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Tommy Vercetti just stood there, listening; listening to the beating that was happening in the room adjacent to him; The screams of pain, the gross thud of Sonny Forelli's fancy dress shoes slamming into his victim's ribs. But what really got to him, what really made him want to scream, was Sonny Forelli's laughter. The bastard was laughing. This was bad. This was so bad. Tommy Vercetti just stood there, listening, biting down hard in some futile attempt to drive out the emotions that ran through his body. This was business. This was how it had to be. He needed to accept that and move on.
No.
This wasn't right. It wasn't fair.
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"You got caught!" Salvatore Leone yelled angrily as he slammed his large fist harshly down onto his mahogany desk, ruining the perfect organization of all of his every day things. His ash tray came off of the table and spilled over, and a jar containing various pens toppled onto its side. Nobody cared at this point.
"I'm sorry..." Tommy Spinelli muttered, "He just snuck up on me and-"
"Shut up. Shut up! I don't wanna hear it. You realize they know about me now? They know I was making a move against them! You know Nico, he won't stop until I'm in my grave now! There's probably going to be war now, all because your sorry ass can't do anything right." Salvatore's blood was boiling, his face was a flushed red by now.
"I don't think they know who I work for. They," Tommy paused for a moment, trying to gather the words and battle his humiliation at the same time, "they said to take the message back to whoever I work for. It sounded like they didn't know alright? I don't think they know."
"Stop your damn stuttering. Talk to me! Tell me what you saw, who you saw. Tell me damn it! Open your fucking mouth and actually have something useful come out." He was in one of his moods, obviously.
"Hey, calm down. Don't fucking get mad at me, ok? I did the best I could and that dopey fuck you hired to drive me took off like a moron. Yell at him!" Spinelli shot back defensively.
"I thought I told you to shut up! You're always talkin' but you never got nothin' to say! What's wrong with you?" Salvatore stood up and leaned over his desk. Fiercely he gripped Tommy's collar and pulled him closer.
Tommy gritted his teeth and tried to focus on other things to prevent himself from slamming Salvatore's head into his desk. Deep down inside, Salvatore didn't mean all this, and would probably feel bad about it later, but for now it was hell. He imagined pulling his gun out and shooting Salvatore in the chest right here in the guy's office. No, that wouldn't work. Spinelli would be shot before he got out the door, and besides, he didn't actually want to kill the man anyway. This guy was like a father to him, however temperamental he got at times.
"Don't you fucking dare look at me like that! You know what you did wrong, don't fucking blame me Tommy!" Salvatore's anger seemed to back off suddenly as he let Tommy go. Tommy fell backwards and plopped back into his seat, "You're right. I don't think they know who you work for. Valiant effort kid, it took some balls not to squeal. You coulda told 'em everything as soon as they held up those pliers, but no, you let em rip your fuckin' teeth out for me!"
Tommy was painfully reminded that for the rest of his life he would be deformed, nothing he could do about it. He wasn't about to wear any false teeth so he might as well get used to being made fun of. The stitches above his eye were peanuts compared to his teeth situation; so much so that the headaches were barely even felt.
Tommy was also not going to let Salvatore know that they had never even asked who he worked for in the first place. But that was okay, he didn't need to know. Whatever calmed Salvatore down was fine with him.
Sitting to the left side of Tommy, watching this entire conversation unfold, was Salvatore's cousin: Vinny Leone. The guy was in town for a few months, to help Salvatore out. A few of Salvatore's men had gotten into a gunfight with Mike Sindacco's men. Three of them were killed, so Salvatore was a little short handed. He had mentioned it on the phone to Vinny, and immediately he sprang into action. It was actually Vinny's idea, and Salvatore liked the fact that he was so eager. So here he was, sitting there, watching Salvatore's bizarre mood swings.
Plus, Vinny wanted a taste of the gritty underground life on the streets of Liberty. Vinny was always crazy, he liked action. He liked blood, he liked killing. For years he'd always read about the crime leaders in Liberty. Three main guys ran the Liberty City mafia. Mike Sindacco ran a lot of the drug racket; Salvatore Leone ran a lot of the protection rings and weapons trafficking. Sindacco and Leone were always fighting. Over what? Who knows? Most of the time the conflicts weren't more than little squabbles in the streets. However, there was also Pete Nico. He didn't attack anyone; he just focused completely on himself. He had several businesses set up around town, and did a lot of weapons dealing. Despite Nico's neutral outlook, if anyone messed with him he was one of the most deadly people ever to walk the earth. Tommy Spinelli's brutal incident was only the tip of the iceberg. Nico's reputation became completely solid when a local street gang attempted to rob some guns from one of his warehouses. Each and every member of the 'Rampers', as they were called, were made examples of. The cops only found two of them that were still whole, the rest were scattered around town in shoe boxes, garbage cans, and trash bags.
