Trapped in his End Game (Series)

There’s a garroting wire I always keep in my trunk. Perfect for this kind of thing. Usually when wiseguys whack each other, it’s silent. Friendly, even. They never know it’s coming. Your friends will be around you, smiling and laughing, and suddenly you’ll feel a punch in your chest and then you’re bleeding on the floor, looking down a nozzle. Bam. Dead.

Whacking a boss is no joke, though. The other families could exact revenge on me. Or another captain. I’ll need to leave town for a long time. Probably indefinitely. I’ll take Adriana with me.

I’m not exactly in the best state of mind to think about plans.

I just need to sneak up on that sick fuck and strangle him until he stops kicking. There is the problem of his wife being in the house, but I’ll deal with that when I get there.

He fucked me over. Whatever deal he has with Carmine cost me the love of my life. He made her suffer.

And for that he’s going to die.

My car screams down the highway to Long Island. I’m going so fast that I realize I might die on the way to kill Jack, so I slow down.

Why did she get forced into this? And why won’t she let me help her?

I think of them together, of the things she must be doing with Carmine until I feel so sick with anger. I pound on the steering wheel and scream my head off. Part of me wants to wheel around and drive straight towards Carmine and run him over, but I can’t kill him while Adriana’s there. The car explodes with a long string of the most vile insults I can think of and before I know it, I’m almost at Jack Vittorio’s house. The boss of the family. My father figure.

Some father you were.

I rip open the glove compartment and quickly pull on the black leather gloves. I’m parked a safe distance from the house, so I get out and open the trunk. I slip the garroting wire inside my jacket, the silencer, even a blackjack, and all the tools I need to kill. Because I’m determined to see him dead.

There’s the slightly problematic thing that I want to ask him why. I want to hear him defend himself. If I kill him, I’ll never get that.

Creeping through backyards of neighbors, I vault over the fence into his yard and I see him standing on his back porch, smoking a cigar. Fucking perfect. I’m hiding behind the trees. All I have to do is keep moving from shadow to shadow, and sneak up behind him, or wait until he turns around. And then I’ll have him. Or I can just shoot him now.

Some of the fire leaves me. How could Jack do this to me?

My jacket buzzes and I curse under my breath, opening it to read whatever the fuck someone’s texting me.

Come home. We need to talk. – Ade

I read it several times until the white burns my eyeballs. Come home now? My lips touch the screen.

Jack stares into the darkness, almost as if he can sense me there. He digs the cigar in the heel of his shoe, the red light snuffing him out. Then his back turns towards me. He walks towards the sliding glass door, and opens it.

Then he’s inside.Contentt bel0ngs to N0ve/lDrâ/ma.O(r)g!

I sit there, stewing. I inhale the scent of the trees and think about her message, imploring me to wait.

Fine, Adriana. I’ll wait.

One day won’t make much of a difference for me.

For Jack? It might just be his last night alive.

ADRIANA

What the hell am I going to do?

I pace in the darkness of my dorm. I finally got rid of Carmine after giving him an excuse that I didn’t feel well, and then he dropped me to my dorm. Maria’s out with her boyfriend, so I have a few, precious hours of blessed silence and solitude.

When I think about my problems a few months ago, I want to laugh. A few months ago, all I had were a few debts, a crazy mother, school, and a dead dad. Compared to this, it was child’s play. I have threats hanging over my neck, making me so ill that I can barely move. On the way to the casino the other day, I had to stop to vomit in a trashcan.

My gaze flashes towards the mini-fridge where I know there’s more liquid poison to drown it all out. And it makes it worse, but I can’t stop.

Even if it’s destroying me.

I stoop down to my knees. Powerless, I open the door and grab the cool bottle of vodka. I grab the coffee mug and pour. Then I wince and down it.

It slips harmlessly down my throat. Water. Maria must have dumped it all.

Shrouded in darkness, I almost trip over the abandoned mathematics books from all my classes and my heart sinks. Maria lets me squat in the dorm, even though I’m technically not supposed to be here.

Goddamn it. I’m so completely screwed.

Is there no escaping this?

I’m sick of being his pawn. I’ve sacrificed everything and I let him control me.

Not anymore.

I have to let go of my fear and accept the possibility that I might die, and be okay with that. I chose this when I chose Vincent. This life is anything but glamorous. It’s murky and deadly.

Vince is going to do something. I know he is. I knew it when I saw the shadow in his eyes when I went to Carmine. He won’t stand for this, and he’ll be killed. He won’t see it coming.

But I do.

I can stop it.

Adrenaline sears through my veins, clearing my mind of all that foggy poison. The steps are laid out in front of me clearly. It’s so simple that I don’t know why I never thought of it before. I know exactly what to do.

My hand dives into my purse to grab my cell phone. I open it and quickly type a text message to Vince: Come home. We need to talk. – Ade

I won’t play by Tony’s fucking rules anymore. I won’t stay away from him. The monsters who destroyed my life when I was a child won’t destroy my adult one, too. No more.

It’s time to fight fire with fire.