After they all settled down in the living area, with Tommy and Grace and Sal and Gemma all seated side by side on the long sofa, while Neeco sat in the chair, Cassius sat in the second chair, and Bruce sat on the very dusty floor beside Neeco.

“Do you want anything to drink?” Neeco asked.

“What do you have?” asked Cassius.

Neeco thought about it.  “Water,” he said.

“Neeco, are you nuts?  What kind of drink is that?  You don’t ask anybody for a drink when all you have is water.  How stupid is that?”

“It’s no big deal,” Sal said to Cassius, and Tommy looked at Sal.  Once again, he thought, Sal was defending the underdog; even though the underdog was most probably a monster.

“It’s a big deal to me!” Cassius said.  “He should know better.  First, he don’t even offer to let his guests come inside.  I have to tell him that.”

“I forgot to ask,” Neeco said with a smile.

“That’s something you don’t forget!” Cassius fired back.  “You have guests, you treat them with respect.  You were taught better.”

“I didn’t mean anything by it.”

“But you were taught better,” Cassius insisted.  “If you have guests, you invite them in.  You give them something to drink.”

Sal frowned.  “What are you going on about?” he asked Cassius.  “That shit don’t matter to nobody but you!”

“But it matters,” said Cassius.

“I said it don’t,” responded Sal in a voice that sounded belligerent.

“You can say whatever you want to say,” said Cassius.  “But I get to say what I’m saying.”

“I’m sorry,” Neeco said to Sal.

Everybody looked at Neeco.  Especially Sal.  “What?” he asked.

Tears began to well up in Neeco’s eyes.  “Don’t cry, Neeco,” Bruce said.

“Oh, brother!” said Cassius.  “He’s crying us a river.  Terrific!  He needs help, serious help, and what does he do?  He cries!”

“I should have been there for you,” said Neeco, ignoring his father and speaking only to Sal.

Sal didn’t expect an apology, and especially not one this quickly.  But what did this joker want him to say?  He was forgiven?  Tommy told him to be true to himself, and to not leave anything on the table.  Sal was going to heed Tommy’s advice.  “You say you should have been there for me?  I say that’s the damn truth.  So what do you want me to do?  Say I accept your apology and we can be friends?  Are you out of your fucking mind?”

Neeco already knew, from his father Cassius, that Sal was bitter and angry.  He expected him to display it to his face.  “I just wanted you to know that I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you.  I was going to be.  I was going to be the best father in this world to you.  But when Jackie left me . . . When Jackie went back to her husband, back to my brother Benny in the States, that changed everything.”

“It for damn sure did,” Sal said.  “So what was it?  Your girlfriend, who happened to be married, by the way, decides she’s going back to her husband?  And what do you do?  You go to a school and shoot up the place.  You go to a school and kill kids.  So what do you expect me to do about that?  Overlook it?  Treat it like it was no big deal?  Say they weren’t my kids at least, and go on with my life?  Is that how you think I’m supposed to look at it?”

“No!” Neeco said.  “I can’t even look at it like that.”

“Let’s not discuss that, Neek,” Cassius said.  “The past is past.  We’ve got to move forward.  We’ve got to figure out how to get you out of the clutches of Venetti.”

Neeco nodded, and wiped his tears away.  “Right.”

“Who’s Venetti?” Bruce asked.

“None of your business, Bruce!” Cassius said.

“He’s a mobster in town,” Neeco said to his friend.  “He’s a very bad man.”

“So what’s the story?” Sal asked.  “You used to work for him, and now he wants your hide?  What does he have on you?”

“He says I killed his daughter,” Neeco said.

Everybody, except Cassius, was shocked to hear it.  But Sal heard something else.  He frowned.  “He says you killed her?” Sal asked.  “What does that mean?  Either you killed her, or you didn’t.”

“Was she in that school?” Tommy asked.

Neeco nodded.  “Yes,” he said.

