“Yeah, but I didn’t think you would listen,” he says, shaking his head. “Idiot.”
Everything is ready to go, and I arm myself with everything possible without weighing myself down too much. I volunteered to go in and get the girl while everyone else covers for me. We have a plan of sneaking in with the change of the guards. The shift change happens at a slow pace, which enables us to walk in casually and blend in with the many faces that this man has watching over him. I get so far and side step to a corner where there is a side door with an alarm on it. It’s nothing I can’t handle, but once in, I have to take a deep breath and steady my rapidly beating heart. I have never been on a mission where I feared death before, but suddenly, I feel something tugging at me to leave. I shake it off and move forward, watching every movement that crosses me. I only have to go by two doors to get to the room I need. I step by the first and immediately have someone walk out behind me. Before he can fully comprehend that there is a stranger in the house, I swing my elbow into his throat, silencing him. A quick slam of his head into my knee and he is out cold. I slide his body into a closet and move forward. I make it to the room and ease in, finding two men sitting and watching the multiple security cameras.
They turn around and stare at me while I try to keep the bill of my cap pulled down low. “¿Qué desea?” one asks, standing up and starting to take a defensive stance. “¿Qué desea?” he yells at me while I verify the surroundings and plan my next move.
A quick flick of my wrist and I grab my gun, shooting them both silent. The silencer thankfully works and allows me time to adjust the system and hopefully give us enough time to get away.
The next part that should be the easy part, is actually going to be the hard part. The girl is heavily guarded on the outside, so I take a different route. Going into the room next door, I cut a hole through the wall as quietly as possible. It’s time consuming, way more than I would have liked it to be, but once through, I find the girl crumpled in a corner, bloody and disturbingly damaged. She can barely look up at me, forget walking. I pick her up and hold her against my chest, and she instantly lays her weak head on my shoulder. I have to maneuver her through the hole in the wall and then climb through myself. So far, so good—a little too good. Checking outside the window, I realize there is no way we can make it to where we need to be from this part of the house. I glance out the door and watch, waiting for an opportune moment to move. Running, that’s my only choice right now. With the girl slumped over my shoulder, I do just that and run right into five armed guards. Diving behind a wall, I avoid the onslaught of bullets and alert Leandra to my whereabouts, but there isn’t much they can do from the outside. I have to get out. Putting the girl down, I check the men trying to sneak up on me and shoot two. A third starts firing back at me, and I use the body of his friend to shield me before throwing the corpse on him. They fall to the floor, and I take my knife from my ankle and stab him in the neck. The other two come after me rapidly. Rolling to my side, I fire at them both and hold them off while I prepare a small distraction. Grabbing a nearby trashcan, I light it up and toss it in their corner, setting everything around them on fire. The distraction allows me enough time to get the girl out the window and meet up with my friends. I start to take a breath, but before I can, Guzman comes after us with a group of ten men with machine guns.
“Leave the girl and you can leave without trouble,” he says, surprisingly in English. He knew we were here. My friends cover me while I run with the girl to our getaway car where Nidia awaits. She refused to stay behind. The moment I approach, she runs to her sister and takes hold of her. I rush back around and fight off the men coming after us when more come up from behind, and then from the left side, and then from the right.
“Get out of here, Nidia! Take the car and go! Go straight to the airport. Do not go home!” I scream at her while still fighting and trying to save myself. They get away, but I am forced to my knees and dragged to a secure room with my friends who, thankfully, are all still alive—for now.
“They’re going to burn us alive in the town center,” Peter says.
Leandra stands up, shaking her head with an attitude. “They are going to have to kill me before I get there because I am going to fight with everything I have.”
I turn to them all and smile. “I discovered something while I was in the security room.”
Peter starts to smile. “You better not be fucking with us,” he says.
I shake my head and turn towards the sophisticated electrical system holding us in, a system I happened to have learned has a glitch. Peter catches on to my unspoken discovery and pulls a small, hidden knife from his ankle, sliding it over to me. I open up the wiring box and twist two of the wires together, confusing the system. I receive a small electrical shock touching the lock, but it doesn’t deny me what I want. The lock releases, and I open the door, allowing us to sneak out a side exit and only take out two guards in the process. We steal their guns and flee.
We are all smiles on our way back, joking about each other’s panicked expressions and thoughts of how we would say goodbye before our last few minutes alive. When we pull up to the safe house, our celebratory moods quickly turn more somber. Most of the place is tossed, and we find the young sister torn into pieces, left out for the animals to feed off of. Nidia is gone and so is her father, but his legs remain behind. They were supposed to run straight for the airport, not come back here. Guzman’s men followed them, making it easy to take them and do what they wanted, without even a threat of witnesses. We may have technically accomplished our mission, but it was all for nothing.
Peter grabs my arm and pulls me back to the car. “We gotta go. Now!”
The flight back was silent, and we never discussed the mission again. I never wanted to think of it again, but for some reason it reminded me of my mother and the person that murdered her. The man with the engraved skull and crossbones on the steel of his boots, has never been found, but I have never forgotten him. I have been longing for the day that my father finds him, but I am beginning to think that day is never coming, not without my assistance at least.
