HIDDEN WITNESS 4: DOMINIC'S STORY Page 18

  I caressed her hand. “Good? How about you?”

  She appeared at my side, swooping up my coffee cup, pressing it against her sexy lips. “So good.”

  Shit, she had no clue what happened last night. Never noticed I slept on the sofa. Her exhaustion told me she was burning the candle at both ends. She spread herself thin, spending time with me and focusing on her studies. When Carmen was rejuvenated, she was a light sleeper. We needed time a part for her well-being.

  My lips curled upward. “That’s good.”

  “I need to hop in the shower. My presentation begins in an hour,” she grinned, fluffing her tousled hair as her bare feet padded out of the kitchen.

  Back to the Marco issue that pulled me away from my woman for three days.

  I jogged down the stairs of our private jet. The Magarelli’s own three private airplanes. My father needed his own airplane. After all he was the Governor of New Jersey. My grandfather rarely used his jet. The third jet in the fleet I utilized. After I graduate, I plan to purchase my own. In a few years our fleet of aircrafts would increase to seven.

  Teck usually greeted me upon landing at the private airport in Allamuchy. Very seldom did Brian and Hugo accompany me back to New Jersey.

  I patted Teck’s shoulder. “How are you?”

  “Good Dom. Are you ready for the hour drive?”

  He held the passenger door open.

  “Yeah, I’ll study along the way. Stop by Lowe’s and grab a dark mechanic’s uniform and a pair of steel toe boots.”

  “No problem, Dom.”

  Carmen was in her last class of the day. Shit, I wouldn’t talk to her today.

  Cracking open my text book, I sighed.

  I never gave a shit about a woman before Carmen. It’s almost like I was given a new life and Carmen became center stage. My guards knew if I couldn’t deliver Carmen’s lunch personally, they were to ensure she ate. My lip curled at one end. That beautiful woman made studying look sexy. Well in the comforts of my home anyway. She sat at the head of the dining table Indian style wearing a T-shirt and tiny shorts showing off those cute legs. Carmen face scrounged and she pulled the corner of her lip into her mouth. Her eyes peered at the laptop screen as she pecked away at the keys. I wondered how she’d adjust to life in Newark. In a couple of years, we’d find out.

  ∞

  Stepping into the over-sized warehouse, I glanced at the shelves stocked with boxes.

  “Hey, hey, Dominic!” Marco appeared, arms wide, grinning from ear to ear.

  I threw my arms around him. “Good to see you, Marco.”

  He took a step back. “Good to see you, Dom.” He peeked inside the large brown paper bag.”

  “Hm, I see you came prepared.” He chuckled. “Let’s get down to business.”

  I followed him into an office and he closed the door.

  “Marco, you’re always so light on your feet. This shit is weighing you down.” I unbuttoned the gray suit jacket, then sank into the chair at the large desk.

  Marco stood peeking out of the mini blinds.

  “Shit, Dom, it’s wearing on my fucking nerve endings. I cannot involve my father in this fucked up situation. Please don’t mention this to your grandfather or Sergio.”

  I leaned over in the chair cupping my hands. “Tell me what the fuck happened.”

  He exhaled, stuffed his hands in his pockets, and stared at the ceiling. His forearms were littered with tatts. I swear this guy spent his spare time at the tattoo parlor. Marco pretty boy, good looks kept random women in his bed. He said he wanted to settle down, but hadn’t found the right woman yet. His square jaw, olive complexion, thick dark brows with a knick through one gave off that rugged look women craved. He was a muscled tall guy with green eyes.

  “So, I vouched for this guy Jude Corvi. If a problem arose, he had my back. He and I bashed a few heads in together.”

  Marco glared through the blinds again. “One night, on our way to the strip club we stopped by his mother’s house. He insisted I come in a moment. His mother greets us as we walk into the house. She met my gaze as Jude introduced us and her eyes became big as saucers.