“Damn,” Sal said, shaking his head.  He’d want to kill his ass too, if he ever harmed Lucky, or any of the Gabrini or Sinatra children.

“So she died in that school shooting?” Tommy asked.  He was a clarity man.  He always had to clarify, to make sure they were operating on the same page.

Neeco nodded.  “Yes,” he said.  “She was killed in that shooting.”

“We’ve got to focus on what Venetti might do,” Cassius said, “not what you did all those years ago.”

“I was as heartbroken as he was,” Neeco, ignoring his father, said to Sal.  “All those children died that day.  It was supposed to be simple.”

Everybody looked at Neeco in horror.  “Simple?” Grace asked.  The idea of it!

But Neeco wouldn’t back down.  “Yes,” he said.  “It was supposed to be simple.  They were supposed to see that it wasn’t me, and that was going to be the end of it.”

Sal frowned.  “It wasn’t you?  What’s that supposed to mean, motherfucker?  It was you!”

“No,” Neeco said, shaking his head.  “It wasn’t me.”

Everybody stared at him in disbelief.  Why would he play this game?

“Stop it, Neek,” Cassius said.

“Stop what?” Neeco asked his father.

“Stop the bullshit!” Sal yelled.  “How can you sit up here and pretend you’re Mister Innocent after all those children died?  After all those years you spent in prison for their deaths?”

“But they were supposed to say it wasn’t me.  Dad said they were going to say it wasn’t me.”

“But it was you, motherfucker!” said Sal.

But Neeco was shaking his head.  “No, it wasn’t,” he said.

“Then who was it if it wasn’t you?” Grace asked.

“Oh, Grace!” Cassius said.  “Are we really going to entertain this?”

“Who was it?” Grace asked again.

Neeco looked at her.  “It was my big brother,” he said.  “It was Benny.”

Tommy and Sal moved to the edge of their seats.  “What?” Sal asked.

“What are you saying?” asked Tommy.

“It was Benny what shot up those kids.  He came to town, mad at me and at Jackie.  She wasn’t going to go back to him.  He was very abusive to her, and to Tommy, she said, although she left Tommy with him when she came to Rome.  But Benny came looking for her.  And he was so mad.  When he found out she was pregnant, and I was the father of her child, he tried to kill me.  I had just started working at the school at the time, as a volunteer.  I was going to be a teacher someday.  My first day was that Monday.  Benny came looking for me that Wednesday.”

Tommy and Grace, and Sal and Gemma all were riveted in their seats.  They couldn’t believe what they were hearing.  Was this man mad?  Could what he was saying possibly be true?

“What happened at that school?” Gemma asked.

“I was on my lunch break.  I went off campus to get some smokes.  I had a bad habit back then.  So when Benny couldn’t find me, he took it out on anybody he saw.  He just started shooting up the place.  He shot everybody in his way.  That was the kind of sick person he was.  He killed those kids.  Benny did it.  Not me.”

Tommy’s heart was hammering.  So was Sal’s.  “But if he did it,” Sal said, “and if you worked at that school, why would they blame you?”

“Because they had to blame somebody, and Benny looked like me.  All of my father’s children look alike in some ways.  But Benny was gone.  Pop hid him in Rome, and then got him on a flight to the States later that same day.  They had arrested me because the two kids and one of the teachers who survived said the person looked like me.  Pop told me to say I did it.  Pop told me to never mention Benny’s name.  And it would be simple.  They’d come to their senses and realize it wasn’t me, and all charges would be dropped.  But the charges weren’t dropped.  And the people that survived and did see me that day were traumatized and kept saying the shooter looked like me.  They could never say for sure it was me.  But they said he looked like me.  And before I knew it, there was a trial, and a guilty verdict, and I got thirty-five years to life.”

“You didn’t appeal?” Gemma asked.

“It’s automatic here.  But my appeal was denied, even though I told them Benny did it.  They said I was a liar.  They called my father to testify.  He said I was a liar too.”

