Love and War 2 (3 page)

“Get the Caldarone twins and get the fuck out of here,” ordered Paolo. “I’ll clean up this mess. Go to Atlantic City where you’re supposed to be and do not set foot back here until I call you.”

When neither Nico nor Caprice moved an inch, Paolo yelled, “That’s a fuckin’ order! Do you understand me?”

Caprice held out her hand while Nico called for his cousins.

“Can I have my gun back?”

Paolo looked down at the etched chrome gun and shook his head slowly.

“This is your father’s gun. I gave it to him. You don’t deserve it.”

Caprice started to argue, but stopped herself before she went off. There was no point to arguing. Paolo was more likely to shoot her with her father’s gun than to hand it back to her.

“What about his family?” Nico whispered in Caprice’s ear as they walked towards his Tahoe.

“I don’t care. They served their purpose, I guess,” answered Caprice angrily. “Paolo really fucked things up. Besides, I made a promise. They’re supposed to be alive. Let Paolo deal with them.”

Nico, Caprice, Mateo, and Giovanni climbed into the Tahoe while Paolo pulled out his phone and made a call. Nico backed his car out of the overgrown driveway while Caprice stared at Aries’ lifeless body lying on the ground.

She’d done it. She’d pulled the trigger of her father’s gun and watched a man die because of it. She tried to hide her shaking hands from her brother. She knew that she would never forget the sound Aries had made when he took his last breath. The image of his body hitting the ground was seared into her memory.

Seeing him dead was what she wanted, but the satisfaction that she thought she would feel wasn’t there. No one was saying anything, but she knew that her brother and cousins were thinking it.

She was exactly what her father and Nico were.

She was a killer.

The only difference was that she knew that it was something that she never wanted to do again.

Nico eased the Tahoe into an open space on the street in front of the W. He wasn’t happy about leaving Caprice alone to deal with what she’d done, but she had to deal with it on her own, like he had. She couldn’t lean on him and cry on his shoulder.

He’d just turned seventeen when Gianni sent him and Rocco out on their first hit. His first hadn’t been nearly as quick and painless as Caprice’s. He and Rocco were sent to take care of a business associate that defaulted on his loan. Nico felt that death was a little extreme over a couple of missed payments, but Gianni was an unforgiving man. The guy knew that you don’t borrow money from a Bonatelli and think you’re going to get away with not paying it back.

Nine rounds in his chest was the lesson he’d learned that day. Occasionally, Nico still saw the man pleading for his life. For the life of him, he could not remember the guy’s name.

Unfortunately for his sister, she’d always remember Aries because she had permanent reminders of what he’d done to her scarred on her body.

“Caprice, what’s your room number?” Nico asked.

“What?”

“What is your room number?”

“Umm, 1016,” Caprice answered slowly.

“Go up to your room. Get your stuff and leave. Do not check out. Just leave. Take a cab to the address I just sent you. Gina knows you’re coming. I’ll pick you up from there in the morning.”

Caprice looked at the text message on her phone. “Who’s Gina?”

“You’re worrying about the wrong shit right now,” Nico stated. “Did you hear what I said?”

“Stop talking to me like I’m going to break into pieces, Nico,” Caprice snapped. “I got it.”

“You better. I have some shit to handle. I can’t be worried about you tonight.”

“I’m fine.”

“Then why are you still sitting in my car?”

Caprice opened the door and gingerly planted her sneakers on the ground. But she didn’t move until Nico pushed her. She was far from fine.

“Get it together and do exactly what I said!” Nico told her. “I’m going to call Gina in forty-five minutes. If you’re not there, Caprice, I’m going to be pissed.”

Caprice shut the door and walked through the hotel entrance. From the second she walked into the lobby, it felt like every person who passed was looking at her. With her jeans and bag, she fit right in with the rest of the hotel guests, but as she walked to the elevators, she was paranoid that someone was going to spot the brownish red drop on her shoelace.

She couldn’t take her eyes off it.

“Caprice!”

A deep voice stopped her dead in her tracks. Her eyes darted frantically around the lobby. She prepared her mind to forget Nico’s instructions and look for a clear path out of the hotel until her eyes located the person calling her name. Her heart continued to race as the culprit approached.

“What’s wrong with you?”

Caprice took a deep breath and practically collapsed into Diesel’s strong arms. He held her against his chest tightly until she was composed enough to start walking again. They didn’t speak until were alone in the elevator and the doors had closed.

Diesel just stared at Caprice as she stood in the corner of the elevator and watched the floor buttons light up one by one.

“Are you going to tell me what happened?”

“Not here,” answered Caprice.

She didn’t say another word. At the door to her suite, her hands shook while she tried to unlock the door with her card key. Finally, after a frustrating struggle, the green light flashed and Caprice pushed the door open. She flopped down on the sofa and heaved a big sigh of relief. Diesel sat next to her and gently turned her head to him.

“Talk to me.”

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Everything went as planned?”

“You could say that.” Caprice wrenched her head away from Diesel’s compassionate eyes and stared at her hands.

She didn’t know what to say to him. He knew that Aries was never going to return from that house. Even though he was there with her at that moment, he hadn’t wanted her to go through with it. Above everything, including how they felt about each other, Aries was Diesel’s friend.

But Aries had crossed the Bonatelli family and there was nothing that Diesel could have done to stop what was coming. At least he’d made her promise not to hurt the man’s family. Had it been up to the Bonatelli siblings, Aries’ entire family would have met his same fate.

Diesel gently eased his arms around Caprice’s shoulders and pulled her close to him. It wasn’t his place to reprimand or say “
I told you so
.” The realization that Caprice was in over head was evident by her quivering bottom lip as she fought to hold back tears.

