Although my father did not notice, I was watching him from outside his office. He was facing toward the wall occasionally nodding and giving little mumbles of what seemed to be “yes’s”. He hung up the phone, sighs and slowly pushes himself out of his chair and starts to put on a long, wool and gray coat. Finally, he sees me at the door and grins
“Come in Luke, how are you?”
I sat on the leather coach not too far from his desk “I’m fine dad,”
I pause looking at his wool coat, “are you going somewhere?”
He sighs again, “I have another meeting but I won’t be gone too long, few days , I have things to settle” he smiles keeping his eyes on me, “You know son, one day you will be like me the boss of this huge business enjoying this wonderful lifestyle. You have all it takes to be the Boss, leadership, talent…” he trailed off.
“Or I could be a banker.” I add with a touch of humor, we both laughed. My dad’s thought of a banker is that person who stole your money when you weren’t looking.
“Promise me something Luke.”
“What?”
“Please don’t be a banker, it’s not funny.”
We laughed again, enjoying our last few moments before he goes off for work. He stood up from his leather chair and closed his briefcase. I escorted him to the door with his arm on my shoulder. I opened the door for him as he walked out into the cold winter breeze. With the chill I feel unhappy; I remember that my only close family alive is my dad, the man now leaving for a few days, always a few days… but I understand, because that’s his job, because he is the head of the Italian Mafia.
The next morning I was awoken by my butler, John. He was wearing a suit, tie and his usual attire. He is one of my dad’s most trusted “friends” he is one of the only people allowed up stairs except my body guard Jeffrey.
“What’s for breakfast Joe?” I asked while he pulled the cart into my room.
“The usual sir, your omelet with mushrooms, cheese and a little bit of green onion, accompanied with a glass of warm milk and a fresh baked chocolate chip cookie.” John lightly sets the platter on my lap.
“Thank you Joe” I said gratefully
“Let us not be late for school. Your clothes are already hung up in your closet.”
“Thanks again Joe” and he leaves the room with the cart.
After the wonderful breakfast, I lazily got out from under my bed covers to open the curtains. From my window was a view of the garden. The multi-colored flowers seemed to dance with the tall grass. A fountain stood in the middle of the lavish colors to give it an even more peaceful feeling with its elegant carvings. I sighed, the fountain was my mother’s favorite place to sit and relax. My father and I would sit and join her, sitting on the edge, watching the water ripple, sometimes we discussed family matters. Countless wonderful memories were waiting to be seen in the fountain waters reflection. I walked away from the window with the image of my mother’s shriveled up face a week before her death still smiling… I snapped back into reality, I would be late for school if I didn’t hurry up.
Days seemed to pass with no news of my father, not even a call. It was unusual for him to not call. My father usually calls every two to three days; I know it’s been more than that. Every time I come back from school I pass his empty office. Sometimes I would stare into it like my father would magically appear. Nothing happened. It seemed that my dad somehow made everything better, whether it was sports or homework. I became lost without him; I wish he would come back soon.
Two more days passed, it’s been nearly a week, no word of my father. I felt that something had gone wrong. I could feel my heart beating faster than usual.
“What could have happened?” I asked myself. I was almost certain of the answer to my question and have tried to avoid, he was killed. I could not believe or think that that was possible, but the facts are put together very fast. The probability of being murdered while in the mafia is high, but for the boss, much higher. He was my only family left, and the only dad I had. Tears dropped from my eyes, I quickly dried them off. I felt hopeless and defeated the only one thing I cared about taken away from me. I couldn’t lose hope, no not yet. I jumped onto my bed and hid under the covers, hoping that it would block out the truth. Then I slowly fell into deep sleep.
