Tempted By The Mafia Boss

CHAPTER FORTY-SIX

Salvatore

Mimi looks at me and there’s so much sadness in her eyes.

God help me I try not to be too enraged with the state she’s in but doing that makes helplessness crush me.

As Marc places a gun to her head in one hand and waves around a little remote in his other hand, Lawrence Fontaine makes his presence known along with Stephanou and Ricardo.Ccontent © exclusive by Nô/vel(D)ra/ma.Org.

I look on, truly seeing what I’m up against.

I see it and it’s not looking good. It’s not looking like I’m going to get her back alive.

“Welcome aboard The Maiden,” Marc says, his voice loud and heavy with the power he has over us.

“Save the pleasantries Marc Fontaine, we don’t need it,” Vincent answers. There’s a tick in his jaw that worsens the longer Stephanou stares at him.

Vincent turns his gaze to Stephanou and stares him down when he chuckles.

“Laugh,” Vincent says. “Go ahead and laugh. We’ll see who’ll laugh at the end of the day.”

“You talk like you actually can do anything,” Stephanou answers. “You’re helpless as shit. Useless and we own your ass.”

“Much as I love this pissing contest I vote we move to business,” Marc cuts in. “Hand over the files.”

“Hand over the girl first.” I recoil.

I don’t know who this prick thinks he’s dealing with. He thinks we’re just do as he says.

Fuck him.

Marc smiles.

“Capo, it’s me in charge here. I’m running the show and what I say goes. Hand over the fucking files or she gets it now. I shoot her dead and then I kill the two of you and take it.” He says that like it’s the obvious thing to do.

I realize something in that moment.

It would be the obvious thing to do if you were dealing with regular people.

They know they aren’t.

They don’t know me. They think of me as the accountant with the sex club. But they’re not stupid. They’re not as stupid as they look. I’m capo and we’re no run of the mill crime family. They know Pa and they know Vincent. He’s one of the most feared capos on the street.

They know that even though we don’t have guns they can’t just fuck with us by killing Mimi and taking the files. Not without us ending one or two of them with our bare hands.

The reasoning floats into my head. At the same time conflict fills me when Vincent takes a step forward to hand the files to Lawrence.

“Salvatore,” a voice sounds in my ear piece. I don’t recognize it but I’m guessing it’s one of our men. “Step to your right. I have a clear shot on Marc and I’m going to take it. When I do get ready to move. Back up is on the way but they won’t be with you for another few minutes.”

Jesus…

Hope… the thing I know I dare not dream of fills me, it fills me and I look to the left at the guy with the machine gun. I’m heading to him first.

“On two,” the voice says.

One. Two.

I step to the left. Marc smiles and that’s the last thing he gets to do in this life.

Marc Fontaine drops down to the ground like a puppet loosened from their strings as a bullet wedges between his eyes.

Then instead of handing the files to Lawrence, Vincent hits him with the case and grabs his gun.

I move into action, heading for machine gun guy at the same time Mimi kicks one of the men coming for her and runs to the safe alcove beneath the stairs.

I get to machine gun guy just as he was about to fire at me. The other two men next to him start shooting but Vincent fires back, taking them out and one of the guys on his side.

In the meantime machine gun guy gives me a good fight seeing what I’m after. He holds on to his weapon for fucking dear life so I use brain and brawl and beat the shit out of him.

I manage to knock him over with his own weight and we fall hard. The minute we do I shove the gun around and load his stomach with bullets.

I grab the gun and take out another two guys with it.

Around us there are twenty guys firing at us, including Ricardo, Lawrence and Stephanou.

Stephanou is shooting from inside the room they came from, and Ricardo and Lawrence are behind the pillars near the stairs leading to the upper deck.

I move behind a pillar near me and shoot back as bullets come my way.

Riccardo and Lawrence come for me while Stephanou goes to Vincent.

Them with their men and artillery are too much.

I step out firing, miss, then have to jump back behind the pillar to shield myself.

They’re coming closer.

I jump out again at the same time seven men in wetsuits run out from the back. Guns blazing.

One bullet to the back of the head takes out Riccardo and suddenly all hell breaks loose on board The Maiden.

The men whip off their masks and I see it’s Claudius and his guys along with three military looking guys.

Bullets fly everywhere and I take out who I can fighting for my life, fighting to get closer to my girl. She’s still too close to danger. Still too close and where she is she can’t move, if she does she risks getting hit.

I just have to keep fighting to get to her. Keep going.

“Motherfucker,” Lawrence yells, coming for me.

He’s a fool for doing that but it’s his funeral. His fucking funeral.

I load him up with a cascade of bullets that riddles his body with holes.

Motherfucking bastard.

Two Fontaine brothers down. One fucker to expose with the files which are on the ground across from me.

Dead men lie across the way to it and Claudius ends the last guy.

It’s just Vincent and Stephanou fighting and it looks like that fight is going to be over quickly. Blood pours from Stephanou’s chest.

Vincent gets another two bullets in Stephanou’s stomach.

When I see him go down, dropping to his knees, I know it’s over.

It’s fucking over.

