Chapter 1
“No, please”, he whispered through the mask that covered his face.
Blood had already begun to drip down onto his white shirt. As Mirella looked on, Big Tony hit him again, screaming in his face, “Where is he?”
“Please, sir,” the man said in obvious agony. Big Tony had picked him up right outside the city.
Mirella knew the man was lying. He knew exactly who kidnapped her son. “Alright Tony, let me try,” Mirella stood up and pushed a lock of blond hair back from her face. She was getting tired of this, and they were getting nowhere.
Mirella slowly pulled the mask away from Ben’s face. “Now I am only going to ask you this one time Ben and then if I don’t get the answer I want, Big Tony will do whatever he wants to you,” Mirella said.
Big Tony cracked his knuckles and snarled at Ben. “Where is my son?” Mirella asked, looking intently into Ben’s eyes. His expression softened as he looked into Mirella’s deep green eyes.
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Her husband Joey “The Tuna” Deluco had spent years trying to capture her attention before Mirella finally agreed to go out with him. Her days of being on the runway had ended years earlier. After marrying Joey, Mirella became a mob wife. Her gangster husband was the boss of the crime family Deluco and as the wife of a gangster,
Mirella had quickly learned what that meant. With her husband in prison currently, it was up to Mirella to take over the family business. Their beautiful baby boy had been kidnapped, he must be so scared without his mama, Mirella thought as she pictured her chubby little dark haired three-year-old Joey junior. Everyone called him Joe Joe. His pudgy little hands and legs, his round cheeks all rosy pink when he got upset, screaming for his mama.
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Mirella had taken him into the store to get him a new outfit for Friday when she would take him to visit Joey at the prison. She was looking through the clothes on the rack, and he was hiding underneath, playing a game. She remembered his cute laugh as he would giggle each time she found him. Then he stopped giggling as she looked under other clothes racks. “Joe Joe,” Mirella had called louder and louder, getting more and more upset and frantic.
She frantically searched through the other areas of the store, getting assistance from several other workers. The manager then came out in a panic saying a man in a black hooded sweatshirt, jeans and a black mask covering his face was seen on the security camera with the boy covering his face to stop him from screaming.
“Where did they go?” Mirella had asked frantically, grabbing the manager by the front collar of his shirt. He gasped for air and pointed towards the back door. Mirella had run out the back door into the alley, reaching into her Prada bag she quickly grabbed her cell phone and called Big Tony as she ran down the alley.
“I’ll meet you on the corner, we will find him,” said Big Tony as he hung up.
Mirella saw a sleek black car at the end of the alley, turning to the right at the corner as Big Tony stopped in a black Escalade. Mirella ran towards the Escalade, screaming, “THAT’S THE CAR.”
Mirella jumped into the SUV and Big Tony took off after the black car.
At this point Mirella started to cry, and Big Tony said “don’t worry ma’am we will get him.” Big Tony continued to follow the car as it swerved in and out of traffic, turning right and left quickly at various corners.
The car was getting further and further ahead of them as they continued to try and catch up. Eventually, as Big Tony reached an intersection, they had lost sight of the car as a big semi pulled out in front of them. Mirella screamed a terrible cry as she realized her little boy had been kidnapped. She immediately called Lucas, he worked at the prison as a guard and would get a message to Joey about their son.
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As Mirella looked into Ben’s eyes, she pleaded with him to tell her where her son was and who had done this to her family.
“Ben, you’re a father, you have two beautiful girls and a boy. How would your wife feel if those children were missing?” Mirella said sadly as she wiped a tear that escaped and rolled down her cheek.
“You know who took him. With Joey locked up the Anderro Family knows you’re in charge and that the easiest way to break a mother is through her children,” Ben said.
“Do you know where they are keeping him? Ben, you know you’re like a little brother to me since we went to school together. Please don’t do this to me,” Mirella said as she laid a hand on Ben’s shoulder.
Big Tony growled as he looked at Mirella touching Ben. “Calm down, big guy. You know, Ben and I go back to preschool together,” Mirella said as she looked at Big Tony.
“Hmmmph,” Big Tony snarled at Ben.
Big Tony had a soft spot for Mirella, he had been thrilled when Joey had asked him to be her bodyguard.
Ben smiled even though his eye was black, and he was now missing a tooth in the front. Blood dripped down from his lip that had a large gash on the bottom from punches Big Tony had continually thrown. Big Tony had picked him up out in front of the convenience store where Ben had stopped for some milk for his children.
As soon as Ben didn’t tell him immediately where Joe Joe was, Big Tony had stopped listening and started punching and then threw him in the back of the SUV after Ben had passed out cold. Driving him to the house, Big Tony had smiled, knowing that Mirella would be pleased with him finding someone from the Anderro Family.
As Mirella touched Ben’s shoulder, he told her, “Mirella, I heard that Frankie “Fab” Leonetti was ordered by the Anderro Family to grab the boy and bring him up to the Anderro cabin that they keep up in the Adirondacks upstate.”
Mirella nodded and asked, “do you know where it is?”
Ben nodded slowly as he looked down at the blood dripping onto his shirt.
“All right, let’s get you cleaned up,” Mirella said and looked at Big Tony.
“Yes, ma’am,” Big Tony said, grabbing Ben by the arm and lifting him up out of the chair he had been sitting upon.
“Easy man,” Ben said as he groaned in pain.
“I’m sorry about Big Tony, sometimes he gets a bit carried away. Especially when it comes to me and my little guy,” Mirella said, smiling at Big Tony.
He smiled back and then turned to Ben and said, “yeah, sorry man.” Ben nodded as Big Tony escorted him towards a bathroom to change and clean up.
