Deluca

TWENTY-THREE

Tiny, a man who was anything but, walked over to Francesco with papers in his hand. Both he and Tiny looked ridiculous in their hard hats.

Francesco took the papers, his eyes quickly scanning through the documents. He could see statements written and signed by Andreas. The feeling in his chest resembled hot iron being poured down his throat.

Francesco handed the papers off to Enzo before walking forward to grab Andreas.

"He cannot leave this building alive."

"I told you — I discipline my own men." Francesco snarled, yanking Andreas off of his feet and shoving him toward the door. The other men in the room quickly blocked their escape.

Fed up, Francesco tossed the chair across the room, watching it break apart. "How dare you question me!" He boomed, "I am sick of repeating myself. Call of your God damned men."

Paolo held Francesco's gaze, his suspicious eyes meeting Francesco's angry ones. The stare-down almost lasted thirty seconds until Paolo waived his hand, finally conceding.

"Fine, you may kill him on your own time. But just know how crossed I would be if I were to find him breathing after dawn." Paolo said dismissing them with a turn of his back.

Feeling a small sense of relief, Francesco turned to exit with Enzo and Andreas. While he had succeeded in not giving away his knowledge, Francesco knew that the day was far from over.

He glared at Andreas as he was shoved into the backseat of the car, fearing that because of that idiot, he may have lost everything.

~*~

Eleanor woke early the next morning, shocked to see Francesco had already been gone. He had arrived home so late the night before, that she had assumed she would at least have him for the morning.

Instead of leaving his spot vacant, there was a red rose plucked from the garden on her pillow. She paused to smell it before jumping nearly out of her skin at the sound of commotion happening downstairs below her.

Rudely awoken now, she climbed out of bed and grabbed her robe, quickly securing the belt before exiting the bedroom into the foyer.

The scene that greeted her was a first. Enzo had been brutally beating Andreas in the center of the room while Francesco, Henri, and Louis looked on in satisfaction.

"What the hell?" She called out, grabbing the attention of everyone below. "What are you doing?" Her reaction mimicked Francesco's when he had seen Andreas.

"Good morning, Dollface," Enzo said with a grin, though Eleanor found nothing to be amusing. "Why don't you tell the lady what the fuck you've done."

Enzo shoved Andreas forward, causing him to fall at Eleanor's feet. Andreas had blood dripping from his nose and signs of old bruises and newly forming ones covered every visible part of his body.

Eleanor glared at Francesco who failed to meet her eyes, only watching Andreas lay there with a void expression.

Eleanor kneeled to Andreas, feeling as though he would be the only one to answer anything she asked. "What is happening?"

Andreas looked at Eleanor then back down to his own hands, attempting to lean his back on the staircase for a momentary reprieve.

He looked pitiful sitting there like that, but he sounded even worse. "I talked to the cops." His answer had been short and resolute. Eleanor hadn't needed to know everything to know how wrong that was, and she felt a sinking in her stomach.

"What did you say?" She demanded, an unknown fear gripping her heart.

Andreas winced as he straightened, "I didn't tell them shit."

"Bullshit," Francesco called out.

"Nothing about you, Francesco." Andreas cried out, "I got busted a few months back."

"Busted doing what?" Francesco called out. Not being able to stand the sight of Andreas' injuries Eleanor left the room, grabbing what she could find to at least clean his wound and bandage him up.

In the back of her mind, she was aware that the effort may be careless if Francesco had decided to just kill him right in their entryway.

While she was gone, Andreas continued, "The baby was coming and Ana and I were broke."

"Here goes the sob story, why is this kid even breathing still?" Enzo complained.

"Enzo, maybe you should take a walk," Louis warned.

"I don't need..." he was cut off by Louis's strong command.

"Now."

Enzo took a deep breath before walking out of the foyer and in the direction of the foyer, passing Eleanor as she flew past.

"Paolo gave me some shit to sell in the tourist district on the side for extra cash." Andreas winced as Eleanor pressed a cloth to the cut on his brow, "I got busted there and they were going to throw Ana in jail if I didn't flip. You know I would've gone down myself, but I couldn't do that to Ana."

"You shouldn't have been doing it in the first place." Francesco interjected, "I assume Paolo's whose shit I have in the cellar too?"

Andreas nodded, "I was in too deep and Paolo refused to let me out, and then the police were down my back for being empty-handed... I couldn't sell you out, so I sold out Paolo."

"How chivalrous," Henri muttered before he too exited the room after hearing the sound of glass breaking in the direction Enzo had gone.

"I don't know what happened after that I just woke up to Big Foot dragging me out of bed," Andreas muttered.

"Do you know what you have done mon ami? Have you not learned from the past? Everyone could lose everything." Louis said he was trying to be kind due to Eleanor still being in the room, but if she had to guess, he wanted a hit in too.

"They don't have anything." Andreas insisted, "I was their only in."

"Because you were the only one stupid enough to talk!" Enzo's voice boomed as he entered the room with a bottle in his hand, following Henri.

"So what are you going to do?" Andreas asked, "Kill me?"

Eleanor had expected an easy no from Francesco, but she turned to him when she heard his hesitation.

"No." Eleanor answered, reminding everyone of her presence as she stood, "No one is killing Andreas."

"If we don't we will be the next target." Enzo said, "Paolo said it his damn self. The only reason we aren't in an interrogation room right now is that Andreas managed to tell one of the only criminals working in the damned station."

"Then we figure out another way, we aren't killing Andreas." Eleanor insisted, "He is your cousin." This time her words were directed at Francesco.

"Everyone in this room has fucked up and I am sure it would look a lot different if we all weren't so forgiving." She continued, "We are all more than capable of figuring out a smart way out of this. Everyone just needs to cool the hell off."

Eleanor imagined she resembled Chris Pratt in Jurassic World at that moment, trying to prevent four angry men from killing one weak one. Maybe in the future — a future far away, she could laugh at this.

"What do you suggest?" Francesco asked after a long pause, shocking everyone in the room.

It was a good question because aside from preventing a murder in her house, that was as far as Eleanor had gotten. But instead of pretending she had it all figured out, she turned to Andreas who had been admittedly cowering behind her.

"I don't know," she said honestly, "But Andreas will fix it, won't you?"

Andreas looked up at her, now both of his eyes were swollen but he still nodded profusely, "Lo faro, lo promotion."

I will, I promise.

Eleanor turned to Francesco, just as everyone else did in the room waiting for the actual Boss to speak. She had expected Francesco to demean everything she had said. Or pull out a gun and opt to kill them both.

Instead, he expelled a deep breath, "Consider yourself lucky Andreas. The woman you spoke so poorly on before just saved your life."