Braden: A Dark Mafia Romance (9 page)

“Wait, what is this?”  I pulled up an article about a drive-by shooting.  “Listen to this; it is right after he came back from Iraq.  It says that the Eight-Ballers opened fire on a Mafia run restaurant.”  I flipped to another page.  “There is a Caito listed among those who were wounded, but it his first name is Ivan—wait.  Here we go.  Local combat veteran, Braden Caito…”  My words trailed off.

“What does it say?”  Ronald squeezed in trying to read it.

“It says his fiancé was killed in the shooting.  Mary Moretti.”  I scrolled down to her picture.  “Wow, she was beautiful.”

“Look up the other guy.  Ivan Caito.”  Ronald ordered.

“Ivan Caito…”  I typed the name into Google.

“Wait, does that say he’s dead?”  Ronald peered at the screen.

“Two weeks ago.”  I said as I opened the article.  “He was killed in prison…”

“Your father was the one who put him there!”  Ronald said as he pointed at my father’s name in the article.

“District Attorney Henry Madison continues in his quest to build a case against the Mafia and its Don, Dario Abrami.”  I stared at the words and the image of Braden’s father.

“Braden must think he’s responsible for his father’s death.”  Ronald sat back in his chair.

“It is my father’s job to put criminals in jail.”  I said angrily.  “It isn’t his fault if they get killed while they’re locked up!”

“We have to tell him.”  Ronald grabbed me by the arm.  “We have to tell your father what is going on.”

I followed behind Ronald as we hurry-walked through the library and then ran to the car once we were outside.  All of the information was spinning in my head.  Braden was upset with my father and he was using me as some sick pawn in his revenge scheme.  Thinking about it made me want to throw up.  I had let that monster inside of me and I had enjoyed it.  He probably reveled at the bruises he put on my body, knowing he was sending me home with them.  His semen was inside of me when I questioned my father about him.  Was I really so desperate for affection that I fell into his trap?  He could have easily killed me and the part of me that felt the deepest shame almost wished he had.  I would have to live with it the rest of my life.  Images of what we did flashed through my mind as we drove and I tried to shake the thoughts of him out of my head.

“Wait…”  I said, reaching out for Ronald’s arm.

“What is it?”  He asked.

“Braden had to know you would come to me and tell me everything.  If we go to my house, they could be waiting…”  I chewed my lip nervously.

“Okay, let’s find a phone.”  Ronald looked around for a pay phone, which was fairly rare in the age of cell phones.

“This is the Mafia.  They could have the lines tapped.  We need to talk to my father in a public place, somewhere they can’t touch us.”  I tapped my head with my finger.  “He should be at the courthouse tomorrow.”

“You want us to wait until tomorrow?”  Ronald sounded almost panicked at the idea.

“If they don’t find us tonight and it is business as usual tomorrow, they’ll have to assume we’re scared and on the run, right?”  I asked.

“Maybe…”  He nodded.

“Let’s get a motel room and wait it out.  You need to get cleaned up anyway so you can actually blend in with people.  The librarian was looking at you like you were a hobo.”  I snickered a little bit, even in the face of despair.

We left the city and got a motel along the interstate, hoping it was far enough away that nobody would recognize us there.  We stopped at a convenience store and picked up necessities, along with a couple of touristy t-shirts.  Our dinner was a bag of chips, a few pretzels, and couple of beers.  We sat in the motel room with the lights off, smoking and staring at the window.  Even though I understood why he did it, part of me was hurt that I wasn’t even worth a couple of teeth to Ronald.  I knew he had always been in love with me, but my father was right.  He was definitely a pushover.  I knew he would never be able to fuck me like Braden had.  He would never be able to intentionally hurt me for his own satisfaction.  I stubbed out my cigarette and rolled over in the bed.  I felt like I was broken, but I knew I had to find a way to glue myself back together so I could tell my father what happened.  It would break his heart to hear the details, but there was no other way to keep us all safe.

Chapter 12:  Braden

The next day

Everything had become chaos.  We had soldiers and associates on the street all night, but no information about Angela or Ronald surfaced.  There was a report of a stolen car near the house, but we were never able to locate it.  Stefano and I watched Angela’s townhouse until morning.  The only activity we saw was Angela’s father walk upstairs and turn on the lights in the room with the open windows.  He held up an empty vodka bottle, then shook his head and closed the windows.  I wondered if that was Angela’s room and the empty bottle was a result of what happened earlier in the evening with me.  Apparently District Attorney Madison was not concerned that his daughter didn’t come home after he found the empty bottle.  I was sure Ronald had gotten to her, and likely fled with her, but I had no idea what they were planning.

