Pericolosa

Giulio

I hate meetings.

The mere thought of them sends me into a mental fit.

Every four weeks, my father hosts this little party slash meeting between him and members of the Japanese Yakuza, Chinese Triads, and the Russian Bratva. 

I don't understand how it is that they never have anything better to do than to travel all this way to Venice for a little manly tea party with my father on a monthly basis.

Even though I come from a long line of powerful Cosa Nostra leaders, I would be lying if I said that I wasn't...afraid?

I know my father and his men. When they are done planning whatever it is that they are planning, out go those three top dogs in a bloody massacre. With a M60 most likely.

The thing that I am worried about is, what if those other three finish what they're planning with us first?

And we go out.

I'm only twenty-eight. And as the saying goes 'I am too young to die'.

Plus, I have hardly even lived.

I have never been allowed to have a normal life.

Ever since I can remember, my father has been grooming me to be the next biggest Cosa Nostra leader.

There was never time for play; which equals to women mostly.

Never enough time to be a boy and have a normal childhood.

I take a puff of my cigarette and exhale it out slowly.

Much to my father's dismay, I had excused myself from the meeting and came out for an evening smoke in the gardens.

Several of my personal guards followed me out, but they made sure to stay far away enough that I couldn't feel them breathing down my neck every second of my me time.

The gardens were my most favorite places in all of my father's two hundred and thirty five acres. The gardens were the only place that I could feel relaxed completely.

And since it was night, I felt two times more relaxed.

It was only me, the stars, and my cigarette.

I took another drag and felt the smoke curl inside my mouth waiting for an escape. I kept it in my mouth for a minute longer than I had to, then let it out slowly. It curled up into a little wisp as it vanished into the air.

"Giulio?"

I snapped out of my day dreaming and looked up from the ground to see my uncle coming towards me.

He had his own cigarette and a look on his face.

That look.

Great.

It's about to be another one of those days.

"What do you want, zio?" I ask not caring how rude I sounded.

Everyone is aware of my disdain for my father's hardly brother.

Uncle Pietro lets his cigarette dangle lazily between his lips."Lovely night, yeah?" he mumbles.

"What do you want, zio?" I repeat.

"One of Ahmya Takahashi's men thinks that you looked very bored tonight," he says.

"Trust me, zio, I am. These meetings aren't exactly the highlight of my evenings."

"He wants to know if you would be interested in a little....er, shall we say gun fight?"

That doesn't sound so bad. I need a little excitement.

"Si," I say."As long as I don't have to kill him."