Page 157 of The Last Ones Standing, Part Two

Chapter 69

Resurrection

Dante

I get the feeling Frances is pleading with the wrong person. I’m not stupid. I’ve just been distracted, but since yesterday, after that situation with Carleen, I’ve been thinking.

Something has changed in Gio. His words from the party come back to me.There’s always a bigger picture, Dante.

Suddenly it’s like my life flashes before me. The day Ma came in looking like she’d seen a ghost. I was heading into Gio’s room. The first time Gio met Bethany. The look in his eyes, it mirrored the look he gave her the day I married her.

Gio’s relationship with Nonno and the conversations they’d have in front of me. Then finding out about Dad. Now this, Frances pleading for his real sons.

It all comes together like I’ve been hit by a thunderbolt. Ma is alive. Gio is the Don of the family.

As the realization hits, the door bursts open, and my mother, Ava Di Lorenzo walks in. My heart pounds in my ears. I can’t believe my eyes.

She lifts her gun and blows a hole through Jacob’s head first. Then she turns her gun on Frances’s other son and blows his brains out next.

A loud sob comes from Frances. I’m paralyzed with shock. Ma puts her gun away with a smile on her lips. That’s when I snap out of it and stand, my chest heaving, but I’m still lost for words.

“Hi, Frances. Good to see you,” Ma says. “Tell your father if he still has a problem, he can see Don Gio.Myson, my successor.”

* * *

Dario

Years of knowing my mother didn’t neglect me and my brothers lift from my chest. My mother is standing right before me. She looks as beautiful as I remember.

My brain has so many questions running through it. Don Gio, her successor? Damn, why did she kill Frances’s sons?

She goes to turn to leave, and my feet are already in motion to follow. However, she pauses, turns back, and pulls her gun again. “On second thought, Gio, have Blake send that message,” she says, then puts a bullet in Frances’s head.

I stand in awe. What the fuck just happened?

“I settled a score,” Ma replies, letting me know I asked the question out loud. “My babies. Come, give me a hug. I can finally talk to you.”

* * *

Gio

Here’s what I know for a fact. Gianni never took a bullet for Ma. My cousin may be harmless to me, but he’s made his own waves.

That’s one less thing on my plate. Ma hasn’t been compromised, so I don’t have to find anyone to kill there. Next, the Kelleys haven’t set their terms with Riccardo. He plans to meet with them today to solidify whatever he thinks they’ll do for him.

Not if I have anything to do with it.

“We need to go,” Jace whispers in my ear as I watch my brothers with my mother.

I wish I could stay and sit to chat with them. That will have to wait. There’s one more Esposito who dies today.

Ma looks up at me. “Go, I will tell them all they need to know. Make him hurt.”

I nod and stand, moving to the door where Ny is still standing. I cup the back of her neck and look down into her eyes.

“You all right?”

She nods. “Yeah, I’m okay.”

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