Post by silent.lullaby on Jul 12, 2010 11:12:33 GMT -5
//We Run This Town//Chapter 026// What Happens In Italy (Part Three)
I grabbed my coat and my phone and speed dialled 1. “Come on, come on Gavin pick up.”
“Lil?”
“Yeah,” I replied with a sigh of relief. “Is your dad home?”
“No, he’s at the station.”
“Son of a bitch!”
“Lili what’s going on?”
“I was right about who it is. It’s Jack Valentino,” I admitted to him. “None of what I’m about to tell you will I ever admit to again.”
“Lil.”
“The Valentino family was the mafia kings back in my grandfather’s childhood days. My great grandfather and my grandfather took over the their mafia, I don’t know how wether blackmail or murder or what, but my family became the Mafia lords of both New York and about half of Italy. Jack want’s his families ‘rightful business’ back.”
“So he’s all kinds of bad.”
“Surely your father has a gun in the house.”
“A old hunting rifle.”
“You know how to shoot right.”
“Lil...”
“Just tell me you know how to use that thing.”
“My dad took me hunting since I was twelve.”
“Good. Get the gun out.”
“Lilianna, what is this about?”
“He knows I’m tutored by you, he knows you know, I lied but apparently not good enough, or something, look... just get out the gun. Stay on an upper floor that has a way out, a window that you can jump, or climb down from, you got that?”
“Got it.” I could hear something being unlocked in the background, the creak of an old gun case and I could her the clack of the large rifle being loaded.
I told him what I was driving. “When you see it you get the fuck out of the house and you get in the car. Capeesh?”
“Yeah, got it.”
“Thanks.”
“For what?”
“Too many things for me to explain right now. Just... stay safe, and if Jack gets there before me... shot him.”
There was a long pause. “Yeah, sure.”
I drove my foot to the floor, sure I knew how to drive, it wasn’t a horribly difficult concept, it was just the finesse of it that took more practice than I’d ever had. I took a turn a little wide but kept it floored, I remembered what Preston had said about the concept of inertia and it was a miracle that I didn’t end up in the ditch.
I stopped out front of Gavin’s house. Okay, I admit I had taken a peek at his files, googled him even. So yeah, I knew where he lived. It didn’t make me obsessed, it just made me prepared... although this wasn’t what I had in mind. I waited. “Come on, come on Gavin.” I tapped repeatedly on the steering wheel nervously. “Hurry up.” I looked around, I didn’t see any other cars. “This is ridiculous!” I pulled out a pistol from my bag, I cocked it and ran to the house with it in my hand, I went to the back door. The lock was shot off. “Son of a whore!” I shouted running up the stairs. “Gavin!” I shouted as I looked into rooms. “Gavin! Gavin!” Panic gripped me, wrapped around me.
The last room I figured was Gavin’s, he had the same text books as I did. There were pictures of him and his father, some of his friends, the twins and Darren. On the bed though, was the thing that captured my attention. A piece of white 8 x 11.5 print paper. Dead centre was a address and in ink was written in what I knew to be Jack’s messy scrawl.
-be there or let him die.
–remember no help, this is between you and me.
I breathed hard and ran to the car.
****
“Westly isn’t here today,” the teacher told me when I asked.
“I know, I can see that. But did he call in sick, or quit, or just not show up.”
“These aren’t mandatary Miss Lombardi. It’s not uncommon for one to miss a class or two. They are for fun, not credits.”
I sighed. Westly had loved the classes, he had to pay for them himself, he wouldn’t miss one. He just wouldn’t. I knew that for certain.... well... I had only known him a week. Sure we’d been fast friends, but... maybe his grandmother finally did set him up with a nice girl after all.
“Hey babe,” Jack wrapped his arm around me as he headed to his clay jar he’d made in the previous class, we would be painting them today.
“Hey Jack, have you seen West?”
He shook his head innocently, “nope, not lately.”
“Huh.” I sighed. “Weird.”
“Perhaps he is running late.”
“I guess.” Only he wasn’t, we painted all class and Westly never showed up. I thought it was weird, but there wasn’t a single person who agreed with me. When I got back to my grandparents’ place Sergio could tell there was something wrong with me.
“What’s got you all wrinkled with worry lines?” Sergio asked.
Salvatore, my grandfather, looked up at us, “I’ve also noticed you’ve been quiet Lily Flower, what is bothering you?”
“It’s this boy.”
“It always is for girls your age,” Grandfather laughed.
“His name is Westly Smith, he’s one of my classmates. I... I have this bad feeling. He wasn’t at class today, he’s paying for them himself. He really seems to enjoy them and today he wasn’t there.”
“He could just be sick,” Sergio suggested.
“I guess...” I replied quietly.
“Gut instinct is important. What else does it tell you.”
I shrugged but under my grandfather’s watchful eyes I sighed. “The other day he and Jack... Jack Valentino.” I caught my grandfather visibly stiffen at the name. “Seemed to be miffed at each other, I had to call Gran cause I was going to be hanging out after school with Jack, and then when I came back in... Westly was acting... scared.”
“Jack Valentino.” Grandfather repeated. Sergio and I both stared at him as his face went red with anger. “You stay away from all Valentino’s Lily Flower.”
“Gramps?” I whispered scared to hear why, but the I had to have the answer, “Why?”
“We are the one’s who put them out of business. They are our rivals, they want their business back and I wouldn’t put it past them to use the children, Jack to get to you to get to me or your father. You stay away from that boy you hear.”
I nodded quickly.
I quit the art classes miserable.
I never found out what happened to Westly.