Chapter 14 : Stand Up, Cousin
Chapter 14: Stand Up, Cousin
Luciano
We first saw Sophie on the first day of college. I liked staying and interacting with the Universities and it was something to keep my head occupied with. Then, we saw her at the cafe, the same cafe where she was working now. She had been wearing this pretty dress with her hair down, an innocent mischievous smile on her face as she talked to her friend. I had been mesmerized, her innocence played a big part in what attracted me to her but that was not all. She intrigued me, I found myself wanting to know every inch of her, physically and mentally. The door to my office slammed open.
“Fuck off, Wilson.” He didn't bulge, he marched into my office and put his tatted hands in the pocket of his suit.
His afro was pulled back in a ponytail and he looked serious as fuck which I knew could not be good. Able Wilson rarely shifted away from what Adriano called unicorn behavior.
“You know the warehouse Santoros’ have in Sharjah?” He asked.
“Yes,” I replied. This could not be good.
“It was bombed last night.”
A few days back when Adriano had gone on shopping with our little one, one of our warehouses was bombed in Masfout.
“It is the Ridouan Taghi.” I said because there was no other explanation and he nodded.
“People are getting jittery and questioning power.” I chuckled.
“Are they?”
“Yes,” he muttered.
“You and your brothers need to make an example out of someone.” I hummed.
“That we will.”
“We heard of your problem.” I said, sitting down on the chair.
The hall was filled with our men, I knew they were nervous, you could feel the tension in the room but they didn't appear nervous. A mafia life hardens your armor, I smiled.
“Those who have a problem can step forward.” Angelo said, sitting down in the chair between me and Adriano.
“And you will be heard.”
“Come on,” Adriano urges when no one moves. Abel was watching everything quietly.
“We heard people are having problems with us, we just want to talk.” Adriano smiled, they all stood right there, rigid.
“Wilson?” Angelo called out and he stepped forward.
“Who was it?” I asked.
He walked towards Thomas Rizzo, our late uncle’s son. He would have been the leader of the mafia if my brother and I had died. He resented us, Abel grabbed his collar and threw him at our feet.
“This is the first one.” He said, smirking and I looked down at Thomas.
“Stand up, cousin.” Adriano ordered, I knew he was enjoying it.
We tried to not kill people without reason, we could not ask for our men’s respect if we were mindless killers. For a long time, we had wished for a reason we could kill him. And now, here he was, seething in front of us and his eyes which were similar to mine looking at us with disgust. He turned around to face our men.
“You are really going to follow them when they can not even keep our territory safe?” He said. Last shot in the dark, he knew he was a dead man.
I stood up and I felt him freeze when I put my hand on his shoulder.
“A knife?” I asked, I knew everyone heard me. Again, silence washed over the hall but this time it was filled with fear. If we could kill our cousin, would we ever have mercy for any of them? The answer was simple, no.
“Obviously,” Adriano stood up, the glint in his eyes identical to the glint of the sharp edge of his knife that dangled in his tatted hands.
I pushed Thomas on his knees before us, facing the people. His head was high.
‘A true Rizzo never bows.’ My father's voice came into my head, his eye which flashed in my head and my body filled with rage. I took out my knife. Adriano and I plunged our shining knives into his neck and rotated them, his scream echoes in the room.
Everyone watched him bleed as he fell to the ground and we took our knives out. I wiped my hands with a handkerchief before sitting down on my chair. Adriano did the same thing.
“Whos next?”
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Sophie POV.
I love kind strangers. I love them more than I love my mother. Well, I love everything more than my mother. I picked up cookies for the nice old lady across the counter. She smiled at me, I thanked her and waved at her as she walked out, her grandson following her with his eyes glued to his iPad. I had to say, I kind of liked my job. Susan had started giving evening shifts which was really nice because I didn't have to walk in the night anymore. Something I was really uncomfortable with because of what happened.
I looked down at my phone, they hadn't contacted me for hours. It was Thursday evening, the party Adriano had asked me to go to with him was tonight. Earlier today, I had told Sarah about the Rizzo's. She had been weird, she didn't say anything, she just nodded and muttered ‘no shit’ at the right time but she wasn't angry. This seemed weird to me because she always got fuzzy when I did something that could potentially hurt me. Rizzo's didn't have good rumors surrounding them.
Sarah was studying to be a journalist, so maybe she knew things. I looked down at my phone again, why had they not texted me? Maybe they must be busy. A business doesn't run by itself, yes, that must be it. If I was going to text them, what should I even text? Hi, hello, how are you? No, it felt odd. After what Luciano had done, I could not sleep. I always had him in my head but what messed me up more was that I had the other two in my head as well. It didn't make sense. How could I be attracted to three men at the same time? Was I losing it? Was I secretly on drugs? I took a bite of my cupcakes, I was sure I was making Susan want to stop giving employees a discount because of the number of cupcakes I ate every day. I knew, I had gained a pound or two, I could not bring myself to care.
I picked up my phone, there was one thing I could text them without sounding awkward. I texted Adriano before I could change my mind.
‘I will come to the party, if you still want me to.’ He didn't text me back and I sighed.
“Don't sigh like that, you are scaring the customers away.” Susan graciously informed me. I huffed, looking around.