The Mafia Trilogy Read online

  He walked over to Darwin and patted him on the back. “Darwin, my worthy opponent. I’ll give you that. Not many men get me. You got me. You hurt my organization. Actually, you’re either really good or really lucky. You even gave me pause. I said to myself, maybe this is a trap. It couldn’t be that easy. I’ll force your hand. I’ll get you to come with Rosina. But you didn’t. You had bikers help you. How the hell you orchestrated that, I’ll never know.”

  “A book.”

  Fuccini leaned closer and patted him down, feeling for a wire or a weapon.

  “A book? Oh, that’s fantastic. That is amazing. You’re going to write a book for them. I saw your profile. Smart thinking on your part. Tell them to rough us up and you’ll do some sort of glamorous part for them in your next best-selling thriller. Smart, I like that.”

  They stood and faced each other.

  “You know, Darwin, you had me so worried that you’d walk away tonight, that I sent out the order to kill you on sight in the event that I died here. Do you know what that means? Even if I’m killed, you still die. I have hundreds of hit men. I have staff on fourteen different police forces, including the FBI. I have friends in Italy. Until you die, this will never end. That’s how serious I am.”

  Darwin nodded. He suspected as much.

  “You became, all on your own, Fuccini Family enemy number one.”

  “That sounds like an honor.” Darwin looked around at the dark night, but it wasn’t working like it used to. He couldn’t locate the violent anger triggers inside. “Pull a knife on me.” That’ll work. It has to.

  “Pull a knife? No, I don’t think so. You’re going to be shot in each foot with that gun so there’ll be no more running. Then I’ll toss you in the trunk until we get back to my place where I will treat you to days upon days of a certain kind of painful pleasure—”

  The sound of another boom came from behind the hangar.

  Fuccini looked over at the corner where his two men had disappeared minutes ago.

  “Why would there be two shots if there’s only one girl? Johnny, go find out what’s happening.”

  One of the two men covering the bikers ran off.

  “Now, where were we?” Fuccini asked.

  He walked over to Darwin’s dad, leaned down and checked his pulse.

  “Yes, still breathing and bleeding. Not long now, though. Another day of this agony and he’ll be dead.”

  He whispered to Adrian, loud enough for Darwin to hear, “We’ll be leaving in five minutes. So sorry you can’t join us.”

  Darwin ducked as another crack from the huge weapon resounded. The remaining guard raised his and aimed it at the corner of the building where his colleague had just gone.

  “Do you know something I should know, Darwin?” Fuccini asked, and then turned to his guard. “Let’s get ready to clear out. Kill these two fucking bikers and then we’re gone. Bring Darwin to the car. Put him in the trunk.”

  Fuccini stepped away and then ducked so hard he almost fell over when someone shuffled up close to him.

  Darwin’s dad had gotten to his feet and had hobbled to Fuccini with a large stone in his hand.

  “Dad, no!”

  The guard turned toward him. A shot rang out.

  Darwin closed his eyes and fell to his knees. He thought he heard a siren in the distance, but soon realized it wasn’t a siren. His ears were ringing.

  When he opened his eyes, his father lay on the ground holding his wounded stomach.

  To the right, the guard still stood, but he now had a large hole in his abdomen. He looked down at his wound, then at Fuccini, and then dropped to his knees. He face planted and didn’t move.

  “Sorry I’m late for the party,” Richard H said, his weapon trained on Fuccini. “Darwin! Snap out of it. Untie my men. Now!”

  Darwin got to his feet and had both of them untied in thirty seconds. They ran for Fuccini, but H kept them back.

  “Darwin, you have a beef with this man? If you do, speak now before we tear him apart.”

  Darwin thought about it. They had both lost everything. Even when Fuccini was gone and buried, the hit on Darwin’s head was still out there. Nothing would return to normal. It was over and yet, just beginning.

  “Fuccini and I are done. Do with him what you will.”

  Fuccini, for all his mutterings about torture, looked pretty scared with H holding onto the collar of his shirt, the large weapon’s business end pushed up under his chin.

  “Say goodbye,” H said.

  Fuccini looked at Darwin and said, “I’ll see you in hell.”

  H lowered the weapon and placed it against Fuccini’s left arm at the elbow. He pulled the trigger and the bottom half of Fuccini’s arm flew off.

  Darwin tried to look away but his brain registered the flying arm.

  He ran for his father and knelt beside him.

  “Dad, help’s coming. We’ll get you to a hospital.”

  The gun fired again behind him. Fuccini’s other arm was missing now. Fuccini screamed so loud, they all missed the police sirens, but everyone turned at the red flashing lights.

