Chapter 3 - The Price of Treachery
The underground facility beneath the disused auto body shop in West Cicero smelled of old rust, damp concrete, and cold steel.
Tommy lay sprawling on the wet floor, his nose bleeding and his hands zip-tied tightly behind his back. He was twenty-five, wearing a grease-stained mechanics jacket, his eyes wild with fear as he stared up at the two suits standing near the heavy steel door.
"You guys don't know who I am!" Tommy yelled, his voice cracking with terror. "I got rights! You can't just kidnap me off the street! I was just getting my stuff from my ex-girlfriend's place!"
The heavy door creaked open.
Leo Castiglione walked into the room. He had removed his suit jacket, rolling the sleeves of his crisp white shirt up to his elbows. He wore black leather driving gloves. Behind him, Paulie carried a small velvet box.
Tommy recognized Leo instantly. Everyone on the West Side knew the face of Castiglione.
Tommy’s face drained of color. He scrambled backward until his spine hit the icy concrete wall. "M-Mr. Castiglione! Sir! Please! I didn't do anything to your business! I swear to God! I don't owe you money!"
Leo did not answer. He stepped over to a steel folding chair, opened it with a single hand, and sat down directly in front of Tommy. He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees.
"Tommy," Leo said softly. "You left a pregnant woman alone in a third-floor walk-up with seventy-four dollars in her bank account."
Tommy blinked, stunned. "Mia? You... you're doing all this for Mia? She's nobody! She's just a cashier! She got knocked up and—"
CRACK.
Leo didn't even stand up. His right fist lashed out like a striking viper, catching Tommy across the jaw. Tommy’s head snapped back, a fresh spray of blood spattering against the gray concrete.
"You will speak her name with respect," Leo said smoothly, adjusting the leather glove on his knuckles. "Or I will tear your tongue out with pliers."
Tommy sobbed, holding his swelling jaw, shaking like a leaf. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Look, man, if you want her, take her! She's yours! Just let me go! I won't ever look at her again!"
Leo took the small velvet box from Paulie, opened it, and looked at the tarnished silver locket inside.
"She cried tonight," Leo said quietly, looking at the jewelry. "She cried because she thought she had lost this. Her mother gave it to her before she died of cancer three years ago. And you were going to sell it to a pawnshop for fifty dollars to buy cheap cocaine."
"Please..." Tommy begged, tears streaming down his bloody cheeks. "Please don't kill me!"
"Kill you?" Leo smiled—a dark, terrifying expression that didn't reach his eyes. "Death is a gift for men who abandon their flesh and blood. You are going to live, Tommy. But you are going to pay."
Leo stood up, brushing an invisible speck of dust from his trousers.
"Paulie."
"Yes, Boss?"
"Mr. Tommy works at the auto shop on 14th Street. Contact his boss. Tommy has just volunteered to garnish eighty percent of his weekly wages for the next eighteen years. The money will be deposited into a private trust fund for Mia’s daughter. If he misses a single payment, or if he attempts to leave the state of Chicago..."
Leo turned his back, walking toward the door.
"...break both of his kneecaps and put him in a wheelchair for the rest of his life."
"Understood, Boss."
Leo walked out into the cold night air, peeling off his gloves and throwing them into a trash bin. He got back into the rear seat of his Maybach, where Declan handed him a warm, scented towel to clean his hands.
"Return to the penthouse," Leo commanded.
When Leo unlocked the door to his Gold Coast residence twenty minutes later, he found the living room lit only by the warm glow of the fireplace.
Mia was sitting near the glass window, wrapped in a plush robe, holding a cup of warm milk. She looked turned toward him as he walked in softly.
"You're back," she whispered.
Leo walked over, stopping a respectful distance away. He pulled the velvet box from his pocket and placed it on the small table beside her.
Mia looked down. When she saw the silver locket, a choked sob escaped her throat. She picked it up, pressing the cold metal against her heart.
"You got it," she wept softly. "How... how did you get it?"
"It was returned," Leo said gently, sitting on the edge of the sofa near her. "Tommy will not bother you again, Mia. He has left the city's affairs, and he will be contributing to your daughter’s college fund every month for the next eighteen years."
Mia looked at him, searching his dark, handsome face. She saw the absolute power, the lethal authority, but beneath it all, she saw a man who had gone to the ends of the earth to fetch a cheap silver locket just to stop her tears.
"Why are you doing this for me, Leo?" she asked softly. "Really?"
Leo reached out, his long fingers gently cupping her chin, lifting her gaze to his.
May you like
"Because for thirty-eight years, I believed that power was built on fear," Leo whispered. "And then I saw you standing in aisle 3, holding the weight of the world on your shoulders, still choosing to be kind. You showed me that real strength isn't muscle or guns, Mia. It's grace. And I will burn this entire city to the ground before I let anyone dim your light."
Mia leaned into his touch, closing her eyes as a sense of total, unbreakable safety washed over her for the first time in her life.
