Page 2 of Humility

Bursting through the trees, I leaped for the back door and landed on the seat as Dario slammed the door shut. A dog rammed its head into the metal with a thud and a whimper. He jumped into the passenger seat while Enzo ran around and got inside just as three more dogs leaped at the glass. Their barks were loud, the large teeth biting at the window as their nails scraped down Enzo’s paint job.

“Oh, you fuckers, I just had it detailed,” he complained as he put the sports car into first and drove away from our hiding spot. The wheels squealed as he shifted quickly through the gears, pulling away from the dogs and the sound of bullets that missed the car. “I bet you’re fucking thankful now that I have automatic doors.”

I pulled myself upright, my chest heaving from the exertion of the run. “Yeah, I’ll concede that was pretty handy.” We’d all given him the gears about the car’s feature when he had it installed.

“Who gives a fuck about the car. What are we going to do now? We have to run for it. Do you get that? This is our home, and now we’re all dead men for a stupid egg,” Dario snarled, his bark far worse than the dogs that chased us.

“We’ll get something sorted out. I’m still the underboss of the Esposito family. My father will help me figure out how to spin this in our favor. You’ll see Dario. Stop worrying,” I said, gripping his shoulder. “We won’t have to leave.”

“And I think you’re delusional,” he said, glaring at me.

* * *

“No, I won’t do it. You have embarrassed me and this family for the last time,” my father, Don Mario Esposito, yelled. He pointed a finger at me, the one that held our family crest. “You will leave this house tonight. You are banned from these walls, your inheritance or claiming your name. You’re dead to me and no longer my son.”

“But Father….”

“No. I will not hear it. I do not care why you chose to steal a family heirloom from another Don, nor do I want to know how you managed to fuck it up if you say you had it so well planned. All I know is that my phone is ringing off the hook, and guess who is calling?” I shook my head. “Giovanni.” I swallowed hard as my father said the Don of Don’s was calling. He never reached out to my father personally.

“Shit.”

“Shit? That’s all you have to say?” My father marched behind his desk and slammed a crystal glass down before he filled it with a dark whiskey. He drank it down like it was water before pouring himself another.

“Father, I swear, I wasn’t trying to damage our family name. I was only trying to solidify our position and give us more of a voice at the table. I only wanted to make you proud of me.”

“What you wanted to do and what you have done are vastly different. You will leave here tonight. You are no longer an Esposito. I am ashamed of you, Angelo. This family will be lucky if we are not all found floating in the ocean by morning. Leave. Take whatever money you have and go, but you are not welcome here.”

“Father….” I started as his phone rang again, and he held it up to show Giovanni’s name.

As my father answered the phone, Dario grabbed my arm and pulled me from the room. What the hell just happened? I had a great plan that wouldn’t hurt anyone and would make my family proud. Instead, I no longer had a home.

Anger brewed in my stomach as my eyes met Dario’s. He was speaking, but I had no idea what he said.

“We need to leave. I secured us a jet out of Italy, and I’ve already packed your bag. Come on, we need to go before the men sent to collect us arrive.”

“How?”

“I had to use the leverage we have on Giovanni to make this happen, but we have our way out and we need go before the window closes,” Dario whispered.

“Are you coming with me?”

Dario glared at me as we marched down the hall. “Don’t ask me stupid questions. Of course I am. Your rank was never why I chose to be your friend or agreed to be your personal guard. Where you go, I go. Until I draw my last breath.”

Enzo waited in his car when we walked outside, and I stopped to turn and stare up at the mansion that had been my home for the last twenty-three years. I didn’t even know where to go from here. The shock of being banished was starting to lift, leaving me chilled to the bone. I’d ruined everything. My greed, my need to improve the family and the desire to win back the love of my life had spurred me into action, and now I’d been stripped of everything I held dear. I was going to be forced to leave behind the one person that had ever held my heart. Everything I’d fought for and done had been for naught. I could already see the looks on the other Don’s faces when they heard what I’d done, humiliation filling me.

“Come on, get in.” Dario pointed into the car, and I slid inside, trying to picture my life without this place or my family. I was no longer Angelo Esposito, underboss, and I had no idea who I was without the title. What had I done?

Chapter Two

JASMINE

FIFTEEN YEARS EARLIER

AGE 6

“Papa, do I have to go?” I sat in the large chair in my papa’s office and played with the hem of my dress.

“Mia Bambolina, why do you not want to go to school?” I lifted my shoulder in a shrug. “You like the other girls, yes? Gemma, Ada, Rosa? You talk about them all the time.”