[1] A War of Blood and Hearts | ✔️

CHAPTER THREE

IGNAZIO

"How long has he been doing this?" Ignazio whispers to Alonso with an annoyed huff. He sits on the chair next to Alonso's desk as both of them listen to Alberto's typing on his laptops. The tech-guy is seated on the sofa in the huge office with three laptops before him on a table. Ignazio never understood how Alberto could work on more than one device in such haste and such focus, but he tries his best not to think about it.
Alberto has always been a nerd; he can hack in any governmental files in less than a minute. Nothing is impossible to Alberto as long as it is relevant to technology. He always believed that Alberto's looks does not match his personality, he has crystal blue eyes, brown long hair that is always put back with some gel, athletic body, and full pink lips. Ignazio has always been envious of his best friend's brains, but he is always careful to mask his emotions. After all, he is one of the most important three people on the Italian Mafia; Alonso is the leader, Alberto is the boss of the I.T. operations, while Ignazio Alonso's right hand.
"For God's sake Alberto, what are you doing?" Ignazio whines once again, but he is ignored.
"I hate to say this, but I agree with Nazi. You have been typing non-stop on these laptops for the past two hours Alberto." Although Alonso seems almost pained to side with Ignazio, the smirk does not depart from his face.
"Well, you asked me to do something, do not expect me to do it in any way less than perfect." Alberto speaks for the first time in hours as he finishes typing.
"Are you done?" the right hand man pulls his hands up in an enthusiastic way causing Alonso to chuckle.
"Yes, now all we have to do is wait for the scan to do its work, and by the end of the day we will know who sabotaged our deal on Sunday." Ignazio is still a little furious at the events that happened on Sunday; it was the first time that something went wrong on his watch. Despite what Alonso and Alberto told him about it not being his fault, he cannot help but feel a little disappointed in himself.
"Well then, to pass the time..." Alonso looks at both his friends before taking a deep breath.
"Guess who called me last night? And by night I mean 2 a.m., literally." Ignazio watches the mafia boss' tattooed hand as they cover his face before facing them once again.
"Who would want to call you? I mean look at you, tattooed from head to toe, thank God, you had mercy on your face, and did not put any tattoos on it. Besides, do not get me started on your uncountable piercings. You have two piercing in your nose man, who does that?" Ignazio tries to lighten up the mood as he notices how the air around them gradually gets thicker. Even though his words are meant to be a joke, he still receives a death glare from Alonso.
"Lets ignore the children in the room Alonso, and tell me who called last night?" Alberto gives Ignazio a devious smile before he fixes his glasses against his face.
"Nicholas Moreno."
"Wait, as in the Brazilian Mafia leader?" Alonso nods.
"And what did he tell you?"
"That there is a potential war between him and the Russian mob and he wants us to get involved." Ignacio's brows are pulled up indicating that he is both confused and startled. He wonders why would Nick predict a war, and why would he want them to be complicit. Truth be told, Ignazio has hated the Russian mafia, and has despised their leader Ivan with a burning passion for as long as he can remember. As much as he would enjoy beating some of his despicable minions, he is still feeling uneasy out the idea of a mafia war. The last mafia war almost tore the entire world apart.
"He actually told you that?" Alberto has an expression mirrored to Ignazio's.
"No, but he sure as hell gave an indication." Alonso smirks, and Ignazio has to bite his tongue to scold him for being even slightly pleased with these news.
"Did you accept to be a part of the war?" Ignazio finds the courage to ask the question the he is sure that the tech-guy is too eager to know the answer to. Ignazio finds himself at a crossroads as part of him yearns for a war against Ivan to claim revenge for everything that happened in the past, while the rest of him –mostly his brain- tries to persuade him that they worked so hard to accomplish their freedom, therefore; they should not sabotage it.
He, however; knows that they are obligated to assist the Brazilians in any way they need because they owe them a debt just as large, and they have been friends with Nick and Lucas for too long that they consider each other family.
"Then what did he precisely tell you?" Ignazio asks another question when the first is not answered. When all he and Alberto get is Alonso's chuckle, both men look at their boss as if he had escaped a mental institute.
"Come on man! You have chuckled like eleven times in the past five minutes." Ignazio goes back to his grumpy self as he grabs a glass of bourbon and moves it to his mouth, and surprisingly, Alberto nods in agreement.
"Turns out, our dear friend Nick has a little sister." Ignazio chokes on his drink.
"No he does not. If he did, we would have known." Alberto tries to make sense of what The Italian mafia leader just said.
"Yeah, we have known the guy for a really long time." Ignazio does not know how to feel or to think; for years, he has considered Nick his brother, and now he learns that he has been hiding something this important from all of them.
"If you two are having a hard time believing this, you are going to love what I am about to tell you."

