In a Stranger's Eyes

"And now so have I," yelled Marco cutting his Uncle off, "I get to walk away, and as a bonus, I get to take the one thing that Don Luigi truly loves away from him the same way he took my Dad away from me."

Marco walked closer his face turning grim and angry, "I will make this quick for you, Princess. It's more than you deserve."

"No Marco!" cried Lenny and he lept at his nephew.

Lenny's bad legged slowed his movement, and Marco was able to dodge aside striking his Uncle across the neck with the butt of his gun sending him sprawling to the ground.

"Nice try, Uncle."

He turned back to finish what he started and got hit right in the face by a steel frying pan.

"Eat shit you prick!" shouted Grace.

The blow busted Marco's nose, but he recovered with the reflexes of a born killer. His fist came around catching Grace on the jaw, and she flew backward crashing into the wooden breakfast table and rolling off to one side onto her hands and knees. She tried to rise, but Marco was on her before she could pull herself together. He yanked her to her feet and drove his fist into her face a second time sending her into the kitchen counter.

Grace dropped to the floor unconscious.

"Jesus! You broke my fucking nose!" yelled Marco to her unmoving body.

He turned to finish things with his Uncle first and stopped.

Where his Uncle had fallen there was nothing but an empty floor, and a thin trail of blood leading to the front door.

"Son of a bitch! Is nothing ever easy?" said Marco to himself.

He knew he couldn't afford to let his Uncle escape. If word got out that he was still alive, Don Luigi would never stop looking for him, and he didn't relish the idea of spending the rest of his life on the run.

"Sleep tight little bitch. I'll be right back."

Marco knew he didn't need to worry about their rental car. He had sabotaged it before coming into the cabin.

The woods were quiet, already gone back to sleep after the roaring gun battle had ended. Marco followed his Uncle's blood trail stepping around the large roots and broken limbs that littered the path in front of him. He spotted Lenny even sooner than he had imagined he would.

"That leg must hurt like hell, huh, Uncle Lenny?" called Marco.

His Uncle was sprawled with his back to an oak tree. The hood of his camouflage jacket had fallen over his head, and blood stained his pants.

"I'm sorry it had to go this way. I thought about bringing you in on it, but I know you too well, Uncle. You would never have gone against Don Luigi."

Marco stopped in front of his Uncle placing the barrel of his gun against the hood.

"Remember what we talked about in the car? I wonder what kind of look a killer like you will get in his eyes at the end?"

He pushed back the hood and found himself staring into the dead eyes of Jimmie Calivari.

A cold steel barrel suddenly pressed to the back of Marco Lucchesi's neck.

"Misdirection, Kid. You forgot the first lesson. Drop the gun!"

Marco dropped his weapon on the ground and raised his hands.

"I saw you burn up in that car."

"You saw Tommy Abalone. We needed a body, and the Calivari weren't keen on splitting the money five ways anyway. If they had done their job and killed you at the hotel none of this would have happened. They got too cocky, thought the car bomb would either kill you with shrapnel or at least leave you too dazed to fight. I could have told them you wouldn't die that easy."

"It was a good plan. You needed better partners."

"I'm glad you approve. I was always keen on making you proud."

"Turn around Marco."

Lenny stood in front of his nephew sighting down the barrel of his pistol that still had leaves clinging to the butt after he had fished it out of the underbrush.

"So this is how it ends? I thought you valued family above everything else, Uncle Lenny?"

"There is one thing I value more..."

"Yeah? What's that, Uncle?"

"Loyalty Mother Fucker!" snapped Lenny and he pulled the trigger.

Grace came too slowly, rubbing at her jaw. Then she looked frantically around the cabin before spotting Lenny sitting on the floor with his back to the kitchen wall.

"Now look whose sleeping late," croaked Lenny.

"Marco?" she asked.

Lenny shook his head.

"I'm so sorry, Lenny."

"So am I..."

"We should get the hell out of here. That Tommy whats his nuts may still be around," said Grace.

"He isn't. The Calivari used him to fake Marco's death."

"Still, we can't stay here."

"You can't. Take the car and go. Find your way back to your father, Grace. I'm...I'm done."

"I don't understand? What do you mean done?"

"Marco was right about one thing. We can never leave this life, and I'm tired of making the hard decisions. I looked my nephew in the eyes today and took his life. That's one of a hundred sins I can never atone for, and even if I wanted to Don Luigi would never let me. So...Yeah...I'm done."

Lenny looked at the pistol that sat in his lap running his hands across the metal.

"No!" said Grace.

"Grace...Don't make this harder for me than it already is..."

