Of Mobsters and Men

  Of

  Mobsters

  and Men

  L.A TehPeaceMaker

  Copyright 2018 L.A TehPeaceMaker

  All rights reserved.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  This book or parts thereof may not be reproduced in any form, stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise—without prior written permission of the publisher, except as provided by United States of America copyright law.

  Cover Designer: Kimberly Djamba

  Editors: KCTillo and Dani Monique

  Dedication:

  I want to thank those of you who have encouraged me and motivated me to get this far. I couldn't have done this if not for you. You know who you are.

  My friends, family, readers, fans, I will continue to give thanks for your endless support and guidance to keep me going. Thanks for reading and giving me your feedback.

  Enjoy, Of Mobsters and Men!

  Table Of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Epilogue

  Chapter 1

  Raelyn

  *Mama Maria's Retaurant, North Boston*

  "You know, Gigi...these tables aren't going to wash themselves." I said raising an eyebrow at my best friend, dropping the Black hand towel into the bucket of soap and water. I swirled it around all nice, drenching it before taking it out and wrenching the towel.

  Gigi scoffed. "I'll get to it, I'll get to it." She says, her Italian accent thick in the air as she waved me off.

  Gigi and I worked at the small local Italian restaurant in the center of the neighborhood. Everybody came here. The drunks, the trouble making teenagers, the big business men, gamblers, people who enjoyed home-style cuisine, and last but not least, the mobsters.

  I've had my fair share of experiences growing up in this town. Working at the restaurant had its perks certainly, and has made up more than majority of the experiences. Like I said, everybody came here, which meant that secrets were thrown left and right. You learned to know everybody and what they were about.

  If it weren't for Gigi, I more than likely wouldn't have my job. I was an outsider-I wasn't born into an Italian home, I didn't have black silky hair and the strong accent, I didn't have ancestors from Sicily and had the comfort of family and Casanova’s at my call...

  Gigi got me my job. No one would look at me and give me a job without any connection or an Italian giving strong recommendations of me and my services.

  The droplets fell onto the dirty stained table and I created friction by wiping the table down, making sure it was clean to be seated at the next morning. "God, I'm just ready to go home." Gigi whined, dragging her feet over to the table in front of me that screamed for her attention.

  We were the only ones closing tonight. It was about 10pm and I needed to be on my way home too. But, there was not a chance of that happening if this place was not squeaky clean. Mother Maria would have our heads! She's the old woman that heads this little restaurant. Her husband built it from the rocks up and died just three years ago. She was a sweet thing then but bitter as black coffee with no sugars now.

  I didn't like her all that much and she didn't hide the fact she didn't like me either, and I knew why.

  Suddenly, Gigi turned her body towards me and gave me one of her looks. Her lips were drawn into a thin line and she raised a perfectly waxed eyebrow. I knew that look. She knew something and wanted me to give her information before she squeezed me like a lemon if she had to.

  “What?” I asked her, wanting to laugh.

  She placed her hands on her hips. “I know about you and Vincent Vandal.”

  Just hearing his name alone caused butterflies to swarm around in my stomach. Vincent Vandal is probably the cutest guy in our school. Or, at least, I thought so. He was different from the other boys in my school. He was the only one who actually took me seriously and wanted to get to know me.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I said, hiding my grin from her vision.

  “Don’t you play me for a fool, Raelyn! I know want when I see it and if my eyes don’t deceive me, you and Vincent want each other.” She said smirking afterwards. I wish I had Gigi’s type of confidence and sureness of self.

  “You’re seeing things too far ahead. He’s cute and everything, but he’s probably just like everyone else.” I said to her. As much as I liked Vincent and believed he was a genuine person, there was still doubt in my mind that he actually liked me and didn’t see me as an outsider.

  Plus, he could have any beautiful Italian girl in the neighborhood that he wanted. I saw the way they looked at him and admired him from afar. I watched how Italian men treated and adored their women. I wanted that, but I knew I wouldn’t and couldn’t find that here. I wasn’t one of them.

  “Well, I think he likes you.” Gigi said and then gave me a look before turning to clean. She’s just something else...

  It was 11pm now and everything was looking spic and span. Saying goodbye to Gigi, we went our opposite ways home. Hopefully mother and father wouldn’t chew my head off for coming home so late, again.

  It was late but not too late. Walking down the streets at this time of night was not new to me. I closed the restaurant often so this was expected. On regular nights, the smell of burning cigarettes would fill your nostrils, Italian cuisines would waft in the air from the opened windows in the apartment buildings, you could hear Italian men yelling at their women to take them back and apologize for cheating, and smooth pickup lines from the men trying to pick up a Bella for a one night stand.