Ignazio parks his white Ferrari in the middle of the deserted road before stepping out, and giving the keys to one of the many black-suited guards. He follows the path that he had memorized by heart over the years until he reaches one of the uncountable layers that belong to the Italian Mafia.
He enters the room with authority and pride, it took lots of work to get where he is today, and he will not back down from his status in their mafia community. He takes a few sharp turns to the left before reaching the door that leads to the big steel door.
The Italian man gives a gesture for the camera in the corner of the roof; ordering the guards in the security room to unlock the steel door. He waits for the gate to completely open before taking a step forward, and goes down the stairs. He can feel the air getting thicker with every step he takes down. After all, he is going to what is known among the Italian mafia members as 'the floor of nightmares'. He cannot help but go back to the conversation he had with Alonso and Alberto back in Alonso's office. At first, he was hurt that Nicholas hid the truth about having a sister from them, but after hearing the full story, he can understand his motives. Even though he has never met Crystals –that is what he thinks her name was- he still feels somewhat overprotective of her. Knowing himself; however, he would feel concerned for any woman when Ivan Fomenkov is involved.
Moreover, he can understand why Alonso is willing to help him. After all, the Italian mafia leader has a little sister of his own, and he too would be willing to do anything to keep her from getting harmed.
When Ignazio reaches the bottom of the stairs, he is met with two guards, one on each side.
"Is everything going alright?" He addresses the guards with coldness in his voice. It is difficult, but somehow he manages to hide the playful side of himself when he is on a mission, but he would not mind showing his true self in front of their people.
"Yes sir, the candidates are waiting in the green room with Mr. Alberto."
While walking, he passes the red room; where people get tortured, the black room; where hostages meet face to face with the Italian Mafia leader, the orange room; where people are interrogated, and the list just keeps going. Eventually he reaches the green room where Alberto sits on a wooden chair while examining the eleven-chained men before him with a blank expression on his face. As expected, the precious tablet is in the tech-guy's hand.
"Do you know why you are here?" Ignazio almost cringes at the sound of his voice; he would never talk in such way with someone from his mafia community.
"You are here because Alonso DiFronzo considers the people who work under his wing his family. Hence, he would provide anything they need." He answers when all the answer he receives is scared faces.
"All of them represent a perfect match. We can use any of them to help Hannah." Alberto informs while he does God knows what on his tablet. Ignazio cannot help but smile at his friend's attitude, it is the attitude he portrays whenever he does his job perfectly, which is always. Man, he did not lie when he said he only does things according to perfection.
"Great. Now I know that you are asking who Hannah is. Well, Hannah is a sweet nine-year-old girl who suffers from Kidney failure. Her father happens to be one of our most loyal men. Therefore, Alonso cannot refuse his pleads for help. That gentlemen, is why you are here; one lucky elf is going to be chosen to donate one of his kidneys for Hannah so she could live a happy long life. The question is, who is it going to be Alberto?" Ignazio smirks evilly while using his head to gesture for his best friend to pick a man.
"The blonde one, he has been annoying me ever since I entered this damn room." Alberto pulls out a his flask from his jacket a takes a huge sip.