Intertwined

Chapter 67: Lonely Rivers

A/N: Sorry to you lovely readers for the long delay. Family illnesses and migraines and life have just been a lot.

Trigger warning for mention of child and human trafficking, but no graphic details.

Antonella had told him to take the night off. She had been on an intense phone call with her daughter Allegra and wanted some space. Throughout her illness he could see things progressing and yet Antonella Sarracino had pushed through all pain and struggling breath. Each time drawing herself up, as much has she had when he first me her at 16 years old. People still cowered in her commanding presence, still shivered when she stared them in the eye, still made sure everyone in her organisation was doing everything just as they should be.

The tall fixer knew there had been whispers about her health, but he had helped her deal with any issues that had been caused. The latest being the heir to the Sicilian mafia from the Candiano family.

Liuni had been trying to take control of the Camorra operations in Rome, but Gio met with him. To work things out, make a deal.

Gio thought a deal may have been workable, but not for Antonella. She was not one for compromise. She didn't work well with others. Gio sighed, his heart ached a little at the thought of her loneliness, of his own longing for her companionship. She had made herself a life where she was in control all of the time, but it also meant that she was alone and that thought hurt the large Italian man. He had seen her softness with Allegra, with her father and a few times towards him. Gio believed in that softness more than the power playing woman Antonella seemed to relish being.

He stopped barefoot on the sand and thought about the latest man he had killed. Liuni had been brought up in this life, like Antonella. He had been cunning, finding ways to injure business confidence in the Camorra's products in smaller ways; rumours, overdoses in clubs along the coast caused by tampered pills, better financial cuts for some suppliers. It was a lot of effort for small gain.

Liuni was playing a tactical game. In this business he had known that even small failures created large seeds of doubt. Gio had spoken to him, over dinner. The younger mans' drinks laced with scopolomine, causing the young man to at first feel dizzy, then he became easily suggestive. Gio instructed him how to get away from the hallucinations, 'The side door of the bar is how we can escape them,' He put his arm around the smaller man and then whispered, 'You are certain,' he did exactly as Antonella had suggested. 'You have to hand me your gun,' Gio stated and the younger man had done so immediately. The drug had taken all suspicion and caution from him. The older man had felt a slight twist in his stomach as Liuni's dazed expression looked at him innocently. 'Angel,' Liuni had muttered.

The fixer held the gun, 'close your eyes,' he instructed and as the younger man's eyes closed Gio pulled the trigger, the sound muffled under the noise of nightclubs and bars in full swing of midnight celebrations. He left the gun, under Liuni's right hand.

Gio took a deep breath as waves lapped at his ankles, the cool water soothing against the evening humidity. He tried to focus his mind on the way the moon reflected in the water, the light moving up and down, but instinct drew his gaze northward over his right shoulder, back towards Antonella. He wished he didn't have feelings for her. That he didn't long to feel her lips on his, didn't want to care for her with all the softness no one else would ever know of him, didn't love her in a way that felt so foreign in every other interaction he had ever known.

He would do anything for her. Even if she never asked anything of him again, he would give up his life for her, his last breath for her. She was everything to him, whether she knew it or not.

***

Morgan sat at his desk after lunch, the weekly pile of files, contracts, renewals and meetings starting to pile up. He had a lot to get through today. His mind kept wandering to the change in plans that Agent Rovina had informed him of. He hoped that Asha would remain safe, but he was relieved they had found Niko. He wanted to talk to his old friend. He had missed him but was also unsure of how to talk to him.