Liam crossed himself as well. His effort was done in a far more absent manner than his wife. Slowly, he moved to where his brothers held one of his dearest friends between them. Bending, he looked into the man’s bloody, swollen face.
“Tone? It’s Li. What happened, paesano?” Liam kept his voice soft, knowing his friend could tell him nothing. “Get him to the couch,” he murmured.
Giaimo and Mica followed Liam to the living room.
“I’ll get some things to clean the wounds,” Athena snapped from her daze by the time the men had settled Tonelo.
“Who did this?” Liam asked, never looking away from Tonelo.
“We saw two running off,” Giaimo spoke up, “one blonde, the other with reddish brown hair- both white.”
“Americans,” Liam breathed, using Nandi’s preferred term for anyone who wasn’t them.
“How do you want to handle this?” Giaimo asked when Athena returned with the gauze and antiseptic for Tonelo’s injuries.
“We’ll treat him here. Take him to the hospital if need be,” Liam decided.
“And the cowards who did this?” Giaimo pressed. “What about them?”
Liam sliced his older brother with a look. “This is about making sure Tone’s alright, not revenge.”
“You’d let the men who did this get away?” Mica’s voice carried disbelief.
“We don’t know who did this. Am I right?” Liam posed the question to Giaimo.
Giaimo’s big frame bristled. “It is.”
Liam gave a blunt nod. “Well then.”
“Is it safe to say we know enough to wisely assume who may’ve been hanging around the factory to cause trouble?” Giaimo asked.
“Could still be anyone,” Liam didn’t give his brother the benefit of eye contact. “I won’t unleash retribution on a group of people for the sake of drawing out two. There are others ways to handle it.”
“How?” Disbelief took shape on Giaimo’s face then.
“We’ll wait to see what Tone can tell us. Perhaps he saw their faces.”
“And then what, Li?” Giaimo appeared to be fuming then. “Do you plan on taking a drawing of the culprits to the police?” he retreated a step, shaking his head when Liam’s expression confirmed that very thing.
“It’s time to stop romanticizing this place, Li,” Giaimo’s tone was quiet, advising. “I understand. We all did the same when we first got here. I think even Emilio still believes it’s got some redeeming qualities. Opportunities abound here, Li, but don’t look for much justice.”
“So I’m to believe you’ll get it for me, Gia?”
“Yes.”
“Justice or revenge?” Liam challenged his brother’s oath.
Giaimo’s shoulder rose in a lazy shrug. “What difference does the word make? The result will be the same.”
“At what cost?”
Giaimo shook his head again. A grim element slid in alongside his disbelief. “I don’t know why I’m surprised. The fact that you didn’t care enough to join us to avenge Papa and Ma should tell me everything I need to know about you.”
“What does it tell you, Gia? That I’m smart enough to know when I don’t have all the facts?”
There was a moan from the couch. Everyone looked to Tonelo as if just remembering he was there. Athena murmured a prayer and went to kneel beside the sofa to start administering to his injuries. Tonelo moaned louder when she pressed an antiseptic-dampened pad to a nasty cut on his cheek. He lost consciousness shortly after.
Giaimo breathed a curse, his hand drawing into a fist. “Is this the sort of protection your men can count on you to provide, Li?”
“And is your form of protection going after innocents in hopes of rooting out the guilty few?” Liam threw back.
“None of them are innocent, Li,” Mica put in.
“Is that how you justify what you did to all the people you cut through to find Papa’s and Ma’s killers?”
“Don’t measure your cowardice against our bravery, Li,” Giaimo seethed.
Liam was undaunted. “I wouldn’t expect you to see my point another way, Gia. You, who confuse bravery with savagery.”
Mica moved between his brothers as if sensing the rising fury and the potentially catastrophic results. “We should leave, Gia,” he turned to Liam. “Hear us out, at least, Li. Emilio would like to discuss a partnership of sorts. It wouldn’t involve the mass murder of all your competitors, but they’d think twice before attempting to undermine your business again.”
“They could undermine my business in all sorts of ways, Mica.” Liam looked pointedly to Giaimo. “And they aren’t the only ones.”
The words had Giaimo bounding across the room toward Liam. Mica attempted to retrain the much larger man with little success. He planted both hands to Giaimo’s heaving chest. His shoe soles wrinkled the rug as it rolled beneath his weight while Giaimo forced him backward.
“Goddammit Gia! Remember where we are!” Mica snarled.
The murderous glint in Giaimo’s jade gaze softened when he looked to Athena who had turned from tending Tonelo to take in the scene.
