“Whatever you’re planning, I don’t want to hear it.” Fiona, having heard enough, gets up to leave the table. “Mia, come with me? Let the men do their planning.”
Mia looks at Fiona and smiles politely. “Thank you, but I’m going to stay. I want to see them suffer just as much as anybody else here.”
Fiona’s eyes roll back then jump to me, “I’m done. I’m not going to be involved with any more violence.”
She runs away from the table and out into the hallway. I let her go without a fight.
“I’ll go after her,” my auntie now says, a tissue in her hand as she wipes her sorrow for Sophia away. She follows my sister into the kitchen.
Looking around the room, it’s impossible not to admit that Mia standing her ground like that impresses me to no end.
“She’s right,” I talk to the rest of the table after my sister and auntie leaves. “Mia should stay, we can use her.”
“Woah, Antonio. Are you sure that’s the right move? No offense, but things are going to get ugly.” Huxley voices his concerns to us.
“She’s staying,” I answer, letting the rest of the guys recognize my unchangeable tone.
Mia clears her throat and raises her hand to the group.
“If I may,” she stands and sets the cat down on Fiona’s empty chair. “Vinnie was right in what he said. I saw death for the first time, right in front of my eyes. I held Sophia’s hand as she was shot, watched the life drain from her eyes, and walked away with her blood on my face. Now, I’m glad Fiona and Aunty Zia have left for this because it’s no soft-hearted matter. It was a harrowing experience, but one that strengthened me, and by getting up and fighting for my life, pinning a man down with a chair,” Vinnie chuckles and nods. Huxley slaps his arm in annoyance. “I proved to myself that I am capable of being a part of this family. Sophia was a shred of innocence in this house, she showed me mercy, and I will not only care for her cat as if she were my own, but I will avenge her.”
Her last words are spoken slowly, with deliberation, as she eyes every man in the room. I’d never been more attracted to a woman before.
“I say we clean the map of any Corsetti involvement in the city.” Vinnie leans over the table. He’s accepted her speech and used her will to avenge as a platform to start our planning. Mia sends him a grateful smile and sits back down.
“Do we have support from the other families?” I ask.
Huxley speaks up. “The Rossi’s and Romano’s will let us deal with our business undisturbed, but not one family will stand arm in arm at this time.”
“I think you should send a clear message to the whole city.” Mia adds, shrugging a shoulder and collecting everybody’s surprised looks from the table as she talks. “Make it messy so that every meth-head and dealer knows what they’re up against.”
“Come on, what is this? The crackheads already know their place. We’d be stupid to overextend our hand, especially now.” My kid brother is getting more and more pissed about Mia’s presence at the table.
I raise my head to the air, tell him to stop his moaning. “No, she has a point. It’s the only way for me to announce my new position—it makes sense. And I have an idea how we should do it…”
* * *
The Corsetti family’sfootprint in the city isn’t much to behold, albeit apart from a few small bars and betting shops to clean their dough. The rest of their pennies come from pushing coke on the corners. Fucking low-class if you ask me, and soon enough, they’re all going to be nothing but dirt on the ground.
At one of the bars, a real dive, Mia’s been inside for ten minutes already when she gives me the sign to come in, meaning that members or associates of the Corsetti family are in the building. I walk in with Vinnie by my side and a backpack on my back, to find Mia.
She’s dressed for the part in a body-hugging red dress that extends down to mid-calf, with black stilettos. Her dark black hair is wildly natural, and her lips are painted a murderous red color. She looks every bit the queen she is quickly becoming.
“Thank you, mia cara. Now, go wait outside. We’ll be quick.”
“Wait outside? I think I’ll stay.” Mia walks to the front door of the shitty little bar with half a dozen people inside and flips the latch, so it locks.
“Hey, what are you doing?” A wide shouldered douche bag in a black shirt asks.
“No,” I say with a bottle in my hand, “what are you doing?”
I bring the bottle cracking against the guy’s head. He goes down, holding the right side of his hair, blood running through his fingers. The few civilians duck under their tables. Then, to my surprise, Mia pushes a gun against his temple. By the looks of it, it’s one of Vinnie’s.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Vinnie flashes his shotgun that quickly deters the other two associates working at the bar, they put their hands in the air.
“If you wouldn’t mind, we’re closing for the night,” I tell the cowering innocents, unlock the door for them, then walk over to the two buffoons by Vinnie. “You two fuck-faces recognize me?”
“I do,” says one on my right, standing next to a jukebox. This one’s a little smaller and has got light-brown hair.