This waiting is driving me insane, choking me, and making the flesh on my bones shiver with cold sweat on my back. I'm not the type to wait. It makes me feel weak and useless.

And still, here I am, sitting on my ass, chewing my cheeks and babysitting Benito when I should be with Charles, searching for her, digging the entire fucking island till I find her.

From time to time I take short looks at him. I lost the count of times when I felt to pull my gun out and unload it in his head.

He's been standing at the window for the past hour, with one hand hung on his waistcoat pocket and the other constantly holding a glass with whiskey, refilled maybe twenty times so far while he contemplates on fuck knows what.

The calmness he's holding is irritating, sickening me to my bones.

"Did you call?" I ask sternly. This is the third fucking time I'm asking

"Her phone is off."

"Cazzo!" I hiss. (Fuck!)

"She'll call when she can. She knows the drill," he completes as if saying it to himself, which doesn't make me feel in any way better.

His phone buzzes and I'm sure that his heart jumped from his chest just as high as mine did.

"Si, tesoro," he picks up, partly disappointed but somehow wrapped in relief as if finally he has this moment of breaking down. (Yes, love).

So Don Benito does have weak points, his family.

"Hai trovato nostra figlia?" I hear a woman's sobbing voice who must be no other than Eveline, Benito's wife. (Did you find our daughter?)

"Non ancora, amore mio. But don't worry. I'll bring her home, sweetheart. I promise," he continues. (Not yet, my love).

I stare at him from under my frowned eyebrows, looking to his back, still standing at the window and glaring into the darkness outside, not so proud and strong anymore but rather overwhelmed and with a heaviness on his shoulders, now bent in front where his head hangs as well.

The scene is suddenly broken by a message notification on my phone. I have a hunch it just is Charles and leisurely I fish it out of my pocket but jump on my feet the moment I see a message from Mia lightening the screen.

"Enzo, cut it out. Cut it out," I shout at him and show him the screen of my phone.

He swiftly turns ma around and his eyes become wide like the windows behind him.

"We have a location," I tell him while standing up, fetching my jacket and the gun.

"Eve, I'll call you later," he says and hangs up, collecting his staff and rushing his steps after me.

"Show me!" he orders while we exit my house but I'm too busy running toward the cars and I ignore him planning to deal with it when we are in the car.

"Show me the fucking location, kid!" he shouts again and I throw him the phone while I turn the key and ignite the engine.

"I already sent it Charles. He'll meet us there," I say.

"Fuck! Fucking shit! Fuck!" he roars, ventilating his anger for the first time tonight. And it's scary.

"What?!" I ask. "What?! What is it?!"

"It's a trap. I know the place. It's a fucking secluded mansion on a rock on the shores. It has only one access and I'm sure it's guarded as fuck right now."

"I don't care! We go!" I yell concentrated on keeping the car on the wheels speeding insanely and worrying he has a plan that I won't like.

"Of course we go, but we need a plan. We can't bust in unless we have an army with us."

"Charles says he has ten men with him."

"And I have ten, but that's not enough," he replies shattering my confidence somehow.

But I'm crazy enough not to fucking care.

"Kid, we need a plan. Mia's phone was off until now. Why would she send a location instead of calling?"

"How do you know? Maybe she didn't have the time, maybe she just wanted to..."

"Because we have a code, kid. We trained for this. She knows she has to call and let it ring three times if she can't talk and two times if the danger is high. Message is not our code. I'm sure it's Parma who sent the message. And he's waiting."

I squeeze the stirring wheel tight and imagine my hands are wrapped around Parma's neck.

Ah, imagine the satisfaction! I squeeze the life out of him while I look into his eyes, laughing insanely and enjoying the process.

"So, what now? What's your plan?" I finally ask digging for strength not to hit something.

He turns his head to the window and takes his sweet time thinking. He doesn't have a fucking plan. The all-mighty Don Enzo doesn't have shit!

"I go in. By the end of the day, it's me he wants."

"The message was sent to me. If you show up, he'll know we are teamed against him."