“Are you ready to call this off?”  Stefano asked as he stirred from his temporary slumber.

“No, I’m going to stay on the townhouse.”  I said with a sigh.

“Okay, I’m going to call someone to pick me up.  You can keep my car until you’re done.”  He thumbed through his cell phone and made the call.

Once Stefano was gone, I moved over to the driver’s seat and watched the lights in the house come on again.  When District Attorney Madison walked out the front door with his briefcase in one hand and his cell phone pressed to his ear, it took everything in me not to drive up and put bullets in him.  My anger and need for vengeance should have been purged with one bullet instead of creating the mess it had.  His driver arrived and I followed them slowly, not wanting to give any indication that he had a tail.  His first stop was his office, which already had a couple of guys watching it.  I parked and walked over to them, sliding into the backseat.  The car smelled like cigarette smoke and booze.  The driver was an associate I didn’t recognize, but the man in the passenger seat was Nunzio, a man I had a few dealings with.

“Any sign of them?”  I asked as I leaned up between the seats.

“Nothing…”  Nunzio said and the associate nodded in agreement.

“There is no way District Attorney Madison knows anything.  He’s too calm.”  I said as I tapped the back of the seat with my fingers.

“I know killing him is your right because of the code, but we could have some associates take him and his whole family out by the end of the day.  That would draw the little brat and her boyfriend out of hiding.”  Nunzio said, looking back at me.  “Then we could take them out too.”

“He’s not her boyfriend.”  I narrowed my eyes.  “No, we have to do this right.  The man responsible for my father’s death will die, but not until this situation is contained.”

“There is he.”  The associate said.  “He must be going to court today.”

“Stay on his office.  I’ll stay on him.”  I exited Nunzio’s car and quickly walked back to mine.

As I started following District Attorney Madison again, I wondered if I was letting my feelings for Angela cloud my judgment.  Nunzio was right.  I could make one phone call and have the family eliminated.  I had studied them long enough to know their schedules.  Danielle would be leaving for her college classes any minute.  Taking her out would be easy.  His wife definitely wouldn’t be a challenge.  She would be out shopping at some point, and even if she stayed inside all day, we could get into the townhouse.  District Attorney Madison himself would be a little bit of a challenge, but he wouldn’t be at the courthouse forever.  We could get him on his way home.  Ronald and Angela might consider going deeper in hiding, but Ronald had family too.  If he knew his mother was in The Dentist’s chair, he would come crawling back on his hands and knees.  I pulled up to the courthouse and watched District Attorney Madison climb out of his car.  As he started up the steps, I saw a familiar shimmer of blonde hair.

“Oh fuck!”  I hopped out of my car and stared in disbelief.

Angela and Ronald were moving up the steps of the courthouse towards him.  She was smart—much smarter than I gave her credit for.  She managed to stay hidden and kept both of them out sight until her father was in a public place.  I reached into the back of my jacket and wrapped my fingers around my gun.  I had no choice.  The second they told him the truth, everything would be shattered.  He would lock the city down and we would never be able to find Ronald or Angela again.  The murder plot might be a little hard to stick on us, but the kidnapping charge would definitely cause problems when Ronald pointed the finger at me.  With Angela’s testimony about her interaction with me, I would end up in prison where I would meet the same fate as my father.  As she walked up the steps, something else caught my eye.  A van that didn’t look like it belonged there was slowly creeping along the curb.

“What the…”  I saw the door slide open and the memory hit me like a brick to the face.  “Eight-Ballers!”  I yelled and started to run toward the courthouse steps.

It was like I was living the same memory again, running towards Mary when the bullets started to fly.  My sights were set on Angela and she saw me coming.  She grabbed Ronald and pointed at me.  The little pathetic bitch’s face went white.  I took the steps two at a time as I heard the familiar sound of a submachine run echoing through the air.  The people around the courthouse were screaming.  I could see blood flying everywhere.  Ronald started backing away from me as I advanced and I saw bullets tear into him.  His throat was ripped out by one that sent a huge splatter of blood into the air.  I knew he was dead—there was no coming back from that.  Bullets ripped into Angela’s father and he sank to the pavement.  Angela looked down and screamed.  I lunged at her, taking her down with a tackle as I put myself in between her and the van.  I felt my arm go numb and a second later pain exploded in my skull.  My ears were ringing as we both crumbled to the ground.

