he went after my own family and I’d vowed to protect the woman I loved.

Raphael drove as deep into the forest as he could in Angel’s shit heap of a car. We could have gotten deeper in any of our four-wheel drives, but we just had to work with what we had. The car came to a stop and Raph climbed out, pulling out a bag from the boot of the car, while Joey and I sat in silence.

I recognised the bag Raphael retrieved from the boot. It was my bag of tools. All the men in our
famiglia
were familiar with my bag of tools. “Hey, Joey, take a look at the bag. You recognise it?” I teased him. “You should. You've used a few of those tools in your time.”

Joey sat there not saying a word, still clutching his body, grimacing in pain. I couldn’t even hazard a guess at what was going through his mind. He knew very well what this particular bag of tools was used for. It was to dig graves. He was looking pale and in pain, but he was doing his damnedest to hide it. Raph opened Joey’s door and yanked him out as I climbed out from the other side, slamming the door shut, before walking around to meet them.

I grabbed Joey’s arm as Raphael released his other, before bending to pick the bag up from the ground. Without his arms across his body, the blood was now pouring out easily from his body. Fuck, it better not be too late.

We walked deeper into the forest, Joey was dragging his heels, as we hauled him to our destination. He'd lost a lot of blood and I knew he wouldn’t make it much further. It wasn’t ideal to dispose of him here, but it was the best we could do in the circumstances.

“This’ll do,” I announced, coming to a halt.

“Are you sure?” Raphael questioned as he took a look around.

“He isn’t going to last much longer.” I shoved Joey into a sitting position on the ground against a tree. Taking the bag off Raphael, I took out two shovels and threw one at Raph. “We need to do this quickly.”

Sebastiano wanted Joey to suffer and I would make sure of it. I wanted to bury Joey alive. I wanted him to feel the pain of suffocating under all that dirt. That thought alone had kept me digging long after my own chest wound started to scream in pain. With a large empty grave before us, we stopped digging and threw the shovels aside.

I turned to Joey. “I thought about how I was going to dispose of you long and hard when Sebastiano ordered this hit. Initially, I wanted to cut up your body into twenty different pieces.” I looked at Raphael and I saw him grin. “But that is too easy and I don’t fancy being covered in any more of your blood.” I gripped Joey’s face and stared into his eyes. “Your death has been a long time coming. The
famiglia
will be happy and I am looking forward to every fucking second of it.” He was on the verge of death but there was still life in his eyes.

“They say confession is good for the soul. So, do you have any last words?” I asked, more out of habit than actually wanting to give him the opportunity. It was something I sometimes asked before I ended a life. As his executioner, I felt the need to give him a chance to have his peace. He didn’t utter a word. He probably didn’t have the breath to speak anyway. He just glared at me. If his eyes weren’t full of so much hatred, I’d have thought he was already on his way to death. The in-between so many of them fell into just before they passed.

“As you wish.” Dragging him towards the grave, I kicked him in. He fell with a thud and a groan. We didn’t waste any time. We picked up the shovels and scooped the dirt on top of him in silence.

“
Disgraziato!
” Joey yelled at me. “You son of a mother fucking bitch.” I merely smirked at Raphael, as I heard Joey screaming obscenities at me. Nothing stopped me; I continued to throw soil over him until his body was completely covered. He soon stopped trying to talk.

Once it was filled in, we packed it down and spread the spare dirt around the area. Bodies took up space and inevitably gave us some leftover dirt, and we sure didn’t want anyone being suspicious. After a few days, the ground would settle, leaving a little dip over the grave. I'd have two of the men go and clean up the church, and in a day or so, Raphael could come out and check the grave, filling it over if he needed to.

Placing the shovels in the bag, we made our way back to the car. Raphael climbed in the passenger side. As I placed the bag in the trunk, I stood there for a moment as I removed my gloves and placed them in the bag, where they would stay until my next hit.

Fuck, I loved those gloves.