CHAPTER THIRTEEN
"HOLDING HANDS WITH THE DEVIL HIMSELF"
SCARLETT DEL GATO
My elbows were pressing into my sides as I tried to make myself as small as possible in the little clothing store Giovanni took me to. My breaths were bursting in and out rapidly and my eyes were filled with tears as I tried to blink them away.
Giovanni shot someone.
The dress lay crumpled up on the floor in front of me. When I reached my hand toward it to pick it up from the floor, my hand was shaking uncontrollably, I finally just let it fall back to my side again.
Giovanni shot someone.
My ears were ringing from the loud gunshot echoing throughout the entire clothing store. The shop assistant was hiding behind the counter, a telephone glued to her ear as she probably dialled the cops.
I turn my head to where Giovanni shot Vincent, seeing him propping the gun in the waistband of his sweatpants before he ran over to where I was hugging my knees to my chest now, trying to control my rapid breathing.
"Scarlett. We have to go now!" Giovanni yells, reaching out his hand toward me so he could take it into his, but I didn't take his hand. I couldn't.
Giovanni shot someone.
I hear police and maybe ambulance sirens in the distance, but not even that was enough for me to lift my hand to get out of here as fast as we can. I couldn't even look him in the eyes right now.
"Scarlett," his tone was almost pleading, "we need to go now."
A choked sob escapes my lips when I shake my head at him, seeing tiny droplets of blood spattered across his shirt and sweatpants. "You shot someone!"
"With reason, Scarlett!" He yells back, finally just pulling me up by the arms himself before he hauled me over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. "I'll explain in the car. For now, I need to get you out of here." He says, holding onto the back of my thighs tightly so I won't slip from his grasp.
I didn't fight him.
I let him run with me out of the clothing store.
I catch a glimpse of Vincent lying on the floor, gurgling blood. Another choked sob escapes my lips. I screw my eyes shut tightly, trying to erase the memory from my head, but it didn't work.
Seeing Vincent lying on the floor gurgling blood made me think back on the nightmare I had during the week of my brother.
I fall down next to him and try to help him stop the bleeding, but it was a lost cause, the blood was everywhere, endless. It kept pouring and pouring onto the floor around him, my knees were soaked.
Giovanni runs toward the exit of the shopping mall, storming through the glass doors when it opened for him. Shoppers who arrived frowned at Giovanni with me over his shoulder, but he didn't take notice of them, he only fished his car keys out of his pockets to unlock his Maserati.
He sets me down on the ground gently and I use my hand to wipe my tears with the back of my hand. He opens the passenger door for me, but I stay put, shaking my head at him.
The sirens were coming closer and closer, but I didn't care.
"You shot him, Giovanni!"
"I told you that I would explain to you in the car, Scarlett. So get in." He says, jerking his head towards the car. "Please." He adds.
Caving with a shake of my head, I duck when I get into the Maserati. I see him jogging around the car before he gets inside too, putting the keys in the ignition before he started the car without putting his seatbelt on.
He drives an inhuman speed out of the parking lot and once we were on the road, about ten seconds away from the shopping mall, we pass a series of police cars and an ambulance.
He sinks in his seat a little bit only until the cops were behind us and then only sits up straight again. His Adam's apple bobs up and down when he swallows air and he turns off the radio, leaving the car in complete silence.
"You shot him, Giovanni." I lower my voice to a whisper.
His hand clenches around the steering wheel, his ringed finger tapping against the leather covered steering wheel. It's like he composed himself before he decides to speak. "He was part of the Mafia too, Scarlett." Giovanni says like that would make up for shooting him.
I scoff at him, tugging at the roots of my hair. "That doesn't make it okay!"
He continues like I haven't spoken. "Vincent and his brother... they... they're much worse people than we are. Their dad and mine have this rivalry between each other. They despise each other, really."
"That still doesn't mean that you should've shot him, Giovanni."
Silence.
I swallow hard too, looking out of the window and at the cars that were speeding past us. And not long after, we were secluded with trees all around us. The wind rustles the leaves and the trees bend with the force of the wind that started to pick up when we climbed into the Maserati.
"What did Vincent do for you to shoot him?" I speak for the first time in ten minutes. "Surely you don't go shooting every one you see from another gang?"
"They ruined one of our places and in our books that is a big no-no." He explains. "When I shot him-that was a warning."
It didn't make sense. He wasn't arguing with that guy because of a place his gang might've ruined. They were arguing over something else entirely.
But I still scoffed. "A warning?"
"Yes." He replies dryly. "A warning."
I start to laugh hysterically only because I didn't want to burst out crying again. I felt the tears start to collect at the bottom of my eyelids, but I blink them away.
"A warning is where you punch someone in the face and breaking their nose, not shooting them!" I yell, feeling my hands start to shake when the image of Vincent gurgling blood popped up in my mind. "What if he's dead? Oh my - did I just witness a damn murder, Giovanni-"
I try to hold my breath, trying to gulp down the breaths to stay quiet and not to allow myself to freak out over what happened, but I eventually caved and let the breath I was holding explode from my mouth in almost a gasp.
Giovanni was pulling at his collar now, probably used to having a tie wrapped around his neck and when he realised that there was nothing to grab, he finally just let his hand grip the steering wheel again.
Giovanni felt bad for shooting someone. Again.
He looks at me briefly before his gaze flickers back to the empty road in front of him. "Are you okay?"
I was now staring out of the window trying to control my breathing, but I was still a shaking mess.
My hands wouldn't stop shaking-I clenched and unclenched my hands, started to fiddle with the hem of my shirt, started to drum my fingers-but nothing worked.