"Well, we're not giving up because you got pinched by his men once. We're too deep into this thing now. No, we're far from finished." Salvatore began, now completely calm, "Now everybody knows that he has a whole apartment building used just for making weapons. It's filled with his men. So we get a few guys, pull up in a car, shoot the hell outta the place and kill everyone inside. After that we take as many weapons as we can and scram."
Tommy contained his anger. Was Salvatore just blind? Was the guy going senile already, at the age of 40? Cissero had given Spinelli and the Leone organization the perfect opportunity to back off and end everything where it began. Salvatore could call off all aggression, reflect upon his own stupidity, and go back to doing whatever the hell he did. It bothered Tommy a lot that Salvatore kept saying 'we'. 'We' this, 'we' that. Salvatore never involved himself in these suicide missions; he had people do it for him. Sure, if the job was relatively fool proof, he loved to get involved. Spinelli didn't like being a lap dog.
"Look, I know you run things," Tommy paused for a moment to look at Salvatore smile slightly at this remark, "and I don't want to look like I'm trying put ideas in your head, but I really and truly think it would be a good idea to just stop. I got away alive, and Nico's guy let us off with a warning. If something goes wrong again, there's going to be a fucking war. Those shoot outs with Sindacco's guys? That's going to seem like an argument over who gets the last fucking cookie compared to what it's going to be like when we have Nico on our asses. Please boss, as a favor to me, to a friend, don't do this. Please?
Salvatore looked down at his desk for a few moments, as if in deep thought. He reached into one of the side drawers of his desk for a cigar, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath. As the cigar met his lips, he began rubbing his temples slightly, "Ok. You have a point, if we screw up then it's going to be hell for awhile. So I have another idea. We don't screw up. It'll be fine, foolproof even. Enough men and enough guns will fix any problems we run into."
Spinelli sighed deeply and shook his head a little. He gave in to Salvatore's ignorance for the time being. At least if he was killed, he wouldn't have to put up with being called a freak from now on because of his new dental records, "Whatever you say…" Tommy's voice trailed off momentarily, "…Boss."
Salvatore smiled happily as he looked up to face Tommy once again, "Great! I was beginning to think you were going soft on me kid. You're a good soldier; I wouldn't want that to happen. Vinny, this is a good thing to give you some practice. Ride with my main man over here to the joint tomorrow, help him out. I know how much you love machine guns.
Vinny's sleazy face lit up with excitement as he stood up from the leather chair he had been seated in. He bent down to shake his cousin's hand eagerly, "I'll look forward to it cuz. Not one of those bastards will get away alive. I can guarantee that much." Vinny looked over at Tommy, "I think this is the start of a beautiful friendship, how's that sound?"
"Yeah, go fuck yourself." Tommy muttered under his breath. However, he suddenly remembered something he considered important, "Sal, I almost forgot. That bullshit driver you sent with me? I called him down here. He's due to get here soon. When he does, I'd consider it compensation for the teeth if you did something about him. I don't appreciate a coward like that working with us."
"For you kid? Consider it done! I can't have people like that putting guys I can use in danger! Hey, I'll talk to you kid… Good luck." Salvatore's mood was one hundred percent tranquil by now. This was just yet another perfect example of the two extremes of one's mind. Maybe the bastard was just crazy… Who knew?
"I'll see you tomorrow." Tommy said to Vinny as he stood up and exited the door to Salvatore's office.
As he turned and left the room he slammed the door behind him. Startling the two Leones who didn't seem to understand that signing one's own death warrant ran in the family. They were happy as two pigs in shit. Salvatore turned to his cousin and chuckled a little.
"I swear that boy's too high strung."
Just to let you guys know, some of the chapters are not in chronological order. To avoid confusion, I placed the order of events in front of the chapter named. For instance, chapter one has a two in front of it saying that it takes place after chapter 2.
Ok, reviews please! I realize the first three chapters and probably the fourth probably aren't great… But they will get better. It's a lot harder to rewrite chapters and make them good than it is to write something completely knew. I'm looking forward to continuing this story during my summer break. Maybe I should get a life…
Nah…
