Life changes quick...
A few weeks later, the morning dawned cloudy and dark like Bruno’s mood. Everyone around Bruno was dying. Nobody was safe anymore. Not even the bosses. His father, boss of the largest crime family in Italy had just been murdered. And he was sick of not being able to go out of the house because of who could be waiting for him outside the front door. Bruno had to do something and quick.
He knew at that point he needed to be a man of power, a man people talked about when he walked into a room. Not a fucking walking target. Not a damn pussy nobody feared. The kind of guy nobody dared even look at the wrong way for fear of what might happen. A man like his father should have been. Men like that don’t get whacked. Men like that don’t have to put up withanyof the world’s bullshit.
At that time, Bruno figured either he stayed and he’d last a few more months then they would kill him, or he could take off and go.
By the time he’d awoken this morning, Charlie and his mother had already left for the accountancy college with Gabriel.
So that was it, with a William Henry accountancy book under his arm, Charlie would attend accountancy school alongside their cousin Marco. Charlie told Bruno he preferred kicking ass on the streets, wreaking havoc wherever he pleased, but he felt at ease with the campus atmosphere, at home. And he soon found the view from the lofty study rooms in the library was more pleasant than it was down where the air smelled of piss. In truth, that might have been because it was as far away as he could get from the mob without leaving Italy. He’d been straight since leaving the mob. The only thing he had in common with the Mafioso, was the three-piece suits, crisp white shirts, and his Italian surname. He was anonymous, and liked it, only another handsome young man with a ready smile. The mob was nothing to him. His life certainly would be no part of it. And he’d told his brother he felt confident that this great sense of freedom would last forever.
Bruno, however, had never expected to be so utterly, and completely alone. The house was quiet and empty. His mother could no longer live in the house where they had spent such happy times. ‘I’ll live anywhere but this house’ she said. The memories were too painful. It hurt her too much to even see Michael’s possessions.
In his room, he counted his money and realized that he would have to conserve it. With all the money he’d made over the past five years, he should have had boxes of it. But as quick as he’d made it, he’d given it up – drink, women, rent, and gifts to his family.
All the youngsters did this. Not because all of them were stupid. Bruno certainly wasn’t, but because they really didn’t think they were going to be around that long.You-Only-Live-Once, enjoy it while you still got breath in your lungs,were mantras they lived by.
Checking his drawer for any cash he may have missed; his fingers graced the cool surface of his father’s mob ring, hiding in the back. Bringing it out between his fingers, he studied his father’s gold ring and recollected. Michael had been a difficult man, a cocky son of a bitch with an ego so big he was lucky his head didn’t explode. To his credit, he’d never brought his business home with him. And most importantly, he’d treated his woman right. No real man hurts a woman, he’d always said.
Outside the house, it was a lot different. There was always a war going on. As a child, Bruno wanted to be a normal kid, but you can’t be normal growing up in that life. He had to live the way his father wanted him to live. Anytime Bruno cried as a young child, his father had hit him with a belt. When Bruno was 12. He told his dad he wanted to play baseball after school, and Michael had threatened to throw him out on his ear. He insisted that one day, Bruno would thank him.
Yes, Michael De Luca had been an asshole of a dad. A mini Hitler with too many rules. The hours of weapons training were ‘character building.’ Not allowed out of the house to go to school when there was trouble, and not allowed to play sports in school. This was common for mob guys to treat their kids this way. But his father had been especially brutal. Bruno never understood why his pap had been so fucking hard on him.
All the doors were double locked and bolts were put on everything. His parents didn’t speak much about relatives who would one day disappear from his life, but mom and pap couldn’t hide a lot. Bruno always knew the family was different. On the TV and radio, he’d hear of people he knew were his relatives, missing and dying. And his father, couldn’t hide the truth – that he was a big-time crime boss, a godfather – from Bruno’s sharp mind and open eyes for very long.
Michael ran his crime family differently than other bosses. He had been a very sophisticated, business-like boss. He’d wanted both his two sons to be La Cosa Nostra before they’d even grown up. To succeed his reign as a formidable duo…
Well, so long, farewell to that idea!
Shaking off his thoughts, Bruno stuffed the money back into his drawer and went downstairs. Then, shrugging on his coat, he disappeared out the front door.
He went back to the only thing he knew, only thing he was any good at...crime. Specifically, theft. How’d he get into that? Well, the oldies always paid brazen kids who didn’t care to steal cars. It was one way the older guys would take kids off the streets and groom them for a life of crime and violence. And for the oldies, those guys would send the cars to chop shops, sell the parts, and make a pretty penny off of that. The bosses took it to the multimillion-dollar level.
There wasn’t much choice about what he was doing. Bruno had felt somewhat the same when his father passed, but he couldn’t abandon what his father had started. It was everything the De Luca family was—a bloodline. He did what he had to do to prove himself worthy of that life. His pap had told him he’d have to show the mob he was a stand up person. A man that would perform, a man that wouldn’t back down, a man that wasn’t going to cry when troubles arrived at the door. That shit didn’t hold water in the mob.
Working the streets alone was tough, real tough. Bruno always hated this kind of work without his brother at his side. He saw all kinds of fucked up shit no man should ever see. Made him feel like a real thug, but what was he going to do? This was his right of passage to who he would become. And nothing about being the son of the boss helped him. Bruno did the same shit as the rest of the youngsters.Making his bones, as it was known in street vernacular. But Bruno De Luca didn’t plan on stealing cars much longer…
When Bruno rolled up to his home at the end of the day, he noticed that Marco’s car was parked outside. He went indoors and met his cousin in the living room. “Everything all right?” he asked.
“I was going to ask you the same. How you are holding up?”
Bruno sighed. “I’m fine, but since you’re here, there’s something you need to know. Your father isn’t going to like it, but he’s going to have to live with what I decide.”
“And what have you decided?”
“I’m leaving for America, Marco. It’ll be much better for me there. I’m gonna join Castillo’s crew.”
Marco sighed. “Bruno, you choose the wrong friends. And it will cost you. My father’s warned me about the guys in America. More cold, and ruthless than any of the men you know here. There were reasons people call Castillo a user. A man who took what he wanted and didn’t care about the consequences. He got the respect of the lower level members of the family quickly, but the oldies didn’t trust easily – even with the family.”
Bruno’s face went hard. “I don’t care. I’m going.”
“You’re not going anywhere.” Charlie’s voice sounded from the doorway.
Bruno glared at his brother, who came storming into the room. “Oh yes, I am. And you’re coming with me.”
“You’re crazy! You’re mad!” Marco accused.
Bruno laughed and glanced back at his cousin. “I haven’t come this far by worrying about what other people think of me.”