  A car honking startled me when I was a block away from home. I turned around to see a red sports car on the edge of the sidewalk. In it, a dark haired man around his late thirties was looking at me intently with one hand on his steering wheel and a lit cigarette was in his mouth. I felt bile rise to my throat. I knew what he stopped me for.

  I turned my head and kept walking.

  “My chocolate Bella!” He said loudly. My heart sank into my stomach as I quickened my pace.

  Could this man not see I wasn’t old enough to take home? But then again in this community, it wasn’t uncommon for the men to not care about age.

  “Chocolate Bella!”

  Still, I ignored him. He was becoming a nuisance. Why did he have to call me that? It was so embarrassing. He didn’t have to emphasis the fact I’m a black female.

  “Where do you think you’re going? Ah, Bella, let me take you home.” He continues to yell. I just about had it. “I don’t need you to
take me home! I don’t want to go with you anywhere!” I turned around before I could see the scowl I assumed would be on his face.

  I heard the car door slam and realized he was out of it now. I watched as he threw his cigarette on the pavement and stomp on it. ”You think you are too good? You think you are too much for me?” He asked. Watching him approach closer, I swallowed the hard lump in my throat. When I began to back away, he grabbed my arm and I yelped.

  "Leave me alone, please!" I screamed in fear. My heart was beating rapidly and I felt I was literally about to piss on myself.

  He covered my mouth and my scream was now muffled. My back was now against his chest, my eyes wide. Was this really happening to me? I thought to myself. His lips were pressed against my ears. "I have half the mind to bend you over and fuck you against my car."

  My tears were wetting my cheeks. I shook my head and bit his hand as hard as I could. “Bitch!” He yelled as he took off his hand like he just burned himself. Just as he did that, he slapped me across my face. I winced but that pain was only short lived as he shoved me into the hood of his car. I whimpered in pain.“You’re gonna get it now, bitch-“ before he could finish, a loud bang could be heard followed by a masculine yell.

  I’ve lived in this neighborhood long enough to know that was the sound of a bullet being launched from a gun. The man yelled and rolled off of me. I choked out a sob and got off his car, shock overwhelming me as I tried to collect myself.

  I looked down at the man who harassed me. He was lying on the concrete floor, bathing in his own blood. I watched in horror as his blood trickled out the side of his head. My hands shook as I backed away.

  I heard fast approaching footsteps and I looked ahead in the dark as a few faces revealed themselves by the bouncing of the street lights.

  Three men made it over to me before I could run away. The two big burly men held me up and the last one walked up with hard steps towards me. Looking down at the floor, he shot the man making me jump and let out a soundless scream.

  Horror flashed before my eyes as I watched the stranger’s eyes travel from the ground to my face. As I got a good look of his face, all the blood in my body seemed to drain.

  Stefano Vanzetti.

  My heart rate quickened in pace as I realized what I had just gotten myself into.“Please don’t kill me, please don’t kill me!” I yelled begging him.

  The look he then gave me instantly shut me up.

  God, God...please let me leave this alive.

  “I didn’t see anything! I didn’t-“ I tried to save myself.

  “Go home. Now.” He ordered coldly. His voice made shivers climb up my back in waves and I knew he wasn’t going to repeat himself. Stefano's hard facial structure was engraved into my head. The men released me and just when I was about to move my legs as fast and far as they could go, his voice stopped me.

  “Alessio, Sacco, make sure she gets home.”

  The two terrifying men followed me home despite my protests and attempts to outrun them.

  I kept that night to myself. I didn’t tell a soul what happened to me. Not about my harasser, not about Stefano Vanzetti murdering someone right in front of me.

  Not my parents, Gigi, nobody.

  I was too scared to do so. Too scared that if I opened up my mouth about the smallest details, I’d end up with a bullet through my brain. Those men scared me. There was something about them and it wasn’t their physique that was only intimidating. I knew what kind of men they were, especially since Stefano Vanzetti was with them.

  They were apart of the mob in this town. They wore dark suits, stone cold facial expressions and auras that screamed “you mess with me, you mess with danger”.

  I thought serving these kind of scary men at the neighborhood restaurant would be my only kind of encounter with them, but no. I had my first run in with them when I was 16. A girl that age shouldn’t even get close to entangling herself with that scene.

  Their faces would be forever in my mind, Seeing them would only make me relive that disturbing night.

  Sometimes I played devil's advocate. Sometimes I would wonder if they were good guys, or bad guys. If they didn’t come to my rescue. I could’ve been raped. I could have been kidnapped, who really knew?

