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| The Streets Of My Father: First Hit | Started by: TommyAngelo on Aug 01, '15 23:29 |
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Part 1 https://mafiareturns.com/comm/thread/645962#10826715 As I stepped into the car I quickly nodded to the man behind the wheel. I didn't know him. He was your typical middle aged Gangster wannabe. You could tell he made some money but was more muscle than brain. "You Carmine?" I said upon settling myself into the passenger seat. "Yeah, you Tommy?" His voice more growled than spoke. "Yeah, where we going?" I curiously spoke. I hadn't been informed of the destination but rather the expected result and the man's name. "You'll see kid, just ride. Here's your piece, I assume you know how to fire one of these things?" He almost chuckled, at least I think. He slid the gun into my hands, a small snub nosed. "Yeah, I've been on some runs, held my own." I half way told the truth. I had been on runs, which on our terms means I helped run liquor from one place to another. However, even though I was a piece guy on a run doesn't mean I actually ever fired one before. The road between Peoria to Chicago and back was pretty tame. My friend Anthony always said his cousin paid off a few gangs with the profit and the Don paid the local boys in blue. I guess that's why our share was always so small, everyone was getting a piece. That's a price to pay to still be alive though, it was easy money and I enjoyed the ride. Anthony and I used to take turns napping on the way. Since we had been in the city and more out in the open is the only time I had ever seen a gun fired. Chicago had become a warzone and in the line of work we were in it wasn't nothing to see a shoot out. I sometimes like to imagine this is what the old west would have been like with paved streets and Tommy guns. Still yet, I hadn't ever fired a weapon. Seen it done, I understood the concept but I wasn't the muscle in my partnership with Anthony. Sure, I've had to rough up a few guys who put up a fight during a shakedown but you grow up on the streets as an Italian and can't fist fight? Fuggetaboudit. Anthony always carried a gun, we knew we needed one in this line of work but I was a quick talker, the sneaky one. I went in the windows and past the loot outside while Anthony stood guard. I had only seen a dead body by way of gunfire twice my whole life. My father was the first and the guy in the alley off 15th street. He pulled a knife when we tried to shake him down, I guess it was either him or us. Anthony had no problem pulling the trigger, in fact he didn't blink an eye that day. I tried to talk to him about it a few times but he always made light of it. Why he wasn't chosen for this job I have no idea. I think I woke up crying for a week after seeing it and I didn't even pull the trigger. Every night, the same dream. We would be in the alley shaking the guy down and then he'd turn into my father. I'd plead and beg and try to point out to Anthony that he was my old man and he'd pull the trigger. There'd be my old man, laying on then ground, covered in the blood stained blanket from my childhood home. I'd wake up screaming and in a cold sweat. I never really understood why, I resented the man. I have always blamed his stupidity, now more for the ratting that led to his death more so than as a child for the work he did. After all, look at me, I'd be the pot calling the kettle black. As we drove to our destination the thoughts of my father and his death, my childhood heartbreak ever present in my mind I began to wonder about the guy. You know, the guy we were on our way to kill? Would I be doing the same thing to some other poor kid and his mother? I watched my mother fall to absolutely nothing because of my fathers death. Despite my ability to function and my distaste for my fathers coward way out, I have to say, it'd been nice to grow up having a father. I was literally becoming sick at my stomach, it felt like everything I had was eating itself in a pit of acid. It wasn't vomit that came from my mouth when it finally opened again though. I kind of wished it had been. "This guy, you know, the guy. He have kids?" It came out before I even realized it was more than a thought. "Not my job to know stuff like that. Not yours either." He never looked away from the road. "See kid, you can't go around thinking like that. In this business it isn't personal and there ain't no Saints. It is what it is. A guy does something he shouldn't and he gets put in line. Sometimes that line is six feet under but never forget there's a reason, we ain't a bunch of psychos out killing for no reason." Until now I honestly didn't know if the man had ever had a full conversation with anyone. "Tony recommended you for this job because he sees something in you, whatever