Stephanou looks up to Vincent who grabs a tuft of his graying hair and yanks his head.

Like Diego, Stephanou does that stupid laugh.

“Fucking asshole there’s nothing to laugh at,” Vincent shouts in his face.

“There is. I’m laughing at you. You lost her and you lost yourself, the same way I lost myself when I lost my wife. You will never be the same again Vincent Giordano. Can’t bring her back.”

“Vengeance is mine. Your life is mine to take,” Vincent shout and Stephanou wobbles.

He laughs again though. “Shame I had to kill her, she was such a good dirty fuck-”

That’s all Vincent allows him to say.

He grabs the long reach knife Stephanou has in the sheath on his back and one swing of it severs his head from his miserable body.

Vincent holds the head up like a savage, and it’s most the horrific thing I’ve ever seen when Stephano’s eyes blink then go wide like he doesn’t realize yet that he’s dead.

Vincent throws his head into the water and looks to Mimi under the stairs.

I run to her and my damn heart freezes up in my chest when I see the fucking bomb has switched itself on and it says fifteen minutes.

“Fuck!!!” I roar.

Fifteen minutes!

I run over to Mark’s dead body and see the remote next to him. I grab it and see it’s fucked. The top is smashed and the wires are sticking out.

“Jesus Salvatore,” Vincent hisses. “Can you fix it?”

I look at it and I can’t figure out what the hell I can fix. I press the buttons and they feel loose. There’s no connection, it’s literally fucked.

I go back over to Mimi and she starts crying harder.

She’s crying and saying something I don’t want to hear.

“Go, leave me,” she splutters but I don’t look at her.

I look over the bomb vest and at the timer display.

Twelve and a half minutes. Shit!

“Salvatore you guys have to go and leave me. This is one thing you can’t save me from. Not this time. Don’t risk yourself for me,” Mimi continues.

I ignore her again but take heed that she’s right about one thing.

I can’t let these guys risk their lives any more than they have. This bomb will explode if I can’t diffuse it.

I stand and look at the faces of my friends.

Claudius looks sad. He never looks like that. The thing is he knows exactly what I’m going to do. They all do. I can’t look at Vincent yet. Not yet.

“Guys get off the boat,” I yell.

“Salvatore,” Vincent grabs me by my neck and shakes me as much as he can. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”

God I remember the time I thought I could fight him and he surely put me in my place. The same craze comes over me now as I land a fist in his face and he staggers backward.

“Vincent get the fuck off the boat! It’s a fucking bomb. Timothy needs you.” I look to the other guys. “You have families. Some of you have kids. I thank you for everything you’ve done for us. Please, get off the boat.”

Claudius and his guys bow their heads and they go. No words spoken. They don’t need to.

Vincent is still there though with me. I grab the files and hand them to him. When he takes them I know he’ll do as I ask.

“Go Vin. You know, I’m sure Sorcha’s last thoughts had to be how much she loved you and Timothy. She knew you would be okay though because you have him. He’s the symbol of the love you have. Go.”

Vincent winces and bows his head and when he looks back at me he hugs me hard.

“Find a way to diffuse the bomb. Fucking do it Salvatore. I’m not saying goodbye to you,” he scuffs and turns to walk with the other guys. They take the boat Vincent and I came on.

I resist the urge to falter. I am going to try.

I tap the communicator.

“Pa, there’s a bomb, set to go off,” I look at Mimi who’s shaking her head at me. The timer says nine minutes. “We have six minutes. Is there anyone who knows what to do.”

“I’m checking right now boy,” Pa replies.

I walk back to Mimi and she tries to wipe away the tears flowing from her eyes but there are too many.

“Why didn’t you go Salvatore? You have a family too. You have a life,” she says through bouts of tears.

I look at her and just like always I see it.

I see forever. Love in life, and love beyond death.

She’s everything to me.

“You are my family… and my life. You are mine,” I answer, stunning her.

Her lips part and she blinks several times.

The voice on the communicator snaps me back to focus. “Salvatore, this is Captain Seacrest. I need you to open the vest and look at the wires. I need to know how many wires the bomb has.”

I do exactly as he says. Opening the Velcro clasp on the vest I see three wires.

“There’s three,” I tell him.

“Give me colors.”

“White, purple, and blue,” I practically blurt.

“Okay listen up I need you to calm down and listen to me. The wire ordering starts from the top down. Okay?”

“Yes.”

“The purple isn’t common. I think that’s some spin of shit your pals played. It could be a rogue wire that can detonate, or it could be non-functional. So this is what you’ll do but it’s a game of chance.”

I grit my teeth when he says that. “Okay. I got it,” I answer.

“If the last wire is white cut that. If it’s the blue one cut that one. Good luck.”

The last wire is blue. I’m going to cut that. We now have six minutes.

We have six minutes and I’m going to cut the blue wire and hope like fuck it’s the right one.

Before I do that though I’m going to be selfish and take some of that time to tell Mimi how I feel just in case it doesn’t work.

I won’t make the mistake again of leaving without telling her I love her.

This time, if it doesn’t work, I’ll be leaving for good.