“Get away from me, you son of a bitch!”  Angela yelled as my blood dripped on her.  I could barely make out her words.  “RONALD!”  Her eyes focused on her best friend.

I was trained to deal with those types of situations.  My eyes found the van as it drove away, but when it suddenly turned back, I knew I had to do something.  I pulled my gun out with my good arm and fired several bullets into the windshield.  If I had my sniper rifle, every one of them would have been dead, but all I wanted to do was scare them.  The van came to a halt and I yanked Angela up.  I threw her over my shoulder and looked down at her father.  He was still alive, trying to make sense of what had happened, but his eyes were soaked in Ronald’s blood.  Bullets had caught him in the stomach and the ribs.  I could have finished the job right there, but I couldn’t spare even an instant.  I ran towards my car with Angela kicking and screaming on my shoulder and the pain erupting through my body.  I fired a couple of more shots at the van and then threw her in from the driver’s side.  I slid behind the wheel and hit the gas, driving between cars that had been abandoned by driver’s fleeing the scene.  The van came after us and I heard a couple of shots ring out.

“What did you do to my family?”  Her eyes filled with tears as she huddled in the passenger seat.

“That wasn’t me; that was the fucking Eight-Ballers!”  I said angrily.

“Eight-Ballers?  Like the ones that killed your fiancé?”  She asked.

“How the hell do you know about Mary?”  I looked over at her with my eyes boiling with rage.

“Ronald and I looked you up online.  Oh god, Ronald…”  She burst into sobs.

“I’m sorry, Angela.”  I stared at the road and glanced in the rear view mirror.

“You’re not sorry!  You used me because you were mad at my father…  Now he’s dead, Ronald’s dead and…”  Her words trailed off.

“Your father isn’t dead.  He’s hurt, but I’m sure they’ll save him. Men like him always survive…”  I reached behind me as some of my adrenaline wore off.  A bullet had gone into the top of my shoulder, but it seemed to have gone clean through.  My ear was also bleeding, likely from the bullet taking a chunk as it exited my body.

“Braden…”  She looked over the seat.  “They’re behind us.”

More shots rang out.  I heard the back windshield shatter and I grabbed Angela by the back of the head.  “Get down!”  I threw her down into the floorboard and ducked as low as I could in the seats.

The chase didn’t last long.  My car was built for speed and endurance; the van was not.  Sirens could be heard in the distance, and the Eight-Ballers decided to give up their pursuit.  I slowed the car down to a crawl and looked for a parking garage.  I just needed somewhere to get us out of sight until everything settled down.  My mind was spinning with confusion and the ringing in my ear didn’t help.  I needed somewhere to think, and I needed to get rid of my car.  It was registered to a dummy corporation with no ties to the Family, so once I wiped it down and ditched it, there would be no way to trace it back to me.  Angela seemed traumatized, petrified, and terrorized.  Her face was nearly ashen and her lips were trembling with fear.  I found a garage with only a few cars and drove up to the top deck.  It was empty and would give us the cover we needed.

“For a man who wants to kill me, you sure seem to be putting a lot of effort into keeping me alive.”  She crawled out of the floorboard and dropped herself back into the passenger seat.

“I’m not going to kill you, Angela.”  I said angrily.

“You’re just going to kill my father?”  She asked.

“You don’t know what he did to me!”  I gritted my teeth and then my shoulder really started to throb.

“Let me look at that…”  She crawled over and peeled back my shirt.

Feeling her so close, despite everything that had happened, was enough to bring more confusion to my already rattled brain.  I hadn’t been too late that time.  I didn’t react fast enough to save Mary, but I saw them coming that time.  Why were they there?  What business did the Eight-Ballers have with District Attorney Madison?  They should have been happy that he was in office.  He actually furthered their agenda by cracking down on the Mafia.  Taking him out was pointless.  I couldn’t connect the dots together.  None of it made sense.  To make matters worse, Angela had crawled over my lap in order to inspect my shoulder and her touch was making me crave more.  The pain in my shoulder wasn’t bad enough to sideline me, but I did need a bandage to stop the bleeding.  Angela pressed on it a few times and then I felt something jam into it.