My eyes blinked open. Once again I found myself strapped to a chair. I groaned. This wasn’t something that I wanted to become a regular occurrence. I was in a room that was so dark I couldn’t even see two feet in front of me. There was an awful stench in the air, but I couldn’t place the smell.
“What the hell is going on? Whoever is behind this, you should know that the last people who fucked with me ended up in the hospital,” I called out.
There was no response. It looked like I was alone. I wondered if this was the Carusos again trying to get revenge. It wasn’t a great situation but I’d gotten out of jams like this before and I could do it again. I heard a creaking noise. Light streamed into the room from the hallway as a metal door in front of me slowly opened. A man walked into the room but I couldn’t get a good look at his face because he was wearing a hood.
The man flicked on the lights and I immediately wished that we were back in the darkness. There were corpses laid out all over the room with flies buzzing around them. Blood stained the walls and dripped down onto the floor. It didn’t take long for me to recognize the corpses. Some of them were people that I’d sold drugs to. The cold, lifeless faces of Angelo and Mia also stared at me.
“No, no, this can’t be real. This can’t be real! Who are you?” I shouted at the hooded man. “How could you do this?”
“You’re blaming me?” The man pulled off his hood and I saw my own face grinning back at me. “This is all on you.”
I jolted awake. My heart was pounding. I turned on my side and saw Mia frowning at me. A sigh of relief left my lips. It was just a dream.
“Are you alright? You were talking in your sleep again,” She said.
I sat up. “Yeah, I’m fine. It was just a bad dream.”
Mia moved closer to me. “Wanna talk about it? You haven’t been sleeping well since you started staying here.”
“I’m okay. Really. There’s nothing to worry about,” I said.
It wasn’t like there was much I could tell her. I picked up my phone from the nightstand and saw a text from Angelo saying that he’d found my friend Tommy. We were going to have a chat with him to find out why he served me up to The Carusos on a silver platter.
I got out of bed and started getting ready. “I’ve gotta go. It’s a work thing.”
Mia frowned. “You have to go back to work already? Can’t they give you more time to recover?”
“They’re short-staffed at the office so they just want me to help them man the phones for a while. It shouldn’t be too bad,” I said. It was surprising how easily the lie flowed out of me.
“Alright. Don’t push yourself too hard,” Mia said.
I smiled and headed into the bathroom. It felt good to have someone who was always looking out for me. I breezed through my daily morning routine and was out the door within 15 minutes. A short drive later, I met up with Angelo, Joey, and Mello.
“You look pretty good for someone who had his ass handed to him a couple of days ago,” Mello said.
“I mean, I wouldn’t exactly say that I got my ass handed to me,” I said defensively. “I got a few good hits in.”
“Relax. I just meant that you don’t look as banged up as you did before,” He said. “I didn’t say it before, but you did a good job of holding out against those Caruso pricks.
Holy shit. Hell must have frozen over if this guy was trying to compliment me. It seemed like this was his way of trying to bury the hatchet so I decided not to make a big deal about it.
“Thanks,” I said. And thank god for the Tough as Nails skill. I was still wounded but my injuries didn’t hurt nearly as much as they should have. Some of the cuts and bruises on my face were starting to fade.
“Let’s get this over with. My dad wants to talk to you about something when we’re done,” Angelo said.
That didn’t sound good. “Do you know what that’s about?” I asked.
Angelo shrugged. “No clue. I guess we’ll just have to go and find out.”
I saw Joey and Mello share a look. It looked like they both smiled for a second and then tried to hide it. Something was up.
“Seriously, if you guys know what’s going on you should tell me. Am I in trouble or something?” I said.
“I’m sure you’ll be fine,” Joey said.
They started walking ahead of me before I could pry further. Tommy was staying with one of his cousins at a house on the other side of town. Angelo and the other guys wanted to kick in the door like we usually did, but I finally put my Safecracker skill to use and picked the lock. They seemed impressed when I told them I learned how to do it from a YouTube tutorial.
We walked in to find Tommy’s cousin, Matt, smoking a bong and watching Rick & Morty. He was pretty out of it but seemed to sober up a bit after Mello smacked him around a bit. Tommy was at the store when but we got Matt to call him and tell him to come back to the house. We barely had to rough Tommy up before he told us everything that we wanted to know. The Carusos had kidnapped his younger brother and threatened to hurt him unless he helped them lure me out of the poker room. They knew that we’d been dealing out of there and thought I’d be the weakest link since I was the newest recruit of our crew.
“I’m sorry, Nico. I didn’t have a choice. You’ve gotta understand,” Tommy whimpered.
“I don’t have a choice either,” I said. I smacked him across the face and one of his teeth went flying. His eyes were bugging out of his face as I hit him with punch after punch.
Mello put a hand on my shoulder. “I think he’s had enough.”
