A New Life
Empire Bay September 26th 1951
Vito's P.O.V
All my life, I always wanted to be a "somebody". Not like my father; a warf rat. Someone with bigger balls and more ambition to get what he wanted without having to beg. In the end I ended up getting all of that: women, cars, money, respect, but it all came back to bite me in the ass. After that fiasco in Chinatown that Joe and I were a part of, we both have had to live our lives in fear. Not to mention the both of us were almost killed by Frank Vinci's people. Joe and I ended up turning on our own boss just to be free from the violence and redeem ourselves of past sins. I was given a second chance by my good friend Leo Galante. "I" was given a second chance, but Joe was not so lucky.
The rain had stopped at that moment when Leo's limo had taken me away from the observatory where Carlo Falcone's dead corpse now remained with the rest of his legacy. I look behind me only to find that the separate car Joe was traveling in had take a sudden left turn into a hidden street.
"Hey! Hey! What's going on? Where are they taking Joe?" All I could see was Pepe's stern face and Leo staring down at his lap with a look of disappointment on his face.
"Sorry Kid. But Joe wasn't part of our deal." Leo said to me, hoping I wouldn't take personal.
I did take it personal. Joe was my friend; I grew up with him he helped me get to where I was today. I wouldn't have become a "somebody" if not for him. Me and Joe had stuck together, through thick and thin, good times and bad. I just stared front and center contemplating what I was going to do now. This was my chance to become part of a family (a new family) again. But I couldn't abandon my friends, especially not Joe. I kept thinking of what Carlo had taught "there are no friends in this business". This was something I had to accept.
"No!" I muttered allowed.
"What was that Vito?" asked Leo calmly.
I saw my opening and went for it. In one swift motion I planted the flat of my foot right into Pepe's face, then immediately grabbed his pistol. I shot Pepe, at point blank in the head and shot the bodyguard next to him. I finally turned the gun on Leo, but before I could pull the trigger Leo grabbed hold of my wrist and tried to fight the gun out of my hand. We went at it for a few minutes until Leo jerked the gun towards the driver seat, causing me to discharge the weapon. The bullet passed through the drivers head and caused him to lose control of the wheel. The limo plowed into the nearest tree with a loud crash. Both Leo and I knocked our heads against the driver seat from the motion. Leo snapped out of it quicker then I did and tried to make a run for it before I came to. I grabbed my gun and chased after Leo. A loud gunshot made itself heard, as the projectile ejected from my gun and clipped Leo behind the knee cap, disabling him completely. Leo let out a loud yelp and tried to crawl away as I approached him.
"Vito, think about what you're doing. You have another chance to make things right. To be a "somebody", part of a real family." Leo said to me.
"Joe, My mother, my father, Franky…They were my real family." I responded.
"FUCK THEM VITO. WE'RE YOUR REAL FAMILY NOW! DO YOU REMEMBER WHAT I DID FOR YOU? IF IT WASN'T FOR ME YOU WOULD HAVE ROTTED IN THE CAN! YOU WOULD HAVE BEEN JUST ANOTHER LOW LEVEL PUNK WORKING FOR CLEMENTE OR A WARF RAT LIKE YOU DEAD BEET FATHER!" That entire speech was enough to ignite a flame of rage with in my stomach that was so strong that I had every mind to pull the trigger. I missed though. I wanted Leo to suffer more.
"YOU SHUT THE FUCK UP ABOUT MY FATHER! YOU DON'T KNOW HIM THE WAY I DO. PUNKS LIKE YOU HAD HIM KILLED. IT WAS ACTUALLY DEREK, A GUY FROM YOUR CREW THAT KILLED HIM! I have a gun pointing in your direction and I missed on purpose. And you still have balls big enough to tell me TO MY FACE, that my father is a dead beet." I exclaimed back to him.
"If you kill me Vito, Frank Vinci will come at you with everything he's got. There won't be one place you can sit down to take a shit without one of our guys breathing down your neck." Leo warned. I stared at him for what felt like hours. I just kept giving one of my closest friends, whom I have, a life debt to, a cold emotionless stare. Suddenly I a small satisfied grin crossed my face and I gave Leo my final words.
"That's a risk I'll have to take." One final gunshot echoed from my pistol and Leo was finally dead. I stood there and stared at the dead corpse in front of me feeling satisfied. Suddenly something donned on me. Joe! I quickly ran to the limo and fixed the engine. I started the limo and turned it around and followed the same road the other car took carrying Joe. This road brought me to that clearing Eddie Scarpa showed us near the observatory, where we buried Franky Potts. My car came to a screeching halt when I noticed that Joe was hand cuffed and bound at the legs. Leo's men were furiously beating him with wooden baseball bats. I quickly jumped out of the driver seat, gun in hand, and started shooting. I managed to eliminate all of Leo's guards and untie Joe.
"Glah, thanks Vito." He said tiredly and coughing up blood. I quickly brought him to El Greco to patch him up. He was surprised to see us both back so soon, but was always willing to help. After that Joe and I returned to his apartment to think of how the hell we were going to get out of this.
"Shit Vito. What are we going to do now? Vinci's guys are going to want us dead, the tongs are going to want us dead, and on top of that, when word gets back to Eddie that we killed Carlo he'll want us dead too." Joe explained.
"We really don't have a choice Joe. We'll have to skip town for a while, maybe even forever. It's only a matter of time before everyone comes after us. But where the hell are we going to go." I responded.
"Wait! I know the perfect place we can go. Las Vegas. None of the bosses here in Empire Bay can get us there. It's a city run by another family called the Chicago outfit. I know one of the guys that's in that family. Willy "The Weasel" Cipriano." He explained.
"Joe I don't want to get involved in any more families, it has gotten both of us into enough trouble as is. We want to leave town to stay out of trouble not get into more." I responded.
"Really, and what do expect us to do for money down there wise guy…huh! Clean fucking toilets. Willy's like a father to me. He raised me and made me the man I am today. I never had a father like you did Vito and he looked out for me. Don't worry; I know Willy very well, almost longer then I've known you. He wouldn't try to fuck us over like that. Just give it a chance." I didn't answer Joe, I just stared at him.
"Think about it Vito, there is much more we can do now. We're not qualified to run our own lives let alone any real paying jobs. Willy has his hands on some real good money making rackets. You want to start a new life then this is the way we have to do it." He added.
I thought long and hard about what Joe said and about what "the life" has given me so far. I didn't want to go back to living in fear and looking over my shoulder, not knowing when my time would be up. The war was like that for me and I don't want to live it again. But Joe was right. I don't have any other skills for a real job, this was all I knew. So I responded.
"Yeah, let's do it." Me and Joe shook hands and like that our new lives were about to begin.