  She looked familiar. I never forget a fucking face. Anyway, she told me to have a seat in the living room and she brought me a coke a minute later. She sat across from me while Jude was upstairs and began asking all these fucking questions. She asked how long I knew her son. Where did I grow up? For a man in my position her line of questioning was suspicious. Then I remembered where I saw her. I was only five. As I approached the kitchen door, the yelling intensified.

  My father wrapped his hand around her neck. “Don’t fucking come around here anymore. I told you I’ll take care of you. But you want more. There ain’t ever going to be more,” he roared.

  He released her neck and told her to get the fuck out.”

  Marco ran his hand through his dark hair. “She knew who I was. That’s why she asked all those fucking questions. Not once did my facial expression change when I realized she was my father’s fucking goomah. There was a longing in her eyes. Something was missing. I analyzed everything I’d done with Jude. Did he know we shared the same father?”

  Marco shook his head. “Jude ran down the stairs, I told his mother it was nice meeting her, then we left. I never wanted to alert Jude, I knew who he was. I needed to keep him close to the vest.

  A year later, Jude, myself, and a few other friends were at a party. My father called. Said he needed to see me right away. I told Jude I had to see my father, he said we could stop by his house then hit the next party.”

  Marco met my gaze. “Because I knew who he was, there was no fucking way I’d take him to my father’s home. If he wanted to reunite with our father, do that shit without me. I shut him down. Time went on and I hadn’t talked to Jude in a while so I paid him a visit. He answered the door eyes bloodshot red. I asked, “What the fuck is going on?”

  He said, “My mother killed herself.”

  I asked was there anything I could do. He said no. Sadness consumed his blue eyes. Then he said his mother was losing the home. The part time job she had wasn’t enough to pay the bills. Jude was a foreman at one of our construction sites so I asked him why he wasn’t helping her. He said she told him the house was paid in full. Jude said he uncovered the second mortgage on the home. I guess the payment became too much to handle. Jude ran his fingers through his brown hair. I had no clue he said. He said the mortgage company the home was going into foreclosure. I told him he should have come to me.”

  My eyebrows wrinkled.

  He stretched his hands out. “What? I felt sorry for the guy. I paid the mortgage company so Jude could keep the house. So fast forward to today. There were talks of someone planning to hijack four of our trucks. That would severely hinder part of our cigarette business. I needed to know who the fuck would be so goddamn brazen to steal from the Esposito’s!” He slammed his fist against the desk and his veins strained in his forehead and neck.

  I’d say he was ready to kill the son of a bitch.

  “Who the fuck is it, Marco?”

  He straightened his blue tie and popped his sleeves. “Jude.” Marco ran his fingers through his disheveled mane. “I gave that motherfucker a job and a roof over his head and this is the thanks I get.”

  “The whole thing reeks of daddy issues, Marco.”

  He snickered. “Sure does. I’ll grab a couple of baseball caps and we can stakeout. We’ll wait until they are hijacking the trucks and shut them down.”

  “Sounds good.”

  Marco found out about the heist from one of Jude’s men. The guy had one too many drinks. He slipped up and told one of Marco’s guys about the plan.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

  DOMINIC

  Marco and I laid low in a warehouse off the desolate road used to transport stolen goods. Clothes, liquor, tobacco, you name it we sold it at cheaper rates to liquor stores and other business in our neighborhoods. Not to mention the number running, gambling
rings, sports gambling, and escort services. We made money on almost everything except drugs. My grandfather said selling drugs is the fastest way to be sent away for the rest of your life. Anyone who brought up the idea of selling drugs was quickly shut down. We have so many legitimate businesses now, I wasn’t sure why we continued selling stolen goods. Maybe my grandfather found it fun. I laughed inside.

  Marco and I laid on the ledge peering through binoculars at the desolate road.

  Two men stepped out on either side of the building, pointing to the truck barreling down the road.

  “Dom, let’s go.”

  We ran down the stairs screwing the muzzles on our Glocks, then stood at the side door.