  Then sometimes I would come back to reality. Stefano...I knew what he was about. I’m one to always take people’s words with a grain of salt, so I didn’t believe in the many rumors I’d heard about him from time to time. However, birds of the same feather flock together, and the men Stefano is always seen around with are dangerous.

  What I had witnessed him do only made the rumors about him look truthful.

  Stefano also comes to the local church. I see him on some Sunday’s, not very often. He liked to sit at the very back with his entourage.

  “There you go zoning out again.” Someone whispered into my ear. For a second I almost jumped at the possibility of it being Mother Maria, but when I realized it was just Gigi, I relaxed.

  “Gigi don’t do that…” I told her tapping my pen against my notepad repeatedly.

  “What’s going on with you? You’ve been so weird lately.”

  “You tell me I’m weird everyday. What’s so different about today?”

  “I said lately. So that means you’ve been acting this way for a while.” She started. Before she could continue, she was cut off. “The food is ready!” I looked behind me and saw that the food I was supposed to pick up was waiting on the counter. I was glad Gigi was cut off, I knew she would press me for more information.

  “We can talk about this later.” I told her. Gigi just narrowed her eyes at me.

  I picked up the plates and set them on the rolling cart carefully, the delicious aroma circulating around me as I made my way to table 7. I rolled my eyes. They really made me take this to the table at the back?

  As I got closer to the table, I began to wish I didn’t pick up the food. There were big men in suits sitting at table 7. This wasn’t going to be my first time serving men in suits, but each time I did, I got more and more nervous.

  To make matters worse, their laughter and conversations died down as I approached them with their food. I bit my lip as I got closer. Their eyes were glued on me as if I’d been spying on them.

  There were about six of them. All twelve eyes calculating my every move. “Enjoy your food.” I said small, I forced a smile before placing each food onto the table.

  The silence only grew more intense. I needed to hurry this up and move onto the next table before it killed me.

  I clasped my hands together when I was done. “Is there anything else I can do for you?” I asked. My eyes danced from each individual onto the next.

  When my eyes landed on the last man, I felt as though my world was rocked. His deep brown eyes bore into mine with familiarity and my eyes bore into his with fear.

  Stefano.

  I've served Stefano and his men maybe once before, but doing it now, was a whole new experience for me.

  A flash of what happened just last week appeared in my head. I remembered his clenched jaws and straight face as he shot my harasser again. I remember the hard look he gave me before telling me to go home. At that moment, I remembered it all.

  My heart dropped to my stomach and at this time, I wanted nothing more than to flee from this table.

  “Refill my glass.” Came his commanding voice. My eyes darted back to this man I was so terribly afraid of. I was always afraid of these kind of people. The big and powerful ones that could make you disappear in a second.

  Everyone was.

  Stefano gave me an unreadable expression. I wanted to believe he was warning me with his eyes. I wanted to believe he was testing to see if I had kept quiet and didn’t tell anyone anything about the murder. As I picked up his glass, he spoke. “I had water.”

  I nodded my head quickly and excused myself. I made sure to take longer than I was supposed to with getting the pitcher of water.

  I did not want to go back
to his table.

  When I came back to the table of older men, their conversation again died down. I’ve heard stories of my coworkers coming back and gushing about how big men complimented their beauty, offered to take them somewhere to eat, and make sexual comments.

  But no, not with me. I’ve experienced the casual once over, perverted comments said out loud, and the strange looks as if I was an alien. I knew what they wanted to say-what they wanted to ask, even.They wanted to know what I was doing here as an outsider.

  I felt all the men watching me carefully as I poured the water to fill up his tall glass. Most of all, I felt Stephano’s intense gaze. His gaze didn’t feel cold, it burned me.

  Chapter 2

  Raelyn

  I exhaled so deeply it surprised me how much air I was holding in.

  After I had refilled Stefano’s glass, I didn’t have to go to that table again. I thanked God. I felt as if every time I reached his table, all the air in my lungs was being sucked out of me with a vacuum.

  The men looked as if they were ranging from their late twenties to early forties. Each one looked as dark and reserved as the next and I didn’t want to figure out what was behind the darkness. They were all handsome and addicting to look at, but you couldn’t look at them for too long.

  Gigi told me men like that saw the stare, as a threat and assumed you were plotting if you looked too long.

  I shook my head trying to not think of that eventful night. That night, before I had entered my home, I made sure to at least look presentable. I fixed my ponytail that had been yanked back by my harasser, I made sure to dry my tears and wait outside as long as I had to until I felt the redness in my eyes subsided. I had to make sure I had collected myself before going in. I couldn’t bare with interrogation.