Elementary Virtue: The Prophecy (17 page)

Finally, they have to defend themselves, so they don’t have a choice and believe me that Motta Benedetto are the good guys, and they cling to the legend of the Savior, who is supposed to free them from the power of families such as the-Maltese’s or the Di Benedetto." Gregory was a little confused, "But that name's almost the same in both families. What led to this difference?"
"That’s a long story, but I'll try to keep it short because we still have a few other things to discuss today. We need to prepare ourselves, because as I've heard the Vultures are already on their way here. You have been busted, my dear." Gregory looked at him shocked and tried to say something. "Don’t look at me like that, it doesn’t matter why you ‘ve been busted, it was only a matter of time. There is no one to blame. They will be here latest in two or three weeks, since October 15, approaches, the day Lorenzo died, and the planetary alignment is the same on that day as a century ago. The alignment only happens once every few years. When it comes to the Di Benedetto's and some other families, the worst of them is Carmine Grande and the Maltese, who are your direct relatives. They would have you bite the dust better sooner than later. Do not forget both your father and your grandfather live in the village where we're going now.

Gregory was stunned, "My father lives here, and you know who he is?" "Indeed, and he is of the top five candidates if it comes to killing you. If your grandfather doesn’t push him aside and finishes you himself, as he did with your mother."
"My grandfather, killed my mother?"
"He, or one of his men, it doesn’t matter. To get out whatever burgeoning feeling you should ever get about your family from the start of your head, I have to tell you that your Grandfather is the cruelest man I ever met in my entire life. If you ever should fall into his hands, it would be best to kill yourself at the first possible occasion you get." Gregory’s head spun, with so much information. "So, let's summarize, many people are after me, trying to kill me, and my grandfather is the worst of all of them, who lives in the village where we are going now. If I think about all of it, I must ask you a question; are you out of your freaking mind? Weren’t you supposed to be the good guy in this? Are you with the firing squad?" Keanu grinned and looked at him briefly, then he turned his gaze back to the dusty road, they had now reached the coast, and the narrow road demanded his full attention. A careless maneuver and they would fall off the cliffs and land on a rock. "That is why, I’ll take you to my boat, you can’t go back to the Circus, we’ll have to hide you from now on."
"And where the hell are we going, I thought I had to prepare myself for the great battle? What will happen if I won’t make it? Is it the whole of humanity that will die due to earthquakes, volcano eruptions, storms, and whatever?"

"Boy, you are asking far too many questions at once. I have to fucking concentrate on driving, or we are going to die right now.”
“No need to get vulgar in language.”
"Back to your first question, we are on our way to Capo d ’Orlando. From there we will sail to Malta, and I don’t know if humanity truly would be erased, probably not, but it is certain that the volcano will erupt and then there would be no more Sicily on the map. What consequences the disappearance of an island such as Sicily would have for the rest of the world, I can’t tell you. Perhaps none, but they might be unexpected, nobody knows. The last time there were many deaths and great devastation, a part of the island was destroyed, and predicted that the island would perish next time."
"This means, all these Mafia gangsters and the Vultures do want Sicily to disappear and sink into the ocean, are they nuts?"
"What can I say, power and greed are on their Agenda, they don’t think clearly and you must never forget that most of them are being manipulated and don’t know about Sicily sinking into the ocean if they kill you. Besides, I guess the important families must have a plan to get away from the Island if things get out of hand. I can’t imagine Giada’s father to wait in his Villa till he dies. Besides, most of their men are usually not the brightest lights in the hall, the only things they think about are money and power." Gregory thought of Gabe. He was smart. On the other hand, he was after money and power, which made him easy to manipulate for sure. "So, what the hell are we going to do in Malta?"
"There you’ll be safe, and you’ll be able to prepare and focus on the countdown. Do not tell your girlfriend or anybody else where you are going. We don’t want to risk an unwanted visit." Gregory nodded, "Of course I'm still in Sicily if someone is asking." "That's right kid."

