13. Franco

Chapter 13

Franco

Something about my wife isn't sitting right with me. And the way Vito evaded me but still demanded a swap… I can't shake the feeling that there is something I don't know.

I will burn every wishy-washy fucking laundromat in this city until I find my sister. Vito has no idea who he is playing games with. One clean shot at him is all I need, and I will take it. I'm not in the mafia for the politics of truces and allies. Aria was right when she called me a killer, a murderer. That is who I am .

Vito is a petty, low-life criminal, though, a tit-for-tat moron. The way he thinks he can touch me is laughable, but I'm not taking chances. His new obsession with my family has me asking questions, though.

"This is not a discussion, Aria." Her pushback is unwelcome today; we still haven't found my sister, and I am almost out of patience. "I can't keep you safe and find her, so this option is all I have right now."

"I wasn't arguing, Franco. I just know Dominique isn't very well suited to looking after me. Not like that. He might be my Godfather, but I just don't feel safe anywhere without you. "

"Aria!" I snap, and she stops talking and packs her bags in silence, with tears falling down her cheeks. I am being a dick, not listening to her, but I am afraid that I am not willing to risk her and my child. "Just go, it's not like it's forever." I try to ease the tension. I won't sleep if we leave things like this.

"It doesn't matter if it's for a minute or forever. It'll be without you. Dominique is no fighter. He was good to me, but he was the only one who ever was." The thought of anyone being anything but good to her makes me homicidal.

"Dom is a friend of my family. You'll be safe there."

"Safe from whom?" she snaps at me. "Because trading one killer for another really is not that comforting, thank you."

If I didn't love her so much, I'd throttle her.

"You ran to Loredana when you ran. Why?" Something about her Sunday school story still doesn't add up, and Loredana wasn't forthcoming with anything more than she had something of mine.

"Because we were friends, and I never thought anyone would look there." She's lying to me, but I have no time to be angry with her. I have dirty laundry to deal with, and my sister will only be able to hold her own for so long.

"When you come home, we're going to discuss the way you lie to me with a straight face." I'm too wound up now.

"Franco," she looks at me with fire in her eyes, "is the murderer really pointing a finger at the liar? "

"Aria, just fucking go!" I slam her half-packed suitcase closed and zip it for her. "Now, before I say something I can't take back."

"Say it," she says. "I dare you." The challenge in her eyes and the simmering anger in me are a Molotov cocktail about to ignite. I turn and walk away before it can. My sister needs me. This fight can wait. I watch her car drive off from the window upstairs. She stares daggers at me until she can't anymore.

While I wait for my men to report back from their fact-finding mission this morning, another unanswered question plagues me. Vito's sudden interest in my family coincides with Aria's arrival in our lives. She's been an anxious wreck since I mentioned his name—and I know she's lying to me.

"I have a job for you," I say to my rat when he answers the phone.

"Don't you always?" he asks. "What can I do for you, boss?"

"My wife," I pause. I should wait and ask her, but she is already lying, "She's got skeletons in her closet. I want to become better acquainted with them."

"You want me to investigate your wife after you married her?" he scoffs. "You know most men in your position do the digging before they buy the cow."

"Don't call her a cow, and keep this discreet." I shouldn't have to say that, but this time it feels important.

"Boss, Franco—are you sure you want to know? Before I look and find something you don't like? "

"I don't like skeletons, secrets, or lies. And most days I don't like you. Do your fucking job." Rat: he is the lowest form of life. A professional snitch. I feel dirty just talking to him, but I have to know what is niggling at my gut.

"Yes, boss," he says and hangs up on me. Two cars pull up in front of the house, and I hold my breath, hoping my sister will climb out of one of them, but when she doesn't, I know I need to do more.

Vito needs to feel my wrath because I am getting tired of playing this stupid game with him. I'm a sore loser—just ask my brother.

