Frank stood at the window in his study.  He was dressed in a light brown three piece suit with a drink in his hand.  He was watching his wife and child play in the yard.   Lucy was looking so beautiful as she smiled at her daughter.   Katy laughter brought a smile to his face.  The scene of the trees turning colors and them playing reminded Frank of a Norman Rockwell painting.  

Frank turned and took a seat at his oak desk that was given to him by the love of his life LuckyLucy.  He sat there thinking about her and everything that was her.  She was carrying his unborn baby and that made his love for her grow a hundredfold.   He wanted her to have the world at her feet yet he was only half of what he was when they met and married.   The fall of Vegas and his acceptance into the Chicago outfit has been tough and trying to say the least.  Earning trust was never easy and he knew he was only tolerated for his wife’s sake.

He thought of his father a man that was made in Sicily and came to America and made a name for himself.  He wondered what would his father do cut ties and run or roll up his sleeves and put the work in.  His  father never ran.  He was proud of his father but the history was more memorable then the images he had of him.  The diary and the press clippings shade little light into who his father really was.  Frank’s pride out weighed his ambition and that was bad for business, his business.   Nevertheless he planned for every contingency.   His growth or his exit he had to be calculating and appeal to the scene's of the people he worked for.  He wished it was working with them as a member but as an associate he was on the out looking through a window.

The thought of going back to Sicily was on his mind but he would be without his family and a man that is without his family is no man.   He pulled out an old photo a black and white of him and his father.  That photo took him back to the day he was to go to a Yankees game they were playing against the Sox.   His father never showed and that was the last day his father was alive.  His father Michael Dicaprio was the definition of the Sicilian Mafia strong, smart and handsome.  

His father was a Machiavellian indeed he would bring the families to war and then bring them to peace before war breaks out.  But this time his enemies targeted him because he was going to bring peace into a situation that he had nothing to do with.   His father was shot to death as he was leaving his office to take Frank to  the baseball game.   Frank’s mother was Teresa Gambino before she married Michael.   She was what his dad referred to as fire cracker beautiful and explosive.  She would have been a Godfather if she was a male.  

His mother attracted Michael with her long sexy legs, long brunette hair and brown eyes and smile.   She was so beautiful that all the men in her town wanted to marry her.   But it was her mind that locked his heart Teresa was sharp and fierce when it came to planning anything.  Frank learned from his mother that the smallest of details should never be overlooked and nothing should be taken for granted.  She was loving and firm when laying down the law and when it came to discipline she was ruthless.           

She told Frank when they buried his father that he must become the man of the house.  He must be wiser than a fox and stronger than a lion and always strike like a serpent.  Treachery is only used when there is no other recourse and when you hit it must be utterly and completely overwhelming.  You leave nothing left that can bite you back.  

He was only eight years old when they took his father from him.  He heard Lucy’s laugh mix with Katy in the background as it brought him back from his thoughts.   Again it brought a smile to his face to hear their laughter, just before he drifted back into his mind.   He looked at the photo again and then he remember his mother crying.  Her weeping was not just for her husband his father but the lost of her best friend Lucy's mother and her daughter Lucy.  It was at the birth of Lucy and Frank that the two fathers who were best friends from childhood and married two strong women that were also best friends.  They pledged that their children Frank and Lucy would be married to make the their loving friendship for each other turn into one family.  

Frank and Lucy played together as small children and they bathe together as tiny tots and then Frank’s family moved to New York and less than three years later both men were viciously gunned down.  Frank and Lucy would not see each other for almost twenty years.  They had no recollection of each other when they first met.  That meeting was awkward for Frank.   He recalled his marriage to Nikki and how he loved her and then he was introduced to Lucy.  It was a strange connection that he felt.  He never acted on it but it was so strong that he thought of Lucy often.  The connection never faded and it never will.  

When Nikki left him he was crushed but then he ended up doing a business deal with a friends  a group of connections that ended up putting him in contact with Lucy again.  Frank smiled as he remember her getting him pinched by the police.   Frank name was now on the police role of known criminals thanks to her.   He fell madly in love with her even while he sat in jail as time past she revealed that she planned his arrested as punishment for what she thought of as him hurting her best friend Nikki.  They became friends because she also had a connection to him.   It wasn’t until he asked his new friend to travel to Sicily to see the country since it was where her father was from and she had never been.   Frank was surprised when his mother told them both about how they were born friends and how close they were as small children and how close both their parents were.   Lucy’s father saved  Frank’s uncle Carlos and they vowed to love and protect Lucy because her father was adopted into the Dicaprio family; she was part of the Dicaprio family forever.  They were meant to be and now they were.  

