Tempted By The Mafia Boss

Nick

We stay in that bed until close to midday and we only get up and out of the house because she drags me to the hospital to get my wound checked out.

I knew I would need stitches before the doctors recommend it but I’m glad I get them because the last thing I need is for it to turn septic and take me out of the game before I’m ready.

I take Mia home after and instead of going back to my own place like I probably should and sorting my ass out, I go to the hospital Tommy’s at.

Haven’t been in a few days. Not because I don’t want to go. It’s just that it’s hard.

I get there and Sherine is at his side like she always is.

She smiles when she sees me but pain flickers in her eyes. She looks thin and gaunt, like she hasn’t eaten properly in weeks. I know that’s probably not far from the truth.

I go up to her and give her a hug. When we part, her eyes glisten with tears. In this whole month since this all went down there hasn’t been a time that I haven’t seen her cry.

“How you holding up, doll?” I ask.

She shakes her head. “I’m not. It’s strange, I’m sitting here talking to him and he’s not answering and in my heart I know he probably won’t answer me ever again.”

I glance at Tommy. I know what she means. I talk to him too, but I know this is it. He’s been in this coma now for over a month and he’s not making any progress.

“Nick, the doctors talked to me today about his life support,” she covers her mouth and breaks down. Shoulders wracking as she sobs.

I set my hands on her bony shoulders and steady her.

“Come on doll, let’s go get some coffee or something. A late lunch and we can talk.”

She nods.

We go to the coffeehouse that’s five minutes away from the hospital. She doesn’t want to go far from him and I don’t blame her.

A weak smile fills her face as the waitress brings her a mug of hot chocolate.

I’m glad she’s having something with a little bit of fat in it. She needs the sustenance. She really does look like she’s about to wither away. Just looking at her drains me.

I get a cappuccino. When I sip on it the jolt of intense caffeine does the job and I try to be strong for her.

“Thank you for being here through all this, Nick,” she says, wiping away another tear. It’s like she’s set to cry at intervals. I can’t imagine how she must be feeling.

“Where else am I gonna be, doll? Do you guys need anything?” I’m offering and I offer every time we speak and I give what I think she and the baby need. I know I can’t give her what she truly needs though and that’s for Tommy to wake up.

Money can’t buy things like that. It can’t do shit and it makes me feel worse.

A fucking tear stings the back of my eye when she shakes her head.

It’s funny, I remember when she and Tommy met. She’s a good girl just like my girl.

My girl… fuck, when the fuck did I start referring to Mia as my girl?

I do it so effortlessly I can’t remember the exact point. Sherine reminds me of her though, because they’re like creatures pulled from a fairytale set placed in a nightmare world. It’s like Disney meets one of Tim Burton’s darker films. Something like ‘Sleepy Hollow’. They just don’t mesh or blend. They don’t belong.

Tommy was always worried about the darkness of our world. His family worked for mine and sometimes bad things happened. Sherine understood and accepted there could be consequences.

This is what is happening now.

A consequence of being part of this fucked-up world.

Over the last few weeks of knowing Mia I’ve been like a fucking butterfly. Flittering here and there in emotion and desire. I go from wanting her to be mine to not wanting her to feel for me. It makes no sense and yet it does.

It’s good and bad fighting inside me, although I don’t have a good bone in my body. It must be that knowledge though, that awareness that Mia is good and it compels me to take note of what could happen if she ventures down the path with me.

I care…

For the first time in my life I care. That says something because I had Vanessa. I haven’t felt like this since her.

Sherine straightens up against the chair and gives me a long stare like she wants to say something more.

“What’s up? You look like you need to talk more than usual,” I thought I should ask to make it easier on her.

“Can I confide in you in something? I know there’s so much more at work here and there’s some stuff I know that I haven’t said.”

This is curious indeed. I want to hear it.

“Talk to me.”

She looks ashamed. “I think he betrayed you. In fact I don’t just think it. I know. From what happened I know.”

“What are you thinking Sherine?” Tommy must have spoken to her.

“He got hooked on drugs. Really badly. He did Nick, and it worsened after his cousin’s bachelor party because… he cheated on me.”

My eyes almost pop out of my head. I go to tell her that Tommy would never do that, and since I was at that bachelor party I’m sure he didn’t. But it’s a fruitless thought. She’s not saying she thinks he cheated, she’s telling me he did.

