My Mafia Madness 3

Chapter 22 - Checkmate

Only a minute went by before the burner phone began ringing from where it was sitting on the table and Dario wasted no time reaching out and answering it.

“Sì?” (Yeah?)

“È fatta. Il colpo è stato annullato.” (It’s done. The hit’s been called off.) Santo reported sadly with an auditable huff following along afterwards.

Dario nodded his head before looking up at Dante and speaking.

“It’s done! Now give her the antidote, Romano!”

The Reaper grinned with satisfaction for a moment in silence.

He had finally won…

But he was nowhere near finished with these De Luca scum!

They would indeed pay for all the pain and hurt they had put his poor Alexa through. And for the sake of his unborn son as well.

Oh yes, they would pay… dearly.

“E adesso?” (So, what now?) Santo queried on the other end of the line.

But just as the youngest son had spoken, Dario noticed that the Reaper was holding something in his hand; it appeared to be a small black remote of some kind.

Narrowing his eyes on it, he watched as the grinning Dante slowly moved his finger towards the right button and hovered over it as he spoke his next haunting and terrifying words to Dario.

“You may want to say your… goodbyes…”

Dario’s eyes widened to the size of beach balls as he sucked in a startled breath.

He knew that look on Dante’s face; it was one he himself had given so many other people in the past.

The look one would give to an opponent whilst playing a game of Chess.

‘Checkmate…’

In a frantic effort, the fearful father began trying to warn his son, but the words just wouldn’t come out soon enough.

And as he did so, Dante’s thumb pressed down firmly on the detonator button.

“Figlio! Esci da lì! È un-” (Son! Get out of there! It’s a-)

‘KA-BOOM!’

The sound from the vicious explosion pelted into the older Don’s eardrums, rupturing them as he cried out and threw the phone to the floor.

“Cazzo!” (f**k!)

Dario’s eyes were scrunched tightly together, and he groaned in pain, cradling his right ear which was now bleeding, with his only free hand.

His ear continued to ring for the next minute or so as Dario finally managed to face the tremendous pain he was now feeling in his head.

Opening his eyes, he looked up and noticed that Dante was smugly lighting up a cigarette he had held between both his lips.

After inhaling a puff from his newly lit cigarette, Dante’s expression shows sarcastic concern as he spoke.

“That didn’t sound too good now, did it?” he mused.

“I really do hope he’s alright.”

“AARGH! f**k YOU DANTE ROMANO!”

The now furious Don shouted at the top of his lungs, his face contorted into a hideous mass of rage and hatred.

Dante feigned hurt, placing a hand over his heart as he continued to taunt his captive mercilessly.

“Now, now… let’s not overreact.”

Dario’s chest was heaving in and out now as he began trying to pull himself free from his restraints.

But they proved too powerful for him, even in his anger-fuelled rage.

“You had no reason to do that! You had our surrender, you spineless bastard!” Dario reminded.

“Yes, but it felt so good.” Dante spoke with a grin.

“I swear to god, somehow, someday, I will end you, Romano.” Dario promised viciously, glaring daggers directly at the younger Don.

“Have you forgotten about your dear little daughter?”

Dante’s sudden change of topic had Dario turning his attention towards the laptop’s screen once more.

A frantic expression had now replaced the one of rage as he watched her begin to slow her movements and her eyes to hood between blinks.

“Antidote! NOW!” Don Dario commanded through gritted teeth.

“Please...”

But he would not like what he was about to find out.

Not… one… little… bit…

Tilting his head off to the side, Dante expressed confusion as he spoke.

“What antidote?”

“Enough of your f*****g games, Romano!” Dario shouted at his captor.

“Save her, save her life, please! I beg you.”

With a sad sigh, Dante pursed his lips together as he contemplated how he would reveal the truth to his captive right here and now.

The poor old man had been through enough torture by now.

But he couldn’t help but want to rub it in just a little more.

Pushing off the table, the Reaper circled around to stand beside the table and laptop as he spoke to a rather desperate Dario with a solemn tone to his voice.

“There is no antidote, Dario.” Dante announced blatantly.

Crossing his arms over his chest, it caused his rippling muscles to protrude from the confinements of his expensive white dress shirt.

