Falling from Grace

EIGHT

X

I arrived that the hotel on 5th avenue, it was one of our biggest and most luxurious hotels. I know Luca had come here to deal with a new deal with one of our rivals, the Russo's. They were from the same part of Italy as my family; however, we were not friends. We spent most of the time battling it out on the streets until a few years back. There was a truce forced into place after a few men from each of our families were taken in by the police and were serving sentences for their fighting.

Of course, the police convicted them for their last names, they knew getting a few of the men off the streets would either lead them closer to bagging the entire family or make us go quiet. It was the latter, I was not losing any good men to the police, FBI, or anyone for that matter.

Luca had a meeting with Carlos Russo, one of the main men in charge. This meeting was put in place to help establish our own territories. But the meeting went sour as Luca made clear over the phone in the car while I drove over.

New York traffic was not kind in an emergency.

I arrived around 30 minutes later; I strolled through the lobby before heading into the elevator and heading down to the basement. I was one of the only people who had the key card to this part of the hotel. Stalking my way down the hall I reach the door at the end, as it swings open, I see Carlos knocked out tied to a chair and Luca stood in the corner quite frankly looking scared for his life.

He knew I would kill him, I wasn't apposed to killing family if they fucked up. We were supposed to look out for one another, but I wasn't feeling that. Not when they were morons who messed everything up.

"What the fuck did you do?" I say through gritted teeth, as I stride over to Luca grabbing him by the scruff of his collar and pushing him against the wall. "What the fuck is this?" I shout into his face.

I rarely left Luca alone with stuff like this as he tended to fuck this kind of stuff up and this was just proving my point. The last time I allowed him to do something he nearly ended up dead and yet again I had to save his ass. Considering we grew up together doing the same training you would think that he wouldn't be so shit at everything. But he somehow managed to fumble every bag that was thrown his way.

"I didn't mean to- he came at me so I knocked him out and well now this happened" he stutters, sometimes I remember our training and how much of a scared little kid he could be sometimes.

"Go home, I will sort this out" I sigh.

Quickly Luca scurries out leaving me to deal with Carlos. I didn't have too many options, if I let him go then he would let his family know about this misunderstanding and then we would be back to a war. But if I keep him then his family will know he was here last and of course another war. I run my hand along my jaw line running across the stubble that lined my face. I now faced a huge dilemma.

~

I sat there with opposite Carlos as began to come too, I had my gun in my hand as I held it tight knowing this may end badly. I had never hesitated before at killing a man but when you're risking the rest of your family's life it becomes harder to shoot the man in front of you. The last thing I would want is to hurt my Mamma.

"What the fuck?" I hear Carols groan. My eyes watch him as he rolls his neck in an attempt to loosen the muscles. His head had been hanging down for hours now. I had never been out cold for that long, but I can guess his head was pounding.

"Welcome back" I smile

"Why are you here X?" He asks me with his eyes squinting at me.

"I am here to sort out Luca's mess" I sigh as I stand up and walk closer to him "Now Luca isn't the smartest man in the world, so I was hoping we could forget this"

I really needed him to agree

"What so my father can find out and then beat me for allowing someone like Luca to knock me out, I would rather die in this chair right now"

Fuck my life

"Is that truly what you want?"

"Yes" He mumbles looking to the ground

"Carlos, I would rather spare your life. I give you my word that I will not tell anyone of this if you agree not to as well" I look down at the desperation in his eyes. I knew that look all too well; he was petrified of his father.

He would rather die than go back and be seen as a disappointment. I didn't need to kill this man; he was harmless and quite frankly a waste of a bullet.

"Thank you" I begin to untie him, as he finally wiggles free. I see him reaching into his jeans for what I can only assume is a gun.

Without hesitation I pick my gun up and shoot him straight into the head, he falls to the ground as his gun falls beside him.

These men were cowards, shooting a man who was letting you go total wrong move. Yes I didn't want to kill Carlos, but he would have ran back to his father and Luca would have been in trouble.

Either way this wasn't ending well. I didn't need to start a street war again, we had eyes on us right now. FBI was closing in, I was sure of it. But I had to protect my family, I couldn't let a man like Carlos and his family ruin my life.

If I let him get away, I would be weak. I am not weak at all. I didn't work the way I had to be looked at if I let anyone go. I was the boss of these streets, no one would take that away from me.