Tangled in the Mafia’s Web

Episode Two

"Disappearances, after all, have explanations" Leandro's voice again pierced through the tensed silence.

Just like his entire body had shut down, Callan couldn't move a muscle, not even if he wanted to. He just stood and rooted to the spot. Next to Leandro was Alonzo standing, they were the only two people spotted in the living room.

"Don't you keep standing there, come in. It's your little vacation home, isn't it?" Leandro smirks at his words before gesturing at Callan to come over. "Oh my my. Doesn't today interest you enough" He tells him amusedly.

"Sir Vinci, I wasn't informed of your visit" Callan manages to say despite the terror building in him. Being instructed by Leandro he immediately settles the opposite.

"Now you're more relaxed. Can you please remind me of the exact words you said to me the very day you were mobilized to work for me?” Leandro asks of him. One couldn't pick up a certain meaning to his facial expression as he was neither angry nor content with the situation.

"You can't remember? I thought so because truer words were never spoken" He stares directly at Callan who on other hand already has some obvious amount of sweat appearing on his skin.

"I'd do anything to oblige you. Those were your exact words, Callan Renato. I made you a cop, I made you what you are today, I kept my own side of the bargain, and guess what? You sold me to the cops. You became an accomplice to their travesty" Callan quickly falls to the ground the second those words were said.

"This will... this will never happen again, huh? We have worked together...together for seven years, huh? Please, sir. I beg you"

"Exactly. So why did you do it if we worked together for so long? Don't you know what kind of man I am? Not even the cops could camouflage you from me. And yet you chose the wrong tree"

"I- Uhm- I never, never wanted to impede your potential. Please, Sir, I beg of you. Please don't kill me. I... I must have.. have lost..lost my mind for some time there. I, uh.. please don't do this. My daughter.. she just started school" Callan voices out trembling.

"Who said something about killing you? If you already knew I would kill you if you dared go against me, why do so? Is it money or you were just trying to play the heroic thing? That's a lot of f*****g nerve you've got, Callan Renato"

"Please- please give me one more chance, just one - one, and I will make it right. Everything" He began to weep "Pl- please don't kill me, my little girl- she is- she is so little not to grow up with her father, please have mercy"

"So then, I'll make sure that the funeral runs smoothly. At least she won't get to know a father like you" Leandro tells him getting on his feet.

"I'm a practical man. I could not rest with such a treacherous man like you at my back. Just so you know. You aren't allowed to die until you give me every piece of information I desire to know. Sooner or later when I'd be torturing you, physical pain would be manageable" Leandro squats next to Callan "You see, the real pain you'd be facing is knowing that I would be putting a bullet through your precious daughter's skull once I'm not certified with the pieces of information you will be providing before I finally kill you. That pain will follow you to your grave. That there, that's the real pain"

Regardless, Leandro's thought process is quite different from that of the average person. One may say his method of punishment is quite different as he not only allows the person to suffer the pain but also to suffer the regret of betraying him. People can be sorry and not regret it. If you betray Leandro, then you are definitely going to regret that side of action.

Leandro rises "Despite your carelessness, I'm granting you a rear opportunity to save your daughter from my very own cruel hand. Although you don't need to worry about the story that would be fed to her when she grows. The cops always got ways to make themselves the hero, isn't that true, Sergeant Callan Renato?" With no further words to Callan, he began walking out of the room. "Take him" He instructs no one in particular halfway out and Alonzo immediately grabs Callan.

"Please Sir- please just one- one more chance and I will make everything right.. please!"

Leaving Callan's hideout residence, Leandro alongside Alonzo drives to Leandro's father's residence. Alonzo has been working for Leandro for over ten years now and is the closest to him. Sometimes they bond like brothers, the other like the comrades they are, but all this time, there is one line between them. Trust. About six years before, Leandro had said to Alonzo. "You and I are like a couple of regular fellows, you do what you do best, and I do what I do best. But I will tell you, at some point, if you decide to be a rival, brother, you are going down. I won't think twice. I won't hesitate. Not for a second, about turning your wife into a widow"

And one very thing that makes Alonzo different from the rest is that he understood Leandro, he knows the man never goes against his own words, and no matter their friendship, Leandro would certainly put him down, just as he had told him.

"Where have you been?" Porzio inquires as Leandro approaches him. He was relaxing on a recliner chair with a traditional large cigar in between his fingers and a very noticeable golden ring wrapped around his middle finger.

"Facing my mortality, Father. I don't recommend it" He tells him settling on a club chair.

"That is debatable"

"Gerardo Di Maggio was at the auction" Leandro informs. "He also came for the damn painting you asked for"

"You got the painting?"

"Why do you think I came all this way?" Leandro throws back with a straight face. "To have a frick and frack chitchat with the old man about rearranging the deck chairs of the titanic? Absolutely not" A slightly amused chuckle escapes his lips and Porzio grins.

"Well, there is no way to say this that will make it sound less insane to you, but I would say it anyway. I want Lucetta to play at the event next week Saturday" Porzio demands and Leandro's eyes vaguely dart at his father.

"Do you realize she's just nine?"

"She is nine, and she can play. Why all the piano lessons when you won't give her a chance to really perform?"

"Now, if that's everything, father, I would be on my merry way" He informs getting to his feet. "Your beloved painting has been taken to your office chamber" He pulls on his coat and then makes a bow.

He was about to leave when Porzio’s voice came through "She will be playing," The old man said firmly and Leandro left without uttering another word, leaving him to the company of his servants.

"Bring the girl to the building" Leandro instructed Alonzo who nodded as he opened the car door for him. Once Leandro was gone, Alonzo proceed to Leandro's garage within the old mafia's property and took one of his cars.