Chapter Six

~ Vittorio ~

Tony was totally freaking out. I could see it. His pupils were blow wide and he was rubbing his arms like he was seconds away from crawling out of his skin.

The next time Tony walked past me, I grabbed him by the arms. "What's wrong, Tony?"

I needed to get to the bottom of this before we took off. If he freaked out once we were in the air, he could cause the airplane to crash.

Tony shook his head. "I don't know."

"Tell me what you're thinking, what you're feeling," I demanded. "What's freaking you out?"

Was this guy a head case?

"I can't get on that plane."

I wanted to groan. "Why not?"

Tony shook his head. "I don't know."

"Are you afraid of flying?"

"No, I've never flown before, but it actually seems kind of exciting."

"Then what is freaking you out?"

Tony started to shake his head, but his gaze landed on the airplane. "I don't think I can get on that airplane."

This was going to make things messy.

"Tony, we have to get on the plane," I explained. "It's the only way for us to get home."

Tony shook his head frantically this time. "Nope."

I sighed, feeling a major migraine coming on. "Why don't you want to get on the plane, Tony?"

"Because I don't want to die!"

"Okay, okay," I said, trying to calm him down. "Just calm down. We don't have to get on the plane if you really don't want to."

Instead of being relieved, Tony shoved a hand through his hair and started pacing again. "Everyone needs to get off the plane."

My eyebrows shot up. "You want everyone off the plane?"

Tony nodded.

I wasn't sure what was freaking him out so much, but if taking everyone off the plane calmed him down, I'd do it. He was the boss after all.

I ordered Boris to tell everyone to get off the plane, including the pilot. He gave me a confused frown, but did as I said. When everyone came down the stairs, I gestured for them to go stand in the registration office. I didn't want them to see their boss losing it.

"Okay, Tony, everyone is off the plane. Is that better?"

Tony nodded. "Is there any way we can rent another plane?"

My jaw dropped. "You want to rent a different plane?"

I had honestly thought he was terrified of flying.

"I won't get on that plane," Tony said vehemently. "But we still need to fly to Italy, don't we?"

"Yes, but..." I squinted at him before glancing at the airplane. What I was thinking didn't make any sense, but I couldn't shake the feeling that Tony knew something I didn't.

I snapped my fingers, getting Mateo's attention. "Go get two guards and search the plane, every inch of it. Look for anything out of place."

"Yes, sir."

I grabbed Tony by the arm and pulled him to the far side of the hangar. If there was something about the airplane that I needed to be worried about, protecting Tony was my first priority.

It took about twenty minutes before Mateo came rushing down the steps and then hurried across the hangar toward us.

"Stay here," I told Tony before going to meet the guard.

"Sir," the man said in a low tone, "we found something hidden in the bathroom behind the paper towel rack."

"What?"

"I think it's a bomb, sir."

"A..." My mouth opened and closed several times, but I couldn't seem to form words.

"Sir, what do you want us to do?" Mateo asked.

"Keep everyone off the plane. I need to make a phone call." As I pulled my cell phone out of my pocket, I turned and that's when I spotted Tony watching us.

Instead of making my phone call, I walked over to him. "How did you know?"

Tony frowned at me. "Know what? What did they find?"

"There is a bomb in the bathroom."

Tony paled, turning ashen white.

"How did you know?" I asked again.

Tony shook his head. "I didn't."

He had to have known.

"Tony—"

"Look, I didn't know, okay? I just felt like something was off, but I didn't know what it was. I had no idea you'd find a...a b-b-bomb." Tony suddenly dropped down into a crouch, cradling his head in his hands. "Oh man, someone really is out to kill me."

It certainly looked that way.

I dialed Vinnie Borelli. I certainly wasn't going to call the cops. "Mr. Borelli," I said as soon as he answered. "This is Vito Antonelli. I need your assistance."

"What seems to be the problem?" Vinnie asked.

"We found a bomb on our plane," I replied. "Considering who we are, I wasn't sure calling the police was the right choice. I'm not sure how things are done here in New York City."

"Is the bomb still active?"

"Well, it hasn't gone off yet, but I don't know much more than that. We found it in the bathroom behind the paper towel rack. I decided not to mess with it."

"Good choice," Vinnie stated. "I assume you're at the airport?"

"Yes, the executive hangar."

"All right, I'm sending some men there now. One of them is an expert in explosives. He should be able to disarm it. In the meantime, I'd suggest you get everyone out of there."

"I appreciate this, Mr. Borelli."

"I thought I told you to call me Vinnie."

I smiled. "Yes, sir."

"Okay, my people will be there soon."

