"Why are you really here Jack?" I said bluntly, sitting next to him and leaning forward to unbuckle the ankle loop of my heels, finally sitting down again. I slipped them off and sighed in relief, dropping them on the bench next to me.
"Harrison is like a son to me Y/N, you know I raised my two girls... But I always wanted a boy to follow him my footsteps though," he said looking blissfully at the gazebo down the hill, enjoying the view of everyone dancing.
"How'd you get out of jail then?" I asked bluntly, looking down at the wedding guests, trying to compose myself and not show Jack I was almost shivering with fear.
He stayed silent, a small chuckle like sound coming from his nose when he exhaled. He was obviously amused by my question. Perhaps he thought I was naive for asking such a thing, not assuming that all mafia men have connections that run the crime world; even from inside prison.
"You said it yourself Maniscalo, this may well be the last conversation we ever have. I don't know what's up your sleeve but you've gotta indulge me just this one question," I said turning towards him slightly.
"I respect you Y/N, the fact you really tried locking me up. You know, nobody has gotten me that close to incarceration before," he chuckled.
"What do you mean close? You literally have been in jail for several months," I scoffed.
"And then I broke out! Voila! Bingo bango, what a magic trick," he laughed, at his own sad attempt at humour.
I just stared at him blankly, crossing one leg over the other and adjusting my bridesmaid dress so the leg slit wasn't too revealing. The pool behind us was subtle in its noise, the water rippling in the background of our conversation.
"I had guys set up a jail fight and when they called an ambulance, my buddy was the paramedic who took me away. Never to return, they stitched me up, put me on a plane and here I am. They got me smack bang in the middle of my ugly mug though," he said pointing to the small stitches across his nose.
Like I had suspected before; broken.
"All that just to watch Haz get married?" I asked.
"All that to watch the fucking world burn," he reiterated, his voice deeper and riddled with rage. Jack was the most terrifying person I had ever met, and hearing those words come from his mouth didn't help.
"Surely you weren't dumb enough to come here alone though," I said, trying to pry further into his scheme.
"Of course not. But you were all dumb enough to not bring sufficient weapons to the ceremony. We found a few guns in some of the boys rooms... But Tommy? Bringing nothing? You must really have him pussy whipped for him to not bring a gun to Italy," he smirked.
The way he spoke was haunting, ever word sounding like a knife being twisted into my body further and further. He had been inside our rooms. He knew exactly who had brought guns and who hadn't. And he knew that the wedding party was vulnerable.
"You're going to kill someone today. May as well save us all the trouble and kill me right now. You get your vengeance on the woman who released Domenic before his death and the woman who locked you up," I sighed.
"That would be too easy. I want the Holland's to suffer. The ones remaining at least," he scowled.
At this point, this very delayed and late point, Tom came out of the bathrooms holding his thumb under one of his nostrils and sniffing aggressively.
"We all good here?" He asked, glaring at Jack before his eyes darted to me in an 'are you okay' type of glance. I smiled softly. None of us are okay with Jack Maniscalo out of prison and here in Italy, but nobody was dying yet - that's okay in my books.
Jack took a deep breath and smiled at Harrison slow dancing down the hill with Robyn hung from his shoulders, completely and almost irritatingly in love. He pulled up the sleeve of his suit jacket and checked the time on his Rolex.
"Got somewhere to be?" I scoffed sarcastically.
"Just making sure my men are where they are supposed to be," he smiled before turning around and looking at the hotel building behind us.
Tom looked at him concerned, unsure of what his comment meant and how any of us were to effectively act upon it. Was he bluffing? Was he telling the truth?
"Tommy? I uh, I hope you said a nice goodbye to your mother before you got your brothers to escort her to her room just before. It would be such a shame if you hadn't said a proper good bye," he grinned sinisterly.
I flicked my head towards Tom before he started running towards the building out of instinct. I stood up and yelled out behind him to wait, fearful that Jack might have been plotting to set Tom up all along.
"I can't wait Y/N! I can't lose someone again!" He yelled back, sprinting inside as I watched a waiter almost fall from Tom bumping into him.
"What the fuck is he about to face in there huh? You kill Nikki? You setting him up just to kill him?" I spat at Jack, looking down at him on the bench.
He looked unconcerned, watching the wedding happily as he had been doing so the entire time. My heart rate began to rise, higher than my already rapid beating from before. What was Jack Maniscalo about to do?
"Just sit down and watch the sunset with me child, enjoy the last remaining moments of serenity," he smiled, without even looking at me.
