The Life: Sacrifice (The Life 3)

“Why did you never say anything?”

“Because you should’ve told me yourself. You didn’t trust me to take care of it, and now our son might be in danger.”

“But I thought he’d forgotten all about it, that his only interest was in finding Papa.”

“Whatever made you believe that?”

“Oh no, we have to get him back here.”

For some reason, the look of fear on her face and the panic in her voice seemed disproportionate to the conversation. “What is it?” She looked scared, like really afraid, and then she broke down and told me the truth about what really happened the night she was attacked. I listened in horror as my blood ran cold. If I thought that Gabe would kill this guy before, now I know that the story he’d told me on the phone earlier was bullshit. He’s going to do so much worse.

“That’s why you were so distressed when he mentioned the nun. You think she told him the truth.” She only nodded her head, looking like the lost young girl I’d first met all those years ago. I wanted to shake her, but why? She’s still the victim here, no matter how many mistakes she’d made with our son.

“We have to go get him. You don’t know the Riccis. Alonzo will hurt him if he shows up there and brings this up. His father would not be happy if he learned about this, and there’s nothing Alonzo hates more than disappointing his father. Even though I was never close to them, everyone in the village knew. That’s why he and his friends would threaten the whole village into keeping their actions hidden.”

“He’s a hard man from what I know, Mr. Ricci, a man of honor.”

“So why did you tell Gabe about that night if you were afraid of this?”

“I don’t know. I was angry still; in our culture, as you well know, the son protects his mother. It’s his duty. I wanted him to know what had been done to me. I wanted him to kill Alonzo. I wanted revenge. But the Gabe today is not the same little boy I told my story to.”

Yeah, because you turned him into a machine whose only focus for the past six years has been revenge. I wanted to say this to her, but she was already so fragile. “We failed him; we failed that poor boy.” Everything made sense now. I’d been trying for months to figure out what happened with Gia, why she just up and left all of a sudden when things were finally going well for her.

I think Gabe sent her away because he knew what he was planning, which could only mean that he was getting her out of the way of danger. But just what exactly is he planning to do? If his intent was to off Ricci, I have no doubt he could pull it off without getting caught, which could only mean that he was planning something much more horrible than I’d imagined. “I’ve gotta make a call.”

* * *

GABRIEL

* * *

Salvatore was too easy, but I half expected it. In fact, it was my one hope in coming here now. I’ve been steadily screwing with Alonzo’s business ventures and gearing up to expose him during his run for office. The only reason I haven’t pulled the plug yet is because of the trafficking situation and the fact that Memnon had asked for more time.

Since Ricci was no longer my only target, I’m playing the long game. It’s going to take years, though the end result will still be the same. My intent is to make him suffer in the worse ways possible before ending his pathetic life. He took everything from my mother. Now he and the ones who helped him will feel the brunt of my years of planning.

In the meantime, there was nothing stopping me from carrying out the rest of my plans while I was here. After I let the old man ‘talk’ me into getting a DNA test the next day, I went back to the hotel where the others were waiting. They acted like I’d been gone for days instead of a few hours and started giving me shit. I shut them down by asking which one of them had called Pop.

“Did you eat?” They were sulking and knowing them they hadn’t, so I called downstairs for room service. “Stay outta my way.” I grabbed my bags and headed into the master suite of the penthouse. I’d rented the whole floor because if I’d tried to get this bunch their own rooms, they’d probably have slept outside the door to my room. Draco has them well trained.

Now, the reason why I didn’t give Salvatore my name is simple, I don’t want anything leading back to my family, especially Ma, not yet anyway. I know if Ricci is dumb enough to go after her, Pop would divide his body between all fifty states, so I’m not worried about that. I’m more worried about the cops and feds who have their eyes on Pop right now.