“Sherine, I swear I didn’t know,” I’m apologizing by default. I hope like fuck she doesn’t think I knew and didn’t tell her.

I guess though, if I had known, I wouldn’t have told her because it wouldn’t have been my sin to confess.

“I know,” she gives me a weak smile. “I know you didn’t know and if you did, I wouldn’t be mad at you for not telling me. I wouldn’t be anything. It’s just one of those things. But, anyway, he was high at the party and he says he didn’t know what he was doing. I love him enough to accept that and believe him.”

“It’s not right Sherine,” I don’t know why I say that. I’m already worked up enough over Tommy, this just adds to it. High or not, if memory serves me right and it fucking does, she was heavily pregnant at the time.

How can you cheat on your pregnant wife?

Even in my fucking twisted brain I know that’s fucked up shit you don’t do.

“I know, I know Nick and I’m willing to bet you’d kick his ass for me if you knew and he wasn’t in the condition he’s in.”

“Fucking right I would,” I vow.

She nods. “I know. That is however when the trouble began. First it was the woman he slept with trying to blackmail him. She wanted money to keep quiet. To not tell me. She must have come back on the scene after the baby was born because he just got worse. He told me what happened eventually but the not knowing what was up with him and having a new baby and being a first time mom was so hard on me. It’s still hard,” she pauses and presses her dry lips together. Seeing how hard this is on her, I set my mug down and cover her hands on the table with mine.

“Sherine, you don’t have to talk about this. It’s painful. It’s all painful.”

“I need to talk Nick. It’s all eating me up, you know? It’s eating me up and I just want to get it all out. I want you to understand that he didn’t set out to betray you, it was like he wasn’t himself.”

I feel worse because none of what she’s saying is anything I recognize. I never saw any sort of weird behavior to suggest anything was wrong with Tommy.

I guess though she would know more than me since she lived with him.

“Okay, tell me. I’m listening,” I give her hand a gentle squeeze and she continues.

“He went to the Fontaines just to get a loan for the woman. She wanted half a million. He said he didn’t go to you because of the drugs. The money was given to the woman and I found out. I found out first then he told me what happened. I was going to leave him Nick but I realized I love him too much and he needed help. He just kept going back to the Fontaines because of their link with the drugs. He got addicted so bad and wouldn’t admit he was suffering. Then they got to him with the shipping company. He let that slip and that’s how I know. I don’t know any more though. I figured it out as the weeks have gone by that something went wrong. Something in relation to the shipping company. Is that right?”

I nod but that’s all I do, all I will do.

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I’m definitely heeding that reminder. She doesn’t need to know anymore. Honestly, what she knows is more than enough and if she’d told me this weeks ago I would have had some direction.

She did say however, that she figured it out as the weeks went by.

“Thanks for telling me. I just really wish he’d come to me.” It would have made everything so much easier.

“Me too. I really wish he did. The shooter, I didn’t see him. I wish I had though.”

“No, no doll. Be grateful you did not,” if she did she wouldn’t be alive.

See a face and be allowed to live?

No way.

This all just makes me want to find the asshole even more. Not just him though, all of them.

The whole Fontaine clan.

That’s the bigger picture and I know trouble is on the way.

I stay with her for another hour then Vincent calls me, summoning me to the house.

I get there around seven and everyone is there waiting.

They’re all in the hall were we gather for family meetings.

Pa sits at the head, on the large throne-style chair with Ma at his side. Salvatore, Gabe, and Vincent are here too on his other side.

The guys don’t look at me fully which expresses the extent of trouble I’m in.

It’s not good, I know this. I know when Pa just stares at me that he wants to beat the shit out of me.

Vincent is the first to move. He takes off his jacket then his watch and rolls up his sleeves.

I get to the center and as he rushes at me I duck and he rolls over me. My reflexes are excellent but he’s a demon when it comes to fighting.

He rolls over and springs back up, landing a fist in my face that cracks my jaw.

It should have sent me down but it doesn’t. I go for him and throw a one-two punch he dodges and sends a kick to my stomach.

Fucker, he’s not holding back and neither am I.

All the while everyone watches.

This is how we deal with someone who falls out of line. And shit, I only just remember that I didn’t check in with Ma last night.