I knew this was the time. I knew that someone had to sacrifice themselves for The Family to rid them of the Maniscalo's for good.
Swiftly, I pulled the steak knife I had slipped under the band of my underwear from the reception; right at the top of the dresses leg slit. As soon as I saw Jack enter that gazebo, I made sure I had some sort of protection with me. The tip of the blade scratched my hip before I had plunged it into Jack's chest.
He didn't gasp. He didn't shout. He barely even blinked. He just slowly craned his head around to face me and looked me straight in the eyes.
"How cute," he smirked, standing up slowly, the knifes handle sticking out from his chest like a movie prop.
He towered over me menacingly and pushed me to the ground, my body scraping against the cement tiles of the pool area. My skin was badly grazed and blood started sleeping through my dress where my knees, hips and ass were. My hands were stinging and smeared with blood too.
"You think a piece of cutlery will end me?" He laughed, leaning down to grab me by the neck and pull me up to face him.
My feet barely touched the ground, my bare toes skimming the tiles as I pulled desperately at his arms. They wouldn't budge. Not one bit. Gasping for air I tried reaching for his face, scratching and crawling at it at any attempt for him to let go.
He didn't.
I reached for my shoe on the bench next to me, my fingers fumbling around until I managed to get a good grip on it. I swung my arm up, jamming the heel into his right eye socket and causing Jack to yell out in pain. Dropping me, he then pulled the shoe from his skull and threw it down onto the grass.
"You little fucking cunt!" He yelled, blood streaming between his fingers as he held his face in pain. A part of me wanted to know if he still had an eyeball under there, but there were more pressing issues at hand.
Like, the issue of, 'am I about to die'.
He lunched forward and I swiftly moved to the side. Alongside my police training in defence, Tom had been training me here and there in the boxing ring in case I ever got in an altercation. Lucky for me, Jack was already pretty injured from his jail break, so I had the advantage.
Kicking him in the back to knock him a few steps away, I thought of the next move. My plan was simple, get Jack close enough to thinking he's winning before cutting his throat with the same knife that's in his chest.
It wasn't a smart plan but it was worth the try.
"I thought the great Jack Maniscalo would've killed a little girl like me already. Guess he's all talk and no game!" I taunted, my voice husky and damaged from his immense choking.
"Come here you bitch," he said grabbing my arm and landing a right hook to my jaw.
Honestly, I've only ever been punched in the face once for a training exercise at work which hurt like a bitch. This? This was infinitely worse. I'm pretty sure I'll have a print of his ring branded into my fucking cheek.
I coughed out blood and wiped it from my mouth, looking back at him with blurred vision and my ears ringing. I need him to get closer to me. I will die if I don't. Tom, please come back soon.
"Don't make it easy for me Jacky boy, make me fucking pay for it! Think about those nights you spent in prison, all because of me. The tonnes of money you've lost because of me. Think about all the men your wife fucked whilst you were gone... Because of me," I laughed, putting my arms out and begging him to hit me again.
He stormed up to me and gripped my jaw, his thumb digging into my cheek so much I could probably feel his fucking fingerprint against my teeth. Again, I scratched at his arms, giving him the illusion that I was severely struggling.
I was, but I had one last shot.
I quickly pulled the knife from his chest and dragged it along the side of his neck, pushing it back and lodging it deeply through the skin. If I managed to cut the jugular vein deep enough, he had just a few minutes until he died. If I got the aorta or Carotid artery, he had only a mere few seconds to live.
He dropped his hand from my jaw and stumbled against the bench, landing on his rib cage before falling back onto the ground. Panting and trying to regain my breath I looked down at him again, his face covered in blood and now his neck.
He looked like a dead man walking, drenched in red.
And soon, he'd just be a dead man.
"Y-you did it... You win," he coughed, his eyes wide as his brain was obviously processing the fact he was dying.
"I was always winning," I said kneeling down next to him, turning his face forcefully towards me so he could look me in the eye one last time. I wanted his last memory alive to be of the woman who took his life.
"You're going to die by the Maniscalo hand Y/N, don't you fucking worry about that. My daughter is just as much as a mafia leader as I am," he spluttered.
"Sofia? Oh you don't know? I killed her... She burnt up in flames so bad they could barely even tell it was a fucking person in the ashes... And now I'm going to kill you," I said softly, slowly sticking my thumb into the hole in his neck and watching him stare at me in shock, fear and anger.
"This is my Family now."