Marcus, four years ago…
He waited for nearly twelve hours before showing back up at the estate to give the illusion that he had spent the entire time flying back and was shocked to find Romano meeting him at the door first thing when he came back.
He barely had time to reach for the door handle when it flew open and the Romano’s face, already worn down by stress, stared at him gratefully.
“Good! You’re back. Come on then, we need to get to work!” he said and started walking back into his office at a quickened pace.
Marcus followed behind him, being sure not to put too much distance between them even though he wanted so much to beat him to death with his own limbs.
As they passed by Julian’s room on the way to Romano’s office, Julian noticed that he had already returned and rushed out to greet him.
“Marcus?! Hey! You’re back! Jesus, that flight was fast. How did you manage to find a flight back so quickly?”
“I bribed one of the passengers a thousand dollars if he would give me his seat,” he answered quickly, but in spite of such a plausible answer, Julian furrowed his brow doubtfully.
“Who gives a shit! We need to fix this problem now! Come on!” Romano said hurriedly and walked into the office with Marcus in tow.
Seemingly dismissing the issue, Julian shrugged his shoulders and walked back into his room.
When Marcus closed the office door behind him, Romano was already seated, but rather than sitting up straight with a calm composure, he was reclining back and rubbing his temples.
“I’m going to go on a limb and say...that this is a far worse situation that I had originally thought,” Marcus said, to which Romano could not find it in himself to justify a response and simply stared at him irritably.
“Forget I said that. Anyways, what do you need from me?”
“I need you to go to the bank and track down any information you can get your hands on as to who stole my money. Then, if and when you find them, I want you to wipe them all out,” he said, to which Marcus had to resist the urge to laugh as everything was falling into place so easily that it was almost comical.
“I’ll get on it right away,” Marcus nodded and turned around, but before he could leave, Romano called out to him.
“Hold on. Before you go, I want to apologize,” he said.
Is he serious? He’s never apologized to me or acted like this before… Robbing him has really had a greater impact on him than I would have thought.
He closed the door so no one could overhear him as he asked, “What for? Is this about my vacation?”
“That’s part of it but...its more than that. Ever since you came back from Japan, I’ve been pushing you to do more than I should be asking of you when you’re still a child,” he said, to which Marcus sighed.
“I’m eighteen now. Technically, I’m a legal adult. But regardless of that, I stopped being a child years ago. Your apology is meaningless to me,” he said sharply.
Romano’s eyes widened and for a split second, he could have sworn that he could see a hint of guilt in them but Marcus refused to look at his face any longer.
His newfound feelings of guilt did nothing but disgust him, and he could not bear to be in the room with him for much longer as he opened the door and left.
After he left the estate, he went to the main bank branch that was robbed and looked around at the various shops around it to see if there were any cameras pointing in the direction of the entrance so that he could find and use any of the footage.
If he could get his hands on it, then he could use it to convince Romano that the Castellanos were the ones who had robbed him.
After all, he had Lucas steal the license plates off of some cars that belonged to Castellano’s men. Not only that, but depending on how high the quality of the footage was, if it could make out their faces, then that would help even further since Marcus made them wear disguises and applied make up to make them look exactly like some of Castellano’s men.
Lucas himself however, didn’t need to wear a disguise at all and was easily the most recognizable person to tie to them.
All he had to do was get his hands on that information and present it to Romano on a silver platter.
Julian…
He couldn’t put his finger on why, but something felt...off about Marcus.
Maybe it was the shocking speed in which he was able to find a flight back to New York, or the strange look in his eyes that his father so easily ignored.
For the brief moment he saw him in the hall, he knew something was wrong when he noticed that there was no emotion or expression showing on his face.
It was the expression that he only ever had when he was lying, yet for some reason, it was ever present on his face in that moment.
Why?
Why would he have that look if there was no reason for him to lie?
It bothered him so much that he decided to go to his father and ask him about it.
He knocked on the office door and heard, “What is it? What do you want?”
Julian stepped inside and said, “I need to ask you something father.”
“Not now. I’m in the middle of a crisis and I can’t be bothered.”
“This is...kind of about that, but its about Marcus in particular,” he said, to which Romano seemed mildly interested.
“What about him?”
“Its been bothering me since I saw him in the hall, but I think he might have been lying to you about something,” he said, and Romano tilted his head in confusion.
“What the hell are you talking about?” he said, as he looked at him with annoyance.
