Page 35 of Memento Mori
“Antonio, you will allow her to talk to your mother this way?” Antonio’s uncle Dino screamed out.
It was best he kept his mouth closed in the situation. The shit I dug up on him would have most the men in this room wanting to cut him up and dispose of the pieces. Come to think of it, I might let everyone know anyway.
“Allow?” Antonio’s laughter echoed through the room. “Aaliyah is my wife, not some fucking dog, Zio. I don’t allow her to do anything. She’s a grown ass woman and does what she pleases. I suggest you shut the fuck up and let my wife and Marianna handle whatever is between them.”
Dino scoffed but said nothing more because the Don had spoken.
“Now do we have an understanding, Marianna?” I asked, stepping closer to her when she remained silent. I leaned in where only she could hear. “I’m not the one you want to fuck with. As my mother-in-law, I’ve shown you respect even when you did not deserve it. But do not take my kindness for weakness. If you continue down this path, it will not end well for you. And it will be by my hand you take your last breath.”
I stepped back and her eyes told me all I needed to know. While fear shone brightly in them, so did hate. She was going to be a problem. A problem I’d deal with.
“You can’t threaten me!” She walked to Antonio, stepping in his face. “You would let her talk to me this way? Your own mother!”
“You are no longer my mother, Marianna. You gave up the right to be my mother a long time ago.”
She tried to slap him, but I caught her wrist, squeezing it until she whimpered from my tightening grip.
“And it’s not a threat, Marianna.” I smiled and tightened my grip, exerting a little more pressure to emphasize my point, which made her yelp. “It’s a promise.”
I released her wrist before I snapped it. While staring at me with pure anger, she rubbed the spot on her wrist that would surely form a bruise. She wasn’t getting it, or she just chose not to. It was okay. She’d learn just like the rest who thought I was weak. This was a new day in the Rizzo family. Blood in and blood out. It was time to choose a side.
Chapter Fourteen
WE HAVE A TRAITOR
Antonio
Even after the three months since my father’s burial, some family members still disapproved of the changes I implemented in the organization. My gaze wandered around the room, landing on the prominent figures of the Rizzo family. Some loyal. Most not.
The sound of chuckles and laughs filled my father’s elegant study. His deep, warm, rich laugh still echoed off the walls of books lining the office. The sweetness of his favorite cigar, the boozy note of his beloved whiskey still wafted through the air. It was like he sat right next to me, guiding me through the brewing shitstorm. If he were here with me now, he’d laugh at the scene before me, and pity anyone who thought I wasn’t a replica of him, in looks, as well as temperament.
They would all soon find out.
My father was gone now, but soon they would all see as his son, I carried on his legacy just as he wanted. Some of the people in this room thought there was something left for me to prove as to why I was Don especially since marrying Aaliyah. However, I didn’t owe anyone shit. I wasn’t in the Life to prove anything to anyone other than my father, and he was dead. I earned my spot at the top by shedding blood--my own, and others. Fuck what everyone else thought.
They all laughed, comfortable in their positions and in their lives. But today was no laughing matter. Nothing was fucking funny. I looked around the room filled with men who were supposed to be family—all members of the RizzoFamiglia. Most of them I’d known since I was playing cops and gangsters in this very room. Some of them had been made men for over thirty or forty years, coming up the ranks alongside my father before he took over for my grandfather. Now I stood in his place, looking over my shoulder just as he had done. The thing was, I didn’t have to worry about someone in the other families trying to take me out. The enemy sat right here in this room or at least someone in this room was in bed with the person pulling the strings.
I took another pull from my cigar, blowing the thick white smoke in the air, then sipping the amber liquid from my tumbler, gazing at all the high-ranking members of the Famiglia. How the fuck had it come to this? That was a stupid question. I knew exactly how it came to this. Jealousy and greed.
Several men in this room were consumed by jealousy and a hunger for power. They craved it to the point someone in this room was no longer family, but the enemy.
Since I was young, I knew my role in society, the mafia, and our Family. I accepted it. As the eldest son of the most powerful Don in both Italy and the United States, by the time I understood the power my father wielded I was well on my way to becoming his second in command—the Underboss.
As Underboss, in my short years I lived a life of crime longer than most men twice my age. By the time I turned nine, I accompanied my father to meetings with the other families, and even the executions of his enemies. By the age of thirteen I’d ‘made my bones.’ By fifteen I had taken the oath ofOmertàand at twenty-two earned my title as Underboss. Groomed by the best—my father.
Now as Don, it was time to make sure everyone understood I earned my place at the head of this family. Not only because I was a Rizzo by blood, but because I put in the damn work. I was the fucking leader, and they followed me. Not the other way around. Someone in this room had nessuna lealtà. No loyalty. They believed my place was beneath them. I had a ratto. A traitor in the organization built by my family, and now it was time to flush him out.
“What is the meaning of this, Don?” He looked down at his gaudy, gold knock off Rolex. “We’ve been waiting for over an hour.”
Of course, the first one to open his big fucking mouth would be Giuseppe Travoto. The man couldn’t shut up if his life depended on it. If it weren’t for the promise I made my old man, I would have put a bullet in his head a long time ago. My father’swords always reminded me to keep Giuseppe within arm’s reach despite how I felt about him.
Keep Giuseppe close Tony. You can learn valuable information from someone who talks too fucking much, and he can spread the information you need your enemies to hear.
Giuseppe would serve his purpose. The room fell silent as everyone waited for my reply, their eyes darting between him and me. This room was only used for confidential meetings, but today I made sure everyone in attendance felt comfortable so I could find out who the disloyal bastard was and pull the fucking rug out from under them.
All this shit had to be connected to my father’s death.
Sitting at my desk, I reached for the Gurkha Black Dragon—the cigars my father always had available, I reclined in my seat. I watched the thick white smoke drift into the air, before focusing on the black beady eyes of Giuseppe. The man was two pounds away from dropping dead of a heart attack. Nearing three-hundred and fifty pounds at maybe five-foot four when he wore his designer shoes with lifts. His sweaty brow, and disheveled combover, almost made me laugh.
