Mafia By Blood (Soul of the Sinner)

  Mafia By Blood

  Rumer Raines

  Mafia By Blood

  Copyright 2017 Rumer Raines

  All Rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without prior written permission of the author.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are the products of the authors imagination or are use factitiously.

  Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead is entirely coincidental.

  Frank Deluca

  I make sure no one is around as I walk back to my car and lift the key fob. I hear the car explode behind me. I don’t turn back to look at what I just did. I don’t want to see it because that would mean I have to acknowledge what I’ve done. I love being a Chicago detective. I have over ten years on the force and the respect of everyone I worked with. It doesn’t matter if it’s a fellow officer or someone I am interrogating; they all respect Detective Frank Deluca. They know I am a man of integrity and I won’t shit them around. I used to respect myself as well, until today.

  I never thought I would cross that line. The imaginary line between good and evil. Sometimes family can fuck you up. You are on one path and they can easily direct you to another. My father paved the way for this new path. My father had been diagnosed with stage four lung cancer. Despite the best treatment that money can buy, his health failed quickly. We all hated watching the disease take him away. We are a close family; there are five of us and we cherished the hell out of him. I am the oldest and then my brother, Alex and our baby sister, Alexis. Alex is four years younger than me and he is a hothead. Alex is the trouble maker in the family. I often think I went into law enforcement because of Alex. I always wanted to be able to get to him first. Alex has mellowed a little since turning thirty, but not much. He owns a club in downtown Chicago, which has been a huge success. He made Pop proud when he bought the club and named it Deluca’s.

  Alexis is the family princess. She works at a cosmetic counter at the Water Tower. I often wonder if selling handmade soaps is a job, but Alexis is happy so the family is happy. Alexis is twenty-five and she is beautiful. Pop, Alex, and I have always taken great pleasure in torturing any guy that even has taken a second look at her when we’re around. Of course, being a proud Italian family, we always request that she brings the next victim over to family dinner. The only protection that Alexis and the next victim can seem to gather up is Ma. My mother is a saint. She is beautiful and you wouldn’t believe that she is a day over forty, and if you ask her, forty will always be her age.

  Before Pop got sick, I considered my family to be the perfect little Italian family that still had dinners on Sunday, but I suppose all families have something buried in the backyard. Unfortunately, with my family, it’s probably a body.

  When Pop realized that he couldn’t defeat his cancer, he had a talk with each one of us. We all spoke to him privately and he told us his wishes. We never confided to the others what was said, but Ma, Alex, and Alexis seemed to have peace with what was said. I was the last one to enter the hospital room to hear his wishes and have the dreaded talk. I hated entering the room. It is so heartbreaking to see the man you looked at like he was Superman, find his kryptonite. Pop had lost so much weight; he looked like photos I had seen of his pop, which was at least fifty pounds lighter than my pop. His face was sunken in and he was so weak. I hated seeing what cancer had done to him. He was a fighter and he fought to the very end. As I walked closer to the hospital bed, I could feel myself getting weaker and weaker. I knew in my gut that this would be one of the last times I would talk to my father, my hero. He turned his head slightly to look at me and his weak voice said he had something important to ask me.

  “I am dying Frank. I can no longer fight it, it’s too painful.” It hurt so much to hear my father admit to his pain. My father spent the next twenty minutes making his final request and I was shocked by what I was hearing. My father was a criminal. My entire family is criminals. Hell, I may be a criminal by blood. My father is the fucking don.

  He runs the fucking Chicago mafia and he is asking me to take charge. He could bypass me and ask Alex since I am in law enforcement, but Alex is a wild card. He doesn’t trust Alex with lives. I, on the other hand, will make level-headed decisions. I can’t believe what I am hearing. My fucking family is the mob? He wants me to run the mob. I am a fucking detective with the Chicago Police Department. How could I have missed that my family is made up of criminals? My father also advises that everything is already in place and when he dies, I am in charge. I will be approached and asked how I would like to proceed. If I decide that I will not run the business, it will have to go to Alex.

  I love my brother, but to be honest I wouldn’t trust his judgment to oversee a pet fish. Alex is loose cannon. He doesn’t think anything through. He acts first and then thinks about the consequences. If I don’t take over, it will become his responsibility. Can I really let him take charge when this will directly affect Ma and Alexis? Granted, I don’t want this either and I don’t know how my family has kept this hidden from me. According to Pop, the family has always been in the business. His father was the don and it was passed down to him. He had great pride in the family. The only ones that were clueless were me and Alexis. Ma knows about the family business, but according to Pop, she knows nothing about the dealings of the business. Women are never involved, which is also why Alexis was never informed.

  Pop said that I was never advised because of the obvious, I am on the wrong side of the law. I knew my family wasn’t happy with my decision when I announced I was interested in law enforcement. They all claimed that it was too dangerous. How much safer could I be, than in the family business?

  Shortly after walking out of Pop’s hospital room, we were all called back. We watched him take his last breath and it felt like I was taking mine.