Instead of crying, Caprice abruptly jumped up and kicked off her shoes. She slid off her jeans and shirt and stuffed them into a plastic dry cleaning bag.

“I have to get rid of these clothes.”

“Yeah,” Diesel replied. “You do. Leave them outside of someone’s door. The hotel will have them dry cleaned. When no one claims them, a housekeeper will steal them out of the Lost and Found.”

She quickly filled out the laundry slip and dropped it in the bag with the clothes. When she was done, she disappeared into the bedroom for a few minutes.

When she returned, she had changed into a strapless cotton dress, sandals, and had brushed her hair. She was wheeling her overnight case behind her.

“Grab that bag and my purse,” she told Diesel. “I gotta get out of here.”

Leaving the hotel key on the table, Caprice and Diesel walked out of the room no more than ten minutes after entering it.

“Where are we going?” Diesel asked after they’d hailed a yellow taxicab.

“I’m going to The Bronx. You need to go see about your people. Make sure you put someone competent in charge. They need to completely understand that they are to fall back in line with Paolo. No side deals, no new connects…nothing. That was our agreement,” she reminded Diesel.

“Are you serious right now? You want me to go to Queens and leave you alone?”

“The only thing that is important right now is that we stick to the plan. Nico and I promised Fausto that once Aries was out of the way, BDM was ours again. You renege on your word and Paolo is going to come after all of us. I’m fine,” Caprice insisted.

She wasn’t going to appear weak, or scared, or emotional anymore. She spent her first three years in New York watching Nico do his job. He intimidated men every day, men who wanted nothing more to see him dead. He never showed any signs of fear or angst. She watched her father flee the country in anger, not because he was scared to go to jail. She was not going to be the first Bonatelli to crack. She did exactly what was required of her. She had planned on Nico taking the shot, but the opportunity presented itself to her and she did what she had to do. The situation would have escalated if she hadn’t pulled the trigger. All that mattered was that Aries was dead. Word would spread quickly as to why.

When Diesel turned his head to look at Caprice this time, he saw the same girl from the night before…the one who welcomed him into her hotel room holding a .22. Hard, determined…angry. Her demeanor reminded him of every encounter he and Aries had with her brother. He was sleeping with the enemy.

“Hey, my nigga!” Diesel tapped on the Plexiglas partition. “Let me out here.”

The African driver pulled the cab over at the first available space at the curb. Diesel gave Caprice a quick look of concern before opening the car door. She was too busy texting to notice.

“Get your crew back in line. Paolo will be in touch in the next day or so. I’ll call you when I have everything in place for you in Atlantic City,” she said before he shut the door.

As soon as the taxi pulled away from the curb, Caprice put her phone to her ear and listened to the ring. Mahogany’s warm “hello” sounded like a choir of angels and Caprice broke down in tears.

“Baby, what’s wrong?”

There was no way Caprice would ever tell her mother what she’d done. She just wanted to hear Mahogany’s voice, to get some type of comfort. Despite her tears, she chose her words very carefully.

“I’m just overwhelmed, Mom. Everyone is expecting so much from me! I’m not like them!”

“You’re right,” Mahogany replied. “You’re not like you’re father or your brother. You have a world class education, a bright future, and you’ve had a successful business since you were a teenager. Nico and Domani are criminals.”

So am I
, Caprice thought to herself. She’d broken more laws in one day than most people broke during their entire lives.

“But,” Mahogany said, “Your father has given you an incredible opportunity. When you get to Atlantic City tomorrow, use the skills and talent that God gave you to get the job done. Forget about everything that happened before your set foot in Jersey. None of it matters. You have a brand new start, baby. Make that casino something you’re always going to be proud of.”

“You’re tough. You’re strong, and you’re resilient. You can handle any task that’s presented to you. You’re my child,” stated Mahogany proudly. “You can do anything you want to do and most things you don’t want to do.”

Caprice sighed into the phone. “I love you, Mommy. You always say exactly what I need to hear.”

“That’s my job. What time are you getting to Atlantic City tomorrow?”

“I have a lunch meeting with some lady named Pamela at noon, so we’ll probably get there at noon.”

“Then call me afterwards. I can’t wait for you to see your condo! It’s absolutely beautiful. You’re going to love it!”

“I know I will, Mom.” Caprice paused. “Mom, I need a huge favor, but I can’t tell you why I need you to do this right now.”

Mahogany laughed. “That’s sounds dramatic, even for you. This favor isn’t illegal, is it?”

“No, it’s not. I need to buy a house in or close to Atlantic City. I need you to do that thing you do and find me one. It’s for a small family; mother, a ten year old boy and a twelve year old girl. It doesn’t have to be expensive like ours, but it needs to have at least four bedrooms.”

“Why? Why do you need to buy a house? Who is it for?”

“Mom!” Caprice protested. “I just said I can’t tell you that yet. I just need the house pretty quickly, like within a week. I’m going to be too busy to do this myself so please help me. And all I can say is that that I made a promise to someone special and I have every intention on keeping it.”

When Mahogany sighed into the phone, she sounded just like her daughter.

“You’re twenty-two and want to buy a house for strangers.”

“You just said I can do anything I put my mind to. Please help me.”

“Of course I’ll help you, but before you sign anything, I want to meet this someone special, understand?”

“Hopefully, if everything works out my way, you will.”

The taxi slowed then stopped in front of a luxury apartment building.

“Mom, I have to go now. I’ll call you tomorrow.”

Caprice hung up, paid the cabbie, and got out of the taxi. She was anxious to meet Gina, shower, and sleep off the griminess that she felt.