The Russian mafia had ordered a meeting between my mafia and theirs on Raeford Street’s in the empty parking lot. We had some questions to ask them too, about my fathers disappearance. The history between the two mafia gangs hasn’t been good in the past; countless murders have taken place in the fierce rivalry between them but have stopped in the past 2 years. I was the new boss; it was my responsibility to go as the leader in replacement of my father in the meeting. Most of all my mafia went to the meeting, everyone was required to wear what a normal person would usually wear to a formal party, a black suit, tie even cuffs on their sleeves, but then again the Russian’s wore things like that too and of course a long black wool/cashmere topcoat that went to the knee’s. The minute everyone was ready, we jumped into the 5 black Cadillac’s and went to our destination. The Russians had just arrived and where climbing out there black SUVs covering the right side of the parking lot and we took the left. Everyone waited until each person had exited their cars and formed a clump with their leaders
In the front including me and what was supposed to be a man of huge proportions but turned out to be a boy, which I assumed to be the man’s son. I asked in a forceful voice
“Where is your father”, the boy said in an even stronger voice
“You tell me, and what about yours?”
“Don’t try lying to me; we all know that anything that goes wrong within our mafia is because of you. Where is my father?”
“Where is yours? Where is mine! You tell me now or I will shoot you in this very spot, so you want to tell me?” I realized that the arguing did not bring us any were and decided enough was enough.
“Well it seems that we have both encountered a problem, both of our fathers are missing and we both don’t know where they are.”
“You are lying I know you have my father please return him unharmed or I WILL kill you.” I was tired of his threats and his stubborn personality,
“Will you listen to me! I don’t have anything to do with your father’s disappearance! Do you understand?” I just noticed how loud I was but I got my point across. The rival leader started whispering into the ear of man next to him. He finally spoke
“I would like to have another meeting at my home, privately, at 6 pm sharp, is that possible?”
“Of course, I will be there.” and the meeting started to disband.
It was 5:30 and the meeting was going to start in 30 minutes. I decided to go to my dad’s office to remind me of the good times we had when I heard voices in the room. I paused a moment and identified two people as Jeffrey and Roger I couldn’t hear very well but I could make out the words “car” and “warehouse”, I finally knew who some of my suspects were, my first clue to knowing where my father was I tip toed upstairs then came back down with louder steps to make Roger and Jeffrey a little notice that I was there. They came out in a half jog half walk.
“Let’s go”
I stepped out of the car to see a seven foot gate and a large mansion behind it. I pressed a button and talked into the speaker.
“I’m here for the meeting”
“Step right in sir” the man replied and the gate popped open. I walked to the door to be greeted by the boy. He stuck a hand out and I warmly shook it.
“I haven’t yet introduced myself my name is Frank.”
“Luke, pleasure to meet you.”
“We will go into a meeting room where we will discuss some matters” We walked across the marble floor and came to a long room.
“Sit down” he told me and closed the door behind him.
“I have called a meeting to discuss this kidnapping matter. I have heard some news within my mafia of their location” I listened carefully, these things can be important.
“I hear they are at a warehouse somewhere out of the city and I’m waiting for the exact location.”
“Yes I have heard about a warehouse, I also think some of my men will steal some of my cars to get there. The thing they don’t know is that all the cars are being tracked.”
“Brilliant, I need to do that.”
“I will be listening well for any more information about their whereabouts.”
“So will I” he replied
“Meeting finished?”
“Yes, you may leave” I shook his hand,
“It’s been nice to finally meet you” and I walked out.
I expected to see Jeffrey waiting for me at the gate but he wasn’t there. I called him and he didn’t answer. I called the house,
“Where is Jeffrey?”
“I don’t know sir.”
“Tell someone to pick me up”
“Yes sir”.
When I got home I immediately ran to the car tracking device. Yes! He fell for such a simple trap! There was a big building in top view right next to the black Cadillac.