"Thank you." I hung up, ordered Mateo to make sure everyone stayed away from the airplane, and then walked over to join Tony. "Vinnie is sending someone to disarm the bomb."

"I gathered from your conversation that we're not calling the cops?"

"Not a good idea," I said. "There would be too many questions."

"Oh, there are still going to be questions." Tony stood up and started pacing again. "How did someone know I was going to be on that plane? And when did they have time to put it in place? Isn't this hangar guarded?"

"Maybe," I said, "but I'm pretty sure they have surveillance. They might have caught something on camera that can give us a clue as to who is after you."

Tony glanced toward the office where everyone was waiting. "Do you trust everyone here?"

"I do," I said without hesitation. "I vetted them and trained them myself."

"Then let's go check out the video surveillance and see if your trust in them was well placed or not."

I nodded and started walking toward the office. I wasn't sure the manager would share the video willingly, but he would share it. I probably just needed to slip him a little money to get him to cooperate.

These guys got paid crap.

When we reached the office, I told Mateo to wait for Vinnie's men and then went to find the manager. Tony was right on my heels as I went to negotiate with the manager.

Surprisingly, it only took a hundred dollars to get the guy to agree to let us watch the video recording. I shoved everyone out of the room except for Tony and Boris and then sat down in the chair in front of the monitor to start watching the video.

"If you see anything, call it out."

I quickly rewound the video to where the jet had entered the hangar and then slowly hit play and watched right up until everyone came off the airplane just a few minutes ago.

I didn't see a damn thing.

I rewound the video, going back to the beginning again and then watched it again. I still didn't see anything. No one went near the plane except the fuel guy, but he never entered the plane. The pilot got off the plane and went into the office, but he was back less than ten minutes later.

Nothing unusual there.

"I didn't see anything." I glanced over my shoulder to Tony and Boris. "Did either of you?"

My heart sank when they both shook their heads.

"Is there any way that someone could have put the bomb on the plane before you all left Italy?" Tony asked.

I didn't see how, but that actually made sense considering the last bomb had initiated there.

"It's possible I suppose." I'd know more once the bomb was disabled and I could get a look at it. Right now, I didn't want anyone going onto the plane in case it exploded. We'd already lost too many people. I didn't want to lose more.

"Who had access to the plane back in Italy?"

I shook my head. "I'll have to have Carmine look into it. I know there is surveillance there. It's our hangar. If there's something there, he'll find it."

"Can you call him?"

"I'll do that right now," I said as I stood. "Why don't you go out and wait for Vinnie's men?"

Tony nodded and walked out of the room.

I dialed my Uncle Carmine and then waited for him to answer. "Hey, this is Vito. There's a problem here."

"What happened?" Carmine asked.

It didn't feel right to talk about the weird interaction I'd had with Tony about his refusal to get on the airplane, so I just said, "We found a bomb on the airplane before take-off."

"Are you okay?" Carmine asked urgently. "What about Anthony?"

"No, no," I said quickly. "Everyone is fine. We found the bomb before it went off."

" Oh, grazie a Dio ."

"I need you to check the video surveillance at the hangar and see who had access to the plane. We didn't find anything here so the bomb had to be put on the plane before we left Italy."

"Yes, of course," Carmine replied. "I'll look into it right away."

"Vinnie Borelli is sending someone over to disarm it and get it off the plane," I explained. "I'll call you when it's over."

"Borelli, huh? Be careful of him," Uncle Carmine warned. "He's not as easy to deal with as his grandfather. I've also heard some disturbing rumors about him."

"Rumors?" My eyebrows lifted. "What rumors?"

Was this something I needed to be aware of?

"They are just rumors, Vito, and I don't like spreading rumors without proof."

"Just tell me," I insisted.

"The rumor floating around is that not only is Borelli gay, but he married a man. I guess they allow that in America now."

I rolled my eyes and refrained from huffing in disgust. I knew my uncle was old school and believed only a man and a woman could get married. He also wasn't that much in favor of people that were gay, although he mostly ignored it, but this?

"Yes, Borelli did marry a man," I said. "I met with them both earlier."

"You met him?" he asked. "So, it's true?"

"Yeah, it's true."

There was silence for a moment and then Carmine asked, "And his grandfather allowed that?"

"I guess," I replied. "I didn't ask."

It was really none of my business.

"I see," Carmine replied.

I clenched my jaw, trying to hold back my biting words. Carmine was old school. I got that. He was also straight as an arrow. I got that, too. But that didn't mean I agreed with anything he said.

Except for this one little thing, my uncle was a great man and I admired him a lot. I grated on me every time it came up simply because I was gay. I'd never told my uncle because he'd been spouting this garbage since the time I was in diapers.

