I awoke around 11am, to a quiet house got dressed and went downstairs, one to check things out and two because I'm starving."Buenos dais Mr. Santadio." Greeted Maria as she walked out of the kitchen, it's kind of strange that an Italian house hold has a Spanish maid. "And good morning to you, Can I help myself to some toast?" I asked"Sure thing, Oh Master Santadio requests your presence in the garden.""Thanks, did he give a specific time?""No Senor, just as soon as you were up and dressed." "Gracias Maria." I said Hopefully she doesn't think I can carry on a whole Spanish conversation. I thought to myself as I made some toast. 

After I ate I put my shoes on before heading out to the garden to meet Zio Al."Maria said you wanted to see?" I asked as I walked up the path to a table under a willow tree."That is correct. I have something I would like to ask you.""Anything" I said as I took the seat across from my uncle."Well as I'm sure you may have gathered I'm not that into construction. Now don't get me wrong I do own a company that does quite a lot of work for the city but it doesn't earn me all of this." As he said the last part he pointed in one smooth motion to his estate."Yes, your right I did figure that out, don't forget I lived in Palermo." I said with a sly smile."Cross was right you do have some attitude.""I get that a lot.""Okay, you understand my work. Cross is my underboss, and after giving you the up and down, he believes you would be an asset to one of his men.""Unhuh, go on." I said slightly interested in the fact that since I appear to be a man they consider bringing me into the 'Family but if I was to be my true self they wouldn't give me the time of day in this stuff."Well I'm a little hesitant.

You see your mother told me to guard you with my life, and by letting you work with Cross's men I could be putting you in danger. Then there's the fact that your 15, that is young.""I see where your coming from and I could see why you feel conflicted, but let me help clear your mind. I may be fifteen but at age 11 I watched my father be gunned down and sat with him until he died, I wasn't even allowed to tell the police. I come from a town where murdered family members are avenged, I've seen a lot in the town of Palermo that some men in America may never see. I've heard the cries of widows, and mothers who lost their grown sons. I'm tough and I'm quite capable of looking after myself and another human being." I said hoping that it would help him decide to let me enter the world that took away my childhood."Well when you put it like that I can't see myself not letting you work with Cross's men. And about your father's murder I'm working to find who did it and where they are located. As for the 'job' you'll have to work with cross and I believe he said Castiglia to make sure you can work with some weapons." At that last comment I smiled to myself."Not a problem, that may come in handy.

When shall I start?""Well Castiglia has a meeting out in Midtown later on this evening, I'll call Cross and get him to work with you so you can make the run with Castiglia.""Sounds good." I said getting up to leave."Promise me one thing Luc.""What's that Zio?" I asked looking at him with curiosity."Watch your back, this is cruel and violent business, you need to be on your toes until the day you die. No matter how quick that day may come." "Promessa." I said then turned and walked up to the house. I went on a deeper exploration of the house, more in depth than what Carmine had given me. It lasted about two hours which is when Maria told me that a Seor Brassi was waiting for me in the lobby. I assumed she was talking about Cross, which is who I met in the lobby."Ready for life lesson two Bambino?" Cross asked as I grabbed my jacket off the coat hanger."Do I have a choice?" I said as I followed him out to his car."Ya got a fucking sense of humor too. You must've have been a Goddamn skirt magnet in Sicily." He said as he got into the drivers side."Yeah, something like that." I replied before getting into the car. The drive was mainly silence, actually all silent. I had no idea where we were heading.

If I wasn't family I probably would have figured I was about to be swimming with the fishes."Alright, we're here. Nobody should stumble upon us, and if they do then we'll have some real targets." Cross said as he opened his door and got out. He, surprisingly, had a sense of humor. A twisted one, but it still counts."Where is here?" I asked as I got out of the car."Well some old fishing docks that the family owns for this specific purpose." Cross said as he motioned for me to follow him, we soon approached a large warehouse that I assumed to be the old fish plant."Alright, which weapon would you like to work with first?" Cross said laying out the garotte, baseball bat, various types of guns, and brass knuckles. I took a look at the weapons laid out before me looking for one I hadn't seen before. Since I only really worked with my bare hands a couple of times I chose the brass knuckles."Ah, one of my favorites, there's a punching bag over here, bring all four sets." Cross said as he walked toward the middle of the warehouse."Put on the gold beauties and show me what you got." I put the brass knuckles on and did the best I could which wasn't too bad for not doing anything like this since my father died."Not too shabby, I think I made a right choice with you.

I want to see how you handle a glock." He said handing me a Police issued 9mm pistol."What would you like me to take aim at?" I asked."How about those unbroken windows on the far left." "Sure." I said gripping the pistol the way my father taught me, with 6 quick shots I took out 6 of the 7 windows."Wow, where the hell in Sicily have you been hiding?" He asked with a small laugh, I just gave a little smile."That's classified information." I said handing him back the Glock."Which weapons haven't you used? I think that will be a shorter list.""I'm not too good with the garotte""Understandable, the garrote is a weapon that in order to use it the way it's meant to be used you have to have not only strength but confidence in yourself. Not many men master that skill until they enter their early twenties, that's when they have the strength. I'll work with you on it though. What about the knife, had much practice with that?" He asked with mild curiosity."Actually it's my favorite, a very personal weapon.""And why do you say that?" He asked while leaning on a support beam"Well you have to get very close with your victim.