She reached over and put her hand on top of Lenny's looking deep into his eyes.

"I have a better idea, Lenny."

"Yeah?" he said.

"Yeah, Lenny. It's called misdirection."

"I don't understand."

"It's time for me to call the shots, Lenny. Just do what I say."

In the end, Grace had to do most of the work. Lenny's leg was too messed up for him to be of much help, so she had to lug the bodies back placing them inside the cabin. The gasoline she got by siphoning it from the Calivari brothers car.

"Do you want to do the honors?" she asked Lenny.

He took the book of matches from her lighting the whole thing from a single match and tossing it through the front door of the cabin. The fire spread quickly through the structure.

"Rest in peace, Marco," whispered Lenny.

"You don't hold a grudge?"

"I should have seen this coming. I'm paid to read people and know what their thinking before they do. I missed what was going on with Marco. He deserved better from me."

"It's hard to see the danger when it comes from someone you love."

"I guess," said Lenny without conviction.

"Can you fix the car?

"I already did. Marco sabotaged it exactly as I taught him too. It was an easy fix."

"Then we should go before the Park Rangers show up. I know a discreet doctor in the city that can patch you up."

Lenny stood a moment longer watching the old cabin burn. The flames were taking everything he had ever cared about with them, but he figured it was no less than he deserved.

WELCOME HOME -

Don Luigi looked down at the papers littering his desk rubbing his chin in thought. The latest peace proposal from Monzano wasn't a bad deal, and it would save bloodshed on both sides. In the end, avoiding war was in everyone's interest.

"Everything o.k. Papa?" asked Grace as she walked into the room.

"Sure. I should be asking you that question?" he said eying the healing bruises on his daughter's face.

"These are nothing," she said touching one discolored spot of skin, "Some men made a greater sacrifice than suffering a few bruises."

"Yes...Poor Lenny and Marco! They were good men. Carmine tells me that the cabin you two hold up in was burned to the ground. The corpses were so consumed there wasn't enough left to bury in a shoe box. A terrible way to die."

"It was the only way. He bought me time to escape."

"Must have been a hell of a fight...holding off all those gangsters. I mean I know Lenny was lucky, but..."

"As you say, he was a good man. I think he wanted to take as many of them with him as he could. To avenge Marco..."

"I imagine so. Family is everything after all."

"It is indeed. I need to rest Papa. Don't work yourself too hard o.k.?"

She kissed him on the cheek and walked out of the study.

Don Luigi watched his daughter walk away then turned his attention back to the matters at hand.

EPILOGUE (Six months later) -

Steve Bridgeman had been tending bar at the Red Orchid for three summers now. The tourist crowd was thick down in The Keys at this time of year, and a starving student could make some serious cash if he were willing to put up with a certain amount of crap from the often rude and impatient customers. There was one regular he didn't mind, a soft-spoken Italian man who came in late every afternoon and took a stool at the end of the bar.

He never ordered alcohol just water, or occasionally a soda.

This fellow would sit and stare out the window at the ocean with a blissful expression as if he had never seen anything like it in his whole life. Steve wondered at times what had brought him here, and what he did when he wasn't perched at the end of the bar.

He had asked him once, but the man had only replied, "I'm retired."

Since the guy looked far too young to be retired, he figured he must be some prominent entrepreneur who had sold his company for mega-bucks and now could lay back and enjoy the good life.

Steve polished some glasses and mused for a bit about his customer then smiled at the irony when he spotted the subject of his thoughts walking down the beach toward the tourist cabanas.

The door to cabana 1C opened, and Lenny Lucchesi stepped inside shutting out the hot, muggy air of the beach with a flick of his wrist.

Six months on the sand had managed to tan even his pale skin, and he was starting to look a bit more like the woman who waited patiently for him in bed.

"How was your flight?" he asked.

"Bumpy," said Grace Riccoli.

"I'm glad to see you've made yourself at home."

She had left her clothing piled in a corner while she lounged naked in the middle of the bed.

"Can I get you anything? A glass of wine? Some body oil?"

"How about some music?"

Lenny smiled and went over to clock radio where he had his MP3 player plugged in. He tapped a button on the side, and a second later the sounds of Bobby Darin crooning, "Beyond the Sea," filled the room.

"Perfect..." purred Grace.

"Anything else?"

"Only for you to get in this bed, and fuck me."

"Sounds good to me," laughed Lenny stripping off his clothes.

He slid between Grace's legs and their bodies joined together crashing into each other like the waves that were breaking on the beach outside their window.

"I missed you," said Grace.

"I right here, Baby, and I'm not going anywhere."