Tommy’s face looked like someone had taken a hammer to it. The bruises on his face had already started to swell up. He had a look of pure terror in his eyes. I stared at my bloody hands and realized that I was shaking. Even though he deserved what he had coming to him, I still felt unsettled. The dream I had earlier popped into my head. I wiped my hands on his shirt and stood up.
“You’re right. Let’s get out of here,” I said.
We left Tommy lying on the ground and headed to the meeting with my uncle. Angelo gave me directions and eventually, we stopped near Luigi’s Ristorante, a small Italian restaurant in the neighborhood of Brickell. I’d never been there before but it looked nice from the outside. When we walked up to the restaurant there was a sign on the door that said the restaurant was closed for a private event.
We walked inside and told the host that we were meeting my uncle there. He smiled and led us into the dining area where Uncle Luca awaited us. He was sitting at a table with some other older gentlemen. I’d seen them come into the real estate office a couple of times before but I’d never been formally introduced to them. Uncle Luca had a serious expression that I had a hard time reading.
“I’m glad that you boys were able to make it on time.” He gestured to the empty seats at the table. “Please, take a seat.”
We complied. A couple of the old guys were talking to each other in Italian but I barely knew any words in the language so I had no idea what they were saying.
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“I hope I’m not speaking out of turn here, but I couldn’t help wondering why you gathered us all here,” I said to my uncle.
“You’ve been working with us for a while now. How has that been so far?” Uncle Luca asked.
“Not bad,” I said cautiously. I wasn’t sure where this was going.
“You’ve impressed all of us these past few months. You’ve got some bright ideas and most importantly, you’ve got heart. How would you like to make this arrangement more official?”
“What are you trying to say, Uncle?” I asked.
Uncle Luca suppressed a smile. “Domenico Moretti, are you ready to dedicate your life to this thing of ours and become a made man?”
I gulped. This was what I’d been working toward for the past few months, but it was still a big decision. If I said yes here there would be no turning back. I’d be a mafioso for life and that came with a lot of risks. Ever since I’d started working for my uncle, I’d done things that I had no idea I was capable of. I’d become a stronger man and made more money in the past couple of months than I ever would have at some entry-level office job.
Then I thought of the last conversation I’d had with my mom. She’d been so hurt when she found out that I was a mafia associate. I couldn’t even imagine how she’d feel if she heard that I’d become a made man.
The nightmare I’d been having kept playing in my head too. Everyone I knew ended up dead because of me. My subconscious might not have been subtle, but it was clear that some part of me felt like this path was going to lead me to ruin. Even Mia kept trying to get me back on the straight and narrow and she didn’t even know the details of what I was involved in.
I knew what I needed to do. My mind was made up.
“Thank you all for this opportunity. I’m honored that you think I’m worthy of joining your ranks,” I said. “But I’m afraid I’m gonna have to decline.”
The room was silent. Uncle Luca stood up. “Is that your final decision?”
I stood up and held his gaze. “I’m sure. Thanks again for everything. I just don’t think I’m right for all this. I thought it was what I wanted but I can’t do this anymore.”
He extended his hand. “I understand. No hard feelings, kid.”
I shook his hand and smiled. “Sorry that you rented this place out for nothing.”
“It doesn’t have to be for nothing. Stick around. Think of this as your retirement party,” Uncle Luca chuckled.
Right when I was about to sit back down, my phone started ringing. Mia was calling me, but I put my phone on vibrate and slid it back into my pocket.
“Sorry about that. It was my girlfriend. Yeah, I can stick arou-“
My phone started buzzing in my pocket, interrupting me yet again. I pulled it out and saw that Mia was calling for a second time. She’d also sent a text saying “Pick up! Emergency!”
“That was her calling again. It seems urgent so I should probably take this. I’ll be back in a second,” I said.
“Make it quick, kid. We’re about to start ordering,” said Uncle Luca.
I walked outside the restaurant before I called her back. “Hey, hon. What’s wrong?”
“Hi, sorry to bother you but I forgot my wallet at home. I didn’t have time to eat breakfast this morning or pack a lunch. Could you look for it and bring it over to my job? I think it’s in the living room.”
“Sure, no problem. I’ll see you soon.”
“Thanks, I owe you one.”
I hurried back into the restaurant. My uncle was telling everyone a funny story about the time he and my dad got their first gun. I’d already heard this story before because he loved to tell it for some reason.
“Sorry to interrupt, but I need to step out for a little while,” I said. “I’ll be back in like half an hour. Tell the waiter that I’ll have the special of the day.”
My uncle raised an eyebrow. “Is everything ok?”
“Yeah, Mia just need my help with something. It won’t take long, I promise.” I said.
“Don’t take too long,” He said.
I nodded and hurried out of there. Uncle Luca had been pretty understanding today, but I didn’t want to test his patience too much. I drove around town as quickly as I could without getting pulled over. As soon as I reached Mia’s apartment, I dashed out of the car and ran to the elevator. I searched all over her apartment and didn’t see the wallet anywhere, so I called her again.
