(Filippo Valentini)
I pull out a chair and sit down opposite Ruan, the waiter who made an attempt on my life and Renata’s at the party. He is hanging by three chains, two on his hands and one on his neck. He can only touch the tips of his feet to the ground, so as not to hang himself to death.
“Good evening, are you comfortable?” I ask, watching the blood dripping through the openings of the bullets I’ve accepted in him.
“You son of a bitch!” He spits, melting my imported shoes.
I signal with my hand, and Lucca hits him in the legs with a hot iron club. The base of the club is made of wood, which doesn’t hurt the hands of my right arm down here.
“Ah!” Ruan cries out in pain, his knees bend and the chain around his neck begins to hang him, struggling, he manages to balance himself again.
“Twenty years old, son of a drug dealer, mother beaten to death for betraying his father, older brother, soldier for the Onore mafia,” I start to tell the things I know about him, take out my cell phone and open the picture Lucca sent me. “A ten-year-old sister, who lives with her grandparents in the countryside.” I turn the screen of the cell phone and he stares when he sees his little sister playing. “A little white coffin, this is so sad.”
“Don’t you dare touch her, you little shit!” Shouts angrily, I roll my eyes and signal once more, Lucca, takes the bat out of the oven and hits him once more. I don’t mind his screams, to me, it’s like music.
If he hadn’t made the mistake of shooting my ragazza, I might have spared him. In the Mafia it is like this: “vita per vita, occhio per occhio, dente per dente” – life for life, eye for eye and tooth for tooth. I killed his brother, he had the right to want to claim blood for blood.
But to his misfortune, my wretched father managed to teach me never to have mercy on anyone. And I won’t start with this sewer rat, who dared to shoot my ragazza.
“I don’t have all the time in the world, and neither does your sister,” his eyes twitch, that’s good, he’s going to start talking. “Tell me, how did your brother manage to get into Onore?”
Onore is run by the famiglia Rafaelli, who are allied with the famiglia Martinelli, who would be allied with my famiglia if I had married their heiress – who ran away and disappeared into the world.
“They sell the drugs to the owner of the drug trade. My brother was a salesman at rich people’s parties, but he wanted to get into something bigger, so he went directly to them and asked to join.”
“And he did, just by asking?” I ask with a raised eyebrow.
“I don’t know, he wouldn’t tell me, he told me to stay away from that life.”
“Stronzo” – “idiot.” How stupid to try to kill me. I thought Americans were proud of your incredible intelligence and cunning…
“You killed my brother!” He shouts interrupting me. “You are the son of a bitch who came out of nowhere and shot him in the head! Leaving his body lying on the ground like garbage!”
“Which he really was,” I say calmly. “The world is better off without that maggot.”
“The world would be better off without that gold-digging whore you saved!”
I take a deep breath to control my anger, but fail. I stand up and punch him in the face, feeling the cartilage in his nose. I mentally count to three.
“You bastard, you son of a bitch!” He yells.
“You dare to insult her one more time, and you’ll get a bullet in your forehead,” I threaten, and sit back down. “I don’t like rapists, and for me, they should all be dead, God knows how many women your brother hasn’t done it with.”
“My brother has never raped anyone! Despite being ambitious, he has principles!” He shouts in defense of his brother. Which doesn’t convince me.
“I know, he tried to drag my employee into a dark alley at night, giving her a key to her neck to make her faint, and he has principles?”
“James and the old man told him to do it! They wanted the girl?” He replies, quickly shutting up and making me more interested.
“Tiago Bravanel, Parlemo’s former capo?”
He doesn’t answer, just stares at me, making me impatient, I repeat the movement and Lucca once again hits him with the hot cue.
“Y-yes,” he answers before Lucca hits him again.
“Why?”
“I… I don’t know, my brother just asked me to drive the car! He said we could change our lives with the money he would receive for it.”
“What does Tiago want with Renata?” – I try to find a logical answer. But I can’t think of anything that links this shit to my ragazza. Unless…
“Is James involved with trafficking in women?” I question, Tiago was involved in the trafficking of child organs, I wouldn’t be surprised if he was involved in this filth as well. “Did he know my employee?” I ask just to make sure that Renata was the victim ordered.
“I don’t know, I don’t know Tiago, I have only heard his name mentioned. When he called my brother, a woman was there, and it was she who gave him the photo of the girl who was to be kidnapped.”
“What woman?”
“She didn’t tell us her name. But she was all posh, in business clothes, blonde hair, light green eyes, thin nose. She said that this woman stole her man and got her fired, that Renata had usurped everything from her.”