“Besides, even if I did have an antidote for what she was given…” he paused, leaning in and pointing towards the time stamp at the top left hand of the screen.

Something that Dario, in his panicked state, had not taken the time to check!

“I’m afraid it would be… oh, about two hours too late to help her.” Dante finished smugly.

The time stamp on the video in which Dario had assumed was a live feed, said 8:57pm.

But it was now a little past 11:15pm, according to the clock displayed at the bottom right hand of the laptop!

He was too late to save her…

Now, all three of his children were dead!

Dario was all that remained of his family name and lineage. And he was no fool.

He knew the Reaper was coming for him sooner rather than later.

Caught up in such an intense mixture of heated emotions, Dario slowly went through a series of facial expressions as Dante’s men moved about, preparing something from behind him.

First, he felt confusion…

Then utter disbelief…

And finally, impending doom…

At last, everything had come together and made sense.

Dario, though now completely filled with unsettling dread, understood what this menacing little game of Dante’s had been about the entire time...

Power.

Dante now held the power over him, and his rival wanted to make that loud and clear before he had him killed.

This was never about saving Cellina’s life. She would most likely have died from whatever concoction they had given to her already.

Poor Cellina was doomed from the very beginning of their little game.

But Dante had made the De Luca’s entire family surrender to him, willingly.

A merely miniscule demonstration of his immense power now, as the Reaper of New York. He had convinced Dario and his family to cease their fight in this pointless war against him…

Right before he wiped them all out…

One… by… one…

Falling into a state of paralysed shock, the older Don sat with his shoulders hunched over in defeat as Dante gave one final grin and put out his cigarette against the table’s wooden surface.

Standing up again, Dante turned and headed for the door. As he walked, he called out one last thing over his shoulder for Dario’s ears.

“You should thank me, Dario… I’m doing humankind a service here by ridding the world of your entire family line.” the Reaper reminded as the door was opened for him by one of his many men.

Though he paused for a moment before exiting.

Just as Dario’s eyes lifted to glance upon the man responsible for taking his children from him, to lash out one final time, his eyes widened with sudden surprise as a large plastic bag was forced down over his head from someone standing behind him wearing a set of black gloves.

Struggling and knowing full-well what this would mean for him, Dario tried to lift his free hand up and tear a hole in the bag, but someone else behind him grabbed his arm before he could.

Dario’s fight proved fruitless as his arm was forced back down against the arm rest, right before the sharpened blade of a large knife stabbed right through it, piercing through flesh and bone as it came right up to the hilt.

“AAARGH!”

Dario cried out in understandable pain, his voice muffled by the plastic bag which had now been tied with a longer Ziplock around his neck and adjusted to an extremely uncomfortable tightness.

It was cutting into his neck with each movement he made to struggle free.

And his air was quickly running out!

Dante turned around to watch as Dario’s struggles began to slow down; the fight for air useless.

The older Don’s eyes quickly turned red and bloodshot as he stared the Reaper dead in the eye one last time.

Right up until he breathed his final breath.

Moments later, his lifeless body slumped down face forward in the chair, still with the bag attached around his head and still tied down to the chair, preventing him from falling off.

The two men standing behind their most recent victim both looked up at their boss with matching smirks.

At long last, the De Luca’s were no more.

One enemy had been wiped out completely, never again to return.

But there was yet another visit to be made this evening…

And it was one that Dante had been dreading.

With a long and spiteful sigh, he stepped out through the open doorway and headed down the hall towards the next cell.

-

Taking a glance around the tiny cell he had just entered, Dante noticed several plates of uneaten food sitting to the side, along with half-filled glasses of water.

It appeared that his father was choosing not to eat.

Not that he cared.

This man was in here for a reason.

He was a traitor.

Finally, he spotted his father’s hunched over silhouette seated in the corner of the room, shrouded in shadowed darkness.

A small smirk curved the corner of his mouth upwards as he began strolling across the dirty floor towards him.

The sound of his expensive Italian loafers ‘clomping’ against the solid concrete ground beneath them was all that could be heard in that moment.

That was until Dante finally stopped less than four feet away from his father.