  H brought the weapon down to Fuccini’s crotch and lowered the butt of the gun to the dirt.

  “Sorry I don’t get more time dismembering you for what you did to my club members and our friend Darwin. You got lucky, asshole. When we’re done here, we’re going after anything with the name Fucconi.”

  H fired, and Fuccini was virtually split in half by the explosion.

  The bikers wiped splattered blood from their faces.

  H tossed the gun off to the side.

  A line of cruisers pulled into the parking lot and quickly surrounded them.

  Men in uniform and men in suits, weapons out, screamed for everyone to get down.

  The statements read that Fuccini came to kill everyone and, in their defense, Richard H and his two surviving club members were lucky enough to get the upper hand at the end. Darwin’s father was stabbed, and Richard grabbed a gun, shot the last guard, then slid in like he was stealing home plate, shooting straight up into Fuccini himself. When asked why the man’s arms were missing, H explained how his first shots had missed and gone wild. At least that was what he thought happened. He said he had no idea he’d made contact with Fuccini’s arms.

  Darwin concurred on everything. That’s how it happened.

  Officers escorted Darwin and Rosina to the hospital to be with Darwin’s father. Rosina’s parents showed up to watch over him in his room, too. They agreed that it was overdue for all of them to meet and start getting along.

  The whole time, Darwin kept his eye on everyone. He watched all the cops, the doctors and the nurses, every minute, looking for someone to pull out a knife, a gun, or some other kind of weapon, looking to slice into him.

  He didn’t take what Fuccini said lightly. He knew they were coming, he just couldn’t tell when or how.

  But he knew they were coming.

  Chapter 19

  Two months later …

  Darwin opened the curtains in the kitchen and looked out at the morning sunshine. He loved turning off the night lights in the morning and letting in the bright sunshine.

  It had been a long, hard road since the night at the hangar. He was writing again and loving it, even though he wrote under a pseudonym.

  Rosina really enjoyed her new home in sunny Florida.

  The FBI had thrown them into the witness protection program within two weeks of Fuccini’s death.

  The two bikers that had been tied up and gagged were gunned down within days of each other, and Darwin’s name was scrawled across their chests in blood.

  Richard H went into hiding, but they found him a week later. He fought hard and killed four men with his bare hands, even after they shot him three times. Darwin visited him in the hospital. H would live and walk again. The FBI were putting him into the program too.

  When Darwin went to visit H in the hospital, they tried to kill Darwin again. But they’d made a mi
stake. A man posing as a doctor turned on Darwin with a long needle and charged at him.

  At the sight of the needle, all Darwin saw was blind rage. He lunged at the doctor. That lunge saved him as the needle had been thrust forward and when Darwin dove, it passed his arm by an inch.

  The fake doctor’s neck had broken when he was thrown out the fourth story hospital window. How he was already missing fingers and one eye, Darwin claimed he had no idea. He couldn’t remember much after seeing the needle.

  The FBI, for the public’s safety, and Darwin’s, had elected that he and his wife, Rosina, would have to go into hiding for good.

  They allowed Darwin and H to email each other as H was detailing his life story so Darwin could write the promised book, which Darwin was writing with vigor.

  “Another beautiful day,” Rosina said as she entered the kitchen. “What’s for breakfast?”

  “I thought you said you were making breakfast this morning?” Darwin pleaded.

  “I am, I am. I’m just joking. We’re married now, Mr Kostas. I get to joke around with you.”

  He rushed her, wrapped his arms around her waist and lifted her off the ground. “Yes, we are married. I’m your husband. Doesn’t that have a nice ring to it?”

  “It sure does.”

  “Let’s have French toast and drown it in Canadian maple syrup … and coffee. How does that sound?”

  “Perfect.”

  They kissed long and hard.

  “Maybe we should go and have some sticky first? Then have the pancakes?”

  “Sticky? You want sex now? Or pancakes?” he asked. “I said French toast, woman,” he said, in his deepest voice.

  She laughed and pulled away. “Okay, breakfast and then sticky.”

  He smiled.

  I forgot how good life could be without the threat of death over my head.

  Rosina had taken the mint tree and adult store rationale well. She’d playfully slapped him when he told her. She understood how innocent it was and didn’t care if he was in an adult store.

  Mint tree was delivered with their groceries each week.

  Which reminds me. Today is delivery day.

  “Rosina, honey. I’m going to head down to the main gate and unlock it for Bruce to bring up our grocery order.”

  “You got it. I’ll have breakfast ready when you return.”

  He put on his slippers and stepped outside into the already warm sun. He closed his eyes and took in a deep breath.

  Amazing.