“I’m at your place but I can’t find the wallet.”
“I was just about to call you again. I dumped out everything in my bag and found my wallet in there,” She said sheepishly. “Sorry for making you rush over there.”
I groaned but tried not to get too annoyed about it. Everybody makes mistakes. “It’s fine. I’ll see you later.”
I zoomed back across town. Or at least, I tried to. There was a lot of traffic all of a sudden and it took a lot longer to drive back to the restaurant. Once I made it to the street where the restaurant was, I found out why. The street was lined with a bunch of cop cars. A bad feeling began to gnaw at men. I parked my car and walked toward the restaurant. There was a crowd of people standing on the sidewalk as the cops brought out the members of my organization in handcuffs. Uncle Luca happened to see me in the crowd and his face twisted in pure hatred.
“You rat bastard! This is how you repay me? This is how you treat family?!” He yelled. His face was red.
“Shut up, Moretti,” a cop said as he shoved my uncle into the backseat of the police cruiser.
I had no idea what was going on. Eventually, I managed to push my way to the front of the crowd. The cops had some tape up and weren’t letting anyone get past them.
“It’s alright. You can let him through,” I heard a familiar voice say.
The cop in front of me stood aside and I saw Mia standing behind him in a police officer’s uniform. Shock, denial, anger, and anger flashed through my mind before everything clicked into place for me. So many little things about her suddenly made perfect sense. She’d always been so curious about me and I just wrote that off as her taking an interest in my life. I’d commented before that her apartment felt like it had barely been lived in. She’d probably just moved in there as part of her cover. And she’d always seemed to know more about what I was doing than she was willing to admit out loud. The clues were right in front of me the entire time but I just didn’t piece it together.
“You’re a fucking cop?!” I said.
Mia glanced around. “Let’s get a little privacy.”
She led me over to an empty police car and unlocked the passenger side door for me. I was fuming. Part of me wanted to just tell her to get bent and walk away. But the part of me that was desperate for answers won out and I got into the car. I barely waited for the door to close before I went off on her.
“How could you do this to me?” I shouted. “I trusted you! I even told you that I loved you! That’s not something that I say lightly. And this whole time you were just playing me.”
Mia struggled to meet my eyes. “Do you think I would’ve gone as far as I have if I didn’t have feelings for you? No part of police training tells you to sleep with the people you’re trying to get information from” She said. “I care about you a lot, Nico. That’s why I got you out of there when I did. We heard chatter that there would be an initiation ceremony today and we couldn’t pass up the chance to arrest a bunch of high-ranking members who were gathered in one place.”
My head was spinning. “Is Mia even your real name?” I said.
“Yes, but I gave you a fake last name,” She admitted. “I’m Mia Ortega, not Mia Fernandez. Most of the things you know about me are true though. I’m still the same person.”
“Bullshit. You’re a fucking liar,” I said.
“That’s not fair. It’s not like you’ve been honest with me about all the things you’ve been involved in.”
I hated to admit it, but she was right. Getting mad at her for keeping secrets would just make me a hypocrite. She explained how she was assigned to get info about the Moretti family after the police heard that they were trying to make bigger inroads into the drug game and saw a unique opportunity when she found out that I was joining the gang. Then she went on about how she’d tracked me and the rest of my crew to multiple drug deals and got multiple customers to identify us as the people who sold to us. I could barely process what she was saying because my heart was shattered into a million pieces.
“What am I supposed to do now? They’re going to assume that I ratted them out.” I interrupted. “Fuck, I’m a dead man walking.”
“I thought of that already. That’s why I listed you as a confidential informant and said you were instrumental in helping us get these arrests,” Mia smiled. “Technically, that’s true since I tapped your phone and recorded a lot of incriminating calls between you and other members of the gang. We can use your “cooperation” to justify putting you in witness protection.”
That was the moment that I realized that she was telling the truth when she claimed to have genuine feelings for me. It made me feel a little better to know that not all of it was an act. “For a cop, you seem to break a lot of rules,” I said.
Her smile started to look a little strained. “Yeah, well love makes you do crazy things. I don’t want to see you behind bars or six feet under so I did what I had to do.”
“You mentioned witness protection. Doesn’t that mean I’d have to testify in court?” I said.
“Yeah. We’ve got a lot of evidence against the Moretti Crime Family, but we’ll need your testimony to make this airtight. I know it’ll probably be hard for you, but it’s the right thing to do. And I know that you want to do the right thing,” She said. “We can set your mom up with a new identity as well in case they try to get to you through her.”
“I’m guessing we won’t see each other again after this, huh?” I said.
Mia nodded solemnly. “That can’t be helped. But at least you’ll be safe. So what do you say? Are you ready for a fresh start?”
“Yeah. I think I am,” I said.
THE END