“I’ll take care of it personally.”
“In the shadows, Angelo.”
“Understood.”
As Angelo began to drive away, I looked once more at the cemetery my father would spend his afterlife, and for the first time in my life, I felt an unknown emotion towards my father. Something so profoundly rooted I didn’t know was even there.
Anger.
I didn’t want any of this.
I never did.
I just wanted a life of my own.
I should have known that was never going to happen.
I am the oldest.
Everything fell on me.
I was the one they were all going to look to. Who was I going to seek out? Who would I talk to? Who would listen to me?
Nobody.
I am the law now.
I am Giovanni Valentinetti, head of the Valentinetti Crime Family and all that I see, and God help anyone who harms my Family.
2
Giovanni
Present-day…
It had been three years since I thought about her, and I couldn’t explain why I was thinking about her now. She had nothing to do with my life. I knew she was safe and living her life. It was what I wanted. She was the real deal. She was the truth, honest and pure. Angelo kept his word and kept an eye on her over the years. He made sure I got monthly reports of her comings and goings, likes and dislikes, friends, acquaintances, work colleagues, everything.
Her name was Grace Angelina Meadows.
She had just turned twenty-three when I first saw her and lived alone. She worked hard, putting herself through college. She was planning on becoming a teacher. She loved kids and wanted to help them grow. She never drank. She never partied. No boyfriends, well, none that Angelo could find. She grew up in the military, moving every couple of years when her father was stationed somewhere new. Her mother died when she was young, and she had no siblings, no aunts, uncles, no one. She was alone in the world, just trying to survive it all.
I couldn’t explain my obsession with her to Angelo. It was unfathomable, out of character. Yet, the compulsion to learn more about her and keep her safe was always there in my mind.
In my world, such a thing was deadly.
Yet, for some reason, as I sat in this warehouse, watching as my boys worked over a criminal, all I could think about was her.
Why?
Why at this time would she infiltrate my thoughts.
My life had nothing to do with her.
She was a civilian.
An honest woman, living her life on her own terms.
She was everything good in this world, while I was everything evil.