They couldn’t believe it.  They all looked at Cassius.  He was going to deny it all.  They knew he was!  This son of his, this Neeco, wasn’t right in the head.  He was making this shit up.

But Cassius didn’t deny it.  He couldn’t.  “Benny was my best boy,” he said.  His eyes looked faraway, as if he was remembering that day starkly.  “He knew how to get his hands on a lot of money, and he sent me a lot of money.”

Sal couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “He sent you money?”

“A lot of money!  Benny was a big man in the States.  He ran an entire police department.  But Neeco?  He was just a nothing.  A failure.  He read books and wrote poetry and was talking about being a teacher to help the underserved, or a priest.  A priest!  How in the world was that going to help me?  When I moved back to Italy, after all those years in the States, I didn’t want my sons to be poor like me.  I wanted them to be champions.  Benny was.  He was the best boy I had.”

“You said Neeco was the best boy you had.”

“I lied.  Benny was my best boy,” Cassius said.  “And I couldn’t, there was no way could I ever let them get Benny.  There was no way.”

“But why did you lie on Neeco?” Grace asked.  She and Gemma were as traumatized as Sal and Tommy.  “Why didn’t you tell the truth?”

“Don’t you listen?” Cassius asked.  “I couldn’t let them have Benny!  But Neeco, who would miss him?  The midget?  That was the only friend he ever had!  But Benny?  He was my pride and joy!  He was the best child I ever had!”

Sal was thunderstruck.  He couldn’t believe it.  “You’re telling us,” he said, “you’re saying to us that you allowed your son to spend over four decades in prison because you didn’t want your other son, the true child killer, to get caught?”

Cassius nodded.  “That’s exactly what I’m saying,” he said.  “And you and your brother, along with your wives, walked right into it.”

Tommy frowned.  “Right into what?” Tommy asked him.

“My trap.  Our trap!  Louie Venetti’s trap!”

Tommy and Sal looked at one another.  Then they looked at Cassius.  “What do you mean?” Sal asked him.

“When Louie gets here tonight,” Cassius said, “I promised him that I’d have Salvatore too.  I had no clue that I would end up with all of you silly motherfuckers right here.  Right in place.  Because he didn’t just want Neeco.  He could have easily gotten Neeco as soon as Neek stepped foot out of that prison yard five days ago.  He wanted you, too, Salvatore.  He wants Neeco’s child dead like his child’s dead, and he wanted Neeco to see it.”

“But how would he know I was Neeco’s son?” Sal asked.

Cassius smile.  “You dumb motherfucker.  How do you think?  I told him,” he said.  “I told him the day Neeco got out, and he came to my house looking for him.  He was going to kill me.  But I told him, ‘why go for a broken down old man when you can have Neeco and his son?’  That’s what I told him.  I told him I’d send for you.  Since you don’t go nowhere without Tommy, I’d send for Tommy too.  He could get two for the price of one as far as I was concerned, and it wouldn’t be any skin off my teeth!  I told him he could then kill Neeco’s son like Neeco killed his son at that schoolhouse.”

Sal frowned.  “What are you talking?  Neeco didn’t kill anybody’s son!  You just said so yourself!”

“I know that.  You know that.  But Louie Venetti?  He don’t know that.  Louie Venetti knows what I want him to know!”

“So that’s why you summoned us here?” Tommy asked.  “To set Sal up?”

“Oh, yeah,” Cassius said with a smile.  “Why should I care?  Just because you’re my flesh and blood?  Fuck that!  I don’t know you motherfuckers from a hole in the wall!  We planned it to the last detail, me and Louie.  He had an assassin go after your wife, Thomas, as a smokescreen to get you interested in tracking down who set that up.  He had his man in the States take out Sal’s man to make sure that trail led to him to Rome, just in case my summons wasn’t heeded.”  Cassius smiled.  “And it worked better than we could have hoped!”

“What about the ambush,” Tommy asked, “after we left your house?”

