The Brambilla's, The Beginning

Back to Eleonora:

When she came to her eyes went wide with fear when she realized she was tied to a chair and duck tape covered her mouth. Hearing the scraping of a chair her eyes turned in that direction. A man got up from his chair and over to her, squatting in front of her so that he was eye level with her.

"I know it must be uncomfortable tied to this chair, but it is necessary. I can't have you trying to escape. But if you promise not to scream I'll remove the tape. Will you promise?"

She nodded her head and he removed the tape. "Who are you and why are you doing this to me?"

"My name is Thomas Capo, I am sorry to have dragged you into this. But if you want someone to blame you can blame your husband."

"What has he got to do with this?"

"A few years ago he murdered my father, so now I must avenge his death. At first I wanted to kill him but the man is never alone. He is always surrounded, hiding behind his men like the coward he is."

"Leone is not a coward, but you are. Only a coward would use a woman to get to somebody else."

"I have been watching the two of you together for some time now and I can see how much he loves you. Enough to risk his life to save yours. So what better way to make him suffer than to watch the woman he loves die right in front of his eyes? He will be in so much pain and that is when I will end his life."

"You have no idea who you're dealing with. When he finds me he will kill you, and he has many loyal men who will help him. You don't even know it, but you're already a dead man."

His eyes moved over her legs, traveling up to her chest as he placed his one hand on her leg. "You know, I just might spare you if you agree to become my woman. Once he is dead we can be free to be together."

It turned her stomach when she felt his hand on her leg. "I'd rather be dead than to be with you," she said, lifting her one leg she kicked him in the chest and he fell on his ass.

Getting up off the floor he raised his hand and slapped her across the face. "You little bitch. I will make you pay for that. I will kill you slowly while he watches you die."

" Fuck you, you weak snivelling coward."

He slapped her again, harder this time. "Now be a good girl while I get ready for our company to come."

She looked up when several men entered the room, they all stood around talking and loading their guns. With no one paying attention to her she started working the rope, trying to loosen them behind her back. But it was no use, they were tied too tightly.

*******************

Leone had reached the home of Elio Capo, he didn't even know that the man had a son named Thomas. He took out his gun and made sure it had plenty of bullets. But as soon as he reached the door it opened and several men had their guns pointed at him.

"Drop your weapon," one of them shouted. When Leone did what he was told the same man told two of the other guys to check him for other weapons.

"I have no beef with you, just tell me where Thomas Capo is and I will let you all live," he said as the two men searched him, taking away the gun he had behind his back and the one attached to his ankle.

The guys all started laughing. "What can one man do against twelve of us? Mr. Capo is waiting for you upstairs."

"Oh you poor bastards, you have no idea what you got yourself into," he said as he was escorted upstairs.

As soon as he was shoved into a room he saw a man standing behind Eleonora, holding a knife to her throat.

"Leone," she cried out when she saw him.

"It's okay baby, everything's going to be okay." He looked at the man who was standing behind her. "You must be Thomas Capo. I'm here, you've got me so let her go. She has nothing to do with the fight between us."

"I can't do that, I need her."

Since Thomas had a knife to her throat he knew he had to keep calm. "I understand that you hate me for what I did to your father. But your father was an evil man and he had to be stopped. My own father did what he had to do by shutting down your father's business."

"My father was not evil, he ran a legit business and was a good man who wouldn't hurt a fly."

"You're wrong. He took innocent women, raped them and let others do the same. When they were done with them he sold them into the sex trade. He took my father's life when he tried to stop him again. You're young, you can still have a life and I don't think you're anything like him. You don't want to hurt an innocent woman."

"Shut up, just shut up. I loved my father and you took him away from me. You tortured and killed him. Now I want you to feel the same kind of pain that I did. That is why I need her. I want to see the pain in your eyes when I slit her throat and you see her blood gushing, draining the life out of her."

"Torture me, beat me, cut off my body parts if that's what you want. But for the love of God don't harm my wife. If it's money you want you can have every last dime I have. You can have all of my businesses, my home and I will guarantee that my men will consider you their next boss."

"Save your breath and accept your fate." There were six guys in the room with them. Thomas looked at them and ordered them to put Leone in the chair and tie him up.

When he tried to fight them he was hit over the head with one of their guns. He was out cold until someone threw some cold water in his face. He could hear her crying. "I'm so sorry my love, I have failed you," he said, looking into her tear-stained eyes.

She's stared back into his eyes, her own her filled with tears as they rolled down her cheek. "No, you haven't. I love you so much and if we have to die then I'm glad we are together."

Suddenly there was a noise coming from the hallway, it sounded like a scuffle so Thomas told his guys to check it out.

A smirk appeared on Leone's face, his gut told him it was Eddie and the others. "It's over Thomas, my men are here and you are all going to die. But I will let you live if you untie my wife and let her go."

