Vendetta (2 page)

     “Joey, come and get Alice,” I ordered. “You’ve played the jealousy game long enough.” Alice looked up at me, startled. “What are you doing,” silently entered my thoughts. “Don’t worry,” I whispered.

    
Joey quickly took Alice into his arms as I turned to size up Leo’s current mental state. He had to be fuming with anger. Shouldn’t he? But, instead, his face was completely void of all emotion. He just stood still, frozen in time. The gun was now hanging at his side.

    
“Leo,” I said quietly. “The situation has changed, don’t you think? Maybe we could rethink things a bit.” I was directly in front of him now. His eyes were pinned, staring at the ground, and his hand was shaking. The rest of his body was stoic.  

   
“I think we were both a little shocked by the sudden baby news. Some things are starting to make a little more sense now, don’t you agree?” He didn’t respond. “I know that deep down you care about your brother. Your relationship is all complicated right now, but you’ll get past this. Those kids will work out their issues, they always do… in their own way.” Still, no change.

    
“We can all get past this and pretend like this incident never happened. I will completely forget that you ever came here tonight. So just relax and give me the gun Leo, it’s all over now.” I slowly took a step forward.

    
Leo’s body reacted and flew back, as if I had hit him. His dark brown eyes flashed at mine with a newfound rage. The hair on my neck stood straight up.

    
“Shut the fuck up, already!” He screamed, “I can’t just act like nothing ever happened, because it did!”

   He franticly shook as he aimed the gun right at my face. I raised my left hand, as a sign of surrender. With my right, I began pointing towards the house, repeatedly, gesturing for Joey and Alice to get going.

    
“You stupid idiot!” shouted Joey. “Would you stop and realize what he’s trying to say to you? He’s trying to help you! Why don’t we let Vinny take Alice inside and you and I settle this, huh?” Joey taunted his older brother, again. “We got some unfinished business, don’t we, brother?”

     Leo looked like a wounded child.

     “You care more about protecting that broad, than me! What about our relationship? What, you don’t want to be my brother anymore?” Leo was weeping once more.

    
“Ugh! You’re so screwed up in the head, bro! Who’s got a gun pulled, huh? What did you do, eat a fucking “eight ball” for dinner, again? I know you weren’t at the restaurant with pop and me, or with the rest of the family for that matter!” Joey’s words added fuel to Leo’s fire. The gun was still pointed at my head.

    
“So, yes, of course I’m going to defend my woman and child against a crazy ass, lunatic!” Joey yelled.

    Joey had gotten Leo’s attention now. I paused and waited for my sign, my “click”. It’s an unexplainable moment, a switch that flips on inside my brain, instantly telling me the exact time to act.

    
Leo smirked. “You still want to take her side over mine? Till’ death do you part? She doesn’t even deserve to have a Vanzetti child! She’s just a stupid whore!”

CLICK.

     I slammed into Leo with all of my body weight, taking him down to the gritty asphalt. I grabbed at his gun arm on the way down. I got a hold of it, but I couldn’t get a firm grip with my slippery hands. He rolled me onto my bare back trying to wrestle his arm from my grasp. I had a partial hold on the gun barrel, but my hand slipped off.  I desperately held on to his arm and wrist, tearing up his sleeves. I kept kneeing his back and elbowing his kidneys, trying anything to subdue him. I pushed off the ground with my feet and back, to heave his body up off of mine. I flipped him over on his side, lunging over him, grappling for his gun hand. He was punching my back with his free hand. Something about it didn’t feel right. I almost had the gun in my control when I felt a hot, sharp pain in my side, twist and release, twice. I knew then he wasn’t punching me at all. He was stabbing me, repeatedly. Warm blood trickled down my side.

    
Alice was screaming something, but I couldn’t make out the words. Joey had grabbed her and was attempting to run down the alley. He struggled to hang on to her, as she was yanking her body in the opposite direction, trying to get back to me.

