“With everything I have,” I reply quickly.
Reaching around, he plucks a gun I hadn’t noticed from the waistband of his trousers. It’s shocking the Mafiosi haven’t blown their own butts off. I’m sure it’s not safe gun protocol to wedge it down your ass crack.
Placing it on the table next to him, he pulls out a chair and sits. It’s the first time since he began speaking that I feel I can breathe a little easier. My eyes scan the room as he pours himself a glass of wine. We’re in a dilapidated living room. The walls are stone and they look old—an old farmhouse, maybe.
Surprisingly, he slides the glass over to me before snapping his fingers at the man standing by the door. The other man dutifully retrieves another glass for his boss. I probably shouldn’t drink given I definitely have a slight concussion. I take a large gulp anyway.
“I find myself surprised by you, Bonnie.”
“Ditto,” I say over my glass.
“Lorenzo is a coward. I would never have let Maria go. If you had been mine, you would have stayed with me no matter what,” he says with conviction.
The thought of Giani ever being my dad sends a shiver down my spine. It’s not his sleazebag character that makes me feel queasy. It’s the cruelty I know he possesses. My life would have been hell if he’d got his hands on me.
“Would…” I purposefully let my question trail off. I want him interested in me.
“Speak, child,” he urges, drinking his own wine.
“If you’d found my mother before I was born, would you have taken me on as your own?”
“Of course,” he barks, slamming a meaty hand to the table. “Maria would have had to be punished, you understand, but I would never have hurt her child. I would have raised you as my own. Taught you everything you needed to succeed.”
Oh, how chivalrous! Douchebag.
Okay, time to bring it home. “I would have had a proper family,” I choke, my hand flying to my mouth. The single tear is a bonus. I’d like to say it’s my wonderful acting skills again, but it’s the pain radiating from my face that’s making my eyes water. Whatever works, right? And ithasworked. I know I have him now. Giani Arello won’t lay a finger on me. I just have to work out how the hell I use his newfound soft-spot-slash-weakness to get myself out of here!
28
Allegra
Awelcomestateofcalm descends on me as I ready myself to leave. After all the turmoil I’ve felt recently, it’s nice to feel in control again. I’m in my comfort zone.
I’m sure Giani expects me to go racing after him, and I will, just not how he thinks. Bonnie is safe for now. Her voice is also whispering in my ear. I was ready to go for the jugular—literally. The second I saw she was gone I wanted to physically hurt the Arellos. But now, I know that’s not the way. I can’t imagine what Bonnie would think of me if I did things the way I would have in my younger days. Giani is a bad guy who deserves everything he gets. But he’s also a person, and no amount of reasoning would convince Bonnie I was right to kill him. I know that much about her.
Giani won’t hurt her until he has an audience. This whole show is for Lorenzo. Giani wants to see him suffer. He’ll want to look Lorenzo in the eye when he kills Bonnie. So, we have time and I’ll use it wisely. I’m going to dismantle his life within the hour.
While Giani has been plotting and planning to pull off his little stunt, I have taken the time to worm my way into all his affairs. I knew something was coming, and even though I couldn’t go after him until he went and made the first move, that didn’t mean I had to sit idly by.
“We’re ready,” Toni says when I reach the bottom step. Rosa, Mia, and Toni are all dressed in the same black combats and T-shirts. They’re ready for what’s to come.
“Rosa, I want you and Mia to go to Giani’s warehouse. Burn it to the ground.”
She nods and they leave. “Toni, we’re going to go pay Gisto a visit.”
The pact with the Arellos is null and void. Giani knew it would happen, but I doubt he’s fully grasped the consequences of his actions yet. By night’s end, he will have.
Toni jumps into the driver’s seat. We’re ten minutes away from Gisto’s house. He won’t be expecting us because he’ll have no idea what his father planned or executed. Giani has never put his faith in his son and it’s going to bite him in the ass.
We roll up to the monstrosity of a house with no opposition. Gisto has his own security, but they spend their nights drinking the contents of Gisto’s cave rather than patrolling the grounds. It’s just another example of the family’s idiocy. They think they’re untouchable. With the current pact, there is no one who would dare attack them. And to an extent, I agree. The Arellos are one of the Mafiosi families. There is no one on this island, or in Italy for that matter, who would do something as stupid as provoke them, let alone attack in the dead of the night.
But as I said, the pact is no longer in play. If Giani had any sense of love or loyalty to his son, he would’ve forewarned him.
We cut the engine and exit the car with practised efficiency. I’ve studied the layout of Gisto’s place and know exactly where to find him. He’ll be passed out in his office after drinking himself into a coma. His wife will be asleep after feigning a headache as a way of rejecting his drunken advances.
I pick the lock and tread lightly through the foyer. All is quiet, just as I thought it would be. With our guns drawn, we head straight for the office. A dimmed light casts shadows over the dark wood. It’s an oppressive space. Gisto is snoring like a freight train on the couch. Thankfully, he isn’t as portly as his father. Toni won’t have a problem moving him.
I lean against the wall and watch Toni slap a piece of duct tape over his mouth. Gisto’s bleary eyes flicker open, but his brain is slow to catch up. Toni has already dragged him off the couch to the floor before he realises what’s happening. There is a string of muffled words pouring out of Gisto’s mouth, but they mean nothing to me. He can rant and rave all he likes.