I started to email Frank, “Dear Frank, I have found the location of the warehouse. Here is the plan; there is always a fan to circulate air inside a warehouse that size, I will lead the group that will detach the fan and climb down toward the room where my father and yours are being held. It would be stupid if we entered through the hole and didn’t have somewhat of a distraction. Frank you will lead your men on the attack on the entrance. Do not try to risk anyone’s life. While they are distracted I will lead my team through our entrance, scale down find the place where our targets are. If we are lucky there will be no guards, if so, we will either kill or knock out them, we will carry save them, exit through our original entrance, you will slowly retreat to your cars and escape. We will try to avoid any bloodshed on each side, ours and theirs. We might have to eliminate the leaders to prevent future conflict but as I said we will try to avoid bloodshed. We meet tomorrow at my place bring any weapons, ladders and ropes with all your men.”
From Luke,
He replied instantly with a simple “ok. I like the plan.”
The GPS told me that the warehouse was located outside of the city according to where the stolen Cadillac was. Everyone was armed with at least a Glock highest come in shotguns or rifles. I had a pair of army heat goggles, which I got off the black market, to make the search easier. With everyone armed and ready we loaded the cars with tools to detach the fan, scale the wall and some rarely used grenades because they, were so expensive, into the cars. Frank sent me a small salute; I saluted back and jet black Cadillac’s started pulling out in one minute intervals to avoid suspicion.
In the car I thought of the long days since I hadn’t him , my father, I started to worry what conditions he would be in when I got there. I had suddenly realized that I was a real leader, I made our plan and I just felt proud of myself. I suddenly felt sad again, I haven’t saved him yet, save your pride till then, I thought to myself and lay dully on the cold window. It was a long drive to the warehouse, as I suspected. A mile away from the warehouse everyone met up in a back alley and parked in separate places.
“Is everyone clear of the plan?” I heard some yea’s and saw some nods. Frank stepped in
“Well men, I want everyone to stay safe, are we clear? There is no reason for three men to sacrifice for two.” He said in his encouraging voice. There were more nods and yeas. I started to pace,
“Well let’s not just stand here and talk let’s get this done.”
I watched as Franck’s Cadillac’s pulled up at a raged building. It was covered with graffiti and the cloudy day made it seem like a haunted mansion. It looked like the warehouse was 3 to three stories high. With Franks Cadillac’s put in position my Cadillac out of the 4 served as a scout to find the fan’s position. We circled the warehouse until the fan was spotted. Small but big enough and quickly turned around before having a risk of being spotted and parked them next to the others. Men were unloading equipment such as the ladder and ropes. I could only hope for the best, that this plan would work and everything would go right. Everyone was ready so we went off. My team put up a 15 ft ladder up where the fan was and our mechanic started to climb, all we had to do was listen for a gunshot soon enough there was and the mechanic started pounding at the fan. A little less than a minute later the small skirmish was getting louder and the fan came right out and was carried down to the ground. The mechanic climbed down and let a muscular man do the rest. He grabbed a rope and hooked it onto a piece of medal that was originally there for the motor to turn the fan and seemed to drop it and scaled down, people started to follow I was the last to climb in except the mechanic, he stayed close by with the ladder so we could make an easy escape.
When I got inside I noticed a set of stairs. No one seemed to still be in the warehouse but engaged in the skirmish so I signaled everyone to head for the stair case and keep a good lookout. I forgot I had the heat goggles and put them on, I could see some red figure in the last room on the right. Exactly two, I signaled 3 people to stay at the front of the stairs and the others to come with me. I led the group and slowly opened the door. There they where tide up together both sitting on chairs facing back to back. I ran to my father and cut the ropes that he was probably tied in for days he fell into my arms like a big lump of meat and for a second I thought t he was dead, but he started to straighten up a little. I hugged him tight and started to cry.
“You’re in safe hands now dad. It’s your time to make a promise, don’t leave me ever again…” I started to cry uncontrollably.
“Your mother would be proud.”
He gave me a weak smile and joked .“I love you did you know that?”
I couldn’t help giving a smile back. “Yes, I knew that dad”.