Renato, page 17
“That’s your solution?”
His lips formed a straight line.
“Anyway, did you find out if I could intern at the Prism Art Gallery?”
Prism was owned by the family, but they didn’t manage it like they did the company, so I’d have to report for work like a real employee, unlike here, where I could make my own schedule to accommodate my class and home life balance.
“Agnese knows you’ll be interning.”
“She knows I’m married to Renato?”
“Yeah, but she won’t give you any problems.”
“Thanks, Vincenzo.”
“You are welcome.”
“Anything I can do here to help out?”
“No, go home and be with my nephew.”
“I will after I check in with my mom.”
“I remember she showed up at the party. How is that going?”
“Good, her treatment for cancer is going well, and her weight is coming back.”
“Happy to hear she is doing well.”
I took the piece of paper with Agnese’s number and double-checked my emails and messages before I left for the rest of the day.
Chapter 23
Renato
“Where are we with the mayor?” I rubbed the top of RJ’s head, and he smiled a mostly toothless grin. I looked at Remo, Ian, and Dome at the kitchen island.
My phone started ringing, Sonya’s name flashing on the screen. I put her on speaker.
“You said you were going to pick me up from my mom’s.”
“Aren’t the guards there?”
“No.”
“Shit,” I cursed.
“Don’t bother, Mom is bringing me.”
“I will be there in a few minutes, got stuck in a meeting.”
“No reason to leave now, she is taking me.”
“No, you two need to stay put.”
“Are you sure everything is all right?” she asked.
“Everything is fine. Just stay at your mom’s house. I’ll be there soon.”
“Okay, hurry up, I want to get ready for dinner.” Sonya ended the call.
I made eye contact with RJ and nuzzled my nose in his neck. Dome had been called back to the house because we got word Emers had made a move, and I had to do what I had to do to make sure my family stayed out of harm’s way. So we came back to the house and worked on a plan, but I left a team at her mom’s home. I jumped in my car and drove up to get her while Dome rode shotgun, leaving Ian at the house with RJ and Deborah. It took me less than twenty minutes to reach her with light traffic. When I pulled in, she stepped out of the house. I wiped the sweat off my forehead as I got out of the car and unlocked the passenger door for her, then kissed her on the cheek. She lifted up and kissed me on the lips.
“What have you been doing?”
“I hung out with my brothers and had a short business meeting. Got a little sidetracked, and I forgot.”
“Are you sure that’s all?” Sonya intertwined our hands.
“Why do you ask?”
“Usually you’re on time or you’ll send the guys.”
“I need to look into why they didn’t show up.” I scanned the area, and Dome was already texting on his phone.
“Do you think Emers has something to do with your men not being here?”
“I will pick you up myself; if not, it’ll be Remo or Dome going forward.”
“Okay.”
“What do you want to do for dinner tonight?”
“I’m exhausted. You want to just order in?”
“Whatever you want.” She caught sight of me out of the corner of her eye.
“Why do you seem jumpy, Renato? Normally you’re not.”
“Told you just business, so tell me how class was and your mom.”
“It was good. Vincenzo gave me the number to the manager of the Prism gallery. Professor gave us a quiz earlier.”
I listened to her talk until we finally made it home, and she got out of the car. I waited.
“Are you coming?”
“Yeah, just give me a second. I just need to make a phone call.”
“All right. That means I get to order whatever I want.”
“But I never stopped you before,” I joked. She stuck her tongue out and switched her hips. I stared at her ass. Dome followed her inside.
“Did you make sure Brilynn was cleaned up?”
“Yeah, Boss. The ambulance came and didn’t ask any questions.” Remo relayed the situation.
“They got an anonymous tip that a woman died of a drug overdose.”
“Good. Good. Just make sure if you see anyone come to her house, you let me know. Emers will come eventually, and I need you to follow him. “
“Already on it, Boss.” Ian stood at the car door.
I got out of the car, then went to talk with Dome.
I strolled through the house then jumped in the shower, cleaning up for the night. I came out of the bathroom and dried my hair, switching the TV on. It played the news.
“Breaking news, Mayor Sanchez is giving a speech on the steps of City Hall,” the News Nine reporter said.
“The authorities are looking at the Calabresi family possibly being indicted for embezzlement and illegal gambling funds.
“The mayor has stated the family has too long been into nefarious affairs. We will report live at six. Make sure you join us then,” the reporter stated. I turned the screen off and changed into jeans and a shirt before I headed downstairs to eat dinner. Sonya was at the counter, removing the takeout cartons of rolls, and putting them on the counter.
“Hungry, RJ?”
He raised his hands to be picked up.
“Dinner is almost ready.” Sonya poured soup in a bowl.
“Is that my mom’s famous spicy potato soup?”
She held the spoon up to my lips so I could taste it.
“Amazing.” I kissed her on the back of her neck, sliding my arm around her waist, and she giggled.
“Not in front of RJ.” She tried to nudge me away; I whirled her around to face me.
