Mafia Blood (The Five Families, 1)

FOUR . to the grave

KARISSA

I COULDN'T FORGET HIS FACE.

     The image of Percival's head getting shot in was a recurring image over and over in my mind all throughout the drive back to my place.

     Even though everything inside of me had been screaming to call the police I couldn't bring myself to do it. I wanted to call my father or my siblings too but decided against that as well.

     What was I supposed to say anyway? Oh hey, our papa's friend gave me an important flash drive that's meant for him, but got killed by other people who wanted the flash drive.

     Would they even believe it without seeing evidence?

     I wanted to scream at Percival for not explaining to me everything that was happening to him, and now he was taking all that knowledge to the grave.

     For an hour I had tried sleeping, eating, and trying to decide whether or not I should call someone, and what I should say.

     I couldn't bring myself to do it.

     Now it was two in the morning, and I currently sat on my bed in my bathrobe with a towel on my head waiting for my hair to dry up a little bit as I had decided to take a shower once I figured I wasn't falling asleep anytime soon.

     As I stared around the room I noticed something bulging out of my pants that were lying on the floor. I stood up and walked towards my pants, and picked up the black box that had been tucked away in my pocket.

     I had forgotten all about it.

     Walking back to the bed and sitting down, I opened the box and pulled out a flash drive. Was this what those people were looking for?

      Quickly getting up I located my laptop before making my way back to my bed, placing both items in front of me. I stared between the two objects for a moment, and then released a sigh.

     "You have to know," I mumbled to myself, knowing I deserved to know what Percival and my father had gotten themselves into.

     Opening my laptop I inserted the flash drive and pulled up the files. I clicked on it and began to scroll. As I did so my eyes widened as I read the first words that popped up.

     The Five Families of Italy, I read in wonder.

     "Amante, Dragonetti, Morelli, Romano, and Stallone," I whispered out loud.

     The next slides had pictures of each person from each family.

     First it started off with the leader of each family before branching off to the other family members including, aunts, uncles, brothers, cousins, nieces, and nephews. Each slide was very detailed, and I couldn't help but wonder why Percival needed all this information about these people.

     As I finished scrolling through the first forty something slides my question was immediately answered, and I released a gasp.

      There was a video of a man beating someone to death with his bare hands. The man he beat looked so deformed I knew that there was no way he was alive after that. His head bashed in, and a pool of blood surrounding his body. The man in the video doing the torturing was Pietro Dragonetti according to one of the previous slides.

     An unpleasant chill traveled down my spine.

     I continued clicking through the slides making myself watch each video and read each slide just to get a sense of how much deep shit I was in.

     I was in an abyss.

     One video caught my eye, and I couldn't help but watch it twice because of how brutal it was.

     A man had another man on his knees, pointing a machete at his throat. In his left hand was a gun, and it was pointed at a woman who was down on her knees, seeming to be pleading and begging. The videos never had audio so I could only use my imagination to know what they were saying.

     After a second the man with the gun pulled the trigger shooting the woman in the head causing me to flinch.

     The man on his knees was now crying harder trying to crawl forward towards the woman but the man in control tucked his gun into the waistband of his pants and then used his now freehand to pull back the man's head. Without hesitation he began to cut into the man's neck, sawing until his head was free from the body, and the body fell to the ground. Then he tossed the head on the ground next to the body and kicked dirt on the corpse.

      The man looked up at the ceiling as if they could sense the camera somewhere, and I found myself staring into icy dark blue eyes.

     According to the previous slides, this was Vittorio Romano.

      Releasing a shaky breath I continued on until I reached the end of the slides.

      There was a video at the end, and what surprised me was that it was Percival. He was wearing the same outfit I had seen him wearing, making me think he recorded it before we crossed paths.

      I played the video, feeling emotional as I did.

      "Hello, Karissa. If you've reached the end of the slides then you know a little bit about what you're dealing with here. Those people are no joke," he said and I couldn't help but release a dry laugh.

      I noticed.

     "I need you to give this flash drive to your father. It's important that you do. I'm sensing that if I'm dead by the time you watch this video the five families will then know that I've been collecting incriminating information on them and try to track down the flash drive. Make sure they don't get their hands on it," he said before rubbing a hand through his honey blonde hair.

      "I have a ticket ready for you to go to Los Angeles, California. Also got you a hotel room if you need to rest. The information is in the next slide. Make sure to be on the flight," Percival said with a serious expression.

      "I'm sorry about the last time you saw me. Wish we could've spent more time together," he said sadly, and I wiped away one of the tears that slipped out of my eye.

     "Love you Karissa, and tell Adriano I'm sorry I failed him."

     With that the video ended.

      I clicked to the last slide. It had information on the flight I was going to take, and where my father was currently.

      I bit my bottom lip as I thought, and then realized I had a friend who was in Los Angeles.

      Getting my phone from the dresser I went to the Messages app. Quickly I hit up my friend, hoping he was available.

Me: Hey Dom! Guess who's coming to Los Angeles tomorrow??? I was wondering if you weren't busy if you'd pick me up from the airport. It's been a while so would love to see you<3

     I waited for a moment and just as I was about to set my phone down I got a reply.

Domenico: Really? That's amazing, I'd be more than happy to come get you. You can tell me how college's been and what you want to do over the summer.

     A smile came to my face.

Me: Great. I'm preparing for my flight now but I should arrive by 10am at most. Text you more details in a few.

     I set my phone down before getting to my feet.

    I'm really doing this, I thought as I took the towel off my head as I headed to the bathroom.

     I was probably in danger, but the thought excited me almost.