Page 65 of Family Secrets

Chapter Twenty-Six

Gino held his breath as he took in Elizabeth’s battered face. He’d noticed the shattered glass in Sully’s car when he slipped through the side door, following the drops of blood around the corner before finding one of his men hiding behind a crate snorting crank.

“Evans?” Gino laughed. “What the fuck, Mario? You change your name?”

Gino hated the confused look in Elizabeth’s eyes, and as bad as he wanted to go to her and make sure she was okay, he had to end this.

Bending down, Gino gripped the back of Mario’s neck, twisting his head until he cried out in pain.

“The man you know as Evans is a two-bit thug by the name of Mario Mastone.”

Tipping his head toward Sully, “This asshole sent him to Kansas thinking I wouldn’t know what he was up to. But Sully forgets, unlike my father, I have eyes everywhere.” Gino slammed Mario's face into the concrete as the last few words left his mouth, the impact breaking his nose and shattering two teeth.

“You see, Elizabeth, Mario and Sully think they’ve kept a secret, one born long before any of us was a passing thought. In reality, this secret they kept, wasn’t a secret at all.”

Gino stood to his full height, taking two steps toward Elizabeth before Sully held up a cautious hand. “I wouldn’t.”

“You wouldn’t what, motherfucker? Haven’t you learned by now you’ll never be better than me? No matter how hard you try, I am always one step ahead of you.”

Sully jumped from his chair, the action sending it flying to the side, scraping Lisa in the process.

“Not this time, Giovanni!” Sully roared. “For years, I’ve sat back and watched you and Jonathan grow fat off the backs of others, while people like my mother are fed scraps from your table.”

“Well look at you, Saint Salvatore,”Gino mocked. “Defender of common whores and thieves.” Gino could tell by the way Sully’s eye twitched he’d hit a nerve, but he wasn’t finished, not by a long shot. “For the record, the only table Barbara ever knew was the one with a pole down the center. At least according to the papers filed with Child Protective Services when they took you from the back of the strip club she was arrested in, less than a week after you were born.”

“You lie!” Sully roared, his eyes filled with angry tears.

Keeping his eyes trained on Sully, Gino reached into the inside pocket of his jacket. “See for yourself.”

Taking the paper in hand, Sully’s attention dropped to the page.

“According to this report—"

“I can fucking read, Giovanni.” Sully interrupted, his voice low and menacing.

“And I wasn’t talking to you,” Gino returned, silently noting this was the second time he’d broken the rule of using his full name.

“As I was saying, Elizabeth,” Gino emphasized her name. “According to the report, Barbara Diane Lorenzo, was arrested on an outstanding warrant and found to be in possession of a controlled substance; a violation of her parole. As she was being hauled off to jail, she had the sense enough to tell the cops about the baby asleep in a car seat in the dressing room. According to the date on the report, this was during the year my parents spent together in Sicily. If you scan down the page, it further outlines how the social worker assigned to the case questioned Barbara about any family who could come and get the child, avoiding placing the baby in foster care. And what did Mommy Dearest share with authorities?”

Gino didn’t wait for Sully to answer, the thrill of exposing him for the liar he was consumed him. “The father of the baby: name, address, and phone number. Who, incidentally, reported to the police station less than an hour later with a copy of an application for a birth certificate in hand, listing Saul Mastone as the father, not Jonathan Vitale.”

“I found them fucking,” Sully began. “It was the weekend Jonathan took us to that concert at the Garden…” He trailed off, the memory as fresh in his mind as the night it happened. “I charged at him, thinking he was raping her, as all my mother ever talked about was Jonathan. They sat me down together, showed me proof Saul was my father and how he wanted my help getting back at the Vitale’s. The next day they introduced me to Mario, my half-brother.”

“Shut up, Sully!” Mario yelled from the floor, blood running down his chin, “You promised—"

Gino cut him off with a solid kick to his jaw, his body flailing back in a heap at Elizabeth’s feet, causing her to flinch. He’d need to do damage control with her, making sure she knew he’d never lay a hand on her.

“That’s when you learned about the pact my Uncle Johnny and Saul made. If a Vitale couldn’t have Nicole Gallo, Emilio Vittorio damn sure couldn’t either.”

Looking up from an unconscious Mario. “Johnny Vitale was a pussy!” Sully shouted, his voice echoing off the metal walls surrounding them. “He turned his back when things got heated.”

“He was fucking shot, Sully. That’s a hell of a lot different than turning coat on your Family, which is what Saul did.”

“Don’t say that about my father.”

“What? Can’t handle the fucking truth?” Gino challenged. “Saul Mastone put a hit out on Johnny, then paid the motherfucker who shot him in the back with Vitale money.”

“You can’t prove that.”

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