Dante walked over and clocked Marco across the face, and Kelly screeched. Marco blinked. As soon as he started to fight against his restraints, Luca stirred as well. Dante smashed the butt of his gun against Marco again until his attention was totally focused on him.
“All that evidence that a certain coward turned over mysteriously went up in a fire.” He used the barrel of his gun to tilt Marco’s face upwards. “Wouldn’t be the first time a fire ruined your life, would it, Marco?”
Luca started to shake and slide his way across the floor. The fight was astounding, given how badly beaten he was. The Binachis probably intended to give him a false sense of hope as he screeched his chair across the room without stopping him. I caught a glimpse of the rope holding his hands in place. It wasn’t immaculately tied, but it was tied in a way that didn’t give when pulled. The tension kept the rope in place. I was calculating how to try and finagle mine off when Dante finally turned, stuck a boot against Luca’s chair, and shoved it over, toppling him to the ground. The series of grunts behind me was no doubt from Molly.
Donovan laughed, his head turned in the women’s direction. “You’ve got a fighter, Luca. She nearly took my guy’s head off in that grocery store.” He looked back at Luca. “Maybe I’ll save you for last. Make you watch while I turn her into a Binachi.”
White rage flared up in Luca’s eyes. It was every bit my dad, but even as he flailed against his chair, he was powerless to escape. Dario walked over and set one of his boots on Luca’s face and pressed. “Heh, you call this a boss? Looks more like a bug to me.”
“Angelo made four of himself,” Donovan said, the chair creaking out from under him as he stood up. “How interesting.” He walked around Luca’s desk and crossed the room until he was in the center of the ring we were sitting in. “I wonder if they’re all double-crossers, as well?”
“Probably,” Dante hissed, still glaring down at Marco. “I know this one is, for sure.”
“This one,” Dario said and aimed his gun down at Alessandro, keeping his foot on Luca’s face, “pissed Anthony Carducci off pretty bad with his mouth.” He laughed. “Imagine our shock when we heard you tried to bully The Beast. We were all too happy to accept his offer to make our evidence go away as long as we buried you. We were already planning on that.”
“We’d still be up the river,” Donovan continued, smiling at Alessandro. “So I guess we should thank you.”
All of our gazes landed on Alessandro. We’d been given a very different account of that story. Alessandro said they just talked, and that things went well. When Carducci flipped, he was the most surprised, or so he let us believe. It was neither here nor there. If I could save Alessandro, I could murder him later.
“It’s sad, Gabriel.” Donovan turned his gaze to me. He spoke directly to me for a reason I didn’t unders
tand. “I never liked your father, but I respected him. I considered you boys family.”
Both Dante and Dario sneered at the word.
“I was shocked to find my hard-earned money went missing, even more so when I saw your brothers were following in his footsteps.” He took a step towards me. “But you’re not like them, Gabriel. I know it. You’re a good boy. I don’t wanna hurt you. I got no reason to.”
I didn’t know what he was playing at but kept my mouth shut.
“Tell you what.” Donovan walked behind my chair, and I felt him loosening the ropes until they fell free of my hands. Dario finally took his boot off Luca, walked over to the door, and opened it. Donovan motioned to it. “You get out of here. Scout’s honor. I’m not a traitor like your old man. You never speak a word of this, and we’ll leave you and your pretty blonde hippie to do whatever you want. Go get married. Go have kids. Live that life you’ve always wanted. Leave these piles of trash to us.”
There was a quick moment where I thought about the beginning of my dream before it turned into a nightmare. I wanted it so badly I could taste it, but the thought left as quickly as it had come. Nothing was worth rolling on my family. Nothing.
Donovan walked back around to look me in the eyes. “What do you say?”
I glared up at him, reared back, and spit right in his ugly face.
There was a chorus of gun clicks as both brothers and Donovan all turned their weapons on me. My brothers went nuts in their chairs, and the girls started to wail behind me. In a moment that was, at the same time, heart-wrenching and heartwarming, I realized something critical. My family couldn’t bear to see me die. Not my eldest brother who had hated and resented me his entire life, not my second-eldest brother, who thought me weak and ineffectual, not my immediate-eldest brother, on whom I’d held my own gun just earlier that day. Their wives screamed behind me, begging the Binachis around their restraints to let me go.
Stacy had told me she loved me more than the dangers my life brought her. I heard the waves from my dream carry back to me. I knew that’s what awaited me in heaven. I was totally at peace. I would die knowing I stood up for my family. My blood was as thick as my father wanted it to be. I would die a Varasso.
Donovan’s gun was closest to me, so I craned my body to place my head against the barrel, mimicking Alessandro’s move from earlier. “Well? What are you waiting for?”
Donovan’s face faded. He truly believed that I would turn on my family for freedom. His frown peaked at the left side of his mouth and twitched with disgust. “I really did mean to keep my word, Gabriel.”
When I heard a gunshot, I jumped. I expected the pain that would follow, or at least the cold escape of death, but neither found me. The Binachis were looking back towards the door, as were Marco and Alessandro. Dante’s eyes came back to me quickly as Donovan locked eyes with Dario and waved his head towards the door. I didn’t react fast enough in my shock, but I resolved myself to go as soon as another opportunity arose.
Dario crept out into the hallway, looked left and then right, and then slunk off to the right. Another ear-splitting gunshot preceded a dull thud of a body hitting the ground. We could hear Dario’s groans. Whoever shot him didn’t kill him.
“Who is it?” Donovan yelled, but my brothers and I all looked at one another in confusion. The girls were all behind us, Ricky and his girlfriend took the kids to an undisclosed location. We had no allies that knew we were here, and the Binachis had clearly taken care of any staff we had on-site.
“Dante.” Donovan turned his stare back to me as Dante slunk out of the office, gun first. He copied his brother’s actions, looking left then right before finally sliding down the hallway. There was no gunshot that time. “Dante!”
“Dario’s bad off. No one is out here,” Dante’s voice boomed through the silence.
“How the fuck is he bad off, then?” Donovan growled.
“I think the idiot shot himself,” Dante called back. “We gotta get him out of here.”