Seeking Vengeance🔖

~5~Two Birds, One Stone

Retribution, Alcina thought as she slowly sat on one of the armchairs in Leonardo's office. The act of taking revenge. She remembered seeing the faces of those two men at the burial two weeks after the incident. But they were gone as fast as they came. Her father's death was like a slippery slope in Alcina's life. Her stepmother changed significantly, always accusing Alcina of killing her father. On the days Rachael was feeling more sour than usual, she would stretch it to both her parents. By the time she turned 16, Alcina was constantly wondering what had gone wrong with the world: What had gone wrong with her life?

She glanced at Leonardo, he was watching her. How did this man she'd never met, know her father?

"What about my father?" she asked, preparing herself for what he wanted to say.

"I knew him," Leonardo said. "Well my father knew him. They were really close."

"How close?"

"I guess we could call them good friends, best friends even," he said

"And why am I just hearing of this best friend now?"

Leonardo sighed, as Alcina saw him loose his patience. "I know the men who killed him."

Alcina tuned him out again. The images of the gun, her father's smile and tear, the gunshots, the killers sick grin and their faces stirred in her mind: Images she'd spent most nights shredding and burying in her mind.

"How do you know them?" Alcina asked, she stared at a stain in the carpet around his desk. Was that blood? She forced the rising bile down her throat and tore her eyes away from the red soil, expertly hidden by his desk, from light pouring in from the window.

Leonardo walked over to his desk uneasily and leaned on it. He folded his arms.
"The men who killed your father that day, have always been competitors with my father and your father. My father swore to avenge your father, but he couldn't achieve this in his lifetime."
Alcina's gaze rested on a portrait picture of an older man with a strong jawline and blue eyes like Leonardo's.

"Piero and Giovanni, the men in question, haven't given up. They want my father's businesses and will go to any means to get what they want," he paused, looking at her straight in the eye. "And I want to include you in the plan by killing two birds with one stone."

Alcina shook her head. What did he mean by killing two birds with one stone?
"Why didn't he tell me about this," she paused and made air quotes. " 'Business' himself."

"Isn't it obvious? He wanted to protect you, keep you away from it: It's a dangerous life. You saw how he was murdered, the people have no regard for anybody. Even a helpless child."

Anger bubbled to life in Alcina. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means that he's was just another death. Sometimes I wonder why my father always spoke about vengeance."

Without need for a second thought, Alcina stood up and slapped him. She narrowed her eyes.
"Don't ever talk about my father's death like that," she said, struggling with her voice and the tears threatening to fall.

"Get out," Leonardo murmured, staring at the floor.

"I was leaving!" She turned and slammed the door behind her, grateful that Julian had waited because she wouldn't have traced her way back.

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Alcina sat in the room hours after that, wondering why she had slapped him.
He disrespected your father. An inner voice argued. A knock interrupted her thoughts. She opened the door to find Leonardo on the other side. Alcina raised a brow, wondering why he was there.

"Come on I want to show you something." He turned on his heels and walked away, not waiting for her.

Alcina hurriedly shut the door and followed him. Alcina shook her head at how arrogant he was; he had not even bothered to apologise.She tried to keep up with him but his strides were too long. All she had was a view of his broad shoulders. She imagined running her hands across it.

Focus, she scolded herself. He's taking you somewhere you don't know.

Eventually, he led her into a room, three tall shelves, all stacked with books from top op to bottom, stood opposite the door on all sides of the wall.

"What are we doing here?"

He ignored her and brought out a book from a drawer, scanning the pages as if looking for something.

Leonardo approached her, holding the book to her face.

"Do you know this man?"

Alcina studied Leonardo. How would she not know this man. The man in this picture Leonardo held out was the one who haunted her dreams every night. He was the man she would never forget,the one her heart begged vengeance against. The one who had killed the only family she had left.
The two men in the picture seemed to be at a social gathering of some sort,all dressed up in suits. The one on the left seemed older with white hair and wrinkles. The one on the right was younger and his face rough with a scar above his brow. She would never forget these two. They were the ones in her apartment 7 years ago.

"I'll  take your silence as a yes. This is the man who killed your father. The older one is his uncle, Piero Ricci. The younger one is Giovanni Ricci. This picture was taken during the handover ceremony of Piero to Giovanni. Piero died a few days later and I have reasons to believe that Giovanni had a hand in his death. Of recent he has been finding ways to bring down my empire and he's beginning to play dirty. His men attacked my men of recent." Leonardo kept constructing his sentences in a way that the young woman won't guess in any way how his 'empire' was run.

"So I'm requesting your help, since we both have a common enemy. He wants to overrun me and takeover the empire. He has  completely taken down two other competitors, the Lombardi's and the Ricca's. The more empire's he overruns,the stronger he gets. So will you help me?"

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