Salvatore Dalla

I slowly open my eyes as I hear murmuring by my bedroom door. I can make out the voices of Rico and Fabrizio, as well as Naná’s, but I’m not sure what the argument is about.
I try to move to put an end to the chaos, but I feel a weight on my right arm. I look to the side and see Amapola sleeping, so peacefully that I wonder how she can be so calm sleeping next to a man who’s told her countless times that he’d kill her at any moment. Does she have no sense of danger?
Gradually, the memory of what happened begins to return: our little argument before lunch, me leaving her without food, her trying to run away from me, and finally, me realizing that I couldn’t take her life, so I let her go.
"Shit!" I groan as I try to move my left arm to pull her off me, but I feel a sharp pain from the wounded limb. As I focus on the task of getting her off my chest to find out what my brothers are growling about, the door bursts open.
"For fuck’s sake," Rico says with a grin, while Fabrizio just looks at me, silently questioning what’s going on.
"What are you doing here? Weren’t you supposed to be working?" I ask, irritated by their intrusion.
"We were, and we finished," Fabrizio informs me, letting me know that they’re all dead.
"Great, now get out," I order.
"Get out, my ass," Rico shoots back.
"Rico," I say his name in a clear warning.
"Oh my God!" Amapola says, embarrassed as she wakes up, trying to pull the covers over herself. "I didn’t... I shouldn’t have..." she starts to explain, but I cut her off.
"You don’t need to say anything," I warn her. "And you two, I already said get the hell out."
"We’ll go, brother, but not before you explain what the hell happened here, and why you didn’t tell us. We were wor..." Rico starts to say they were worried, but he stops because of Amapola's presence.
They know nothing about her, and mafia bosses never show weakness or concern, but I could tell from their expressions that whatever they did to speed up the job was so they could be here as soon as possible. I knew they wanted to see for themselves that I was okay.
"Ten minutes in the office," I warn, and they nod before leaving.
"I’m sorry, Salvatore. I shouldn’t have touched you, or rather, I should’ve stayed on the couch."
"I gave you permission to lie in my bed, Amapola. Don’t worry," I say as I get up to head to the bathroom.
"Are you feeling okay? You need to eat something to take the medication the doctor prescribed."
"I’ll talk to my brothers and then I’ll do that." I head to the bathroom.
I take a quick shower and brush my teeth before going downstairs. When I return to the room, Amapola is gone, and I have no idea where she went, but for now, I can’t worry about that. I need to talk to my brothers urgently.
"Well, well, the godfather brought a prisoner to heal his battle wounds," Rico says, as usual, throwing in one of his not-so-funny jokes.
"Stay out of this," I make it clear, pointing a finger at him before sitting down in front of the two.
"Yes, sir," he raises his hands in mock surrender. "But since when do you bring casino whores to your house? Give me that information, and I won’t ask anything else." Curious as always, he adds.
"Call her a whore again, and I’ll personally make sure to cut your balls off," I say as I quickly throw a knife between his legs. I didn’t intend to hit him, and he knows that as well as I do, but the terror of seeing a knife lodged so close to his balls couldn’t be hidden.
"Salvatore, don’t mess with that. We fight, we argue, we take our frustrations out on each other, damn it, but the dick is off-limits between us, for fuck’s sake. Slit my throat, but don’t mess with my playground," Rico says angrily as he pulls the knife out from the wood between his legs.
"What happened here yesterday?" Fabrizio asks.
"I ask the questions, and you answer," I say as I raise the phone to my ear. "Amadeu, in the office," I order, and before Fabrizio can respond, my trusted man walks in.
"Sir." I notice him scrutinizing my body, and I see him breathe a sigh of relief when he realizes I’m okay. "I apologize for the failure of my soldiers. I should’ve trained them better. Any one of them should have stood in front of you to ensure nothing happened to you."
"This time, don’t worry, Amadeu. All the responsibility for what happened lies with me," I say, both to him and to my brothers, so they understand that I was the one who sent the men away. Since it was my decision, I knew none of them would contest it. After all, what I say is law, and they simply follow it.
"Yes, sir," Amadeu says, and I see Rico and Fabrizio exchange irritated glances. They wouldn’t challenge my authority, I knew that, but they weren’t happy about it either.
In the minutes that follow, I listen to the three of them explain that as soon as they learned I’d been shot, they accelerated the final ambush that was planned for tonight and carried it out during the early morning hours.

As for the two who dared to come near me, I already knew they had been captured by my men. When we were leaving the compound for the hospital, we passed by their car. No one needed to say a word for me to understand that they had been taken down.
While still at the hospital, Matteu informed me that they would be taken to one of the warehouses; they knew I would want to handle the situation personally.
"Come in," I respond when I hear a knock at the office door.
"Sir, breakfast is on the table," Naná informs me.
"We’re on our way," I reply, but my brothers were already on their feet, ready to follow me to the dining room. "Amadeu, come with us, there’s something I want to clarify with you," I call out, and he nods.
It’s no issue for me or my brothers to have Amadeu sit with us at the table; he was raised with us. Our only reservations are when we’re in public. He’s not just a simple soldier of the family or the head of my security—Amadeu is like a brother to us.