“That was Louie Venetti too,” Cassius said.  “Oh, yeah, he wanted to take you two out right then and there, and your wives while he was at it.  But you fuckers proved sharper than he thought you were.”

“And on our way to this house?” Tommy asked

“That wasn’t in the plan.  Those idiots were two rogue players, trying to impress Louie no doubt.  They were supposed to hang tight until they got the word from me.  They jumped the gun, got spotted tailing, and you saw how that ended.”

But Sal was shaking his head.  “That sounds like a lot of bullshit to me.  How do we know you ain’t bluffing?”

“Why would I bluff when your ass played my game perfectly?  If it’s bullshit, it’s bullshit you fell for,” Cassius said.  “Hook, line, and sinker.  You’re as dumb as your old man!”

“Why you!” Sal said between clenched teeth, jumping to his feet.  He was about to bum-rush Cassius and show him just how dumb he was!

But Cassius immediately jumped up too, with a small J-Frame pistol in his hand.  “Stay right where you are!” he ordered, pointing the pistol.

Sal held up his hands.

“Everybody on their feet,” Cassius said, and everybody, including Neeco and Bruce, rose to their feet.  “Hands in the air where I can see them.  Now!”

But Gemma was surprised.  “I thought you frisked him again, Tommy,” she said.

“I did,” Tommy said.

“Then how the fuck he ends up with that gun?” Sal asked.

Cassius laughed.  “Because he didn’t frisk me well enough.  I had it well hidden.  Some security expert he is!  He found the knife, which was what I wanted him to find.  But he didn’t find the gun.”

“Actually, I did,” said Tommy.

Cassius frowned.  “The hell you say!  And I have the gun to prove it.”

“And I have the bullets to prove it,” Tommy replied.

Cassius was stunned.  “Just for that,” he said, moving toward them, “your smart-ass gets it first!”

“No!” Sal yelled, but Cassius pulled the trigger.

And nothing happened.

He pulled the trigger again and again and again.

Absolutely nothing.

Tommy put down his hands, and smiled.  “It’s called sleight of hands,” he said.  “While I was pulling out that knife, and you were preoccupied with its discovery, I went back to that gun I already discovered, and removed the bullets as you worried about that knife discovery.  I let you keep the gun.  But it’s as useless as you are.”

Cassius was shocked.

Sal smiled.  “They don’t call his ass Backdoor Tommy for nothing!” he said.  “That’s my brother!”

Then Sal went over to Cassius, grabbed the gun, and began pistol-whipping him with it.  “This is for those children, bitch!” Sal yelled as he slammed the butt of that gun into Cassius’s face.  “This is for all those dead children you let that monster get away with killing!  This is for letting an innocent man rot in prison because your lazy ass wanted money from a child killer!”

Sal kept hitting, and hitting, and hitting.  Cassius was crying out, and covering his face, and doing everything he could to get away from Sal.

But Neeco walked over, and grabbed Sal’s hand just as it was about to plummet Cassius even more.

Sal was not accustomed to being interrupted.  He looked at Neeco as if he’d lost his mind.  No man dared to stop Sal Gabrini in the act of handling his business!

But Neeco wasn’t trying to usurp anybody’s authority.  He, in fact, felt Sal was completely in his rights to beat down that sorry excuse for a man they unfortunately were related to.  But the morality of it disturbed Neeco.

“If I can forgive him after all those years his lies cost me,” he said to Sal, “then don’t you think you can forgive him, too?”

Sal looked into his Neeco’s eyes.  And he saw truth there.  And decency.  And an odd kindness that made him realize, in that very moment, where he got his heart from.

And for Neeco’s sake alone, he stopped the violence right then and there.

But Sal’s decision to let up was short-lived, because his security chief ran into the house.  “Our intel was wrong, Boss!” he cried, and everybody looked at him.

“It was wrong?” Sal asked.  “What are you talking?”

“Venetti!  He’s not attacking tonight.  He’s attacking now!  And he came with an army!”