Chapter 4
Dace
Lurking in the shadows, I wait for my moment and then slip through a slow closing door before making my way up a back stairway to the locked room. The room holds the computer system I need, to release the locks and shutdown the alarm system to the prison that holds the political leaders we are trying to put back in power. A few computer ruses here and there and …bam, I’m in.
“Hey, how’s it going? We are getting a little anxious over here.” Peter’s voice comes through my ear piece with an anxious tone.
“I’m in. Just give me a minute to crack this system.”
“A whole minute? Damn you’re getting old,” he barks.
“Ha ha, I told you it was my birthday today only because you threatened to tell me the details about your night with Gina.” I cringe, considering the possible images.
“Ahh… Gina. So first, she slid that tight fitting sweater off and released that dark, dingy, and tattered bra, and then … ah damn those babies just fell to the floor and …”
“Oh fuck! I’m hurrying! I’m hurrying!”
“Make it faster before I get to what else of hers fell to the floor when it was released.”
“Done! Done! I’m done,” I exclaim, stopping his story before it goes on any further.
“Thanks, and we are in. See you later.”
I smile, rolling back in the chair with a few fist pumps in the air. My celebration is short lived though. Two guards come by before I can get out. Looking around the room, I quickly realize there are no windows and no way out of here other than the way I came in. I stand ready as they come in yelling at me. I don’t speak the language, but I am pretty sure they are not happy to see me.
“Hey guys, I was just looking for the bathroom.” They don’t seem to believe me as they both come at me with intimidating knives. I dodge one as he flies over my righ
t shoulder, but I take a hit on the left from the other. A quick dive to the floor and I cut his legs out from under him, forcing his head into the wall and knocking him out. Two hands wrap around my neck and drag me off the floor until I run up the wall and reverse the fuck’s hold on me and drag him back down to the floor. A swift twist and slam of his body and he’s out cold. “Nice to meet you gentlemen, but I have some birthday candles to blow out,” I say, slipping out the door and back out to the alleyway where I run into Leandra. “What are you doing here?”
“Making sure you made it out okay,” she says with her usual annoying attitude.
“I can take care of myself.”
“Uh-huh. If it hadn’t of been for me then you would have had more than two on your ass.”
I look off to my side and notice a few bodies pushed off into the dark corner. “I could have handled that.”
“Oh, you thought I meant them? No, I meant them …” she says, stopping me before we step out onto the street full of the army we are trying to take down. “Oh shit! What are they doing here?”
“Someone must have tipped them off. Lucky for you, I have found another way out of here. Follow me.”
I follow her into a building and down, underground, into some dark tunnels. I pay attention to everything around us while she seems to think it’s time to play with me. Grabbing my ass and rubbing the bulge in my pants, she moans as if she is having an orgasm from simply touching me. “Would you stop fucking with me and let’s go?”
She climbs on me, running her hands through my hair. “Why, are you scared? Are you afraid the scary men will come after us right in the middle of us fucking?”
“If you want to fuck, let’s do it when we don’t have to worry about someone shooting us in the back,” I say, pushing her off.
“You are such a prude sometimes.”
“And you’re such a lunatic sometimes.”
She stops dead in her tracks and turns to me. “Wrong! I am a lunatic all the time, but that keeps me alive. You’re too worried about dying, and that will only get you killed.”
I ignore her bullshit and move forward until we make it back to the safe house and can enjoy a beer with the others. Leandra is fun at times. She breaks up the daily grind with smelly, abrasive men, and every once in a while, she acts like a woman and allows me to enjoy being a man with her. Most of the time though, she only likes to use me to relieve her own frustrations. We have both been with others, and jealousy has never been a problem, but lately, she has been clingy and needy, something I have never seen from her before. I am not sure what her issues are, but it’s obvious we need to have a talk.
The mission is complete, and once we rejoin the others, we do our usual celebration. I sneak off to call my brother who is surely trying to get a hold of me for my birthday, only I can’t find my phone. I dig through all my things over and over until Leandra comes in with a sheepish smile.
“Looking for something?”
“Give it back Lee!”
“Why? I thought you didn’t have anyone—all alone, a reject, a loner like the rest of us?”
“Give me my phone back now,” I repeat through my teeth.
“No. I think instead I will share it with everyone else.” She runs out the door, and I chase after her, causing a cursed ruckus that forces everyone at the party to stop what they are doing and pay attention to us.
“What’s going on between you two?” Peter asks, helping pull us apart.
“He’s been hiding something from us, or someone rather,” she announces, proudly holding up my phone to everyone.
“It’s my phone and my business, no one else’s. I have made sure it’s secure. I haven’t done anything to jeopardize any mission, and I certainly have not held back any. I have a right to have my private life stay private!” I yell at her and anyone else that might have a problem with it.
“Calm down, Ghost. We are not here to persecute you. You’re right. You have a right to keep your personal life to yourself.”