  “Frank! Open the damn door!” I roll over and look at the clock. Its 4:30 in the morning and Alex is banging on the door. Why is he here so fucking early? It’s Saturday morning and it’s my day off. I roll out of bed, grab my pants and walk through my condo to open the door before he pisses off my neighbors. “What the hell, Alex?” I move aside and Alex strolls in looking agitated like I am the one who is getting him out of bed. “We need to talk. It’s been weeks since Pop died and you have a decision to make.”

  Alex is great at reminding others of their responsibilities if only he would acknowledge his own. I haven’t made any decisions. I realize that this is a big responsibility, but I have other things to consider as well. I am a detective with the Chicago Police Department. I can’t just hand over my badge and start working with the mob instead. How can I go from protecting the city to working alongside people I am trying to put away? “Alex, I need time.” Alex looks at me and sits down in a chair next to the sofa, rubbing his chin.

  “Frank, the business doesn’t go on vacation or take a break because you need time to think. Pop isn’t here to run the business now and there are other people involved. People that want to know who is calling the shots from now on. There’s a lot of shit going down and we need someone in place telling people how to handle shit.”

  I am now a little confused. Pop said that Alex was aware of the business, but how involved is he? “Alex, how involved are you in this shit?” He stops rubbing his chin and looks up at me and lets out a slight smirk. “Frank I am very involved. How do you think I was able to open Deluca's? Didn’t you think it was odd that I was able to buy my house and drive a BMW just by owning a club? The club is a front. It’s the easiest way
to make our money appear clean. You need to decide what you’re going to do, or I’m taking over. You have a fucking week.”

  Alex’s visit is short so I decide I am going back to bed. It’s easier for me to think when lying in the dark in bed. When I finally get rested enough to fall asleep my phone rings. I have the day off, but I am always on call, so I know ignoring it isn’t an option. It’s the department. They need me at a crime scene. This obviously won’t be a peaceful Saturday.

  Have you ever felt that you were being watched? As I drive to the crime scene, I have the strangest feeling that I am being followed. I don’t want to be paranoid because this is Chicago and traffic is a bitch, but the same blue car has been behind me since I pulled out of my parking spot. I switch lanes cutting other cars off and this blue car follows and appears to be one car away. I drive off the road and get my gun out of the glovebox deciding to figure this shit out. The blue car passes me and luckily, keeps going. That was some strange shit, but I guess it was just a coincidence. I put my gun back into the glove box and head to the crime scene.

  This is a nice neighborhood, not one where you’d expect a triple murder. The only thing that feels out of place is the blue and red lights that are all over the place. I park and ask one of the other officers for updates. “It’s ugly. With three dead. They were sitting at the kitchen table and they were all shot in the head.” I ask if there are any suspects and he says no. “Do you know who the victims are?” “Oh yeah, we know who the victims are. This was a mob hit and I know the victims very well. I have been trying to catch a lead on their asses for months. I guess someone thought I was close to getting one.”

  I hear nothing past the words mob hit. “How do you know for sure it had anything to do with the mob? Maybe they ticked someone else off.” He puts his notepad away and finally looks back at me. “Like I said I have been dealing with these three for a while. Look, I can’t say much, but there’s some major shit going down and I wanted to cut it off before it becomes another Valentine’s Day massacre. My people are telling me there are some changes being made. Apparently, a New York family wants to take over Chicago. I just can’t find out who’s involved In Chicago.”

  The arrival of the coroner thankfully ends the conversation. I get back in my car and drive directly to Deluca’s to get as much information as I can from Alex. He wasn’t in the most loving mood when I saw him earlier. I know he wants to run the business. I would prefer he run it too, how can I run it? I can’t commit crimes and then solve them. The last thing I want to be is a dirty cop. Deluca’s is twenty-five minutes away from the triple murder. It’s early, so I know there won’t be anyone at the club. As expected, I see Alex’s BMW parked in the back. He practically lives here so I am not at all surprised. I suppose I should have suspected something was going on at the club. Alex had a lot of money always flowing through the club and somewhat suspicious clientele. I even questioned Alex whether drugs were being pushed. He always said the club was legit.

  The back door to the club is in the alley, but Alex never locked it. I walk right in and call for Alex. The lights are all off, but I can see the lights to his upstairs office are on. “Hey Alex, we need to talk.” He yells back that he’ll right down and to give him a second. A few minutes, later a girl comes down the stairs adjusting her clothes. I shouldn’t be surprised that Alex isn’t here working. The girl looks at me and gives me a sly smile advising that maybe she’ll see me later. A few minutes later, Alex comes down the same stairs with a look of satisfaction on his face. “Really Alex? If you’re going to fuck around at work, you should probably lock the door.”

  Alex goes behind the bar and grabs a couple of bottles of water, tossing me one. “Well Frank, you should know that no one is going to start shit at Deluca’s unless it’s with me in the office. What are you doing here anyway? Have you made your decision? Business doesn’t take a break.”

  “I just left a crime scene where three people were shot in the head. I was advised it was mob related. Do you know anything about it?” Alex lowers his water bottle and rolls his eyes at me. “You’re actually here on police business? I want to give you a tip. If we had anything to do with it, your co-worker wouldn’t have said it was a mob hit. Our own cops would have been on the scene feeding you totally different information.”