Keanu parked the car at the port of the small coastal village. It was an idyllic place with bright houses and big mansions standing at the hillside. Someone approached on a light blue Vespa. Keanu threw a ridiculous looking fisherman cap, which he took from the back seat, at Gregory. “Put it on quickly there is someone coming!" Reluctantly Gregory put the ugly cap on his head. Keanu hissed just in time at him that he was Antony from now on and shouldn’t take of the sunglasses before the Vespa got closer. Something about Keanu's pose didn’t bode well. Gregory glanced at the Vespa. It turned out to be a young woman stopping in front of them. She had wrapped a Chiffon scarf around her hair, 50s style and was wearing some stylish sunglasses. Her long slender fingers were slightly cramped on the steering wheel. Gregory raised an eyebrow and saw that Keanu stood there petrified. He counted two and two together, guessing that this girl had to be the much-feared Giada.

The responsible female for Keanu’s disability when it came to relationships with the female species. Gregory had to hold back from laughing, and the situation was delicious. Experiencing Keanu nervous and upset was indeed priceless. She rose from her Vespa and came slowly over towards them. Wow, was the only thing that popped into Gregory’s mind. She walked like a feline predator. Endless long legs tucked into incredibly short frayed jean shorts. Her tight shirt was knotted under her breast so that a large part of her flat brown belly could be seen. Around her neck, she wore a distinctive amulet, which represented a kind of spiral. Gregory's gaze wandered on to her face, which was covered by huge sunglasses. She had full sexy lips and a birthmark on the right side above her upper lip. A smile played on her lips, and her pearly whites were gleaming.

She looked at Keanu and strolled toward him. Like the snake in paradise, Gregory thought, and he had no idea why the thought popped into his mind, but she reminded him of a beautiful wild cat or an iridescent snake, both looked beautiful but were dangerous and best to observe from afar. “Ciao Caro. What are you doing here? What gives us the honor of this visit?” Her gentle voice had something lurking. No doubt, this beautiful young woman was a deadly weapon, and she reminded Gregory of someone. He didn’t know whom, but he was sure having met before this kind of dangerous femininity. She turned to him and looked at him, "Hello, whom do we have here?" She cooed, gazing at him from top to bottom. "That's Antony Cinisi from the Circus Motta Benedetto, a grandson of Signora Tiziana." She stepped closer to Keanu, "You don’t say. So, are you still the sidekick of the Signora. Such a shame Amore, as I remember it, you had better perspectives. Didn’t you Tesoro?" She stroked over his cheek with her long slender fingers. Keanu didn’t move, looking blankly.

"Antony, may I introduce this is Giada di Benedetto. She is one of the most influential young women on this island. Her Daddy rules the island like a king," he added with a bitter undertone. "Oh baby, don’t be so damn melodramatic. You could have had it all if you only wanted it enough." She pouted and gave him a kiss. "No, thank you, if you mean that I could have been a henchman under your Daddy’s control, one of his puppets. I had to pass on this generous offer, unfortunately. I am a free man and not for sale, not even for you beautiful!"
"Never say never Amore, so what are you doing here?" She smiled mockingly. "I'll get my boat, it is still here in the harbor, as you surely remember. I don’t think you mind if I go sailing with Antony and do some fishing. I’ll leave you my car behind, so to speak as a pledge."

He managed to put on a disarming smile, which turned out more like a grimace. Not very convincing, Gregory thought amused. Keanu definitely didn’t have the gift to set up a poker face. Giada di Benedetto took off her scarf shaking her coppery mane. It fell like scales from Gregory's eyes, and suddenly he knew exactly on whom she had reminded him from the first moment. "Angel" he didn’t remember her last name, though. Now that he thought about it, it had been Di Benedetto. So, she had to be related necessarily to the money and power leering Di Benedetto community, probably a cousin or something. However, Gregory couldn’t understand why Angel was able to control the earth and had even been damn good at it. He thought back, and she had been quite into mixing poisons, if he remembered well. Anyway, she almost managed to send Shane to the happy hunting grounds, if Mila hadn’t intervened courageously. Keanu said earlier that Sicilian descendants either had very strong skills in rare cases or none at all. Gregory was caught up in his own thoughts, not following the talking of the two until he was startled by Giada Di Benedetto's sharp voice, "I'll give you some good advice Keanu, it would be better if you don’t show your face around here with this Circus scum again."