“Peter, you can’t believe that he isn’t hiding something important from us?” she yells at him.
“Shut up! Your jealousy nearly cost us tonight, and you know what I am talking about. That little stunt to impress him caused way more attention than we needed to deal with. Now, give him his property back and stay out of others’ personal things or we will be forced to lock you down every night.” Peter hands out his hand for her to give him my phone, which she does with a forceful plunge into his palm. Peter stares her down while reaching out to me with my phone.
I take my phone and rush off to be alone and make my call. I notice I have received many calls from Antony and messages saying, “I need you.” No doubt, Leandra read all of them from the person I tagged as “A.C.”. I take a deep breath and call Antony. “Hey, it’s me, how are you?”
“Damn. I was beginning to think you were dead or something. Where have you been? I wanted to wish you a happy birthday. I was actually hoping to convince you to come home for your birthday and spend it with your favorite brother.”
“That would have been nice, I’m sure, but I’m fine here. I have had a lot of work to do is all, Antony. No need to worry about me. What about you? Why do you sound so tense?”
“I decided to return to the family and work for our father.”
“Ah fuck! I told you to move on, to find another life away from him.”
“I tried, Dace! I tried, but I needed money and …”
“You don’t need their money. I would have sent you money.”
“I don’t want your money. I don’t want their money. I just want …”
I sit back sighing, knowing what he wants. “Their acceptance is not going to make the pain go away. Father’s acknowledgment of what happened to Ma is not going to make everything okay again. They know you’re gay, Antony. They are never going to allow you to be in a prime position in the family business. You’re a liability as far as they are concerned.”
“Dace, listen. I know I can prove to them I can do whatever they need me to; I just need a chance. If you would talk to them …”
“No! No, Antony. I don’t want back into that mess.”
“Dace, please. Please. You left. You ran away, and well, I don’t want to runaway anymore. I want to face it, work it out, and be happy for once, and perhaps, get revenge for Ma. Michael wants the same. He is still a mess from Wendy being killed. I think he is ready to start kicking some ass too.”
“And Ettore?” There is nothing but silence. “Antony?”
“Ettore is using his anguish and Father’s aged mind to take over the family business. Michael is too busy trying to get elected to care. I mean, he cares about Ma, but he is busy.”
“So, basically, you are the only one there that really cares about our mother. Let it go, Antony. Let it all go and move on with your life somewhere else.”
“No, Dace! If you’re not going to come back here and help me, then I’ll do it myself. I’ll get justice for our mother while you’re finding it for strangers,” he says before hanging up on me.
I go through a series of emotions, during the days since my conversation with Antony. Even though I travel to the next place with the crew, my head is with my brother. I try calling him over and over, but he won’t answer. Antony has been getting into more and more trouble the last few years. The last trouble he met caused him to get into using drugs and other dumb shit that got him kicked out of school. I had to put him in a hospital to help him get over that asshole. I was hoping he would find his own way once he got out, and he seemed to be, but something drew him back to the family, or someone. I am assuming it is the same someone that has been leaving me messages to come back.
As I get ready to head out for the next information gathering mission, I am stopped by Peter. “You stay here and work out whatever is going through that head of yours. I need you to be focused, not thinking about whatever it is back home that has you distracted right now.” He doesn’t give me a chance to argue before
seeing to it that I am blocked by others from leaving. Frustrated and unusually bored, I try my brother again and am surprised that he answers.
“Heyyy, Dace.”
“Are you okay?” I ask, happy to hear his voice.
“I am fine. I am so fine that I am making myself even more fine. I have good news! I have met someone wonderful, and he and I are going to get married. I am going to talk to Father and ask for him to pay for the wedding. We can have a great, big, beautiful Italian wedding,” Antony laughs. “It’ll be the event of the century,” he says as I hear another man’s voice in sweet agreement.
“Antony, don’t do anything stupid,” I say.
“Stupid? How can being in love be stupid? Everything is perfect, Dace. Don’t you worry; I got it handled.” He puts down the phone, failing to hang up and allowing me to listen in as my brother discusses the lavish life they could have together once Antony secures his marriage trust fund, a fund set up for each child to help him get started with his new marriage, a fund I am sure my father never had in mind for my brother and his new partner that no one else has met.
My little brother is clearly in over his head and out of his damn mind. Antony was a good kid, but the older he got, the more it became clear that he was gay, and that made it even harder for him to be a Colletto. I tried to stay away. I tried to hope for the best, even tell myself that he didn’t need me and he would figure it out. Every time I call, he sounds worse, more distant and even more lost than a wandering gypsy. It’s time. I have to return home, no matter how much I hate to leave. I have made some great friends and become a part of something. It has been great with this crew. No one has asked or cares who I really am, who my family is. It’s the greatest hiding place I could have ever hoped for; however, this wandering ghost gypsy needs to go home again and settle the past for good.
As I sit silently waiting in the dark, Peter comes in and sits down next to me with a deep sigh. “I’m not even going to ask, why, but instead, I will ask, are you sure?”