Seven

"You know what to do when we get there?" Lorez asked for confirmation from Gonzo, one of the mobsters in the car.

Gonzo nodded.

A muffled scream emanated from the trunk of the car and sounds of kicking on it followed_ Poor Baccio.

The black Cadillac Impala that housed Ricci, Lorez, Gonzo, and Surly rode in the middle of four other identical cars that fashioned a typical mob convoy. The cars sped through the peaceful village of Acciaroli, away from the village, and into the horizon of the setting sun. They drove to Wizen Warehouse, the location they set for the exchange with Baccio's son.

***

"It does not matter who we kill, Ricci Esposito is the priority and he is the hit." Alphonse barked as the mobsters, who were scanty compared to the men Ricci had in stock, scurried across the cottage and the barn, loading guns into a truck and the three sedans that parked in front of the cottage.

Corleone walked with Cassie out of the cottage and into one of the sedans.

All loaded up, the cars zoomed out of the cottage, and into the countryside road. Onward to the warehouse where doom was about to happen.

Cassie sat silently in the back seat drowned in thoughts about the envelope she saw in Corleone's study.

Could he be Mysterious, my benefactor? Did they also get to him? How did he get that letter? What did his letter say?

She was so into her thoughts that she didn't realize when the cars pulled up to the warehouse where Ricci and his men already were.

***

The night was serene.

The cold silence that foreshadowed the night squealed to give up the danger that prowled the corners of the Wizen. A danger that was about to mar the tranquility of the night.

The opposing parties parked their cars a few kilometers away from each other, giving each other enough space in the metallic structure to facilitate a parley. Ricci's men all wore black suits and held guns.

Corleone's men were more laissez-faire with their dressing and they wielded guns too. They were outnumbered despite the build of every man. All of Corleone's men were huge and ripped a factor that proved useless in deciding the winner of the night's unannounced fracas.

Ricci's men alighted from the cars with that '90s mafia swagger and pulled out their guns, almost cocking them as the guns left their sheath.

The Corleone squad did not have the grace for the swagger; what they commanded was fear and what they had to show was scary body builds. They dropped down from the cars with their guns, all cocked, and stood in wait. Corleone emerged from the shadows, his ciggy in its usual position, his gait refined, and his voice intensified, "You broke a code Ricci," He spoke.

"Your father broke the code when he…" Lorez echoed.

"Where is my father? And I speak only to the capo, not his dog." Corleone interrupted.

Lorez was infuriated by that; He cocked a gun and pointed it at Corleone, the Ricci squad did the same in one accord.

Corleone's men replied to the threat by pointing the firepower they wielded back at their opponents.

An extreme moment of fear. A pin could drop and a disastrous shoot-out would commence; a pin but not Ricci's voice that broke the silence and intensity of the moment.

"Now, now, my dear Corleone, you want to see your father do you not?" He motioned to his men to lower their weapons.

"Where is he?" Corleone fumed.

"Right here." his men brought out a well-dressed Baccio from the trunk of the Cadillac he was in.

Baccio wore a fitted suit and smelt nice. His hands were tied regardless of the way he was dressed. He was heartbroken when he looked up and saw his son and his men pull up, armed and half-cocked, for a parley with the Esposito syndicate. He knew at that moment that none of them would make it alive.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing son?" Baccio bellowed.

"Not another word." Lorez shut the heartbroken man up.

Alphonse took Cassie out of the sedan.

The tension of the atmosphere could pierce through a boneless housefly. There I stood in the spotlight; my hands tied behind my back. I could make out at the other end Ricci, he looked hotter than I could remember and all my focus was on him. At that moment I could not believe that my charade worked, or was it because of the Mysterious envelope man. No matter the questions that I asked myself I heaved a sigh of relief because, in a few minutes of exchange, I would be free and saved by the hot, hand…

Cassie's thoughts dissolved the voices of negotiation and made her unaware of the terms that had been discussed by the opposing Capos, she didn't even realize when the talking and negotiation were done and she was told by Alphonse to, "Walk."

She was shaken as she walked slowly in fear. Baccio walked toward her and she walked toward him. They passed each other and walked to the squads that came to collect them.

Baccio was inches away from her when he screamed. "Son, RUN!" A cue-in for the rain of bullets that followed.

Cassie was caught in the middle of a blood bath and bullets flew past her. She dropped to the ground and scuttled to safety. Her eyes closed and her hopes opened, her soul cried for a second chance at life. This was the closest she had come to death. At that moment she crawled across the floor of the warehouse she had a flashback of her childhood days; the last moment she saw her parents flashed before her eyes.

Baccio's head was blown off by Lorez, initiating an all-out gunfight between the two parties. Corleone fired his gun with tears in his eyes, he mourned as he killed.

Bullets flew and bodies dropped, blood flowed and heads were blown off, and Ricci stood through it all invincible to the bullets. The Ricci team was winning the fight as more bodies from the Guiliano's dropped, even Alphonse's body.

Corleone was just about one of the four men left on the Guiliano team. He stopped his wailing and shooting when the bullets of his gun finished. He tossed the gun away, picked up another, and, as he was about to begin the shouting and shooting ritual, he saw Ricci standing tall in the middle of all the tumult.

Bingo!

Cassie had almost crawled up to where the cars were parked by the time the gunfight was nearing its end. She looked back and saw Baccio's brains splattered all over the floor she once walked, she whimpered and crawled faster towards Ricci, towards freedom, towards safety.

A resounding gunshot drowned the noise from all the other gunshots and Ricci dropped to the floor to where Cassie crawled. At the locus, the bullet came from was Corleone, who put his gun down slowly to confirm his hit. All of Ricci's men who survived the shoot-out quickly sent bullets in his direction in anger but all the bullets missed lucky Corleone when he got into the truck and zoomed away as more bullets greeted the back of the trunk and broke the glass that protected its backlights.

"No, no, no. You can't die yet. Somebody help him" Cassie bawled.

Lorez answered her cries after his futile attempt to shoot Corleone down. He ordered the men to haul Ricci into the car and call the family surgeon.

The night, once serene, was now fouled by the silent sobs of Cassie and the echoes of gunshots past.

The warehouse once sterile was now stained with the bodies and brains of men of the mafia.

Amid all the bodies was the motionless body of Ricci Esposito. His blood trickled away from his shoulder as his, once icy cold stare, became hollow.

The imminent stench of death consumed the air and Police sirens blared in the distance.