They may even need to trust you, and once you earn that trust you can go for the throat." I said with my usual sly smile. "Since you're comfortable with the knife why don't you take that along with you when you go with Castiglia. But before we're done I want to see what you can do with a knife, but since I'm the only other person you're going to use this." He said handing me a stick. He pretended to be an attacker and came at me, the same sort of thing my father did so naturally I was able to defend myself. I blocked his attack and put him into a nice throat hold. We did this kind of thing for a half hour, he practiced a few different attacks; from behind, the side, the front, and finally from the ground.

That one was new to me so I wasn't that good at it. We spent sometime on that attack and defense until I had it almost down pat. I helped Cross gather things up then got in the car and headed back to the house, and waited for Castiglia to be ready.The next morning  we drove  to the racket were Alfred worked and waited around for a little while. We left the racket an hour before Alfred would and was at the junkyard in plenty of time. "He's hear." I said from my post on from a top a car near the entrance. "Are you ready for this?" "As much as I'll ever be." I said. I walked silently over to the gate and hide behind it invisible to Alfred. I heard him slam his door and heard his foot steps echo towards me. I took notice of Castiglia in the booth, I had my knife drawn and ready for his nod. Once Alfred was three feet in front of me Castiglia nodded and I quickly got up behind him. In one swift movement I had him in a tight hold with my knife at his throat. Once he was secure Castiglia came out of the booth. "Hello Alfred, how's it going?" "Who the fuck are you?" "That is none of your business, your coming with us and your going to do it without problems." "Says who?" "Okay, okay." With that we moved him into the car, after we checked him for weapons of course. 

The drive over to Vinni's safe house couldn't have been any less quiet. Alfred kept asking questions and such. Things like Where are you taking me? Why are you doing this? as if that wasn't enough he'd threaten us. You don't know what you've gotten into. or When they find out what you've done. At that last statement Castiglia could no longer be quiet. "When they find out what we've done you'll have nothing to worry about, so shut it." That silenced him for the rest of the ride. When we pulled up to the apartment I turned around to face him. "What are you going to" Before he could finish Castiglia slammed the bat into the side of his skull. "I couldn't take much more of him. Think it killed him?" "I don't know maybe one more for good measure." And Castiglia did just that, this time spraying the plastic covered floor hitting some of the walls. "Okay, you take him to the bathroom and finish him off." Castiglia said to me. "Okay, let me know if you need anything." We pulled on our gloves and set to work I dragged him into the bathroom and lifted him into the bathtub where I  took an axe in my right hand and brought his right arm up on the side of the tub. I took a deep breath and drew back the axe and brought it down hard on to the wrist. Blood spurted up over my face. I put that behind me and brought up his left arm repeating the last action. I whipped my face on the back of my hand and took a deep breath trying to calm my nerves.

I drew a cigarette from my jacket and lit it. I took another deep breath and moved down to his feet. I cut them both off at the ankles. Once they were out of the way I looked down at his head, thankfully his eyes were closed. I took a drag off my cigarette and place my left hand on his forehead pulling back his head fully exposing his neck. I brought back my arm containing the axe and in one quick motion brought it down fast and hard to his neck. It was completely severed from his body with the one hit. Not only did I get sprayed with blood but so did the whole shower. I put the axe down and walked back out into the living room to see how Castiglia was doing. "How'd it go?" "I'm almost done in here, I'll help you get him in the bags." I walked back to the bathroom where I washed off my face while I waited for Castiglia.

Once my face was clean Castiglia walked in with the bowling ball bag and the duffel bag. I picked up his head and stuffed it in the bowling ball bag. We then placed the hands and feet in the duffel bag. I put my arms under the dead Alfred's arms while Castiglia took a hold of his legs. On three we hoisted him up and into the duffel bag. Once he was in we used the duct tape and chains to close it securely. I brought the bleach in and cleaned every spot of blood from the bathroom. By the time we had everything ready to go night had fallen and the streets had since become quiet.

We carefully made our way out of the apartment through the back entrance where Castiglia moved the car earlier. While I was cleaning Castiglia made a trip to the fish market and bought a nice size salmon that we stuck with Alfred's head. Once the body was in the trunk I rushed back up stairs to get the rest of the things. We drove three hours to one of the families cabins on a deep river that runs into the Atlantic ocean. We brought the duffel bag up to the edge of the cliff and after the third swing over the edge let him fall to the waiting water below where because of the chains and some rocks instantly sunk. By the time we arrived outside of Rebbecca's house that she shared with Alfredo it was after midnight so the chances that some one would see us drop off the Bowling bag were slim. Once the bag was in place I got back into the car and we drove back to the enclave. The only light visible was that in the library where we knew the Don my uncle would be waiting for our report.