“He wants us to work on a sibling.”
Sonya narrowed her eyes at RJ.
“RJ, you want a sibling?”
“Momma… Momma,” RJ expressed, and Sonya moved a hand to her mouth, tears appearing in her eyes.
“He finally said Momma.” Sonya picked him up, and he locked a hand on her face as I chuckled at them with excitement.
“He did. Can we eat and put him to bed so I can enjoy you tonight?” Sonya placed him back in the highchair; she fixed our plates and we sat down to eat dinner.
While drinking my coffee in the kitchen, I listened to the conference the mayor had decided to have. Assuming Emers had been playing him like a puppet, Savio had revoked our deal to keep him covered, and we scheduled a meeting with our contact to work things out. I put my coffee cup in the sink, wanting to head to the office. Sonya walked into the kitchen, looking disheveled. After checking my watch and knowing Savio was talking to the staff, I decided to talk to my parents to work out what to do.
“Why didn’t you wake me?” she grumbled, pulling her hair up into a high ponytail on her head.
“I thought you needed to sleep. It looked like you had a long night.” I poked her on the nose.
“You mean after you held me up against the shower and fucked me senseless.” Sonya smacked her lips. I planted my lips on the back of her palm.
“Where are you going off to?” Sonya asked, grabbing the coffee mug and cream.
“Business.”
“Of course. Is it business business or mafia business?”
“If I tell you I’d have to kill you.”
After she smacked me on the arm, I groped her ass, threw on my jacket, and gestured to Remo to get in the car. Within minutes, Remo was at the headquarters, and there were a lot of reporters waiting outside.
“Mr. Calabresi. What can you tell us about the accusations by the mayor?”
“Don’t know anything about what he speaks of. You know the mayor hasn’t been well lately. Ever since his affair, really can’t trust anything he says.” I smiled at the camera, eased through the crowd, and took the elevator, heading to the main conference room. While a few employees lingered around the break room, I pushed open the door to our small team of board members, who were listening intently to what Savio had to say.
“Listen, everything is under control. This is just another bureaucratic stronghold to try and put us back in the hole to make us look weak.”
“What about the books?” Carter, an older board member, probed.
“Vincenzo has managed to look at all of our books, and everything is in the clear,” Sante breathed.
“We have nothing to worry about. We just need to let this blow over,” Savio said.
“What about our parents? Are they up to date?” Vincenzo asked.
“McKayla has talked with her own bosses at the newspaper to see what they know right now. It’s just a wait and see if anything comes about this morning.”
Ring! Ring!
I saw my wife’s name scroll across and decided to answer.
“You have to get home quickly,” she hysterically cried.
“Calm down and tell me what’s wrong.”
“The FBI is here.”
I leaped out of my seat.
“What? The FBI is there?”
Sante and Vincenzo stood next to me.
“No. There’s a lot of men here. They have FBI and ATF jackets saying that you are being investigated for the murder of Tulio Costa,” Sonya whispered over the phone.
“Just stay calm. Where’s RJ?”
“He is with the nanny.”
“I need you to stay calm. I will be there soon. There’s nothing to worry about.”
“Cops are taking a lot of stuff out of the house.”
“There’s nothing in our home that would make us suspects. You don’t have anything to worry about.” I ended the call and blew out a breath. “Emers must have given a tip to someone in the FBI. He just wrote a check for his own funeral.”
“We need to play this smart,” Sante said, stepping on the elevator beside me.
“Who do you have to take over? I’m sending the information to your phone now see if they can draw the papers up,” I announced. Sante and I jogged to the car, and Remo sped us back to my house, taking the freeway to cut down on time. Finally, EJ pulled up right at the same time with our family attorney, and I slammed the door behind me.
“What are you doing at my house?” I growled at the FBI agent.
“Mr. Calabresi, we have a warrant to search the premises.”
He held a piece of paper up; I snatched it and tore it up.
“On what grounds?”
“Witness states you killed Tulio Costa.”
“What witness?”
“We have evidence, a lot of proof to bury you.” He pointed in my face.
“What proof?”
“Don’t talk to anyone, Renato.” Vaughn, our family attorney, picked up the torn paper.
“It’ll be shown at trial.”
“That’s if it makes it.”
“Excuse me.” He tried to get up in my face.
“I said that’s if it makes it to trial.”
“Is that a threat?” he snapped.
“It can mean anything, Officer, or should I say, Agent Gallagher. Whatever you think you have on me, it’s been fabricated.”
“That’s a cost of the criminal life, finally coming to an end.”
“Our family businesses are legit. I have no idea who is lying about us.”
“You can lie to me. Or you can tell me the truth. But either way, you’re going down, Renato Calabresi,” he snarled at me. Giving him my back, I walked over to Sonya.
“Did you find anything out?” she said as soon as I came into the house.
“No.”
“As soon as you left, I tried to shower and get changed, but I heard a loud knock.”
“It’s okay. Don’t worry about it. The FBI is just sniffing around.”
