5
Antonio
Six weeks later…
Most of the men have followed in line with my leadership. They’ve accepted my new position as head of the family, don.
I didn’t kill Roberto to become the ringleader of a fucked-up circus. But that’s what I got.
I dismantled the operation involving The Cradle. I refuse to kidnap children and be a party to their illegal affairs.
It turns out that Roberto’s most lucrative schemes were stealing and selling newborns. He had his hand in a dozen or so other illegal enterprises that I’m working to grow more capital, but it doesn’t come easily, especially when our shipment of arms is repeatedly stolen at the dock.
Three weeks in a row.
It’s not a coincidence.
Someone is working for the other side, the Russians. If it were the Feds, we’d have been busted and brought in by now.
We still have our drug trade, smuggling narcotics in, paying customs agents to look the other way. It’s enough to pay the bills, but my men like living lavishly, and I don’t need them questioning my tactics.
I’m constantly being watched. I have to prove my worth to the organization that I run.
Ardian has become my most trusted ally, from soldier to second in command. The other soldiers fell in line when I stepped up and won the seat on the throne. But Mario, who was second to Roberto, I worry that he’ll betray me.
He pledged his allegiance to me when I fought him for the position. I could have killed him, maybe I should have, but there was enough bloodshed that day. He is now a soldier and guard for the complex.
Ardian slumps into my office. He looks like shit.
“Got a minute, boss?” Ardian asks.
“Come in and shut the door,” I say.
Ardian closes the door as he shuffles into the office. It used to be Roberto’s office. It’s mine now. The desk has been replaced with a darker wood, more extensive and taller to fit me better. The floor has been scrubbed, with no evidence of Roberto’s demise.
“The Russians are intercepting our weapons shipments at the dock,” Ardian says.
I pinch the bridge of my nose. “They’re after our organization,” I say.
I killed Roberto because I had no other choice. I had to stop him from kidnapping children. It wasn’t out of honor or desire. I did what no one else was willing to do. I didn’t want to be the fucking boss.
“There are rumors that the Russians aren’t just hitting the Italians in New York. Men talk, sir. They say they’re moving in on all the mafia complex’s houses across the country.”
I exhale a heavy sigh. It’s nothing I didn’t already know, but hearing it makes it official.
There have been reports of fires, kidnappings, and threatening our women at gunpoint. It all started the day after Roberto snatched Liam. It can’t be a coincidence.
But what I can’t get out of my head are Roberto’s final moments.
I swear he’s your son.
Could Liam be my child? I had thought it’d been longer since Aleksandra and I had first met and stumbled into bed together. It had been on vacation, far from New York City, a fluke that we’d bumped into each other.
I’m not the beach-going type of guy. Sand gets everywhere, not to mention it’s hot and humid. My clothes practically stick to my skin.
But the ladies on the beach, topless at that, make the grainy morsels of sand worth the hassle.
I sit at the nearest hut, nursing a beer. The outside of the glass perspires from the heat. It’s how I feel, sticky and wet.