that may be. Everyone loved your old man. He did something that in this business you just don't do. You don't rat on your friends. That doesn't change all he did for many of us and maybe Tony wants to do that for you but this is serious kid. You accepted the job and we're here. I don't want to be the only person ready to go if we're walking into something that could be dangerous, capische?" He wasn't wrong. I did accept the job and it was a big one. Ten thousand big ones to be exact. I had to collect myself, I was already in the car and had promised a Capo a service and shook on it. I hadn't been directly involved with the Mafia yet but I knew if I wasn't involved in putting a bullet in this guy I could almost gurrantee I'd get one in me. "No, I understand. Just asking is all. Never had to wack a guy before. The thought process just getting to me." I opened up to the gravely voiced man like he was my shrink being paid by the hour. "Can't look at it like that kid. It's a job, everyone has one. You provide a service and you get paid. That's as far as you need to go when you're thinking about it. I remember my first hit, the thoughts, they happen. It'll eat at you for day's, week's but one day you'll wake up and it'll be a forgotten memory. Especially if you do enough of 'um. Eventually you'll block it out and take it for what it is. Business." I didn't peg him for the insightful type when we exchanged nods upon our meeting but here I was, being comforted by a guy I'm pretty sure could squeeze my head off. "I'll be ready, for ten big one's I'd do it in front of the Mayor." I really wouldn't, it was a joke. I was eager and making light of a tense situation. Not ignorant. Carmine laughed for the first time. At least I assumed it was laughter between the deep coughs bellowing from his chest when he did it. "You'll be alright kid. Just follow my lead and when you fire, make sure it's to kill. We can't stand around checking our handy work. We get in, we get out." It sounded easy enough if only I knew where we were getting in and out of. As the thought crossed my mind however, the car slowed and we stopped. "Here we are kid." He spoke as he shifted the car into park. It was a towering structure. A grand hotel to be exact. We were in the heart of the city, the hustle and bustle of foot traffic was everywhere. This simple plot Carmine had so easily laid out was starting to feel quite a bit more complicated. Given the fact it's the middle of the day and patrons seem to be within the establishment I'm beginning to wonder just how well Carmine was informed of the plan himself. "You sure this is the spot? The hotel?" I know I fumbled over my words. "Yeah, no big deal. The guy is held up in one of the suites. It's our job to figure out which one and pay him a visit." Oh, that easy? I thought to myself sarcastically. "What about all the people? How we going to get out once we, you know?" I had just gotten comfortable with the idea of what I was doing and now I had all new questions and concerns, like how I was going tog survive or at least not get made and stuck in a prison for the rest of my life. "See kid, that's why I'm here. I greased a few pockets who are on the payroll at the hotel. Security isn't going to be an issue and the back door in the basement that comes out to the loading dock is going to be unlocked. We find out the room, do the deed and head downstairs and out the back. From there we go our separate ways." My confidence in this plan was wavering. I didn't know if it was normal to have this many questions about something like this but I liked the idea of irritating Carmine more than taking a bullet or a prison sentence. "How do we get his room information and how are we ever getting from his room to the basement once shots are fired!?" He laughed. He actually laughed. "Don't sweat it kid! Look in the backseat, you see that? It's a package, we're delivering a package to a man who receives packages daily. The guys on the inside who's palms I greased says he likes to sample the product as it comes in." He went from giving me philosophical advice to leaving much to be desired about what I felt was important information for someone walking into his first hit. "So, what exactly does he sample? What kind of business is he in?" He was growing outwardly frustrated as I asked. "Listen kid, he's a small time wannabe intruding on the bosses turf. He's been bringing in booze and selling to some of the Don's speeks. We're going in to deliver a package, and by package I mean a bullet to his head for sticking his nose in places it shouldn't be. Not only that, we have to send a message to the other wannabes thinking they can step on the Don's toes. Now, I'm about to get out of this car, walk in this place and do the job I'm getting paid for. Either you can join me or when the cops show up