    
“Run Alice, get far away! Call 911!! Call Sarge! Get her outta here Joey!” I yelled and screamed until I had no air left inside me, which didn’t last long. My lung had collapsed. I held onto Leo as tight as I could. I wasn’t going to let him catch up to them. I felt a dull “THUD” as he stabbed my back, as I lay over him. Thud, thud. He rolled me onto my back and I felt the warmth of the blood spreading over my chest and throat. My throat clenched up, causing me to cough, spraying blood over my face and drizzle into my ears. I felt the strangest amount of pressure in my eye, before it went dark. Then I realized that the weight of his body had lifted from mine. I was losing consciousness, and could no longer breathe and was too weak to fight anymore.

   
The sounds of shots fired echoed through the alley way. “Pop! pop, pop, pop!”

    
I couldn’t see anything, only the blurred shadows my brain and damaged eye socket would allow. My eyes were open weren’t they? I fought to see. I tried to raise my arms, desperate to go after Leo. They wouldn’t move. Was I blinking? All I saw was darkness, and the only thing I could hear, was a loud ringing in my ears.

    
“Alice,” I mouthed the word. My body felt like a cement blanket had been laid over me. I felt myself drifting off to sleep. I was too weak to move anymore. I just needed to hang in there. I just thought of Lily, my daughter. Alice would make it! We all would. We were fighters… we were Lentini’s. They had to have gotten away.They had to make it
.
That’s all that mattered right now.

    
The last thing I remember is the sirens… the echo’s in the alley… and then it faded… as quickly as it came.

    The next thing I remember hearing was a strange beeping sound. It was extremely annoying. Why can’t I ever get any damn sleep? My body was stiff and my back ached like I hadn’t moved in a week. I suddenly realized that I wasn’t familiar with my surroundings. I panicked, but I couldn’t see very well. Everything was so blurry. I sensed someone was there, beside me.

     I tried to speak. “Who’s there? Where am I?”

     My lips were cracked. They split even more as I struggled to speak. My throat was so dry. I swallowed hard.

    
“Hey, soldier. It’s me, Sarge. You’re in the hospital, Vin. You’re going to be alright,” he reassured me, “Here… have some water,” he helped guide my hand to the styrofoam cup he offered. It was full of ice water. I took a small sip. It tasted like rust. I cleared my throat, so I could try to speak again.

    “How are you feeling? Do you need the nurse?” I felt him sit down next to me on the bed. He helped me as I struggled to sit up. “Sorry about all the questions,” he chuckled, nervously. “I’m just glad you’re awake now.”

    
My good eye focused a bit as I rubbed out the crusty bits of blood and mucus. My head ached and my equilibrium was spinning out of control.

    
“No, it’s okay. I just need to find my sea legs,” I said dryly.

     “Do you
remember why you’re here?” Sarge asked hesitantly.

    
“Kind of. There was an argument between Alice, Joey and Leo,” I strained to look around the room as I remembered.

   “He pulled a gun and I eventually jumped on him. I tried to take it away…but…” I lost my train of thought. I lightly touched the bandages on my head.

     I tried to remember more…but couldn’t.

     “I’m sorry, man. I’m feeling pretty do
ped up. Maybe the questioning could wait a few.”

    “Well, shit. That’s more than I expected you to remember. I’m glad your brain still works,” he said jokingly.

    “I know that you were stabbed multiple times all over your body. They had to do some surgeries on your eye to repair the damage and they had to fix your lung, it had been punctured. You also had a brain hemorrhage and they needed to drill a hole in your head to release pressure and let it drain out properly. You have a couple of broken ribs, but other than that you’re all sewn up now and you should be healing up soon. The Doc will tell you more when he gets in here, that should be any second now,” Sarge said.

     “Here he comes now, Sir,” said an unfamiliar voice coming from the corner of the room.