I don't actually give a fuck if he knows that or not. I want to be there first, I want to fight to get my woman out. I want to be the one who shoots a bullet in his brain between his eyes while he looks at me.

I want to feed myself with his fear and death.

"He already knows that, Raffa. If we try to show the opposite we will look weak."

"Then we go in together."

"The fuck we will! I'm not risking both of us. Someone has to take Mia out safely. And... kid, she's been broken since you've got shot. My... sweet, always cheerful daughter was... nothing but a shattered soul, striving to live every day as if someone was forcing her to breathe. I'm not taking you away from her again, Raffa. She won't make it this time, kid, if something should happen."

Benito's confession breaks my heart. His voice drops low and he keeps hiding his eyes from me as I turn my head toward him a few times.

It hasn't been easier for me either. To stay away from Mia was as bad as being dead and still waking up every morning, drowning my pitiful anger and longing for the woman I loved in litters of booze from the second I opened my eyes to the very moment I would drop dead drunk, my sleep being very well a faint that would forcefully take me over.

I didn't reply anything to Benito. I didn't like it but I knew it wasn't smart getting in together so I had to go along with his plan. Good or bad, his plan was smarter than busting in, risking a fair number of lives together with mine and Benito's and much worse, Mia's life.

We soon approach the location and I can see the cars of our men hidden in a pack of trees just next to the estate. I turn off the headlights and slowly drive to where Charles is waiting.

I see him leaning against one of the SUVs, with the gun in one hand and the phone in the other. The rest of the men are all on alert, some enjoying a cigarette while waiting, others surveilling the area around, ready to engage and Julian, standing next to Charles and straightening his back when I come into his view as if ready to take any revenge if one should come.

I only nod at him as a greeting and he does the same. We mutually understand that now it's time to collaborate rather than solve old grunges.

I don't bear any hatred toward Julian. He most probably had no idea whom he was shooting, he only saw his father threatened with a gun and acted.

Fuck, the kid is too young for this shit, I find myself speaking the same language as Benito does, and I mentally smirk.

"Don Raffa, Don Enzo..." Charles greets us while Benito and I are getting out of the car and approach our team.

"What do you have, Charles?" Benito is asking and refuses the black shirt Charles is offering while I accept mine and proceed to remove the white one I'm wearing.

Charles spreads a blueprint on the car behind him and we all gather around, excitedly waiting for the plan.

"Well, I have eighteen men spread around the fence and another two with us. The heat detectors show twenty-seven persons in the facility area, two at the front door, two at the gates, two on each side of the rock on the fence's ends, ten are concentrated in the annex to the east side of the mansion and nine are in the main building, five on the northern side and there to the east. One person in a room upstairs."

"Mia..." I mumble staring at the orange silhouette lying on a bed.

My heart squeezes in pain imagining the worst. Benito hums deeply, in anger.

"Most probably," Charles confirms. "There are six surveillance cameras on the fence and four on the mansion. There is no fucking centimeter unwatched."

"Except for the black angle," Benito says, and now things get interesting. Hope blooms in my brain and Benito has my undivided attention.

"Which is?"

"The seaside," he replies and pulls the phone out of his pocket dialing a number without wasting any time explaining.

"Luc, greetings my friend," he speaks on the phone with the call hands-free. "Listen, I need help, man."

"Benito, mother fucker! Finally, I get to pay my bill and owe you shit!" the guy from the other end of the line laughs cheerfully and I feel the relationship they have is more than just friendship.

"I told you that day will come."

"What do you need, Enzo?" the suddenly becomes serious, getting down to business.

"I need a boat explosion at the coordinates I'm going to send you right after this call. I need it big, man! I need flames all the way to the mansion they see to their right and if those flames cause a fire on the mansion, I'll be in your debt."

The guy pauses for a few moments, humming and assessing the request.

"Family matters, right?" the guy finally asks.

"My eldest daughter, Luc," Benito confirms and his voice takes a dangerous turn to deep tones emerge from the fury he tries to hold back.

"Is that all you need?"

"That's all, man. I'm good," Benito replies.

"Alright. In thirty minutes, get ready for fireworks," the man concludes and hangs up.