  At the end of the path, he flicked the small button that allowed entry/exit and stepped out onto the driveway. He walked down it and swung his arms in a carefree attitude. Life was great. They were in hiding. He could relax. Let things go. He could write. He could love his wife.

  They both missed their parents, but that was the way of things. Stay alive and miss them or visit them once or twice before being murdered.

  They chose life.

  At the end of the driveway, a tall wrought iron gate stopped anyone from coming in unless it was open or they owned a tank.

  The usual guard wasn’t there.

  “Hey Mike, you around?”

  No one answered.

  That’s weird.

  Then Rosina screamed.

  He spun on his heels, chanting no over and over.

  A man stood behind him, a gun in his hand.

  “Don’t be stupid. There’s a guard patrolling the yard. When he is dead, we can leave. In the meantime, come with me.”

  Darwin couldn’t believe it. How could they be that good?

  They got to the house and entered through the front door. Darwin was led into the kitchen, the gun in the small of his back.

  A man stood next to Rosina, a gun trained on her, eating Darwin’s French toast.

  “This is good. You should try some,” he gestured at his partner.

  “Not now, asshole. We have to get that last guard.”

  “I’m eating. You go and get him. I’ll watch these two.”

  The guy closest to Darwin spun so fast Darwin didn’t see it coming. A large fist hit him in the face and knocked him clean off his feet. Rosina screamed.

  “This one is feisty, so I’ve been told. Make sure he stays on the floor until I come back.”

  “No problem,” the other guy said, his mouth full. “Just go and get back here.”

  The guy who brought Darwin into the kitchen walked out.

  Rosina stared at Darwin. The guy at the table was still eating, not taking his eyes off the two of them.

  Darwin knew that Rosina only did what she knew might work. He forgave her for her actions even before she did it.

  She reached behind her, grabbed the knife holder set and knocked it over. She raised her hands to show they were empty and yelled she was sorry.

  The guy didn’t shoot her. He didn’t know the knives slid along the counter. One of them, the long bread knife, fell off and hit Darwin in the leg.

  Nothing in a long time made him feel that violently angry. He launched off the floor and dove at the man so fast the guy didn’t even get a chance to flip off the safety on his weapon.

  Another man murdered.

  Darwin stepped outside and went hunting for the enemy.

  It would never stop.

  He would be ready.

  For Darwin and Rosina, a new life was unfolding.

  For them, killing was just the beginning.

  They could never go back to the way things were.

  Marriage was just the beginning.

  ’Til death …

  The Blade

  by

  Jonas Saul

  Chapter 1

  Without sunglasses, it was difficult to look into his wife’s eyes directly. “I’m sorry, honey. I didn’t want to kill those men. But you know I had no choice. It was an us-or-them decision.”

  She nodded and looked at her feet. “I know, honey. I just don’t understand why it keeps happening. Why can’t they just leave us alone? We don’t want to hurt anyone. We just want to live our lives free of this shit.”

  Her tears always moved him to hug her, hold her. Darwin had an innate need to protect Rosina and keep her safe and he would do anything to achieve that goal. Even if it meant killing.

  He stepped closer and held her in his arms as she cried. Cars raced by on the Florida highway, oblivious to the couple who wept for the five dead men back at the safe house where Darwin and Rosina were supposed to be safe. Two of them Darwin had to kill with his own hands.

  The temperature was too hot to not be moving. The only breeze was when a car passed by. Darwin guessed it to be a little after the lunch hour. He was still dressed in his knee-length shorts and oversized T-shirt that he slept in last night. Rosina did better in the heat with her red sundress as it allowed more ventilation.

  He nudged her to get her walking. She stepped forward and cleared her face of tears.

  “I have to be strong,” she said. “I’m sorry, Darwin. What happened back there wasn’t your fault.”

  They exchanged a look. In that moment, he knew why he married her in Rome months ago. She had a tough exterior and strong personality, but remained soft and feminine on the inside. He’d seen her fight with the Mafia and walk away. He loved her for her soul and only hoped that when everything was over, she’d retain some of that innocence and beauty.

  He smiled in her direction. There was nothing more to say.

  They walked on, feeling the weight of the heat, no one pulling over to offer them a ride. Maybe it was the blood on Darwin’s T-shirt.

  “We need to get inside somewhere,” he said. “This heat is intense.”

  Rosina nodded.

  Darwin read a sign about a hundred meters ahead on the shoulder of the highway. “I guess we’re leaving Folkston, Florida.”

  “Do you know where that is?” Rosina asked.

  “Nope.”

  “Do you know where we are?”

  “Nope.”

  “Darwin.” She
stopped and put her back to the traffic. “What are we going to do?”