Chapter Twenty-Two

~ Anthony ~

It might have been several years since I'd seen her, but I'd know my mother's face anywhere. Her image had a starring imagine in my nightmares. I doubted I would ever forget it.

But one of the guards had referred to her as Mrs. Romano.

I turned my head so I could whisper into Vito's ear. "Vito, one of them called her Mrs. Romano."

There were clues starting to come together in my head and I didn't like the conclusions I was coming to.

One...Carmine had said the Romanos wanted Luca's family eliminated.

Two...The Romanos had given him information about our crash including pictures.

Three...When we had been kidnapped, Vito was the only one beaten up. I had been left alone.

Four...They had kidnapped Nico.

Five...My mother, who I hadn't seen in years, was suddenly here.

Six...She was referred to as Mrs. Romano.

Those clues led to questions I needed answers to. Had she been involved with the deaths of the entire D'Angelo family? Was I on her list of people to kill? Was she intending to kill Vito, too?

Was my mother behind all of this?

"Move," Vito growled in my ear again.

I realized I had been so deep in thought I had frozen in place. Vito was tugging on my arm trying to get me to crawl through the sand with him.

I started moving again when I heard one of the guards shout that a boat had been spotted moving toward them. I couldn't prevent myself from looking, but what I saw sent fear racing through me.

It wasn't just a boat. It was an entire armada. There were at least ten boats moving toward the beach at a high rate of speed.

I started crawling as fast as I could.

The noise on the beach started getting louder, people shouting as they ran toward the two inflatable boats waiting for them. I thought we were home free until I heard the unmistakable click of a gun cocking.

I froze again, swallowing hard before slowly turning my head. "Hey, Mom, long time no see."

"I've been waiting for you, son."

"Really?"

My mother gestured with her gun for us to get up.

I was quick to get to my feet, Vito a little slower. He tried to move around me to place himself between me and my mom, but I knew the kind of violence she was capable of. I didn't want him hurt.

A couple of guards rushed over, their guns pointed at us. When my mother started walking, we were forced to walk with her. She headed over to the small group of men standing there watching us.

When she walked up to one of them and wrapped her hands around his arm I asked, "New customer?"

I fell back into Vito's arms when she smacked me across the face.

I probably should have seen that coming.

"Remember that whole don't get dead thing?" Vito whispered. "You're skating really close to the edge right now."

"I don't care who he is," I replied in a louder tone. "I just want to know why she is doing all of this. Why try to kill me? Why kidnap Nico?"

"I wasn't trying to kill you, Anthony," my mother insisted. "I need you alive."

"Why?"

It was an honest question.

"Without you, how am I supposed to take over the D'Angelo family?" That question came from the man at my mother's side.

"Who are you?" I asked.

"Geno Romano."

I nodded absently. I had been expecting him to be a Romano. "And what makes you think you can take over the D'Angelo family?"

"You're the only one left, aren't you?"

I narrowed my eyes. "You set the bomb that killed my entire family?"

He just went to the top of my hit list.

"So, let me guess. You're the idiot Romano that harassed Nico at the last conclave, right? Is that why you kidnapped him?"

Geno's eyes became hooded by his prominent eyebrows as he glared at me. "That disgusting little brat deserved it."

"You're pissed because you turned him down?" I glanced at the woman who had given birth to me, the only good thing she had ever done in her life. "My mother getting too old for you?"

When my mother raised her hand to smack me again, I grabbed his wrist as it came down. "Fuck you, you two-bit whore! It should have been you that died that day."

I pulled my knife out of my pocket with one hand and yanked down on my mother's arm with the other. When she stumbled and started to fall, I gave her a good shove and leapt at Geno, driving the knife into his chest as hard as I could.

I was very aware of the fact that this would probably get me killed, but if I could create an opportunity for Vito to escape, it would be worth my life.

"Vito, run!" I shouted as I yanked the knife free and jumped toward the next guy.

"Not on your life," Vito called back. "You go, we both go."

Damn fool.

I swung my leg around, kicking out and slamming it into one of the guards while swiping the knife blade across the throat of another one.

When I heard a gun go off, I was pretty sure my life expectancy had just been shortened by a lot. Still, I refused to go down without a fight.

I darted for the next guy, but instead of stabbing him I grabbed the strap of the automatic rifle in his hand, looped it over his head, tightened it around his throat, and then I started spinning him. Every time I needed him to pull the trigger, I jerked on the heavy canvas strap.

Worked like a charm.

Within moments only me and Vito stood on the beach. Everyone else was either dead or dying.

I glanced at Vito, my eyes instantly dropping to the blood dripping down his arm. "You've been shot."

"It's nothing," he said. "Just a flesh wound."

"Nothing?" Were those spots dancing in front of my eyes? "You've been shot!"

Hysterical mode engaged.

"Tony, I'm fine. I promise."

I wasn't buying it.

I walked over to him and started to pull up his sleeve when Vito pointed to the bodies on the ground a few feet away. "Don't you think we'd better deal with them first?"

Oh, right, them.

I picked up one of the dropped guns off the ground and walked over to my mother, pressing the tip of the barrel against her forehead. "Look, Ma, Santa brought me a nice new gun for Christmas. It comes with shiny bullets and everything."

God, I wanted to pull the trigger so damn bad.

"Since I like shiny things, I kind of want to keep them all. So, why don't you start talking so I don't have to put one of them in your fucking head?"

"You can't kill me," she protested. "I'm your mother."