Benito slides the phone in his suit jacket pocket breathing deeply and taking a few moments to recollect before we put our plan in motion. Well, his plan.

"I getting too old for this shit, kid. I could use someone to take over," he continues lifting his head and looking straight into my eyes.

I didn't realize what he really meant until he glued his eyes on me as if waiting for an answer and then the realization hit me like a fucking hammer in my balls, rushing the blood through my veins all the way to my head.

"No! No fucking way, Benito! We're still having an unfinished matter and I'm not going to forget about that just because..." I try to fight it back but he swamps over me, pushing me in my back to the car and pointing his gun at my temple head, blasting his rage on me.

"Listen to me, you little piece of shit! I could have killed you a thousand times by now and nobody would have found your body in a million years! When you decided to take Mia you should have thought that my daughter doesn't become easily the addition of someone unless they take responsibility!"

"Enzo, come on. Let him be," I hear Julian trying to calm down his father in a low but well-pitched tone.

"You will do what the fuck I say you should do and stop jumping around me like a beheaded chicken with no balls to pull the trigger of that toy you most probably proudly call your shitty gun!" Benito continued, staring at me with mad eyes and asking for something that I couldn't put my finger on.

"Where are your balls, boy?" he asks between clenched teeth and then it hit me.

I understood an unspoken language he was trying to speak to me so I took a stronghold of my gun and hit his eyes with it, in such a way that I easily broke the arch of his left eye, and his blood splashed in my face.

He growls in pain and steps aside holding his hurt eyes with one hand and pulling out a handkerchief with the other while he bursts into a spree of laughter that shocks everybody, except for me.

Who fuck still carries a handkerchief? I wonder while I wipe my face and mumble curses like a pirate.

"You have what it takes, kid," Benito says while still shaking with laughter and wiping the blood streaming from above his eyes. "Thanks. Now Parma will think that even though we might have teamed to get Mia out of his hands, we actually hate each other and he'll offer deals. That's how I'll keep him busy," he explains while trying to regain his breath and asking for some water.

"You're fucking crazy," I hiss unhappy with his way but fuck it, his way is fucking smart.

"Well, fuck you too, Capozzi," he replies in a friendly manner. "Well, I'm going in. Alone. He'll think I'll offer myself in change of Mia. When the first blow up will be heard, each one you get in, ready to shoot and kill. Julian will have your back, kid," Benito distributes orders.

"Yeah, I know. My back was all his last time we met," I ironically remind Benito about his son having shot me in my back a year ago.

"Trust me, he crossed hell before and after asking forgiveness from his elder sister, on his knees. He'll really have your back, Capozzi. Once everybody is in, nobody searches for me. I'll take care of myself. Kid, you go straight to the room upstairs and take Mia. Julian, watch his back this time. The rest of you, the only task you have is to cover Capozzi until he's out safely with Mia holding his hand. Then everybody leaves..." he continues taking a knife from his son and slowly inserting it in the collar of his suit jacket, nicely hidden while the gun stays in the holder around his shoulders.

"Enzo, don't make me bring Mamma bad news tonight," Julian suggests that his father's orders are not reasonable enough.

"She's a strong woman. He can take it," Benito replies.

He runs a hand through his hair trying to arrange it somehow and look presentable then gets into one of the cars and drives toward the gates, honking once he is in front of it.

Julian curses in Italian a few times and turns around, walking to his car and taking his gun and a fair amount of ammunition.

I try to catch a look into his eye but he keeps avoiding me, shyly walking past me and analyzing the blueprints again.

I walk to him and clear my throat to get his attention.

"Listen, Julian..." I start.

"Yeah?" he swiftly turns around.

"When we are in there, if I give you Mia and tell you to run, you run kid. You run like there's no tomorrow, you get me?"

"This is not what Enzo said."

"I know. But you owe me one, right?" I justify my request with a blackmail for having me almost killed a year ago.

He frowns and stares at me for a few good moments before he agrees and I have his promise, shaking his head in towards my plan while I press my lips in a thin line and thank him with a nod of my head.

Fuck, I'm starting to like this family too fucking much!

~~~~~
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