Downtown

Eighteen

After the FBI visited my house last week, I've been extra cautious and extremely paranoid. How did they know I knew Enzo? And what did the want from me? Or what do they want with Enzo? I know he's a Mafia man but I thought they never got caught by the FBI. Now we're fucked. I wasn't going to tell them anything, I loved Enzo, even though I've been trying not to. But there was no way I would rat on him to the FBI, even if we can never be together. And I don't even know anything. He never told me nothing, so why are they asking me?

It was a Tuesday, and I was doing the night shift for the first time at the restaurant. I went in just after 3 and would be there until 10, with a dinner break around 6 of course. When most of the customers had begun to leave, some men who I sometimes see pop in to talk to my boss, arrived in black suits and sat together in the back booth. My boss was quick to go over there and start to talk to them. I was eager to know who they are and why there so important. But I didn't want to get in trouble, I was lucky to have this job and I wasn't going to throw it away. I carried on serving my other tables. Occasionally looking over in their direction.

My eyes locked with a familiar looking man, in his early 40s I swear I've seen him before. Then I realised I saw him before in a newspaper, Bobby Hernandez. The nephew of Francesco Hernandez, the 3rd crime family in New York, the least powerful. When the other two most powerful families would fight for riches, the Hernandez would back out and take no sides. They were basically Switzerland. They were feared like the other two, but were know as the nicer family and one who held the least amount of power over New York. After his father died Bobby, his uncle took him in and now he works for the family and is his second man in command. He held onto our eye contact for way to long as I quickly turned away, as I focused on every table but theirs.

As I served by other tables, I could feel eyes on me and I knew it was Bobby. Continuing to keep my head down, I cleaned my tables and checked the time. It was just past 9:50 I still had 10 minutes left of my shift, not too long. I waited behind the bar as there was no one left other than the Hernandez table. My boss was waiting on them and he turned to see me standing behind the bar, with nothing to do. He gave me a warming smile, he was probably one of the best men I've ever met. And a good example of what a men should really be like.

"Viola didn't know you were still here," My boss Tony said, well my shifts till 10.
"Yes I'm here till 10 tonight," I said.
"Ok well you can go early now dear. See you tomorrow morning," My boss said. I could tell he was trying to get me to leave.
"Yeah see you tomorrow morning," I said. And with that I left. I took one more look at Bobby who's eyes were burning through me. I gave him a little smile but he only stared back, rude. Oh god not another mob bosses relative who's shown me some attention. Enzo was enough for me.

I was feeling cautious since my FBI visit, I looked outside my apartment seeing if there were any new cars parked. Luckily they wasn't, so I went up to my lonely apartment all by myself. When I got to my door, I found a newspaper outside my apartment. The main title read 'FBI promises to crack down on organised crime, to save New York.' This was interesting. And I never had newspapers delivered to my house. As I picked it up, a small note was put in between the pages. It read, 'I know you can do the right thing. Please tell us what you know Viola. Anything can help. From Rosio and Scott.'

What did they want? I already lied to them, but they didn't know that, saying there was nothing I knew. And it was true, I didn't know anything personal about Enzo let alone what was going on with his crime family. The one thing that creeped me out the most was how did they know I was seeing him, and how did they know my new address? I just thought as they were FBI they could get any information so that's how they found my home. But how did they know about me and Enzo? Was there someone in the house telling them all this? That was the one thing on my mind when I feel asleep that night.

Somewhere in Queens
Tony and some of the soldiers from the Hernandez crime family, were coming in close to an deserted factory outside Queens as I was sleeping. They just happened to be outside one of the Ferragno's factories that made guns and ammunition. You see, the Hernandez family were pretty pissed as the Ferragno family was pushing them around like they were pussies. And hadn't paid up the Hernandez's half on what the factories had paid. Francesco tried to reason with Alessandro but he just kept putting it off. So to show they meant business, Tony had gathered a couple of guys on bosses command to blow up the factory. And it was Tony who blew it up, and he was so happy once the factory went up in flames. You might be asking, won't the Hernandez lose money? No they'll be fine, weapons were only there side business and Francesco was more involved in buildings and restaurants. As the factory burnt to the ground, it showed what was about to happen to New York.