  A man ran out in the middle of the road and pointed a gun at the driver. “Stop the fucking truck. Get the fuck out!”

  “Marco, what are you waiting for?”

  “I don’t see Jude.” He peeked out of the door.

  Gun shots rang out. “Marco, we have to move.”

  “There’s that son of a bitch. Come on, Dom. He’s walking toward the third truck.”

  We crept across the gravel toward the street. Two street lamps offered hints of light. We clutched our guns at our sides. I scanned our surroundings. A guy slinked out of the darkness from the side of the building, gun drawn. I raised my Glock and fired. He fell to the grown. I trekked backwards toward the street, searching the shadows for men lying in wait. I peeked behind me; Marco ran toward Jude. I snatched one of the guys out of the cab of the truck. I zip tied the man’s hands. “Mr. Magarelli, I’m sorry,” he wailed.

  “Shut the fuck up. I don’t give a shit how sorry you are.”

  “Hey, Dom, we apprehended the other two trying to flee the scene,” Romeo grunted. Dragging the battered man in my direction, he delivered a blow to the head. “Stop your fucking whining.”

  I peeked over Romeo’s shoulder, Tadeas and Gage, Marco’s guys trudged toward us.

  “Tadeas, check on the fourth truck.”

  He nodded running past Marco.

  I jogged over to Marco. “Are we ready to move?”

  “Yeah.” He kneed Jude in his stomach then tossed him into the cab of the truck.

  I met Romeo between the first two eighteen wheelers.

  “Pay off the driver and drop him off at home. Meet us back at the warehouse.”

  “On it, boss.”

  We met at Marco’s warehouse an hour later. I disposed of the driver and the guy who killed him. They’d been buried.

  Jude grinned sitting on his knees, hands tied behind his back. Peering at Marco with a crazed look in his eye, he laughed. Blood trickled down his face.

  “Go ahead, Marco. Kill me,” he growled.

  I removed my hat as I inched closer sitting on the wooden table to my left. “Jude, don’t worry your wish will come true. First, tell us why you chose to steal from the Esposito’s after all Marco had done for you.”

  His head hung low as he stared at me through his eyelashes.

  “Marco, had everything I deserved. The big house, family. A father who loved him. What did I have? My fucking depressed mother? Broken to pieces because of what your father did to her,” he spat, glaring at Marco.

  “Oh, give me a fucking break. Your mother knew what the fuck she was getting into. She knew who my father was…” He pointed his finger into his chest.

  “She knew her place. A goomah is a girlfriend to a made fucking man. My father would never leave my mother. I wouldn’t be surprised if your mother became pregnant on purpose trying to force his hand. I’m not saying my father wasn’t wrong because he was. But they were both adults. She got burned by a rotten motherfucker.” He stooped to the ground staring him in the eye.

  “What… you want to be me. Have my power. Become the king of Jersey City?”

  “Yes! Yes! Yes!” he roared. Spit flew from his mouth.

  “I deserved to be treated like his son. He never once lifted a finger. Never visited.”

  “Bullshit. That house you were living in my father paid for it. He gave your mother money to take care of you. Now what she did with the property and money I don’t know. The day you and I were on our way to the club, your mother cornered me asking me a shit load a questions. I realized who she was. The woman my father argued with when I was a young boy. I’ve kept an eye on you since that day. How long did you know you and I had the same father?” Marco narrowed his eyes, snatching him by the front of his bloody shirt.

  Jude laughed like a mad man. “I’ve known since I was ten.”

  “What the fuck? You befriended me to get to my father?”

  Jude’s eyes gave Marco the once over. “Yeah, and it almost worked. I didn’t know my mother questioned you about your family. She fucked up my plan. While holding a Glock to dad’s head, I wanted to introduce myself. The thought of shock and amazement on his face would’ve made killing him satisfying. I don’t care what bullshit you try to feed me. I know your father was a lying, evil, fucking bastard…who disowned his son. He could have fucking acknowledged me. But he didn’t want to jeopardize losing his precious wife.”

