The convoy was back on the road after leaving Cassius’s house, but if the mood inside Sal and Tommy’s car had been upbeat and hopeful on their way over, it was doomy and gloomy now.  Both men looked like tired businessmen on vacation to the unknowing eye.  But in truth, both men were just tired.

“The nerve of these people,” Sal was saying.  “They knew I existed.  They knew exactly where I was.  But he doesn’t come to see about me, to make sure I’m okay, until he needs me?  The story of my fucking life.  Sal?  He’s the workhorse.  He’s the one we all can use.  Use, Sal.  Don’t love that motherfucker.  Don’t give a damn about that motherfucker.  But if you’re in trouble, call Sal!  He’ll help you.  He’ll come to your rescue.  He’s fucking stupid like that!”

Tommy could hear the pain in Sal’s voice.  And he knew every word Sal spoke was true.  People did use him.  People, beginning with their own parents, did abuse him.  He was never good enough in their eyes.  Just a physical specimen to be taken advantage of.  Tommy knew exactly what Sal was talking about.

He looked at Sal.  “What are you going to do about it?” he asked.

Sal looked at his older brother.  Tommy had his shoe propped up on the hump in the middle of the floor in the backseat, with his arm resting on his lifted knee.  He was suited up like their Uncle Mick, in his long, white coat, but wore a black suit underneath.  A sharp black suit, Sal found himself, oddly, noticing.  “What do you mean?” he asked.

“What are you going to do about this situation?” Tommy responded.

“I’m not doing shit about it!  They don’t give a damn about me!”

“I agree,” Tommy said.  “They only want you because they believe you have the kind of reach they apparently need to help out in whatever situation this Neeco character has gotten himself into.  But . . .”

Sal frowned.  “But what?”

“But what if the situation Neeco has gotten himself into has to do with Venetti, Sal?”

Sal hadn’t even thought about that.  “Venetti?  Why would he be hooked up with Venetti?”

“I don’t know if he is hooked up with him,” Tommy said.  “But neither do you.  We don’t know anything about it.  But we don’t believe in coincidences, so we have to assume there is a connection.  And you also have to ask yourself a big question, Sal.”

“A question?  What question?”

“Did we come all this way to Rome to leave shit on the table?”

Sal stared at his handsome brother.  Once again, Tommy provided that voice of reason he needed to hear.  “You figure there’s a connection, don’t you?”

“I do.  And only because it would be a hellava coincidence that Cassius summons us to Rome at the same time some fucker named Venetti is here in Rome attempting to harm your organization, and my wife.  That’s a hellava coincidence, Sal.”

Sal had thought that it was beforehand also.  But now that he was in Rome, he had been blinded by Cassius’s revelation.  He had a father.  And it wasn’t Benny Gabrini!  “I just can’t wrap my brain around this shit, Tommy,” he said.  “I mean, give me a break!  If I had a son in this world, and I knew he was my son, and I knew what kind of man was raising my son, I wouldn’t sit back and leave that shit alone.  I’d move mountains to get my son away from that situation!  It would be like Lucky was out there in that world, and I just let him be out there.  All alone.  With nobody to love him, to treat him right, and I just let it happen?  No way.  No way.  No fucking way!”

Tommy didn’t say anything, because he knew Sal still needed to vent.

“At least I had you,” Sal said.  “You looked out for me, and protected me when we were kids.”

Tommy smiled.  “It was more like the other way around.”

But Sal was shaking his head.  “No, it wasn’t.  I was in your shadow because I needed to be.  You looked out for me.  I had you.  But that fucker didn’t know any of that.  All he knew was that his brother was a monster, and his son was living with that monster.  I can’t respect that kind of man.  I’ll never respect that kind of man!”

But Tommy had already looked away, and was stunned by what he was seeing.  “Gotdamn,” he said.

“What?” Sal asked, looking at Tommy.  Then he looked straight ahead, out of the car’s front window where Tommy was looking.  Their convoy had just turned a corner, and there they were: a line of cars waiting, as if they were a police barricade, but both Sal and Tommy knew those men weren’t cops.  And it became a fact when bullets began to sail from the lineup of cars, and the two cars in front of the convoy got into a shootout.  But they were badly outmanned and outgunned.

Tommy and Sal knew it, too. That was why they leaped into action.

Tommy jumped over the seat as Sal began pulling out guns.  “Out of the way!” Tommy yelled to the driver.

The driver jumped over, into the passenger seat, and Tommy jumped behind the wheel.

“Take it, Tommy!” Sal ordered.  “Floor this motherfucker now!”

Tommy threw the gear in reverse, and floored the gas, but instead of allowing the car to go backwards and crash into the two cars behind them, he turned the car sideways, causing it to fall out of formation, and then took off in the opposite direction of the lineup.

The two cars behind them tried to take off with them, but suddenly a helicopter appeared and began firing on them too.

“We’ve got air action, too, Tommy!” Sal yelled, and began pressing down the window.

“What are you going to do?” Tommy yelled as he drove.

