Omerta

Chapter 1

         The air was especially warm tonight and it clung to my flesh just as soon as we stepped outside the Italian restaurant we'd been dining at. My family is close friends with the owners of the establishment. The TerraNova's know a lot of people. Since I don't know my mother, and my father is now in prison, my family consisted of my uncle Tony, aunt Carlotta, and my cousin Dominic whom I've lived with since my father's conviction 10 years ago. 

I obviously know my family is involved in shady business seeing as my dad is currently serving time for it. Still I've always tried to stay far out of it.

        As we walked down the sidewalk to get the car parked out back, a girl flashed a flirtatious smile at my cousin who was walking beside me. I laughed knowing so well how much of a fuckboy Dominic can be. He's got these chocolate locks kept trimmed up and eyes like mine. Icy translucent eyes that contradict our olive skin and dark hair. Dom makes sure to keep fit too. He has strong arms so he catches the girl's eyes often. 

The icing on the cake is his warm smile, which lures them in before they know what a real troublemaker he truly is.

        Dom's head swiveled on his neck to crank it over his shoulder, while he followed the girl's ass with his darting eyes. "Jesus, that's a firm ass," I heard him mutter. I slapped his arm to get him to come back to reality and called him a pig for it. He grinned and shrugged as if to say 'you know how it is'. My uncle was the one to drive tonight. As we came up to his fancy car he unlocked the doors for us to climb in. My Zio (uncle) is known as Anthony 'Big Tony' TerraNova, and he looks a lot like his son except for the heavy belly. My Zia Carlotta was a short woman with a cream colored bob and a no nonsense attitude if she were to scold you. She kept us two kids in line growing up.

        My Zio helped his wife into the passenger side door before rounding the car to let himself in on the driver's side. My cousin and I slipped in the back. The seats are a soft leather you can glide on. Zio Tony patted his belly in satisfaction of our meal before turning the ignition. Dominic was looking down at his phone, but I was paying attention out the window while we slowly exited the parking lot. 

When my uncle stalled for a moment to let the traffic pass, the headlights of a car previously parked shined bright from our left driver's side window. It made me squint and turn my eyes away. There came a lull in the oncoming traffic, so my uncle eased off the brakes and started turning onto the road when he noticed something. 

An arm coming out from the same car whose headlights had just blinded me. 

Zio cursed in Italian and shouted for us to get down. The command almost didn't register in my mind, but Dom's arm looped around me and pulled me down to hide our heads between our knees.

        That's when I heard the POP POP of a gun as Zio sped off. My aunt screamed as my uncle held her head close to his chest to shield her. Simultaneously he was able to drive fast to cut into another street trying to lose our tail. I heard another loud bang and the sound of a bullet hitting metal. Almost like a ping. Our car's metal frame.

I began to tremble in fear. My uncle instructed my cousin to pull his weapon and fire back if need be. This was all unraveling so fast in the most heart thumping way. 

"Grab plate numbers if you can!" I heard him shout out more orders. All of this was passing in a fog for me as my body would tumble one way when my uncle would cut a sharp turn, then back the other way until I returned to my crotched position. You could feel the acceleration of the peddle when he'd go faster down a straighter road. 

My gut was clenched in the anticipation of possibly crashing. Where would my body fly then?

        "We lost him," Dom announced to his father. "Call Benny, I want a full security detail ready," my uncle instructed his son while his eyes kept shifting up to the mirror to check our surroundings more thoroughly. "Who could that have been?" My aunt sniffled. She turned in her seat when she noticed I was still quiet. "Giada, are you okay bella?" she asked me because I had yet to straighten myself up.