    
“Who’s that? Is someone else in here?” I asked startled. I couldn’t see him.

    
“Yeah, he’s just a rookie I got training with me today. He tagged along with me this morning,” Sarge said quickly.

     “He sounds familiar
,” I said.

    
“We’ll give you some privacy now, okay?  It’s good to see you awake, buddy.” Sarge stepped out of the room, but he was holding something back. I recognized the indifference in his voice… even If I did have gauze on one of my eyes, I could see through that.

                            
~    

    
I was sitting up drinking some more ice water when Sarge came back in about an hour later. “Hey, Vin, are you feeling better?”

    
“Yeah, I’m waiting out this morphine man… I’m a little drowsy, but much more alert than when you left me last.” I smiled a half grin, and tried to make out his shadow. I reached over and adjusted the blinds to let in some light. That was better. I could at least see the transition from light to dark.

     “
Where’s Lily? I need to make sure that Alice remembered to pick her up from her play date. Have they been in here to visit at all?” I asked curiously.

    
“Lily‘s fine! She’s with Trish at our house. She’s been staying with us and having a blast with the kids. You’ve been in here a little over a week, you know,” he spoke carefully. Sarge looked down and turned his watch around his wrist. I had a bad feeling knotting up in my stomach. He only did that when he was nervous or anxious about something...

   
“Vinny, are you up to answering some questions for Detective Rogers?” Sarge quickly changed the subject.

    
“Rogers? Is he from Homicide?” I asked.

     “Yeah, Vin, he is,”
Sarge said softer.

     “Yeah, of course,” I said cooperatively. I was sure he needed to get my first hand recollection, maybe even write up a statement about the stabbing, for the attempted murder charges to stick.

     “Alright, soldier, you know the drill. Can you tell us what you remember happening that night of the… argument?” Sarge asked me.

    
Detective Rogers interjected. “We should ask him about…”

    
Sarge stopped him immediately and said “Just write your damn notes as he tells it! You got it? I’ll ask the damn questions,” he growled.

    
“Fine,” Rogers responded. I could sense and feel the mounting tension in the room.

   
I cleared my throat and began. “Leo Vanzetti and two of his friends, Tommy and Johnny, came to the house to talk to Alice. It was about 5:30 or so. They actually woke me up yelling at each other. Alice had previously gotten into an argument with Joey and they had broken up that morning. I looked out the window and saw Leo yelling at her and that’s when I saw him grab her arm. I ran out there in nothing but my pants. Leo became erratic and pulled a gun. His buddies take off. Not long after, Joey shows up. Tommy went and got him I guess. I tried to talk him down and shield Alice, the entire time. The two brothers basically argued over Alice and then Joey finally told us why Alice was so moody these days!” I chuckled a little. My ribs ached. “Joey tells Leo that Alice is pregnant with Joey’s baby!” I reached over and smacked Sarge’s arm, “Can you believe it?” I said excitedly.

    
Sarge closed his eyes and looked down.

    
“So, uh, anyways, Leo was apparently high, presumably on methamphetamines, his usual. I tackled Leo when I had a chance and sent the kids running down the alley. I knew he was stabbing me; I just didn’t want him to get control of that gun till I knew that Alice was long gone. Then I heard shots fired and sirens soon after. I knew then that Alice had called you. That’s about it, I mean, other than waking up here,” I finished.

    
An awkward silence filled the room.

    
I heard the loud snap of a briefcase closing. “Ok, that’s it, Rogers… you’re done here,” Sarge stood up and walked over to the door and opened it for him.

    
Rogers seemed hesitant. “But sir, what about...”

    
Sarge silenced him. “I said you’re done. Now get out and let me talk to my partner!” Sarge hissed.

    
“Yes sir. Thank you for your time, Vinny. I’m sorry about… everything that happened to you,” Detective Rogers got up and walked out quickly.

    
“Yeah, it’s no problem man. I appreciate it,” I said, respectively.