“You know his tell when he lies right? How he has that blank expressionless face? He had that same look in his eyes the whole-”
“What kind of nonsense are you talking about? I didn’t even ask him anything! Get out of my office with this bullshit! Don’t talk to me unless you have something valuable to say!” he shouted, causing Julian to flinch at his father’s anger and left.
Maybe he really was overthinking it…
Marcus…
After he managed to gain access to the surveillance footage in the stores around the main bank, and gathered enough information to pin the blame on the Castellanos, he called Lucas and told him to stay put while he provided it to Romano.
There would either be a war started over it, or a meeting to discuss punishments. It all depended on whether or not Romano would be angry and rash enough to escalate things further. Castellano’s stubbornness and arrogance would certainly help in fueling the fire, but it was all up to how the two parties would react.
When he returned to the estate, he grabbed a computer and access the footage to show Romano what he found.
“Look there. You remember Castellano’s enforcer that he had during that meeting? The one I escorted you to?”
“That’s him? Son of a bitch!” Romano grounded out as he snapped a pencil in half. His eyes then looked over some of the other men that were with Lucas at the time and he seemed to recognize the disguises used.
“I know them! I’ve seen them working Falco’s meth dealings! This had to have been a collaborative effort from Falco’s side to destabilize us!” he said firmly, but Marcus was not satisfied.
He was curious about whether this alone would be enough to cement his conviction that Falco was definitively to blame.
“Are you sure its wise to cast blame on him right away? Lets say if a war broke out between you two and it turned out to be wrong, the Moronis might see you as too quick to cast blame and brand you as a threat. It might turn into a three way war if you can’t prove that Castellano is at fault,” he said, to which Romano hung on every word.
He nodded with stress affecting his movements and attitude as he paced around the room.
“Y-You’re right. I need to have this verified that he and his men are responsible before action is taken, but even so, these are his men! No matter which way he tries to spin it, he’s responsible to some degree,” he said and Marcus nodded in agreement.
“As much as I hate it, I’ll have to escort you to the meeting so that he doesn’t get any ideas of trying to kill you before a discussion could be held,” he said, prodding Romano’s mind into action.
“You read my mind! Lets get going!” he said as he grabbed his suit blazer and started making calls to arrange a meeting.
A few hours passed and already a meeting was being held in one of Romano’s offices in town.
Falco Castellano showed up with two bodyguards since Lucas wouldn’t show up for obvious reasons.
“Romano...to what reason have you called this meeting with me during these...difficult times for you,” he said with a hint of amusement in his voice.
Even though he wasn’t truly the one to blame, he found the robbery hilarious and failed to hide that in his demeanor.
This is going very well...
Romano noticed this and tightened the grip he had on his knees as he spoke with a stiff voice, “You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you?”
Falco’s eyebrows rose as he feigned surprise but responded, “I heard about it first hand from some of my men who were in the area when the bullets started flying, but luckily you didn’t lose any capital from it.”
“I’m not talking about that sham robbery! That was a decoy, one to draw attention away from the real robbery taking place,” he said as he waved for Marcus to take out the computer and pull up the footage.
“I find it very convenient that your enforcer Lucas Witiker isn’t here today, because from what this shows me, he and many of your men were the ones responsible for what happened,” he said, to which Falco laughed in his face.
“What a load of nonsense, but of course you would try to...shift the blame…,” he said as his eyes focused on the footage Marcus showed him until they bulged so much that he thought they might burst from their sockets.
He grabbed the screen and leaned in to look at the footage again while looking back at Romano, baffled by what he was seeing, but not denying it.
Interesting...so he’s not going to defend himself?
He then put on an act as he scoffed and waved his hand dismissively before saying, “You could have easily doctored this footage to pin the blame on my men for this, but even if it was in fact my men who were responsible, I did not give them such orders to carry this out.”
“Bullshit!” Romano roared as he slammed his fist against the table, to which the guards behind Falco instinctively reached for their guns but he held up his hand to stop them.
“The way I see this, you lack the resources and the authority to threaten me in any capacity or demand that I provide reparations for this. So say I was responsible for this…,” he said as he leaned forward and smiled, “What could you hope to do about it?”
With that, he stood up from his seat and started walking out of the room until Romano stood up from his seat and said, “Do you really want to start a war with me over this, because I won’t take this disrespect without a fight! If that’s what you want, then that’s what you’re going to get!”
Falco Castellano paused for a moment, and feeling that things were going to erupt into violence, Marcus started reaching for his gun tucked behind his belt.
He then opened the door and one of his two bodyguards started escorting him out, but before the second one could follow him, Falco said to him, “Whack em.”