they're going to find an abandoned stolen car with a dead body in it on top of the body in the hotel, capische? So what's it going to be?" Wait, what? Stolen car? Not only am I about to participate in a murder but I'm sitting in a stolen car on a busy street? What have I gotten myself into? "Yeah, yeah. I'm ready, let's do it." He slapped his hand across my back almost sending me into the dashboard. "You're alright kid, now let's go deliver this package." He chuckled through his gravelly throat. I stuck the gun into my waist and exited the car. The next few moments on the walk from the vehicle to the hotel front were a blur. My heart raced, my mind spun out of control and it was if I wasn't there mentally but instead watching a highlight of my own life in a quickened pace. Before I knew it we were on the inside and had made our way to the front desk. I had snapped back to reality though everything around me was more echo than actual sound. I came back around in time to watch Carmine slip the front desk clerk an envelope and utter the phrase "If this isn't enough to keep you quiet I've got something else in my pocket that can." I felt as if I were about to pass out. I couldn't take it, we were doomed. We were never going to get to the mark but instead end up wacking a nobody front desk clerk. Great. And just when I considered the consequences for running out before Carmine put a bullet through this innocent clerks head he lifted his head upward from counting the money that had just been slid to him in the envelope and slid the register book over in front of us. He never actually spoke the information we needed but he provided. Seems our cover as two guys delivering a package hadn't worked as well as planned. Honestly, if this is the only obstacle to overcome in this all but perfect plan then I don't guess I can complain. We made our way up the grand staircase. This guy had good taste, I had never stayed in a place this nice. I went from a quaint home to slums and never had a reason to stay in a hotel. Maybe if we actually survive this and I get my hands on those ten big one's I'll find a nice hotel to spend a night. One like this one but not this one. I don't think I'll ever purposely visit this hotel again, if I make it out alive. We must have climbed at least three floors. In my moments of panic within my head I had failed to read the information in the register. At this point I was at the mercy of a man I barely knew and who had already given me an ultimatum that involved ending my life in our short history. I wasn't real confident about getting a chance to enjoy the money I was risking my life for at this point but as we turned a corner and down another hall we arrived at the door. The time for thinking, contemplating or even running was gone. I turn to leave and I might expect a bullet to the back. I stay and follow through with the job and I might die from return fire or even if I somehow make it out of this whirlwind alive I could spend my days wasting away in a prison cell. It was too late to even fathom what my outcome could be as Carmine knocked on the door. "Yeah, who is it." A voice bellowed through the door. "Got a delivery for Alphonso." Carmine bellowed back through his gravelly throat." The door swung open revealing a thin man in a business suit. Carmine shoved the box into the man and cleared a path through his door with his muscle. The next few moments were as if the world had began to turn slowly. It was as if everyone had metal joints in their bodies that had longed for oil but had yet ran dry. Carmine drew his gun as two heavies near the back wall were pulling theirs from holsters at their side. The thin man who had answered the door was squirming his way back to his feet and attempting to make at run for it. Carmine was already firing shots at the two heavies across the room when I fumbled my gun from my waistband. The mark had ran into one of the rooms and shut the door. My mind raced with the stimulation of everything going on around me as Carmine pulled me down behind a table in the center of the room. "You tryna get yourself killed kid?" He yelled over the ringing in my ears. He turned back over his shoulder and began firing. My life past before my eyes with blurry visions of my childhood. My father in his suits, my mother cooking macaroni and singing old Italian hymns in the kitchen. It was time to put up or shut up, literally, forever. I rolled to my left and fired a few shots. The heavies ducked behind a counter across the room. I don't know if it was adrenaline or a man facing his own mortality which led to my actions next. Without thought or contemplation I set off in a sprint across the room, my gun held in front of me. Carmine gunfire rang out and stopped as the heavies swung from their positions to the top of the counter. In In a situation such