Thomas could hear all the commotion and the sound of bodies falling to the ground, he knew that he had been tricked. He stared angrily at Leone and pressed the knife back on her neck. "You tricked me, you told me you were coming alone. I told you what would happen if you didn't. So now she must die. I might die and you might live but at least you will get to see her die, feel the pain of losing your loved one and know there was nothing you could do to prevent it."

Leone let out a gut-wrenching scream when Thomas placed the knife in front of her neck.

********************

Ten minutes earlier:

Eddie and the others surrounded the place, with silencers on their guns they took down the men that were guarding the outside. Motioning with his hand he directed some to check the downstairs of the house and the others were to follow him up the stairs. Thankfully there wasn't a lot of guys around and they were taken out quickly. Eddie had one of his men kick the door down and with their guns raised he didn't hesitate to shoot Thomas in the head when he saw him with a knife close to Eleonora's neck. When the door was kicked in Thomas let down his guard and moved the knife away from her just as a bullet went through his head.

Eddie ran over and untied her while the other guy untied Leone. "Sweetheart, you're okay now. It's over," he said, giving her a hug. But he quickly moved away when Leone ran over to her and pulled her into his arms.

Once he was released he ran over to her, pulling her into his arms. He was so relieved that he kept kissing the top of her head as he held her tightly against him. "Baby, oh baby I am so sorry. I love you so much." He finally lifted her chin up and stared into her eyes as he stroked her cheek with his thumb. "Are you okay?" he asked, checking her neck to see if there were any cuts. He wanted to cry when he saw a mark on her neck that was left from the knife and the bruises on her cheek.

She had her arms around his neck as she stared up at him with tears in her eyes. "I'm okay, but I was so scared."

"You'll never have to be scared again, nothing like this will ever happen to you again. Oh God, I love you so much." He then gave her a kiss, one that was full of relief and love. All the love he felt for her went into that kiss until he felt someone's hand on his shoulder.

"Leone, we should get her out of here now."

He looked up at Eddie. "Yes, the others can stay and clean up this mess. Thank you my friend for getting here in time. I knew you wouldn't obey my orders by staying away, and for that, I am very grateful."

"I will always have your back, you know that. Come on, let's get the hell out of here."

Since she wasn't wearing any shoes Leone picked her up in his arms and carried her down the stairs and outside. She wrapped her arms around him and rested her head on his shoulder.

She refused to let go of him, even when they got inside the car. Sitting on his lap with his arms around her and her clinging to him she finally let out the sobs that she was holding back. Even though she was afraid for herself she was even more afraid for Leone. She had come so close to losing him and if Thomas had succeeded in killing him she would have prayed for death herself.

"It's okay baby, it's over now," he said as he kept kissing the top of her head and stroking her back with his hand.

Eddie was sitting up front with the driver and looked back at them. "I'm assuming you're going back to the apartment and not the hotel."

"There's no way we can go back there. Yes, take us home."

When they arrived at the hotel they went through the back way so that no one would see them. He carried her inside the apartment, Eddie followed behind them.

Still holding her in his arms he faced Eddie. "I can't thank you enough for saving us. I owe you big time and if there's ever anything I can do for you just name it."

"You don't owe me anything, you have saved me more than once. But if you must owe me then my request is that you treat this beautiful woman right and always love her and take care of her."

"I will, you can count on it, my friend. It's very late so why don't you just stay the night in the guest bedroom."

"I appreciate the offer but I think that the two of you need to be alone." He then looked at her. "Everything will be okay now, I'll come by and check on you in the morning."

She lifted her head from Leone's shoulder to look at Eddie and reached out her hand to him which he took. "Thank you, Eddie, you are such a wonderful friend and you saved us. I love you."

"I love you too sweetheart, now you get some rest and I'll come around and see you tomorrow." After giving her a kiss on the cheek he left them alone.

When Eddie was gone he carried her over to the sofa and with her still on his lap he hugged her even tighter than before. His face nestled in the crock of her neck. "I have never been so scared in my life when I saw that bastard holding a knife to you. I thought for sure I was going to lose you." He couldn't stop the tears from falling and his sobs breaking out.

She could feel his tears wetting her neck as she ran her fingers through his hair. "You will never lose me. This whole experience has shown me how precious our time is together and we must make the best of every day we have. I knew you would come to me and now we must move forward. I am your wife and you are my husband and I will love you forever."

He looked up at her and let her wipe his tears from his face. "My wife, I love saying that. We will have a wonderful life together. I am so sorry that our wedding night ended like this."

She gave him a weak smile as she caressed his lips with her fingertips. "It's not over yet. Let's go take a shower together."

They walked upstairs to their bedroom and went into the bathroom. He slowly removed her robe and slipped her gown over her head. He then removed his clothes and they stepped into the shower. All they wanted to do was clean off the blood and dirt from their bodies, and to hold each other with the water flowing down their bodies. He was not going to make love to her, she was too exhausted. The only thing they needed right now was to be together, their arms wrapped around each other as they came to terms with what had happened and to move forward with their lives.