Hearing that, Romano backed up and looked at Marcus to protect him, and the bodyguard pulled out his pistol to shoot him.
However Marcus was much faster and in less than a second, the guard’s brains decorated the wall behind him and Falco took off running with his guard behind him firing shots at the room to keep them from following him.
Marcus quickly shut the door and ducked for cover with Romano on the other side.
“You know what this means don’t you?” he said, gritting his teeth in anger.
He didn’t bother to answer as he heard the door to the meeting place open and close as Falco made his escape.
“I guess you want me to gift wrap his head to you with a nice little bow on top?” Marcus asked him.
“You do this last job for me and you’re free to go,” he said.
“Consider it done.”
Falco…
SHIT!
What the FUCK is going on?! Why is this happening?!
He tried to call Lucas but the son of a bitch wouldn’t pick up his phone.
He had already been planning on taking action to destabilize Romano’s dealings, but that was supposed to be done methodically over a period of time. It was supposed to be subtle so that the law wouldn’t catch on to what was going on and that Falco’s takeover of Romano’s assets could fly under the radar and everything the man built would collapse all on its own.
A robbery was far too out in the open, far too direct, and invited too much unnecessary conflict.
But then again, this did present him with an opportunity to crush him. It might be a risky move, but with Romano’s assets in such a precarious situation, he would undoubtedly be desperate to take action.
Maybe he could turn this around.
He was thinking this over as he was escorted back to his own business compound and swiftly ordered his men to gather up all their weapons and prepare for a war.
He wouldn’t waste any time in mobilizing his men and would take Romano down here and now.
Nearly an hour passed since the meeting finished while his men had equipped themselves with weaponry and gear. Falco himself had been pacing inside of his office waiting for them to mobilize until they had finished getting ready when one of the men approached him with a panicked look on his face.
“What’s the matter?! Why aren’t you heading out right now?”
“Sir, all of the tires on our vehicles are flat and-” before he could finish speaking, his head suddenly jerked to the side as a sniper round shot right through the side of his skull.
Falco watched in shock as the man’s body fell to the ground and the other men in the room looked around frantically to see where the bullet came from only for many of them to have their heads explode one after the other.
What the fuck is happening?! Falco thought to himself frantically as he backed away as he watched all of his men get shredded to pieces from sniper fire.
Once the sniper fire died down, he thought the worst was over until multiple breach explosions happened from every direction and flash bangs were thrown in.
Disoriented and blinded from the multiple flashes of light, the sound of gunfire echoed in his ears as men in gas masks rushed in and gunned down his men.
Did Romano somehow send a swat team after me?! No, no way this could have been organized this quickly unless he intended for this before the meeting every happened!
He hid behind a desk until the sound of empty bullet casings hitting the ground halted and the tear gas dispersed.
Then, the desk above him was thrown aside as two men stood over him.
One had black hair while the other was blonde, yet even with their faces hidden behind their masks, he knew already who was behind them.
When they pulled off their masks and looked down at him, Lucas knelt down and smirked as he said, “Hey there.”
Falco stared up at him, then looked back at Romano’s enforcer Marcus Wright, and then back at Lucas as he asked, “What the hell do you think you’re doing?!”
“We’re cleaning house! What else did you think was going on?” he answered.
“Are you working for Romano now? Was that robbery just an excuse to come after me?”
Marcus shook his head and said, “Oh no, not at all. We robbed Romano, that’s for certain. We just pinned the blame on you to move things forward. With you out of the picture, all of your assets will become ours and your subordinates will scatter and get hunted down by Romano’s. Wanna take a guess as to what all of this is for?”
Falco’s eyes darted between the two men nervously as his mind worked to figure it out.
“What, are you two trying to take over both of us? Is that it? You want us out of the way?”
Lucas shook his head and said, “Your way of thinking is too narrow minded. See, we don’t want you out of the way, because that wouldn’t make any sense.”
Marcus then said, “We want you dead. All of you. Wiped from the face of the earth, but not just you and Romano. Moroni too. As well as the Bratva, the Cartels, the Triad...everyone. Then, when everything is said and done...we’ll take this entire country too.”
Falco’s heart sunk in his chest as he realized that the Enderman himself, as well as Lucas, a marine with years of experience, would be more than enough to conquer this nation.
The thought that they had already begun mobilizing in such a manner terrified him. What’s more, the entire world would be forever changed as a result.
Marcus then took out a handgun, pulled back the slide, and said, “Thing is, you won’t be alive to see it.”