Total pages in book: 25
Estimated words: 23226 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 116(@200wpm)___ 93(@250wpm)___ 77(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 23226 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 116(@200wpm)___ 93(@250wpm)___ 77(@300wpm)
Mateo rubbed his temples. “Do you know if any of the other capos are involved?”
“None, but before he died, he said you and your little family of nobodies were going to suffer. I don’t know what the fuck that is, but he said someone close to you was going to poison you. Your wife and your new kid.”
Mateo thought about his wife and that she had been sick.
“How?” Mateo asked.
“I don’t know how. I wasn’t able to get who it was either,” Luca said.
“Thank you,” Mateo said, and he hung up his cell phone.
Someone was at home, potentially harming him and his wife. Someone who could give them poison. There was only one other person who would be able to poison him and his family.
Climbing into his car, he dialed Ella’s number and hoped she hadn’t eaten anything.
****
Ella put the cell phone down and looked over at Terry. She couldn’t quite believe what she had just heard.
They were in the sitting room as they colored in one of the many coloring books Mateo had brought for her. Ella hadn’t realized how much she had enjoyed the simple process of coloring, but it was rather therapeutic. Only right now, she felt a little afraid. That fear traveled down her spine as she reached out and tucked some of Terry’s hair behind her ear.
What the hell was she supposed to do? Mateo had told her to not leave the sitting room. He believed Lewis would attempt to kill them all, and was worried he might have put some kind of poison in their food.
Ella knew she had been getting sick in the morning, and she figured it was because she might be pregnant. With Terry and the life she was building with Mateo, she hadn’t really kept an eye on her menstrual cycle. She hadn’t had one since she had married Mateo.
“Are you okay?” Terry asked.
She forced a smile to her lips. “Yeah, honey. I am okay.”
When the knock came on the sitting room door, she closed her eyes for the briefest of seconds. This was not what she wanted.
“Come in,” she said.
Mateo told her to stay in the sitting room. To not go and seek out Lewis, and that he would be home when he could. This was not good.
Lewis stepped into the sitting room. She had laughed with this man and enjoyed his company. She had even considered him a friend, and she couldn’t believe Mateo thought he was going to kill them.
“Hello, Ella, and little Terry,” he said.
She looked at him and wondered if it was true. Would this man poison them?
“Hi, Lewis,” she said.
“Dinner is nearly ready. Do you know when Mateo is going to arrive home? I cannot seem to get him on the phone.”
Ella looked down at her cell phone, and smiled. “He said he shouldn’t be much longer.”
That wasn’t exactly a lie. She couldn’t believe this was happening.
“Do you want to come through for dinner?” he asked.
Her heart raced. She felt so sick and glanced down to look at Terry. The young girl had her hands covered in crayon from the hours spent coloring.
“Honey, why don’t you go upstairs to your room and get cleaned up?” She pulled Terry in for a hug. She was tempted to whisper words to keep her in her room, but instead hugged her tightly. Terry ran out of the room, and then Ella got to her feet.
“Are you all right?” Lewis asked. “You look a little shaken?”
“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine.” She offered him a smile. “Dinner, you say?”
“Yes, I’ve also made one of your favorites. Chicken parmesan.”
Ella didn’t know what to do, so she took her time cleaning up the coloring books, along with the crayons. Glancing around the room, she couldn’t help but look for a weapon, but there wasn’t one. Not one she could use without him getting suspicious. All she could do was wait for her husband and hope she didn’t show Lewis how afraid she actually was.
Turning toward Lewis, she offered him a smile, and she just couldn’t believe he was going to attempt to kill her, Mateo, and Terry. He’d been great with Terry. They had even baked cookies together, so they could place them in random jars. It just didn’t make any sense to her that he suddenly wanted to kill them.
“What’s wrong?” Lewis asked.
Ella didn’t get a chance to answer as he suddenly tensed up, his eyes going wide, and then fell to the ground. She pressed her hands against her face and looked into the eyes of Steven.
The guard had thrust a knife into Lewis’s back. At first, she thought Steven had come to help, but then he held a gun aimed right at her.
“Where’s the brat?” Steven asked.
“It’s you?”
He shrugged.
“Why?”
“Simple, I was given an opportunity to make my life and my family’s life, better. You think I’m going to sit around and not take it? I’m not fucking stupid.” And then he held up the gun. “Where’s the brat?”