To give him some due, it had been that way in the mafia for decades, maybe even centuries. It wasn't until the last few years that being gay in the mafia became accepted, and then only by a few.

That was the culture my uncle grew up in.

"Who Vinnie Borelli is married to is none of our business," I stated firmly.

"Well," Carmine said, "I guess nothing can be done about it now anyway. We just need to steer clear of him."

I winced at those words. "I'm afraid that might not be possible."

"Why not?"

"Because Borelli wants to discuss a deal with us," I replied. "He's looking into new shipping to Asia and wants to talk to us about it."

Carmine sighed. "We can't pass up a chance to get into bed with the Borelli family, as much as it galls me to do business with that man."

"I wouldn't mention that if I was you."

"No, no, of course not."

If anything, Carmine's sense of etiquette when it came to business would keep him from saying anything to Borelli. I would have to warn Borelli about my uncle and let him know that bringing his husband to any meetings was probably not a good idea.

Not because he should be ashamed of being married to a man, but because I didn't want Nicky to be exposed to my uncle. Nicky seemed like a good guy and didn't deserve that kind of animosity. I didn't deserve it either, which was why I doubted I would ever tell my uncle that I was gay.

"Let's talk about this later, Uncle. Right now, I need you to look at those surveillance videos. I need to know who put that bomb on the plane."

"You're right, of course. I'll go take a look and get back to you."

I had never been so glad to get off the phone with my uncle as I was in that moment. I really wished he'd get over his hang-ups when it came to gay men. There was nothing wrong with being gay, even in the mafia.

Borelli was proof of that. He was no less lethal than he had been before he came out as gay. If anything, he had become more dangerous since marrying his husband. He had something to protect now.

I stuck my phone back into my pocket and walked out of the security room to see if Borelli's men had arrived yet. I wasn't sure I wanted to mention the conversation I'd had with my uncle to Tony, but I did need to warn him about Carmine's dislike of gay men.

Hell, for all I knew, he could be thinking the same way. Better to not mention I was gay. I preferred my brain without a bullet in it.

"Are Borelli's guys here yet?" I asked when I spotted talking with Mateo near the door.

"Not yet," Tony said as he turned to me. "Were you able to reach your uncle?"

"I did. He said he'd call if he found anything." Carmine had said a lot more than that, but now wasn't the time to bring that up.

"I actually kind of hope he doesn't because that means there is someone in Italy out to kill me."

"We already know there is someone in Italy out to kill you," I reminded him. "It doesn't matter if they are here in America or back in Italy. We'll catch them." I wasn't sure how, but I promised myself to make it happen.

I turned toward the door when I heard a vehicle pull up. When I saw two large black SUVs, I gestured to one of the guards to go out and check on who it was.

I wasn't about to let Tony go out there.

When the guard came back, Vinnie Borelli was with him.

"I didn't expect you, sir."

Vinnie shrugged. "I wanted to come and see what all the noise is all about."

I had no idea what to say to that.

Vinnie gestured to a very large man that stepped into the office behind him. "This is Fred. He works for a friend of mine, but he knows his stuff. Jake loaned him to me with the understanding that I return him in one piece."

I shook Fred's hand. "Thank you for coming."

"Mr. Borelli said that you found an unexploded bomb?" the massive man asked.

"Yeah, we found it in the bathroom paper towel dispenser on Mr. D'Angelo's personal airplane."

"Everyone should stay here for their own safety." Fred nodded once and started walking toward the hangar.

"Hey, are you sure you can disarm it?" I asked. "It's not worth your life."

The man gave me a quick nod. "I was a demolition expert in the service. I've got this."

I hoped so.

I stepped into the hangar, but stayed by the door as I watched Fred walk to the plane and board it. The waiting was excruciating. I expected the plane to explode at any second.

I was shocked as shit when Fred walked out of the stairs and down the stairs twenty minutes later, a small black box looking thing in his hand. When he carried it over to me, I didn't know whether to run or stay and ask questions.

"It's perfectly safe now, sir," Fred said as he held it out. "I'd say whoever made this device barely knew what they were doing. The bomb is rudimentary at best, which is probably why it didn't go off before now."

I eyed the little black box with trepidation. "It can't go off, right?"

"No, sir." Fred held out his hand and showed me two brass cylinders. "It no longer has the parts needed to set it off."

That was a relief.

"So, you don't think it was a professional?"

"Whoever made it did have some skill," Fred explained, "but not on a professional level. He might be just starting out in the business and trying to make a name for himself or something."

That knowledge didn't get me any closer to figuring out who had done this. I was still clueless.