Again he chuckled as he thought of the hits they did since they were in Sicily and Ireland.  Then that thought took him to his first hit.  He was in Sicily and he was fifteen and brash.  It was his moment to show the family that he was able to stand as a man and one day become a man of honor.  His grandfather was the head of a small but powerful family and he wanted an old colleague removed for various reasons.  Frank had to plan it out and make the hit with his two cousins Giuseppe and Carlos.  Giuseppe Father was a man of honor and an able sea captain.  Carlos needed to this hit to become a man of honor.  Now both of these men had their own families and Frank was out looking in.  

The Don Julius DiCaprio called the three boys into a family meeting.  He loved his grandchildren and as they stood before him he smiled as he always did.  Then he began to speak.  

My boys I called you here because you are becoming men and I see each of you becoming men of honor.  But honor is earned not given, you must take it and hold on to it.  So I have this problem that if you help the family will be beholding to you.  That reward if you do this will honor you as members.  Men of honor, where on one can question your loyalties and strength.  This man that needs to go away he wants to take food off the people’s table.  Out of your mouth and that of your family mouths.  Don’t allow this snake to steal from us that which is so rightly yours and that of your fathers.   Do this not for me or yourselves but for your town, your family the people that love you and that you all love.    

They looked at each other and each nodding slowly agreeing to honor their grandfather’s request as the idea of becoming men was appealing to each of them.  

They got wind of a meeting and who all would be there and who would not.  Frank began planning as it was given to him since he had only been in country for a year and they wanted to see what the boy from America knew.  He went over every detail on his own then revealed it to his mother and Grandmother.  His nana smiled as she walked up to him placing her hands on both his face cheeks and bent his head down to kiss his forehead.   Then his mother walked over and kissed his cheek and with that his uncle’s nodded to him as they took him to his grandfather and the underboss.  Frank’s uncle spoke proudly of his nephew the son of his older brother.   They all looked at each other and the Don gave him the go ahead.

The target was called to a meeting with a rival family attached to Palermo.  Frank plan was that they allow the man to attend the meeting and then kill him in front of the people that he was meeting with.  At this meeting the target would be offered a deal to not only bring peace to the countryside and also give him authorization to form his own family divining his town into two camps.  They could not allow that to happen and they needed to send a message loud and clear that this family was still strong and holding complete and absolute authority in Catalina.     They were to arrive just before the meeting and allow it to happen then when they end Carlos would stand out front pulling a donkey.  Giuseppe would sit in a corner by the door as they exit. Frank will walk up and fire the first shot into the target then slice his throat.   Giuseppe will shot the bodyguard in the back of the head.  Carlos will pull out his shotgun and fire a shot in the air causing everyone running then fire the second shot into the target.  

They arrived as planned but it was slow getting there as Giuseppe was having trouble with the jack ass carrying a load of sugarcanes.  Giuseppe wanted to switch with Carlos and they all agreed.  During that meeting it was discussed that Don Dicaprio was to be removed by force then he could set up and they would select the next Don for Dicaprio family.  The mole explained what was discussed after the hit was executed.   Frank never did fire the shot he simply walked up and stuck the target then sliced his neck from left to right ear to ear.  The target fell to the ground at the same time as his bodyguard body dropped from the bullet for Carlos pistol.  Giuseppe fired a shot in the air then fired a second causing the bystanders to run.

Then Frank saw two more men with guns being drawn running at him.  Frank whistled to Carlos and Carlos fired a shot as Frank knelt down pulling his pistol and firing at the second man.  Frank walked over to both men they were still alive as he stood over the one he shot.   Frank smiled and fired two more shoots into the man’s chest.  Then he watch as Carlos did the same to the other gunmen.   Frank walked back to the original target then looked at the representatives of Palermo and Marsala.   His grin was scary like a crazed lunatic one that was eager to kill again without hesitation.  They nodded to him as they looked away. Frank didn’t care that they saw his face and Frank notice was the devastation that was caused by his actions and planning.      