“Bring that motherfucker down!” Sal said, and leaned out of the window, firing above their heads, with two guns, at the helicopter.

Tommy drove in zigzags, to avoid any straight shots, but they were still taking incoming from the cars that had moved out of the lineup and were chasing them, and from above.

But Sal was a good shot, and he fired on that helicopter like the pro he was, and got the shooter first, and then the rotor blade.  And it was the helicopter’s turn to go zigzag, until it zigzagged itself into a building.  It exploded as soon as it made contact.

But they still weren’t out of danger.  Tommy was driving as fast as he could, and his men were fighting off the lineup as best as they could.  But the Romans outdid them easily, killing every one of Sal’s men, and leaving them free to pursue the true objects of their desire: Tommy and Sal.

They flew through the streets of Rome, as car after car lifted on two wheels at a time as they flew up hills and down hills, around steep curves, and jagged roads.  It was a harrowing ride. 

Sal and the former driver were doing all they could to shoot back, but they mostly had to duck and dodge the volley of bullets that would not let up.  Tommy, especially, had to do a careful balancing act, as he had to drive, see where he was driving, and avoid bullet after bullet while he did so.

But then their driver, who was on the passenger side shooting back, got hit in the head, and fell forward.  Tommy and Sal hated to see it because it meant all of their men were now lost in this monumental battle.  The plan had been developed beforehand that everybody was to do as Tommy had done when the bullets first started flying, and reverse course and leave the scene.  But only Tommy had followed that precept.  The two cars in front didn’t stand a chance.  But the two cars in the back could have, had they only followed protocol.  They didn’t.  They tried to shoot their way out of it before they were on any kind of getaway footing, and it backfired on them as Tommy and Sal, both very experienced men, knew it would.  Now they were on their own, being pursued by an army of armed men, and they weren’t about to lose this fight.

They fought long and they fought hard.  Tommy even asked Sal to hand him a gun, and he was shooting while he was driving.  Until Tommy made the call.

“I’ve got an idea,” he yelled to his brother.

“What idea?” Sal yelled back.

“I’m going to cut through those woods ahead,” Tommy said, “but we’ve got to get out and get out fast.  I figure, given how far back they are, we only have a minute tops.”

“Fuck, Tommy!  Will that be enough time?”

“No,” Tommy said.  “But it’s got to be.  We have no other options!”

Sal knew it too.  The men were closing in, and their firepower was far superior to any two men could possibly have.  “Okay, do it!” he said.

And Tommy did it.  He flung the car to his right, nearly going on two wheels, and ran as if he were a locomotive out of control, through a thicket of high weeds into the woods.  Then he and Sal jumped out of the car, and ran into the thickest part of those woods.

The cars sped into the woods within seconds of Tommy and Sal disappearing.  The men got out of their cars and ran toward the car they didn’t realize was empty.  But as soon as they neared the car, Tommy reached inside of his long, white coat, pulled out two grenades and handed them to Sal.  Tommy pulled out two more, and kept them for himself.  He pointed to the car, and Sal complied.

Sal released the pins and threw his two grenades at their empty car, while Tommy released the pins and threw his two grenades toward the cars the men on foot had vacated.  Then Sal and Tommy ran.

At first, they weren’t sure if it was going to work.  There was too long a delay!  But then, the eruption.  Tommy and Sal hit the ground facedown as both cars suddenly exploded into a fireball of flames, buckling and lifting off the ground, and taking the men caught between the cars up with them. 

  It was a tragic and triumphant feeling all at the same time.

But then Tommy thought about Grace, and Sal thought about Gemma.   Sal attempted to find his cellphone, but couldn’t.  Tommy always kept one on his person, and always kept it based on whatever continent he was on.  He pulled it out, and called Grace’s phone.

But it rang and rang, and then went to Voice Mail.

“Call Gemma!” Sal cried.

Tommy called Gemma.  Still no answer.

“No way,” Sal said, and both men began running out of the woods.  “God, no!”

Tommy kept trying to call them, and their men, as they ran.

Once out of the woods, Sal stood in the middle of the road and pointed his rifle at the first car driving by.  He was so desperate he could hear his own heartbeat pounding.

The driver, no fool, slammed on brakes.  And Sal pulled him out, tossed him aside, and got in behind the wheel.  Tommy got in on the passenger side, and they took off.

Tommy kept trying to call, but still got no answer.  Then he called the police.  Fuck it, he called the cops!

“We ordered them to stay,” Sal was saying when Tommy ended the call.  “We ordered them to stay!”

“Drive faster!” Tommy yelled.  “Drive faster, Sal!”  All he could think about was his Grace, and Gemma, in danger.  All he could think about was getting them out of danger!

“What have we done, Tommy?” Sal asked as he floored the car and drove as fast as he could.   He began pounding on the steering wheel.  “What have we done???”

Tommy couldn’t respond.  The terror in his eyes, and the guilt he felt just thinking about Grace in danger and the decision he made to make her stay back, wouldn’t allow him.