“They came in and out of our house.”
“Are you sure?” I held her close to my chest.
“Positive.”
“They’re going to try and do whatever they’re going to do. Pack some clothes; we’re going over to my parents’ and let them finish with EJ and Vaughn here.”
“Who’s going to clean up?” Sonya glanced around the now-ransacked room.
“Gonna stay to make sure they don’t fuck anything up.”
She leaned her head on my shoulder.
“All right. This is crazy. As soon as we figure stuff out, more shit happens.”
“Don’t worry. It all works itself out.”
Thirty minutes later, we rolled up at my parents’ house. Sonya yawned and took a sleepy RJ to his bedroom that my parents kept for him.
“Are you coming?” Sonya held her hand out for me to take.
“In a little bit. I need to talk to my father.”
She saw Rena and McKayla get out of their cars, and all three looked exhausted as they stood at the front of the house.
I grabbed our bags and shut the door. Angling around the girls, I climbed the stairs and placed our things at the door of the living room.
“Your room is ready, Renato.” Marilyn leaned in for a hug.
“Thank you. Is my father in his office?”
“He’s waiting for you.”
Canvasing the kitchen, I saw workers preparing dinner for the night before edging up to my father’s office door and knocked.
“Come in!” He waited for me to sit.
“Did EJ call you?” I shut the door behind me and stood near the window in his office.
“Him and Vaughn,” he said with a down-in-the-mouth demeanor.
“And?” I sealed my lips.
“Let the FBI twist the lies. It will be fine.” He pulled on his mustache.
“She’s more nervous.” A reminder that I had someone to keep safe now.
“As a wife and mother, that’s expected.”
“I took care of one problem.” The progress I’d made about Tulio replayed in my mind.
We made eye contact.
He lit his cigar.
“No choice in the matter.”
“Growing up, I would think I was a monster for how easy it was for me to kill someone.”
“Never raised a monster. You’re my son, Renato.”
“But our conversations weren’t normal.”
“I raised all of you boys the same. You might not think it’s true, but I saw something different in you.”
“That I lacked a soul.”
“No, you have a soul, but you care so much for your family that sometimes you get irrational and have to focus that energy in the best way we know how.”
“Killing.”
“Each of you came with a unique ability. My father wanted to carry on our legacy. At one point, I thought about normalcy as well.”
“You mean in Italy.”
He sighed and moved to stand next to me at the window.
“After he died, I became the Don of the family and then moved to America.”
“Why didn’t you try hard enough?” My nostrils flared. All of our lives stemmed from old wars.
“Because they’d never let us leave.” His annoyance showed in his upper body as his shoulders tensed.
“Who are they?” The questions rolled off my lips.
“Five families.”
“Costa is impulsive now.”
“I heard.” Worry darkened his puffy eyes.
“The night of our warehouse fire, I tracked Costa’s men to City Hall in the back alley arguing with the mayor.”
“That wasn’t part of the plan!” Brilynn shouted.
“Why is she here?” Emers’s henchman groaned.
“Because my neck is on the line if we get caught.”
“She’s not worth keeping around,” the mayor grumbled. Brilynn tried to smack him, but Emers pushed her away.
“Stay focused,” Emers gritted through his teeth.
“Renato is little by little going to feel my pain, I need him to get buried under the jail sentence,” the mayor muttered.
“What about my money?” Brilynn went on.
I looked through the window and watched her eyes shift from the mayor to Emers.
“When he’s arrested, you will get your money.”
“I want him dead,” Emers rebutted.
“We agreed to get him locked up,” the mayor remarked; Emers shoved him against the wall.
“Mayor, I don’t take orders from you.”
“This is the closest you’ve been able to get to Renato, don’t forget that.” The mayor pushed him back.
“How long were they out there?” Dad questioned.
“Long enough that I could have killed all three of them, but Savio told me not to take the shot.”
“He’s right. It would look suspicious if all three were dead together. It would point right back to you.”
“I know.”
“Where’s my grandson?”
“Sonya is putting him down for a nap.”
“Does she know?”
“Not yet.”
“Never keep things from your wife.”
“She’s upset about the raid. I’ll let her know.”
“Just make sure she understands.”
“She knows.”
“As her husband, you need to understand the fear she holds if something happens to you.”
“She’s been on her own with her mom, ever since her father died.”
“Which means, if something happens to you, it will only send her in a destructive direction. I won’t have my grandson toyed with, Renato.”
My parents were old school in every way, and even though Sonya and I had a modern relationship, she was still in a relationship with a man that was part of a dangerous world. Father had seen his closest friends and family betray him, so he’d do anything to protect his grandson.
“I need a drink.”
“Talk to EJ and see what the next move is going to be.” Father dismissed me and I went to go find something to eat.
Chapter 24
Sonya
My mind was restless. I kept remembering the smooth and quality bedding I shared with my husband, the plush carpet and rugs, the feel of his arms running up and down my back to help me sleep. Everything could be gone.