  “Too bad for you, dear old dad will never know what happened to his asshole bastard son.” He yanked him close.

  “If you would have gotten over your stupid bullshit daddy issues, I would have paid you off. Allowed you to live a plush life. But I see that would have never been enough for a revengeful motherfucker like you. You wanted to be apart of the family. Become a boss. The Don. Yeah, that shit would’ve never fucking happened.

  You lack self-control. You began unraveling. You thought hijacking our trucks and hitting us in the wallet would cripple us? We are the Esposito’s we would have regained power. Maybe you’re unaware my father is good friends with Salvatore Magarelli. Out of the five families we are the closest. We look out for one another in times of need.” Marco peeked over his shoulder and pointed in my direction.

  “In case you hadn’t noticed that’s Dominic Magarelli.” He glared at Jude again. “He’s here to assist in the disposal of your sorry ass. You miss your mother so much now you get to be with her in death.”

  Jude turned his head to the side and a roaring chuckle left his lips. His head snapped back and a scowl devoured his face. “I don’t care to be with her in death. The bitch was stupid. It was time for her to die. Holding a knife in one hand, towering over my mother, I threatened to stab her in her heart countless times, providing a slow painful death. Or she could hold the gun to her head and shoot herself, allowing her a quick death. She chose the quick option. She thought telling me she loved me would soften my heart. She should have been a fucking mother. Not pining after a man who didn’t want nor fucking love her,” Jude growled.

  He sat back on his calves. “I wasn’t satisfied with her non-suffering death. Days after her funeral, I dug up her grave, pried open the coffin and stabbed a knife through her unhappy heart twenty-four times for each miserable year I lived on this earth.”

  Marco turned to me; eyebrow arched. “And here I thought we were a couple of crazy sons of bitches.”

  I chuckled. “Yeah, looks like we’ll do the world a favor killing this crazy motherfucker.”

  Marco and I dropped our heads in laughter.

  “I think it’s only fitting I kill you the way you killed your mother. I don’t care if your mother cried about my father every fucking day. You are a grown man. End of fucking conversation. Tell her to shut the fuck up about it. Shit walk the fuck away. Killing your mother because she had a baby by a fucking asshole just sounds stupid…Crazy.”

  Marco slid a knife from the small of his back then plunged the knife into his gut.

  Jude groaned. “Is that all you got.”

  Marco gripped Jude’s shoulder, stabbing him repeatedly.

  “You deserve to die you, sick son of a bitch,” Marco growled, stabbing Jude in his heart. His limp body fell to the ground.

  Marco and I wrapped Jude’s dead body in a tarp. We drove to the Esposito butcher shop.
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  Marco unlocked the back door. Holding Jude’s legs, he bumped his back against the door, pushing his way inside. We tossed Jude’s wrapped body onto the floor in the special butcher room.

  Marco said the equipment was used specifically for problems like ours. We’d clean the blades with strong detergent and commercial bleach.

  We tied long butcher aprons around our neck and waists. “My father never kept meat grinding machines too long. Wouldn’t want any blow back later.” Marco snickered.

  “Smart thinking.”

  Shielding our faces with welding masks, we hovered over Jude with electric saws, dismantling his body.

  “How’s school coming along?” Marco asked, shoving a bare arm into a meat grinder.

  “It’s demanding and commands focus. Focus is difficult when handling problems in Jersey.”

  “Sorry, Dom.”

  “Marco, don’t be. I’d been home a few times over the summer. I’m sure I’d return throughout the year. Again, I may miss graduating a second time. The mafia comes first.” I propelled one of Jude’s legs into the meat grinder as I glanced across the room.

  “Even if it takes five years to complete my last year credits, I will become an attorney. I plan to take the Bar Exam in California, New Jersey, and New York. My family won’t have problems being represented.”