A plan

A plan
Carrie
“Hmm.” I felt Alessandro lean closer, and I shifted so his body could tease mine. “What about that man?” I further inquired.
“Which man?” Eduardo asked.
“You know…” I puckered my lips. “The man the dogs ate to death.”
“Which of the men?”
My eyes widened. “Those dogs have eaten a lot of men?”
“What can I say?” Alessandro crossed his legs, his focus swiftly turning to the grand television before us. “People get on my nerves a little too much.”
“So you feed people to dogs when they get on your nerves?”
“They usually deserve worse.”
“Alessandro, have you ever wondered if you deserve a gruesome death?”
“Carrie…” Alessandro frowned. “I know I am not entirely a good person, but you should at least side with me and wish me good things.”
I sighed. “Who am I to judge? I have not done pleasant things either.”
Eduardo swiftly asked, “Have you also killed before?”
“No!”
He clutched his heart. “Sister, you didn’t have to be so loud.”
I eyed Eduardo before I said, “Anyway, if you don’t take the lives of innocent people, I would like to say that I thought wrong of the CDP gang.”
“Enough of that. We have plans waiting to be executed,” Alessandro changed the direction of our discussion. “And as I mentioned earlier, we need to tell you about the event that occurred in the past. Explaining that will shed some light on our purpose.”
“Si.” Eduardo took over. “As you might have gathered, someone died in the CDP family. He died while we were trying to reform our gang. He died because we allowed strange people into our midst.”
“Strange people?” Why does that make me think of Layla?
“Of course, it’s Layla.” Alessandro seemed to have read my mind. “I met Layla during a brief trip to Las Vegas. I usually don’t have a good relationship with women, but things were easy with Layla. And things became easier after I found out that she was part of an American gang.” Alessandro nodded to himself. “Back then, it seemed as though the relationship would work out. Even my grandfather approved of her.”
“But bringing Layla to Venice was a mistake,” Eduardo continued and got to his feet. “Bringing her to CDP was the greatest mistake. After a year and some months, she initiated an idea that sounded okay. CDP was ready to listen to her and do as she said, but when Alessandro’s younger brother ended up dead, we found out that she had joined hands with one of CDP’s biggest rivals. The plan she brought to us was a trap.”
Beside me, a deep breath was heaved, and I felt the released air against my skin.
I faced Alessandro and saw sorrow and something similar to guilt written all over him. Though his physique remained sternly seated, sadness still found a way to depress his shoulders and sink the depths of his eyes.
As I reached for Alessandro’s hand to squeeze it, I asked Eduardo, “Why did he die?”
“He died because he found out the truth about Layla’s plan.”
“So…” My frown deepened because the interpretation I gave to his response truly made Layla more irritating to me. “Layla killed him?”
“Yes.” Eduardo was trying to fight his emotions, it showed in how he kept ducking and lifting his head. “Layla might not have killed Giovanni with her hands, but knowing that she stood still and watched as our rivals took his life is enough reason to label her as his murderer.”
“How dare she?” I spat without thinking. “What gave her the guts to come back and act as though she did nothing wrong? Why would she even…? Damn it.”
This time, Alessandro squeezed my hand.
“Your anger is well understood, Sister. It is.”
“Do you think it is enough to frame and toss her into jail? She deserves worse.” Thinking back at the many nonsense Layla spewed and the danger she put my baby and me in increased my bitter fury.
“It might not seem like the worst punishment right now, but trust me,” Eduardo clasped his hands behind him and began pacing, “she’ll soon cry tears of blood. Once the investigation is over, she’ll be arrested. And from the point of arrest, the shield she’s hoping to protect her will vanish. She’ll make a mess of herself in front of the entire country. She’ll cry for justice, but nothing will happen because the CDP will continue to table her crimes in front of everyone. Both the ones she did and didn’t do.”
“Oh wow.” I breathed hard.
“But Layla is not the only one that will suffer such a terrible fate,” Eduardo continued.
“Are you going after your rival?” I asked.
“Yes. But it’s going to be tricky.”
“How so?”
“Our next targets are well-known in society. To the public, they have a nearly flawless character, so it’ll be a little hard to nab them.”
“Well,” the previously quiet Alessandro came back into the conversation, “with the plan we have drafted, getting rid of them won’t be difficult.”
My brows jerked, and I wondered about the details of the plan. As my mind raced, I noticed that the sorrow in Alessandro’s eyes had already been replaced with some sort of deviousness.
“And once things go as planned, I can finally reach for the king’s seat as I have always wanted,” he completed.
“What’s this plan?” I asked because my curiosity had fully peaked.
Alessandro turned to me. “It involves a party.”
“A party?” As my mind processed everything I just heard, Eduardo, who I didn’t notice walking out of the living room, handed me a cup of juice.
“Yes,” Alessandro replied. “We’ll be attending a party and history will be made.”
“Hmm…” was all I replied with as I noted that Alessandro and Eduardo were greatly confident and determined about their plan.
So, as I sipped from the juice which turned out to be pineapple flavoured, I alternated my gaze between the two men who were more than ready to reach for what their desires, no matter what it would cost them.