The Life: Sacrifice (The Life 3)

My wife has been acting strange since, well since before we left Paris. I still don’t know what the hell my son is up to, and it’s making me nervous, which only got worse when he sent the girl away. Now, this! I don’t know why anyone would want that thankless ass job, but if the boy wants it, he’s going to get it, and no one is going to stand in his way, especially not by using me to hurt him. This fuck!

I could give him to Pop, who would probably love nothing better since my hands are full. But he’s better off on the sidelines. I don’t need a bloodbath in my own backyard, and that old man only knows one way of doing things. I had to make some calls to find out who he was; there was more than one Dempsey on the force in the state, but only one in charge of the new program. “Gotcha!”

Now to do some work or put my people on it before Gabe puts his foot in his ass. Or maybe I should let him loose on him. At least then, he wouldn’t be worrying about Ricci if he still is. He’s been very excited about our weekend trip to visit the campus and hasn’t even so much as mentioned Sicily. Even his team said he’s been laying low, just playing on his computer. That’s what I’m afraid of.

GABRIEL

I was not in the right frame of mind when I arrived at Gianna’s place with her ice cream, but she sure did light up when she answered the door and saw me standing there. I studied her face, read her eyes, to see where she was at. There was no longer any redness around her eyes as there was the last time I’d seen her, so she hadn’t been crying, at least not lately anyway.

“Gabriel, you’re here.” Has her voice always been this breathy and light? Or am I just hypersensitive? I held the ice cream out to her, and she reacted the same way she always does, with glee and surprise, like I hadn’t been doing it every single night since the first, even when we crossed continents. Well, except for a few that couldn’t be helped.

She dug in before turning her body sideways to invite me in. “Come in, grandma and the aunts went to bed early. They’re tired.”

“What about your uncles?”

“They had to leave a little early, but they promised to be back this weekend.” Her face fell, and I imagine she was thinking about where she’d go now that there was no longer an ‘adult’ in the house.

I’m pretty sure they’d she and her grandmother had had that conversation or some variation, and I’m almost certain that she’s holding out hope that I’d come to the rescue. “I’m not coming in right now; I left Lance at the house; I need to get back.” She seemed a bit crestfallen but didn’t argue as I turned and left. I walked back to the car and realized it must be the first time that I was in her presence and didn’t touch her in some way.

I drove away without looking back once, but it wasn’t easy; in fact, it’s getting harder to leave her because I know we’re almost coming to an end. Lance was somewhere being pampered by the twins by the time I returned, and Pop was behind closed doors, but since I wasn’t in the mood to see either of them, I headed upstairs to my room.

I’d almost forgotten about my online search until my special alert kept going off when I walked in. What the frig? That’s not supposed to happen unless… I rushed over to the screen to see if there was some kind of malfunction and, barring that, which one of them had set it to blasting. Of course, it’s not a high-pitched sound, just something I’d added for just this purpose that only I knew what it meant.

I almost expected to see Ricci’s name attached, but no, it was Luna Cavalieri, one of the women who’d been there the night Ma was harmed. “What the hell?” Now, unbeknownst to the public, there are certain words that are used among the world’s underbelly that may seem innocent enough to some, but which others recognize for what they are; code words that mean something entirely different than portrayed in the mainstream.

I glanced over what was there so far, as dread and something nasty took root in my gut. Why didn’t I expect this? After what the nun had described taking place that night, I should’ve already suspected that some if not all of them would be into this kind of shit, but my mind never made the jump. Too preoccupied, I guess.

Everything in me balked at the ramifications of what I’d just found. It’s like one case overlapping another, and this one is not something to which I can turn a blind eye. I have to think about what to do next. Should I get the others involved, or should I take care of it myself? First, I’d need to dig a little deeper.