I can’t spare the second to look at her. Vincent will mess me up. He absolutely fucking will.

He comes at me again with both fists and I get him this time. It gets real now, as we give blow for blow like we’re going to kill each other.

That’s how it works. Giordano men are like the Spartans, they fight dirty even when, like this, it’s brother against brother. It doesn’t matter. He won’t stop until he has me on the floor and I’ve learned my lesson. I won’t give him the pleasure of doing that to me.

I give him a left hook and he stumbles and falls backward but springs up and lands a right in my stomach. He gets my side too, where I got sliced up yesterday.

Boy have I seen a lot of action this week. Apart from the fight at Snade’s, this really gives me a run for my money because Vincent is one of the most feared capos on the street. He’s no pussy and neither am I.

He grabs me, circling around my neck and the fight gets worse. Out of the corner of my eye I see Ma tense and place her hand on Pa’s arm, signaling him to tell us to stop but he shakes his head. I see that as Vincent pounds into my face again and again.

I use my weight and lunge backwards, taking him with me. I’ve had enough of this shit. It’s enough and I don’t want to fight anymore.

As I go down, I pull my guns from my back pocket and aim them at him, but… this is the testament of us. I have my guns on him but he has his on me too. We both pulled them at the same time on each other.

We’re kneeling and facing each other, him with blood running down his nose and me … I can taste blood in my fucking mouth and the back of my throat.

“Enough!” Pa yells. We both look at him then back to each other.

“Get up,” Vincent orders me. It’s the first he’s said anything since I got here. It’s crazy to think we spoke on the phone before I arrived and this is what happened next.

I stand and I’m still pointing my guns at him. He doesn’t even flinch. The thing is we’d both probably end up killing each other. After all it was him who taught me how to fight.

He stands too. “Nickoli, you fucking prick,” Vincent balks.

Pa walks up to us.

It’s only then we lower our guns on instinctual respect.

“What did you find out?” Pa asks me. “Word on the street is that you went on a blood rage. What did you find out?”

“I got a name, Hector Ramirez,” I reply.

Pa smiles. “Wonderful. However, son your journey ends here. No more of this shit. You are to stick to the books and your little club. We will deal with everything else, part and parcel. From Fontaine to Hector to the bugs they squish on their soles.”

“Pa –” I don’t get to say another word. He backhands me and I shut up but ball my fists at my side.

“No, just no…” Pa points at me. “Snade… that shouldn’t have happened Nickoli. You fanned the flames and in a big way. Snade was the Fontaines’ link man and they will be pissed as fuck at us. Don’t cross me again boy.”

I nod understanding, although I scowl.

I glance at Ma who looks as shaken as she always does when we have these disagreements. This one is bad though, it’s probably the first since Frankie that shit’s gotten real.

I look at Gabe and Salvatore, they look sympathetic toward me but no one says anything.

Knowing there’s nothing left to say I walk out.

I just get outside the door when Vincent calls me. I stop and glare at him.

He marches up to me and throws a punch in my face and then another and shoves me so hard I fall over.

He looks like he’s going to kill me. I would retaliate but I see fear in his eyes.

“You fucking asshole. I told you to let me deal with it. You think I want another dead brother fucktard?” He screams and gets up in my face. “What the hell is the matter with you? Want to get yourself killed?”

I get up and spit blood from my mouth.

“Message received loud and clear,” I seethe. “Message received.”

“Don’t fuck with me, Nicky. What the fuck is the point of having me around if you’re just going to go off by yourself and do these things? The Fontaines are not people to be messed with or handled in any old way, Nick. Things were already bad. Now they’re worse. Promise me you won’t interfere anymore.”

I hold up my hands. “Like I said, message received, Vincent.”

“Watch your back Nick, watch your back and anybody close to you,” the way he says that means he has some inkling about Mia.

I know what happens in situations like this. When our enemies can’t get us, they come for those close to us.

Her. She’s close to me.

I bow my head for a curt nod and I walk away.

As I drive away I think of her. Maybe now’s the time to stay away from her.

I’m danger. I’m dangerous. I really should stay away.

How can I though?

I’m acting like I need an excuse to be with her.

War on the horizon is reason enough.

She’s mine.

That makes her mine to protect…