"Franco," my cousin Luca calls from the open door. "Nothing, but we heard a rumor he's got her at one of his wash shops on the wrong side of the tracks."

"Have we got anyone close?"

"The intel is good, Franco. We thought it would be best if you came with us. It's your sister." What he's not saying is that if she were dead, they don't want to have to tell me. "We have cars waiting, and the boys from that side of town will meet you there." I hate going into the slummy side of the city. It's rank, and the desperation hangs in the air like the smell of cheap perfume and whores.

"Let's go," I say.

"Should I stay with Aria?" he asks.

"She's gone to stay with Dom. You can drive with me."

He looks shocked that I sent her away .

"I'll send for Aria once my sister is safe and Vito is handled."

Luca nods and holds the car door open for me. I hesitate. It feels wrong—there's a missing piece, and I'm afraid we're somehow playing into Vito's hand.

"You okay?" Luca asks, sensing my unease.

"Something is not right."

"I said that from the day they took her." He shrugs. "But when is anything in our lives right?"

He is younger than me and not quite as jaded yet. He'll learn. "We have enough men and firepower. They won't touch us or her." They have her, and I am afraid of what might have already happened. "Get in the car, Luca."

He hurries to the driver's side, and the convoy of cars all move at the same time.

"Let's go to the washing." I check my gun and make sure I have a spare in the glove box. Pests can be hard to kill.

Two of the mercenaries I hired for extra security are in the back seat, silent killing machines. An insurance policy of sorts, they do what they're paid for. Loyalty only to the one who pays their wages. Luca's phone rings, and he answers the call, steering us through traffic with one hand.

"She's there," he says as he hangs up. "She's under heavy guard, but they have confirmed she's alive."

Thank God. "Don't let them do anything stupid to get her hurt, you hear me." My sister needs to be protected if they get trigger-happy. "Guilin's safety comes first, then we level the place. And every other one he has. Cut him off at the fucking knees."

The car comes to a halt outside the dirtiest-looking laundromat I've ever seen. I'd be afraid my clothes would come out dirtier than they went in. A closed sign dangles on the door in the middle of the day, and the street is conspicuously quiet. "Don't get out," I say, stopping Luca as he's about to open the door. "It's too quiet. Wait."

"Wait for what? We know she's in there."

"But why is no one out here? Literally no one." Luca looks around, but this whole street corner is empty. "We wait in the car." The car is armored, and sadly, my body is not bulletproof. In here, it is safest.

We will fetch her, Silent and Violent pipe up from the back seat. "Quiet doesn't scare us."

I think about it for a second. "Go." I nod. "But my sister's life above all else. She comes out unscathed."

"We know what to do."

I hate waiting. Patience is a virtue I do not have. There are a few virtues I'm missing. They push open the glass door, and I watch them go inside. I should have gone with them.

"Sniper," Luca says, not moving or pointing or even looking in the direction of the gunman. "Second-story window across the street. "

"I told you, too quiet." They wanted a shot at me, or they'd have taken out my men. This is more personal than I thought. "He's waiting for me."

"Let him wait," Luca says. "He won't get his shot." This one won't, but Vito has it in for me, and I doubt he'll stop unless I make him.

"It's taking too long." We're sitting ducks out here, and I am not comfortable. My phone buzzes with a text.

Rat—Boss, do you know who you married? I don't think we should be looking under these rocks. Call me.

Me—Kind of busy saving my sister. Elaborate, you fucking fool.

Rat—Call me. I am not texting shit that'll get me a plot at the cemetery.

Me—I will buy the plot, kill you, and bury you in it!

Rat—Call me, or come see me.

I'm sick to my stomach, but when I look up and see my sister walking out of the door between the two human shields, I forget his texts for a moment. She's alive, unharmed, and looks pretty good for a hostage.

"Took you fuckers long enough," she says, climbing into the car. "Jesus, I could have saved myself faster."

"Why didn't you?" I say to her—ungrateful little shit.