I avoid his gaze when I shake my head. "No, Giovanni." I tell him, shaking my head. "I am not okay right now." I swallow hard, the drumming of my fingers on my thigh getting worse and worse. "I just witnessed a murder."
I feel him taking my hand in his. The cool metal of his ringed finger brushing over the knuckles of my right hand, over and over again.
I wanted to pull away but after a few seconds of him holding and caressing my hand, the traitors stopped shaking. They actually stopped shaking.
"I'm sorry." Giovanni says in a low voice. "But I warned you. There are a lot of bad things out there. Bad people too. Vincent was one of the bad ones. He deserved getting shot." He says with no remorse whatsoever.
I look at his finger running over my knuckles. He was caressing the same hand I used to punch him in the week. The purple bruising was still there, but it started to fade away with time.
"I will never understand the things you do..." I trail off. "But killing people? Have you never heard of the word karma before? Or 'the wheel turns'?"
"It's my job, Scarlett." He says. "He targeted one of our places. He had to pay for his actions. Actions have consequences. Vincent and his gang learned that the hard way."
Giovanni lets go of my hand only to take out the packet of cigarettes from his sweatpants.
He lets go of the steering wheel for a good three seconds to open the packet, to take out a cigarette and to place a death-stick between his teeth, and lights it.
I was still looking at him when we drove through the mansion's gates.
He parks the car and turns to look at me, the cigarette resting between his lips as he inhaled the smoke. "I'm sorry that you had to witness all that, Scarlett. I really am sorry. But I am not apologizing for who I am." He takes the cigarette from his lips and holds it in between his fingers.
"What if your parents were sitting in that bakery and they just massacred them all like that? Would you have let it slide without any revenge whatsoever? Would you have gotten coffee with Vincent if you knew that he was the one who pulled the trigger on those people?"
The coward I was shook my head at him.
"No, I wouldn't have let it slide," I sigh loudly, "but that isn't the point, Giovanni. You could've ruffled him up a bit, not kill him."
I get out of the car when he said nothing in return and I make my way to the front door of the mansion before entering it.
Vito was standing by the staircase, his arms folded across his chest. "You didn't answer your phone." He says.
He wasn't angry, just worried.
"I am not in the mood right now." I tell him before I move past him on the staircase.
I hear Giovanni entering the house too but I ignore both of the brothers as I made my way up the staircase. Not even the smell of blueberries was able to make me regain my appetite. I don't think I can stomach anything right now.
"What happened?" Vito asks the same time Giovanni speaks. "Don't even ask, little brother."
"Don't tell me not to ask." Vito says, sounding angry all of a sudden. "Scarlett looks like she just saw a ghost. What happened while you were gone?"
That's when I turn around. I was standing in the middle of the staircase, looking down at the two brothers while my hand rested on the railing. "We were shopping but Giovanni thought it was a good idea to shoot someone in the clothing store."
Giovanni shakes his head, looking at his brother.
"You did what?" Vito asks, his eyes wide and in shock when he glances between both Giovanni and I.
"I shot Vincent." Giovanni says without any emotion.
"White Pistols Vincent?" Vito asks. "You're sure it was him?"
Giovanni nods and Vito actually congratulates his brother by patting his back like a parent would pat his or her son for scoring a goal or for passing a test.
I can't with these two.
I release an unsatisfied breath before running up the rest of the stairs.
I run into my room and lock the door behind me, knowing that they have a key to open it again, but if they had any heart at all, they'd leave me alone without unlocking the door.
I walk over to my bed and fall face-first onto my pillow.
I just wanted a normal day, but of course it had to end up in a damn bloodbath.
• • •
GIOVANNI CASTIGLIONE
"I feel bad, little brother." I tell Vito, running my hand through my hair. "I just wanted to protect her from him."
Vito shifts in his seat, frowning at me. "I thought you said that you shot him because of what they did to the bakery?" He asks, fingering the ring on his finger.
"That was one of the many reasons I wanted to shoot him. But when he flirted with her and she seemed so uncomfortable around him..." I inhale deeply, clenching and unclenching my hands before I use them to punch a hole through the lamp resting on the end table beside the recliner couch. "The lust in his eyes when I neared them...I just lost it, Vito. I just wanted to get her out of there as fast as possible."
"Trying to protect her isn't a bad thing and you shouldn't apologize for something like that." Vito says. "Just give her some time to process it all. She'll get over it and forgive you eventually."
I nod, swiping a hand across my face. I look down at my chest and sweatpants, seeing Vincent's blood spattered across it.
It's no wonder Scarlett didn't want to look at me. I was covered in blood. My enemy's blood.
"Can I tell you a secret, little brother?"
Vito nods. "Of course."
I lick my lower lip, falling back against the recliner seat. "I never felt the need to protect someone as much as I did Scarlett today." I tell him. "It's scaring me. I don't know what this feeling is."
Vito chuckles. "It's called being protective over the people you care about, brother." He says, grabbing the beer bottle from the coffee table by the neck before he puts it to his lips, taking a huge swig out of it.
"But why does it feel like I pushed her farther away from me when I was trying to protect her?" I ask him. "It feels like I made things worse, like I predicted the other day when I told you that I would most likely upset her again, someday. Today was that day. And now she hates me again."
"She'll get over it. She'll understand why you did what you did someday." Vito says, letting the beer bottle rest on his knee. "But on the bright side... We have the war we've always wanted." Vito grins at me. "One brother down...One more to go and then the entire gang right after."
Even though it was a success today, it didn't feel like it was.
But it had to be done.
Scarlett needs to be protected from this world and I'll do everything in my power to protect her from it and from them all.
I nod at him.