“Did she have a tattoo on her neck?” I ask, already suspicious of who it is.
“Yes, a half moon.”
So Veronica and Tiago meet. “How did they meet? Was she the one who asked him to kick Renata’s ass? Who is this old man?” – several theories start to be made in my mind, and I hate not having the answers.
“Who was the old man?”
“I don’t know.”
“You’re making me lose my patience, kid.”
Ruan starts to laugh, I raise my eyebrow, until a few moments ago he was roaring in pain and with his mouth hanging open, but when it comes time to say who this old man is, he starts to laugh.
“What are you laughing at?” I ask.
– This Renata, man, she must really have a golden pussy, three heavy men wanting her. She must be fucking hot, a real little bitch, too bad I couldn’t get my hands on her…
*Pow* I stood up and shot her in the middle of her forehead.
“I told you so,” I say, even though I know he can no longer hear me.
“Cazzo, boss!” Lucca exclaims looking at the body on the ground, I notice his hesitant look. – How will we track the old man now?
“If you can’t find him, what do I need you for?” I ask, referring to the tracking team. Lucca lowers his head; he knows it’s not good to be funny when I’m stressed. “Clean this up.” I command and leave the yellow room.
> Next day, at Renata’s house:
“I brought lunch,” I enter her apartment, she smiles and comes excitedly to meet me, giving me a kiss.
“Welcome!” She speaks happily, this makes me feel strange inside, I have never before heard a welcome, and hearing this from her, makes me strangely happy. “I was starving!”
We walked to her kitchen and I set the plates on the table. I bought two small plates of Brazilian food for her. I remembered that she told me she liked to eat the so-called trooper beans, with a lot of things mixed together.
“Do you want help to eat?” I ask, I know she can eat by herself, but I don’t understand why I feel like taking care of her so much.
“Yes, please!” She answers and opens her mouth, I smile. It’s so light when I’m with her.
I take the fork and start feeding my ragazza, who like a good girl, eats everything. When we finish eating, we brush our teeth and sit down on the couch in her living room. She lays her head on my chest while she looks for a movie on the TV, and I start to stroke her soft and smelly hair.
Why do I feel so… at home with her? Is that what it feels like?
“I’m not finding anything interesting,” she complains. I take the control from her hand and she raises her head to face me, I caress her cheek and she closes her eyes.
Her face is so serene and sensual, I hold her face and pull her away from my chest. Her thin pink mouth, “how would it look sucking me off?”, I always think this when I see her biting her lip in a sexy way without realizing it.
I lower my head and kiss her, our tongues meet and the kiss becomes more intense, I run my fingers along the back of her neck and lightly pull the strands, her hands come to my back and start to squeeze me. I push her body away and settle between her legs, being careful with her arm, she gasps when she feels my volume in her femininity.
“Filippo,” she moans my name while I distribute wet kisses and nibble her neck.
Her face is flushed and her eyes closed, I move my hand down the side of her body until I reach her panties, I smooth all over her intimacy and Renata becomes hotter and hotter, I slip my finger inside the cloth, and she is already wet. I introduce my finger into her tight channel.
“She screams softly and tries to move her hips away from my contact. Shit, she’s not ready yet.”
I pull my hand out of her panties, and get off her. I look down at my pants and my cock is so hard it hurts.
“I’m sorry, I…”
“No need to apologize, I’d better go,” I stood up in frustration.
It’s not her fault, I’ve gone two weeks without sex by choice. But this accumulated hard-on is making me very irritable, anything will stress me out.
“Let me have a good arm, then we can do it,” she says, holding me by the arm.
“Are you sure?” I ask with a raised eyebrow. – I don’t want to rush you.
“You’re not rushing me, you’re the man I chose, and I even took a risk for you,” she says looking into my eyes.
“Would you have done that if it were anyone else?”
“Of course not! I value my life.”
I kiss her forehead and hug her. My piccola ragazza, I don’t know why, but I hope she is being sincere with me.
My cell phone starts ringing forcing me to undo the hug. I look at the screen and Camilly’s name flashes.
“Talk,” I answered.
“We found a lead on Tiago, come on – end the call.”
I look at Renata who stares at me with shining eyes.
“I have to go, but I’ll talk to you later.”
“Are you going to the company?”
“No, it is outside the company, an urgent meeting with a client,” I lie, and I see her eyes losing their shine.
“All right, I’ll wait for your message when I get home.”
“Yes, I will,” I kiss her again, squeezing her thin waist and grabbing my arm. I only stop kissing her when our lungs run out of air.
With a kiss, I leave her apartment and go to work as an agent.