Into the Darkness: a mafia love story

Giovanni POV: 

She had the file her mother kept on her phone, she had taken photos of everything to keep it safe. There was only one lead for us, the name of the agency. The Hellmans Private investigators had closed ten years ago with no website and no cell phone. 

I had to go into an old Yellow Pages to find the address. It was quite shocking to see a business so under wraps. No wonder it went out of business. 

We went to the address and asked the new tenant if they knew anything. Luca found it quite amusing when the man became as skittish as a cat. He said his pleasant face fell flat instantly, and he was quite irritable and asked him to leave if he had no interest in blinds. Luca got the same reaction across the street at the bar: polite welcome in, cordial small talk, then the moment the PI was brought up, a cold change and a rough refusal. Whatever was going on, the PI didn't want to be found, and people around them were working hard to help keep it that way. 

We weren't giving up trying to see if there was any name attached to the business and looking for them that way, but there was little to no evidence this person existed. We were tempted to hire our own man to find them, but when we made contact with a PI, we were told it was bad business to trade on a comrade in arms. I did notice a slight flinch when we mentioned the agency name. 

Sadly, we had to leave that as it was for a while, chasing down cold leads and running into the stone walls. We needed the information, but we had no way of getting to it, Arianna went over the letter again and again, trying to see if her mother left any clues for her, but it seemed unlikely. Even from the grave, she didn't want her daughter involved in the life they had left behind. 

I couldn't understand it, if she wanted to protect her daughter and ensure a long and happy life for her, why not share the evidence she had on her ex-husband? Whatever it was, it was good enough to have kept the biggest bully I'd ever met in check for ten years. It also was so damning he'd practically demolished the house to find it. 

Sadly, we continued without any luck with the PI, in other areas, we had every ounce of luck in the world. The drug makers for Domenico were found guilty, meaning his drug ring was shut down for the moment. Domenico was struggling to find replacements that would make as good of a product, and considering his last guys got pinched in a blood bath, he wasn't getting any sane recruits. 

I had to revel in his misery for the moment we had it, he would strike soon, with as wounded as he was, it was bound to be bloody. We made sure everyone was taken care of, and our people were checked thoroughly in and out of the house. I didn't allow anyone besides myself and Luca to be alone with Arianna. If he came for her once, no doubt he would try again, and he wouldn't be as cunning this time. 

We covered all of our bases, keeping our men's families safe by sending them out of the city and making sure my people were in the same spots in new locations that Domenico knew nothing about. Sweeping areas daily for bombs, suspicious behavior, and new people. 

What I hadn't thought of was the innocent people on the street… 

Domenico was a brutal man who didn't get squeamish, but he had never outright hurt the people of this city. Every attack of his was directed at me, towards me. He was a calculating man, and he knew that harming those who walked down the road would attract too much attention, but it seems our rule book was up in smoke. 

We heard the screams first; they sounded like birds squawking, but then, as they got closer, we realized what they were. A woman screamed for help as she hobbled towards our block the men stopped her, but she posed no threat. Her assailant chasing her was taken down instantly. 

She had collapsed on the pavement, her shirt torn, her eye closed from swelling, blood streaking down her face. The rest came like zombies or a plague. Soon, fires erupted, broken glass shattered into the street, and cars swerving past each other in an attempt to flee. Domenico had brought hell to the city, unleashing his demons on the bystanders and reveling in their pain. 

I did what I had to do. I sent my men out to help break up the beatings, stop assaults, and protect those who had no weight in this game. I stayed inside, holing up in my room with her by my side, my gun in my hand as we waited for someone to break in. Night dragged on as screams filled the air, sounds of men dying, blood hitting your nose. 

I couldn't understand what had caused him to snap like this. Yes, we had him down, but he was never this vengeful before. I ran over in my head anything we may have missed if it was us chasing the PI that had him so feral until I heard from behind me. 

"This is my fault," SHe whimpered. Her kneels curled to her chest as she sat on the couch, her eyes off in the distance, flinching as a car alarm started afar. I turned to her wide-eyed, the pieces falling into place. 

This had nothing to do with me now. I was second fiddle to his ultimate prize. Dealing with me would be a nice cherry on top of breaking his daughter into submission and getting her back home where he could mold her into whatever nightmarish creature he'd imagined. 

"You have done nothing wrong," I vowed, she would break if she continued listening to this. If she saw any of it, she would never be the same again. My angel would see the blood on her hands, staining them for the rest of her life. 

I refused to let that happen. I got on the phone and called Luca up from downstairs, where he stood guard at the front door with my most trusted men. 

"We're leaving now," I ordered, and he agreed without argument. 

I would make sure everyone here was protected and fended, sending every person I had out into the streets to keep our spectators safe and help them get out of the city. I wondered where the police were in all of this and what devilish scheme he had in mind for them. It seems as if the city was slipping out of his grip Caputo would burn it to the ground and start over. 

I covered her in my coat and got her out to the garage her eyes were glued to the windows, but I pulled her into my shoulder. I won't let him win this. I'll do whatever it takes to fight this, though I didn't know how. 

She got into the car, Luca beside her in the back Arlo next to me, and we blazed through the city as fast as we could. Passing brawls, homes burning, mothers eeping, and dead. Her tears fell as she looked over them, pity and sorrow for every lost soul. It broke her to see them, and Luca pulled her away, telling her to close her eyes, but she refused, watching them all as they fell. 

I didn't know where we were headed, but I knew she needed to be anywhere else, he wasn't done with his torture yet. He would keep up his reign of terror until she begged to return home, no matter how long it took. 

I looked at her in the rearview mirror sullen, remorseful as if she had ordered this done. She was too good for this, and if I had to get further into the much of the world to keep her clean, I would. No matter what, he was going to pay for this, for the lives he'd spent as if they were nothing, for the families destroyed, and for the woman he was trying to pin it on.