Page 230 of Vicious Intentions
“I miss her too,” Stella chokes out, coaxing Kirill to rush past us to aid his wife in her suffering.
But Stella and my mother surprise us all when they reach for each other and fall into an embrace, both of them grieving the loss of someone they loved.
“New York and Chicago can never suffer such a devastating loss again,” Marcello states, his gaze locked on my mother and his sister.
“Agreed,” I grunt, hating seeing my mother suffer this way.
“It’s up to us to make sure it doesn’t,” Marcello adds, extending his hand for me to shake.
“Never again,” I state, clasping his hand in mine.
“Never again,” Marcello repeats steadfastly.
We shake hands in front of everyone, and after the funeral service is over, Rocco, Raffaele, Moretti, Kirill, Marcello, and I lift my brother’s coffin onto our shoulders as pallbearers, carrying it out of the cathedral toward the funeral car waiting outside.
The symbolism of that one act isn’t lost on anyone watching.
After today, New York belongs to the Cosa Nostra just like Matteo wanted. There will be no more bloodshed between our organizations. Matteo and Anna’s deaths made sure of that.
The truce between the Outfit and the Cosa Nostra doesn’t make either of us weak. Not after what it cost to achieve it. And fuck if it didn’t cost us dearly.
Matteo and Anna had to die for peace to finally exist between our families. They forfeited their lives so we could keep ours.
If love is measured by sacrifice, then I don’t know one greater than the sacrifice they made for us.
Only God knows if we’ll ever be able to live up to it.
Chapter 50
Matteo
Nome.
That’s where Stella told us to be on the day we celebrated our first wedding anniversary.
June 15th. Nome, Alaska.
That’s the last memory we have of our old world. Just a few rushed instructions whispered into my wife’s ear by her sister before leaving us alone in their father’s club basement to make our grand escape.
To be honest, I wasn’t sure they could pull it off. It felt like there were too many moving parts to Marcello’s plan. Too many variables that could have gone wrong for it to succeed. But I underestimated how far the Romano siblings would go to ensure their sister’s happiness.
At first, it took me a moment to understand what we were supposed to do. Luckily, my wife knew exactly how everything would unfold thanks to Stella’s goodbye. We were to head toward the LaSalle Street Bridge, making sure we sped the entire way there, so people would witness my erratic driving and recallit later. I have to admit, I wasn’t keen on driving like a madman while my wife sat beside me, but I had no choice but to trust that she knew what she was doing.
There was a moment where I thought Anna wouldn’t be able to go through with it, though.
That doubt only hit me when she saw one brother gaining on us from behind while another drove right beside us.
“Who is that?” I asked when she stared out my window at the car with two men speeding toe to toe with us.
“That’s Enzo. My brother,” she whispered softly, wiping the tears from her eyes. “And the man driving the car is his husband, Alejandro.”
I turned to look at them, Enzo holding some kind of remote while mouthing ‘I love you’to his sister. Then he looked at me with the same tenderness and mouthed, ‘Take care of her.’
I only had time to nod before his husband pulled in front of us, followed by another car that looked exactly like ours. It was hard to see through the heavy snow, but for a split second, I realized the vehicle ahead of us wasn’t just an exact replica of our car. It was also missing a driver.
Enzo must’ve somehow been controlling it with that remote.
Anna glanced at the rearview mirror one last time, silently saying goodbye to Jude and Mina behind us, but with how heavily the snow was falling, I doubted they even saw her do it.