The Don stood in silence for a moment, standing tall and proud as he looked down at the husk of a man sitting before him.

Diego’s clothes were damp and dirty, and his unshaven face had begun to form a short type of beard.

But the older Romano did not move or speak.

He did nothing to acknowledge his son’s presence, out of a mixture of spite and defiance.

Lowering his head, Dante was about to turn and leave when he heard the familiar sound of his father’s voice at long last.

It sounded huskier than normal, worn and defeated perhaps.

“The De Luca’s?”

The older man queried aloud, knowing full-well why his son would be here to pay him a visit right now.

To gloat.

Dante’s response was almost simultaneous.

“Dead.”

Nodding his head as he remained hunched over in the shadows, Diego already knew the answer before his son had spoken it.

Hearing it had only confirmed what he had suspected.

“And I suppose you’re here to finish me off now as well, hmm?” the former Don challenged defiantly.

But Dante’s expression suddenly froze into an icy glare as he turned his attention towards his seated father.

He looked furious all of a sudden, though he quickly masked it with a somewhat emotionless expression as he gave his reply with promise.

“You really think you’re getting off that easily, do you old man?” the Reaper questioned.

Diego gave a sarcastic chuckle in response before he spoke.

“No… I don’t suppose I am…”

Once more a moment of silence forced itself between the father and son, in such an awkward situation, causing Dante to be the one who spoke next.

Yes, his father was spot on when he had suspected that Dante had come to gloat, but the Reaper side of the powerful Don had an ulterior motive in mind…

He was there to taunt his father.

To remind him just who was in charge now.

And to add to his message, Dante knelt took a few steps in closer towards his father, crouching down so that the two were at eye level as he spoke with confidence.

“You’re not going to ask me how Alexa is, or anything about the pregnancy? About the wellbeing of your future grandson?”

Diego maintained his emotionless stare ahead, defiantly ignoring his son’s words as he waited for Dante to get to the point, whatever it was.

Smiling and giving a subtle chuckle, the Reaper shook his head for a second as he spoke again.

“I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised, after how many times you tried to have them both killed...” he announced, looking the man responsible for his birth, both into the world and the Mafia Underworld, up and down with disgust.

“You know I asked her to marry me. That’s right, I did it, right in front of the entire world. You’re looking at an engaged man right now, Padre.”

A subtle flick of his eyes and tensing of his face showed Dante that his father was in fact listening to what he was saying.

He was getting a response, even if it was small.

“Who ever thought a monster like me could be so happy, hmm?”

“She will betray you. They all do… eventually. Women are like snakes!” Diego finally spoke, his words laced with hideous venom as his eyes narrowed.

Tilting his head off to the side, Dante too narrowed his eyes in question, furrowing his brows as he spoke.

“Talking from experience, are we?”

Diego rolled his eyes, huffing as he turned his head away from his eldest son’s obvious attempts at taunting him.

“What would you know?” Diego snarled.

Now Dante was intrigued.

He had always believed his late mother was the only woman who Diego had allowed to possess his heart in the past.

But could it be, there was in fact another that he hadn’t yet heard about? One Diego had kept hidden from him all these years?

Questions began circulating within Dante’s head of such a possibility.

Who was she, this mysterious woman Diego spoke of?

How recent was this so-called relationship of theirs?

How did she betray his father?

What did she do to earn such fury and hatred from him?

And most importantly, what happened to this woman he spoke so savagely of?

“Did a woman scar your heart, padre? Betray you, perhaps? Is that why you’ve been so cold towards Alexa this whole time?” the Reaper queried.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about!” the older Romano snapped viciously, still refusing to meet his son’s gaze.

“Just drop it!”

Remaining silent for a moment, Dante breathed out a long sigh through his nose before he closed his eyes and tried to calm his angered soul.

This man had betrayed him.

True, Diego was his father by blood and name, but that was it in Dante’s opinion.

And what’s worse was that he had threatened Alexa, almost succeeding with having her killed on many occasions!

That alone would not be tolerated.

For his crimes against Dante, the leader of the Romano Family Mafia, and his newly-forming family, the old man would have to die.

There was no doubt about it.

But the question remained…

How would he choose to do it?