  Oh hell, did he just say his own police? “Alex, what the hell are you talking about?” He lowers his water bottle and walks to the other side of the bar. “Frank, you think that pop just had a small little group and we called ourselves the mob for fun? We fucking own Chicago. We have lawyers, doctors, judges and police officers. Hell, you are probably part of the small percentage of good, law-abiding officers on the fucking force. How do you think we were able to totally keep you in the dark?” I start to question Alex further, but his cell phone rings and he indicates he has business to handle. He walks back up to his office and I decide I need to get the hell out of here.

  I am too wound up to go back home, I need to work out. I head to the gym thankful that I keep my workout clothes in the trunk of my car. I check in and look around, thankful because the gym is slow. A lot of guys from the force use this gym and I am not in the mood to make small talk with any of them. I keep thinking about how Alex said the mob has dirty cops in its pocket. Have I really been kept in the dark by people I trust? It’s bad enough that my family has kept me in the dark, but the guys I work with? How do I even know who to trust now? What if I decide to stay on the right side of the law? Would I have to investigate the guys I work with? Would they continue to keep me in the dark? Am I even allowed to stay in the dark or do I know too much now?

  I change my clothes and head out to run on the treadmill. I have so much shit to decide. My family is everything to me and Pop was on his deathbed when he told me all of this. How can I not continue his legacy? He obviously wanted me to run the business and not Alex. He would probably be better at it than me. Alex has apparently known about the business all along. He is good at this. He must be since he has kept me in the dark all this time. The thing about Alex is that he’s dangerous. He doesn’t think things through. He acts then he thinks. Alex can also be power hungry. I can imagine him killing someone just because he thought they looked at him wrong.

  “Excuse me!” I look over and there is a girl standing on the treadmill next to me. She is pretty and her dark hair that is pulled back into a ponytail. She has to be about five and a half feet tall and has pouty lips. She isn’t wearing any makeup, thank goodness. I hate when girls put on makeup to work out. They only sweat the shit off anyways. She is still looking at me, with raised eyebrow probably wondering why the hell I am sizing her up. “Yeah, did you need anything?” Now she’s sizing me up, “Do you mind if I use this treadmill or do you need personal space? I know there are others, but I thought I would run on this one.” I look around and there are several open, but if she wants the one right next to me, who am I to deny her?

  “That’s fine if you don’t mind getting a little of my sweat on you.”

  She looks me over and smiles and says that my sweat won’t bother her at all. Is she flirting with me? I have so much shit on my plate right now; I don’t think I can take anything else. Not even her. I give her a small smile and increase the speed on my treadmill.

  “Do you work out here a lot?” I turn to look and yes she is talking to me. Of course, she is talking to me; I am the only other person using the treadmills. “I try to come a few times a week. How about you?”

  “I actually just moved to town and this is my first time here! My name is Lola.” She did not just say her name was Lola. “Lola, huh? “She gives me the sexiest smile that I have seen in a long fucking time. “Well, Lola my name is Frank.” “It’s nice to meet you, Frank,” she responds.

  Lola and I hit it off and actually have an interesting conversation while on the treadmills. The gym has several televisions that you can watch while exercising. Lola and I didn’t have to watch any of it. She talks about her family and how she is
from New York. She lived in Manhattan and decided she wanted to get out of such a large city, but wanted to stay in a city, so she moved to Chicago. She has been in Chicago for three weeks now. She is the only child and her parents own a restaurant. They were upset when she left New York, but they have already visited in the three weeks she has been here.

  “Geez, you have heard all about me, Frank. What’s your story?” Oh shit, here we go. Do I want to tell her what I do? I don’t even know what I do now. Am I a Chicago detective with a foot in the mob?” Or, do I say I might be a mob member in training or maybe I just recently inherited the mob? I open my mouth to answer… “Hey, Frank!” someone yells. I look over and I have never been more relieved to see Gina. “Hi, how are you doing Gina?”

  “How about I let you find out later?” she smirks.

  Gina and I dated for almost six months, but it just didn’t work out. She decided she was ready to get married and have kids and I wasn’t. This is the reason why you don’t add people onto gym memberships. I added her on mine and once we were through, she continues to come. Gina doesn’t like working out so I thought I would be safe coming on weekends, but apparently, that didn’t work.

  “I think I’ll have to pass Gina, but it’s good seeing you.” She looks over to Lola and sizes her up. Knowing Gina, she will assume that Lola and I are here together. This is understandable since there have to be 15 treadmills, we’re the only two on them and we’re right next to each other. I look over at Lola and she has started looking at me and Gina with a confused look. Gina sizes her up once again and walks away.

  “Am I going to have to problems in the locker room with her?” I chuckle and advise that she should be safe. “That’s good to know because I have to get going. It was nice to meet you, Frank. Maybe I’ll run into you the next time!”

  “Nice to meet you too, Lola!” I watch her ass as she heads back to the locker room. Lola was a breath of fresh air. It was nice to talk to her and forget about my own problems. Once I get off this treadmill I still have a lot to decide.