as this two things can happen. You can panic and overthink your next move or you can react. Luckily for me, I reacted. Still in motion I fired first at the heavy to my front as I approached. The second dumbfounded by perhaps the notion someone would be so ignorant to rush upon two stationary and fortified men hesitated. As I said before, in a situation such as this there are only two scenarios to choose. He, chose wrong. Once more I squeezed the trigger on my weapon and fired. As I dove to the ground near my first victim. As someone who had never fired a weapon at a living being I did something that had the circumstances not been better would have likely spelled my end. I closed my eyes as I fell to the ground with a thud. I guess in my mind not seeing the bullet fired would soften the blow of death. I had laid all the cards on the table and was ready to be called for the hand I was dealt. I don't know how long I was laying there. It felt like it came and went within less than a second until I felt the tug of my shirt collar and opened my eyes to see Carmine. "Come on kid, get up. We have to get the bum before he finds a way out." I opened my eyes to see the second victim laying on his side in a pool of blood across from me as I lay next to my firsts feet. What had felt like less than a second had obviously been longer had Carmine and his less than athletic build made its way across the room and to me or perhaps he himself had a rush of adrenaline. Looking at him however, I don't think the latter was true. I gathered myself to my feet and felt for any possible wounds I could have encountered through my bout with ignorance and bravery. Carmine pulled at my arm from my side. "Come on kid, we ain't got time for this." He would have told me if I was spilling blood from my sternum right? We approached the door in which our mark had entered. I can only guess that Carmine's aggregation or perhaps his lust for blood fueled his next move. He faced the door to the room and kicked it open. The door swung wide and we entered with our guns drawn. Where was the mark? We looked around the room before darting to the window that overlooked the street below. The window was closed, the room seemed empty. Carmine nudged my arm and pointed to the closet. Clever, I thought. In this state of disarray a lesser man would have not thought of the closet but Carmine through his appearance of being a muscle schmuck wasn't one to leave a stone unturned. As we made our way to the closet and around the bed we were stopped when Carmine stepped in something and quickly took a step back. "I just stepped in blood. My shoes, blood." He began cursing in Italian. Seems the mark had made part of our job a little easier. He lay motionless on the floor beside the bed in a pool of his own doing. He had taken his life as we had battled the goons in the leisure area of the suite. We had been so panicked in finding where he was hiding upon entering the room and not seeing him standing in front of us we hadn't noticed him laying lifeless beside the bed. "Guess our jobs done here kid. Anyone asks and we wacked him too." Carmine spoke as he out his hand on my shoulder. "Now let's get out of here before anything else goes wrong here." With that we headed for the door. The hotel was chaos. People were filling the halls and running to find an exit. If not for all the chaos around us we should have stuck out like a sore thumb. Two sweaty guys speed walking down a hall without panic, shoving patrons aside as we went. This part of the plan was the easiest at least in theory. Sure we had to push through panicked and irrational people but no one was shooting at us at least. While everyone else was heading for the front doors which were preventing the boys in blue from making their way inside, we were arriving and heading out the back way through the basement. The door was unlocked just as Carmine said it would be, finally something about this job went according to plan. As we made our way up the service elevator and to the loading dock on the outside Carmine turned to me. "Well kid, this is where we part. Lay low for awhile and in a week or so, after all the heat dies down and goes onto something else, meet up with Tony at the warehouse. He'll have your money. I'll let him know what a bang up job you did and maybe someday we'll get to work together again. You've got a future in this business kid, keep your head straight and I'll see ya around." We exited the elevator it came to a stop and as he hurriedly made his way away, a smile came across my face and I did the same. I knew with all confidence that this was just the first step. I was on my way and no one would stand in my way. |
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| Reply by: Vinny_C at Aug 02, '15 01:49 | |
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