Chapter 25

Fabrizia Augustina Bellini-Scordato loved to visit Manhattan in the winter. Even though her home is in the unending summer of South Florida, she still loves to walk in the cold crisp air of Manhattan in February. There’s always an exciting, vibrant feeling in the air. The chill of winter makes it even sharper. As always, she and Marco stopped and laid a rose at the site of the “accident” that claimed the life of her brother-in-law, Giuseppe D’Amato, and permanently injured her little sister Annamaria. This time, she laid two roses for two lovely people who were gone. The roses will be gone soon, her tears will be gone too, and this whole incident needs to be ended.

Marco drove her out to Port Washington, to her second home. She and Marco entered the enormous mansion, and Marsha came out from her side office. “Missus Scordato, we weren’t expecting you. Let me ring the elevator for you. Mister Calvetta is in a meeting, but he will be up shortly.”

“No, hopefully I won’t be staying long this afternoon, I need to talk to Giancarlo before I go shopping. Then with luck I’ll be back in time for dinner.”

“Before I go shopping” means that Fabbi was up to something. It wasn’t a mystery in this house that Fabbi and Giancarlo were long time lovers, but they were both ‘working people’ and Fabrizia is a fount of information that Giancarlo treasures. When he called for her, she sat down in the office across from him, and Giancarlo stepped around the desk to give Fabbi a kiss. “My dear Fabrizia, why are you here with no warning? It’s not like I don’t long for your company...”

“Marco, can we have the room please?”

“Yes, ma’am. If you need me...”

“Yes dear.” Fabrizia waited until Marco had left the room, then she started. “They found out,” said Fabbi. “I don’t know how they found that he’s hiding in Italy, but they discovered that Alfeo Gronchi is the man that hired Black Ridge to kill Maria and Darlene.” She handed Giancarlo a thumb drive Bruce gave to her at the Restaurant Cobalt two evenings ago.

Giancarlo plugged it into his laptop and looked at it. First was a document that stated that op Vero001 was to be conducted at Maria D’Amato’s house. The next document was a bill that clearly stated that Alfeo Gronchi was the person who contracted them. “Porca miseria!” (~ God damn it) groaned Giancarlo. He copied the documents and handed the drive back to Fabrizia.

“They’re planning a honeymoon in Venice which means that Alfeo is probably nearby in Pordenone at his Uncle Giotto’s villa,” she continued.

“I’m almost tempted to let him go and finish it,” said Giancarlo. “But no, that will destroy his soul, won’t it?”

“He has too much blood on his hands, he’s reminded of it every time he gets in that truck he got from that Afghani warlord,” said Fabrizia.

“Then why does he still have it?”

“Because it reminds him of the blood on his hands. I don’t understand veterans too well. They gave up their youth, their families, their health, and all for what? Then they surround themselves with reminders of the living hell they volunteered for.” Fabrizia shook her head sadly.

“What do you suggest?”

“Let me talk to Dominic, it’s got to end, or it could get very ugly. Steve and Natalia are planning to take out the entire Gronchi upper echelon.”

“Mannaggia, che casino!” (~Damn, what a mess) groaned Giancarlo.

Fabrizia shifted uncomfortably. “I want to let Steve’s friends put an end to it cleanly.”

“You know what else Alfeo is guilty of, don’t you?”

Fabrizia closed her eyes and nodded her head. She couldn’t believe she was trying to prevent Steve and Natalia from killing the man that killed both of Natalia’s parents. “I know,” she said sadly. How did it get so crazy?

“Because someone in the Gronchi family is too weak to discipline their stupido prole.” (stupid children) Giancarlo huffed in anger. He should let Steve and Natalia remove Alfeo Gronchi from the gene pool, but he couldn’t risk either of them being caught. He couldn’t do that to Maria’s memory. “Arturo!” shouted Calvetta, and soon the black man appeared. “Please escort Missus Scordato wherever she needs to go.”

“Yes sir.” Only Giancarlo’s best escort Fabbi.

As Fabrizia got ready to leave, Giancarlo stopped Marco. “Marco, my son, stay here and play a game of chess with me.”

Marco looked anxiously at his mother. He did not like the idea of turning her safety over to someone else no matter how good they were, and Arturo was damn good. “Stay,” said Fabrizia. “I will be home before you two have finished your cigars.” And she left with Arturo as her guard, leaving Marco with a terrified pit in the bottom of his gut.