"Because I was learning some very interesting shit at the laundromat. Do men think quiet women are stupid? Because y'all run your mouths like we have no ears. "

"What do you mean?" I turn around to see her face; she's cute without makeup. I'm glad they didn't hit her.

"Where is Aria?" she asks cautiously.

"I sent her away. Why?" My sister looks at Luca and the two others in the car. This isn't something she can say unless we're alone.

"Just checking that Vito didn't get her, too. He's very interested in your wife." The way she says it, I know my sister is telling me to wait.

"Let's get you home, do you need a doctor?" I ask. "Did he hurt you?"

"I need a tequila, a shower, and some real food. I'm fine."

Of course, she is. We raised her to be able to take care of herself.

"Can I go to your house, please?" she asks, but she's really telling me she is coming to my house.

"You're not going home alone."

***

As soon as we're alone in the house, I corner my sister, "Spill it. Right fucking now." Guilia looks nervous and pushes me backward to the sofa.

"Sit," she says, "and here." She hands me her drink. "You might need it more than me in a minute. "

"Guilia," I growl at her. She's stalling.

"Have you met Aria's family?" she asks me. "Like any of them?"

"We didn't have a big wedding," I say. She never mentions family. "Her parents are dead. She was raised by her godfather."

"What's her last name?" Guilia asks me, and I stare at her. "Her real last name." I'm quiet for too long. "You married someone, and you don't know her surname? Why are you and Marco so incredibly stupid with the small things?"

"It's Dilio, for God's sake. It's just a common surname. It doesn't matter."

She narrows her eyes. "And you didn't think to check it? Too busy with other things." She waves at my crotch. "We should call it cock-blind. When your dick is hard, you can't see straight."

My gut churns. I had a suspicion about the surname from the beginning. Now, after the text from my rat, I know something is up. "Guilia, get to the fucking point."

"Why was everyone so supportive of a family marriage to a girl from a nondescript family with no ties to anyone?"

Because it didn't ruffle feathers, was what I thought. At least in the beginning.

"Franco, she is the Aria Dilio. The only survivor of that Dilio Mafia family. You know, the one that got massacred?"

"What?" I think I heard my sister wrong.

"Dilio! Your marriage tied the two oldest families in the mob together." She really is a fucking liar. "Vito is under threat because even if you two dim wits didn't know who she was, other people did."

"I never heard of Dom Dilio having a daughter. He had a son. A ghost no one has seen since the old man died. Everyone assumed he also got killed." I'm clambering for coherent thoughts. How did I know this? Why did she hide who she was? "This is why she didn't want to marry either of us."

"You're just lucky she didn't kill you both," Guilia says. "I might, though, if you ever take three days to rescue me again.

"I need to speak to my wife," I mutter.

"I'd say." Guilia takes her drink back. "Try not to be dickhead. You do love her no matter what her last name is."

I don't even know who she fucking is.

"Franco, she's carrying your child," My sister calmly reminds me.

But I am engulfed in the betrayal, how she lied to me. That's how she knew Loredana, not from Sunday school. Their fathers were best friends until they weren't. My sister is right; I was blinded. "I'm going to Dom's."

"You sent her to stay at Dominique's?"

"I didn't know who she was, did I?" No wonder she was so livid at me. Her ‘godfather' is rumored to have killed her father. She must hate him and probably me now. "He's her godfather."

"My godfather is doing twenty-to-life. You're not sending me for a sleepover, Franco. Come on." I wasn't thinking straight. I was worried about keeping everyone safe. "Go and fetch her, and for God's sake, bring her home."

I text Dominique that I am on my way to fetch Aria and that Guilia is safely home. I try calling her, but it goes to voicemail. She was angry with me. I should have listened, but I let my rage and revenge get in my way.

I park in front of his ostentatious house and sit in the car for ten minutes before I have calmed down enough to consider getting out.