"Funny, that mother son bond never seemed to bother you when you were knocking me around or locking me in a closet for days on end with no food. It certainly didn't bother you when took off with one of your customers, taking all of the money my father had sent me."

She looked a little more wary now. "I don't know what you are talking about."

"Then let me remind you." I pointed the rifle at her arm and pulled the trigger.

My mother screamed and grabbed her bleeding arm. She stared up at me with shock in her wide eyes. "You shot me!"

I pointed the rifle at her leg. "Want to try for the leg or has your memory been jogged?"

"Okay, okay, okay!"

"Start talking," I demanded. I could hear Vito moving around behind me, but kept my attention on my mother. "How do you know the Romanos?"

"Geno," my mother said. "He was the man I left with. We got married and I've been living with the Romano family ever since."

That actually made more sense than I thought it would.

"So, you married into the Romano family. So what? How does that relate to you trying to kill me?"

"I wasn't trying to kill you," my mother insisted.

"The bomb on the airplane? The crash? Getting kidnapped? The attack on the Sabatino estate? None of that was you trying to kill me?"

"Him." My mother pointed to Vito. "I was trying to kill him."

I didn't know whether to get angry or laugh.

"Why would you want to kill Vito? He's done nothing to you." At least nothing I knew of and I was pretty sure he would have told me.

"Because he's one of them."

"Them?"

"A D'Angelo."

"Actually, he's an Antonelli."

"He works for them. He's worked for your father for years. I hate them, all of them."

"That's why you killed them?" I asked her. "Some petty revenge?"

That was stupid.

"They deserved it," my mother snarled. "I should have been treated like a queen after that old man knocked me up. Instead, I was left with a brat and a monthly allowance that barely paid the rent. I had to turn tricks just to keep a roof over our heads."

I snorted in disgust. "You had to turn tricks because you never learned the fact that, despite popular belief, Prada is not a necessity."

She let out a bitter sounding laugh. "In your world I am sure that's true, but in my world, it is, and I want to continue living in that world."

"Let me guess, you made a deal with the Romanos. Eliminate the other families and they would give you whatever you wanted, right?"

A sly grin crossed my mother's lips. "Pretty much."

"You're an idiot." I pointed the rifle at my mother's head and pulled the trigger. I was walking away before her body even hit the ground. I walked right into Vito's waiting arms. "I want a nap."

"Okay, cara mia ." Vito wrapped his arms around me, pressing his hand to the back of my head. "Help is coming. We'll let them deal with this mess once they get here and we'll go back to the villa for a nap."

I snuggled into Vito, burying my face in his neck, until I heard several boats approaching. When I lifted my head and glanced toward the water, I saw Franco, Carmine, and another man climbing out of one of the boats. Several heavily armed guards were climbing out of the other two.

Franco, Carmine, and the stranger hurried over to us.

"Are you two okay?" Franco asked.

"Vito has a gunshot wound in his arm, but other than that we're okay," I answered. "How is Nico?"

"A little shaken up," Franco replied. "Luca is with him and the doctor is looking at him now."

Hopefully not the same doctor.

"What happened here?" Franco asked as he looked around with rounded eyes.

It did kind of look like a war zone.

"Beach party gone bad." I smirked. "Someone forgot to bring the beer so I shot them."

Franco's eyebrows lifted nearly to his hairline. "You did all of this?"

"Some of it." I winced as I glanced around. "I guess my body count went up again."

"Has Borelli's men arrived yet?" Vito asked.

Franco pointed to the stranger. "That's Borelli's guy right there."

"And the situation at the villa?"

"Borelli's men and your men took care of it. Everyone that lived has been locked up until we know who in the hell sent them."

"The Romanos."

Franco cocked an eyebrow.

It took several minutes for Vito and I to tell the story of what had happened, starting back to the day I was conceived and going forward through time from there.

By the time we were done talking, Vito and I were kind of slumped against each other. Him from his wound and me from exhaustion.

We really needed that nap.

"You can take the stairs up or ride in one of the boats to get to the docks where a car can take you back to the villa. Me and my men will take care of all of this."

"I vote boat," Vito said instantly. "I came down those stairs. There is no way in hell I am climbing back up them."

"Well, I ain't going back up the way I came," I countered. "I've been ordered not to do that anymore."

Vito huffed as he grabbed my arm and started leading me toward one of the boats. I thought it was going to be just the two of us until Carmine and the stranger climbed into the boat with us.

Vito squinted at the man as we got underway. "Do I know you?"

"This is Roman Borelli," Carmine said. "Roman Leonardo Borelli."

"Leonardo?" Vito's eyebrows snapped together. "But isn't he—"

Carmine's smile was a surprise, especially when he aimed it at Roman. "We were both lied to. The men that captured us when we tried to escape made it seem like each of us had died. I only saw Leonardo's broken and bloody body and heard someone say he was dead. Same as Roman."

"And you two haven't had the chance to meet in like fifty years?" Vito asked.

"We were from separate families in different areas of Italy, the chances of us meeting were pretty slim so they've been able to get away with separating us for all of these years."

I was listening with rapt attention, but I really had no idea what was going on. I hoped Vito would explain it to me later.

"So, what are you going to do now?" Vito asked.

Carmine smiled as he grabbed Roman's hand and held it. "Get to know the man I fell in love with fifty years ago."

Say what?

Vito leaned over to whisper in my ear. "Long story. I'll tell you later."

Okay, fine, whatever.

"I still want a nap."

Carmine smiled once again, but this time I was the recipient. "Yes, Boss."

I liked the way that sounded.