She looked into Keanu's eyes intently, "You mean a lot to me, and I have a soft heart for you," she put a hand to her heart in a dramatic move, "but Daddy and the family, don’t appreciate it when you just show up unexpected. I am sure you do remember what happened last time."
"Giada, you don’t have to remind me what happened, my scars remind me every single day about it. I just want my boat nothing else. Then I’ll disappear, and you can have my car as a souvenir for a disaster."
"I am happy to take your gift Amore and my thoughts will be with you if I’ll get the car up to speed! You remember certainly that I am quite talented in this field." Gregory held his breath, Keanu looked miserable, as if he would collapse soon. They sure had to get away quick from this refined woman. She had taken off her sunglasses, and they stared at each other. There was clearly a dangerous crackling in the air. Finally, Giada lowered her gaze, leaving the Vespa on the stand. Then she went to Keanu's car, opened the door, and LP got in. She let the engine roar loudly, waved casually and drove away in a cloud of dust.

Keanu broke away from his rigidness, "Come on, let’s go before she changes her mind and shows up with her crazy bunch of Mafiosi." They climbed on the boat, which was a luxurious version of a sailing boat. Keanu was casting off, and soon they had left the harbor behind "Wow, pretty sharp your boat, no puny boat as I expected." Keanu remained stubbornly silent. Encountering Giada di Benedetto had gotten to him and made him speechless. But, Gregory didn’t give up that easily, he had to know more about that Love Story having gone apparently wrong. "There was a very violent crackling in the air between you and Giada. The air almost burned. Are you sure that the story between the two of you is over? I had the impression not everything had been resolved between the two of you."
"There is nothing to be clarified. She’ll do everything Daddy asks her to. She is the evil one, the wrong one," he paused. "And yet you still have feelings for her, right?" "That doesn’t matter, she has chosen her side, and it is not ours. Believe me, if Daddy were to kill me, she would watch without flinching." He looked at Gregory with a tortured expression on his face, "I had to learn it the hard way."
"What happened?" "Gregory, that is none of your business, and we don’t need to discuss that now, we have other matters on our list."
"Oh, we have a list? What a pity, I would have liked to hear the story of you and dangerous Giada. You have become very pale, and someone who can take you out of balance must have some qualities. You usually are such a tough one we both know it."

Keanu stared thoughtfully at him, then he threw the mast in his direction, "Get out of here, you wanna be amateur shrink. Otherwise we’ll get past Malta and land on Mallorca, and I am not in the mood for Ballermann, right now." Gregory ducked and dodged avoiding the mast." "Don’t get excited. I’ll do my best. This means literally, that you want to know everything about me, but are not going to tell me anything about you." Keanu didn’t answer and for some time there was silence. Gregory also had his hands full to do sailing. Damn it. He had no idea about sailing. When he finally made it and sat down exhausted on deck, his phone vibrated in his pocket. Leyla sent him two pictures. One of her in that turquoise Bikini, which reminded him of the Little Mermaid at that beach party having taken a wrong turn, back in time. The second picture was a selfie of her face. She looked amazing. For a moment, he forgot all about his complicated life, sitting there with a smile on his face just like a normal teenager in love, who had received a picture of his girlfriend. Keanu watched Gregory, the boy looked at that damn phone, as if it was a treasure or something. If he would tell him about his experiences concerning love, he would throw that phone away and avoid any female until this Savior story was over. He set the course on automatic and got two beers from the fridge.

He was amazed to find some beer in the fridge. Probably Giada had deposited them there even before the abrupt end of their relationship. It didn’t matter, since the cans were still unopened, assumed they were not poisoned or otherwise manipulated. He strolled back to Gregory, holding out a can under his nose, "Here's a little peace offering, but I still give you the good advice to stay away from girls until you have fulfilled your destiny," he glanced at Gregory's cell phone, "cute, but don’t be fooled, she means trouble and can bring danger to you." Gregory looked up taking the beer gratefully, "Maybe you are right, but I just can’t deny my feelings for her. She means something to me, and I am human not some machine. I love her." Keanu lifted his can for a toast "Then to love it is. My dear friend. Love that makes us weak and vulnerable listen to my words. Believe me dude."
"No, you're wrong about that. On the contrary, love is hope, strength, courage, with love one can overcome everything." Keanu shrugged, "Whatever you say. Let’s hope that life is not going to teach you a lesson one day."