Frank's hand that held the knife was covered in blood as he walked away slowly to the waiting car.  Guiseppe was already in the car and Carlos had already ran past him and was getting into the car.  Frank uncle Vito was standing at the car he never yelled for Frank to hurry.  He was showing  the men at the meeting from Palermo and the other towns that the Decaprio's held absolute power in Catalina and that they could reach them anywhere they felt when they felt threaten.  The men at the meeting knew that they had been spared as they recognized Vito who stood at the car and  as for the boy with the knife they knew he was one to watch.   Frank glared at them and slowly turned from them as he walk to the car.  The message was understood and it spread like wildfire before they could get back to their prospective towns all across Sicily it was known that Catalina was still a powerful family.  Frank felt power and he liked it, it was more then becoming made it was about taking life and giving life.   Frank wanted more and his Grandfather gave him more.  Frank had 22 hits in one year he had only been in Sicily for two years and showed that he had it.  

Frank showed that he was a earner to, the business owner that were protected by the wealthy didn’t need the help of the local Don.  Frank positioned them to need help for the Don.  He would steal their goods with his left hand and sell it back to them with his right hand.  Sometimes at cost sometimes way above their own expected profits.  Frank had them over a barrel knowing that they needed to deliver the product to keep their town contracts.    He would show up to private meetings and talk to them about their plans; plans that they didn't reveal to anyone that they didn't trust he would do that before the meetings began. those actions were to let them know they could not keep a secret from them and the people that they trusted couldn't be when it came to the Don asking questions about them.   He would walk their children home and flash his pistol or kill their family pets and hang it over their door post.  Some would receive fish wrapped in newspaper.   A message that was clear to anyone that receive a package like that.   In three years Frank manage to increase the family holdings to four time the amount that they were making prior to his start.  He was feared and respected by the time he was 19.   

Then he went back to America to start what his father had planned.  Back in New York he started working and from there he went to Chicago then Vegas.  Now he was back in Chicago  he wanted to keep himself busy as he had once ran many businesses across the USA.  He was so happy to be with his current wife.  Lucy was everything and Katy was the icing.  He keep working but he still felt like an outsider but he would stay because no one could make him smile like seeing his wife.  

Frank smiled as he recalled when he first kissed Lucy aboard the steamer to Sicily and the First time she smiled at him in LA in a shop that he owned.  He recalled the first time she yelled at him when she thought he betrayed Nikki and the first time she said she loved him as he held her in his Arms.   He remembers her crying in the car in Ireland as Lacy saw and spoke to Katy for the first time since her birth.   The Joy when he secured Katy ensuring that she was legally living with them and able to return to America.  Frank knew that he would die for them.  Give his all for them and now he had to live for them.  To see his unborn child boy or girl didn’t matter living to see them reach adulthood was all that he thought on.    

Frank again heard his daughter and wife laughter.  He stood back up and walked over to the window as Lucy looked up at him and waved.   She got Katy to wave also as he waved back to them both.  He finished his drink and then nodded as he walked over to the bar.  He looked at a picture of them and then thought of how can he show the family his support without getting killed or putting anyone at risk.   Don vary’s isn’t a trusting man to strangers and Frank knew that the Don was keeping him close for a few reasons.   Frank was working to show his loyalty but nothing rolled across his desk that he could give to the Don.   Frank wasn’t one to be concerned with things that didn’t concern him.   He was one that would alert his Godfather if he heard things that would cause problems for the family.  Trust had to be earned and Frank respected his new city.   The Capo’s and the Godfather was his wife’s concern and that made it his concern.   He would never tell her that whatever worried her would worry him because she needed him to be worried free and vent without him erupting.   

Frank’s father was killed by the same man that killed Lucy’s but he would not deprived her of the honor.   The job was going to be handled and Frank didn’t care who pulled the trigger as long as it was done and he gets to see the body drop.  He walked out of his study and down to the kitchen he removed his suit jacket and gave it to one of the maids.  He looked at his vest and straighten his tie and vest as he walked out side.   Katy ran to him and kisses him on the cheek and asked him to come play.  Frank smiled at her as she lead him to Lucy.  

Frank kissed his wife and then rubbed her stomach as they walked over to the swing set.  Frank pushed both of them while they were sitting on a swing each.   They yelled push us higher yelled Katy put your all into it Frank yelled his wife and Frank put his all into it.  With that statement from his wife, Frank knew he needed to put his all into serving his new family.   That meant it was time to go on the campaign trail like a politician with the goal of becoming important enough to be noticed.