Power, Passion, Betrayal, It's All in the Family

The drive back to the mall was a long one, Michaels broken jaw was now wired and patched up. I sat in the back seat of the car next to Tom and Mike, I was also somewhat furious. Tom noticed this and put a hand on my knee and gave me a reassuring smile. When we walked inside Julia who kept saying that she was glad I was all right engulfed me in a hug. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Clemenza, Tom, Tessio and Mike heading down the hall I slipped behind them. Mike noticed and stopped me before going in to talk to Sonny.

“Adriana I don’t think you should come in there.”

“Why not? I have every right to be in there with you guys,” I insisted.

“It’s just that,” he started.

“It’s just that women aren’t supposed to be apart of this. I also know women and children can be careless. But not men, right now I’m going to carelessly give you guys my opinion every so often.”

“Fine just don’t hate any of us in the long run ok,” he responded sighing in the process, “you know you’re going to have to put up with Sonny right?”

“You know I can’t hate you guys plus I’ve seen and heard worse where I grew up, don’t worry about Sonny he knows I got a temper far worse then him.”

He nodded; “true you are about the only person that scares him.”

I then gave him a kiss, “come on lets go.”

The first person we heard when we were entering was that of Sonny.

“Tom-anuch! Hey, a hundred button men on the street twenty-four hours a day. That Turk shows one hair on his ass and he's dead,” he then looked towards Michael, “Michael, come here. Let me look at you. You're beautiful, beautiful, just beautiful,” he then noticed me and was about to say something.

“Sonny just pretend I’m not here, pretend I’m a fly on the wall. A very opinionated fly on the wall. You’ll barely notice I’m here,” I spoke with a smile on my face, he knew not to fight with me. I stood there silently next to Mike who was sitting in a chair watching Tom and Sonny talk.

“Hey, listen to this,” he went back to talking. “The Turk, he wants to talk. You believe the nerve on this son of a bitch? He craps out last night and now he wants to have a meetin'.”

“What did he say?” Tom asked.

“What did he say, badda-beep, badda-boop, badda-boop, badda-beep, he wants us to send Michael to hear the proposition and the promise is the deal is so good we can't refuse. Ha.”

“What about Bruno Tattaglia?” Tom asked in a matter of fact tone.

“Ah, that's part of the deal. Bruno cancels out what they did to my father,” Sonny replied walking over to his father’s desk Tom not far behind.

“We ought to hear what they have to say, Sonny.”

“No, no, no, not this time, Consigliary. No more meetin's, no more discussions, no more Solozzo tricks. You give them a message from I want Solozzo if not it's all out war we go to the mattresses,” Sonny said his temper rising, he closed the cigar case.

“Some of the other families won't sit still for an all out war;” Tom’s temper was starting to match Sonny’s.

“Then you tell them to hand over Solozzo!”

“Your father wouldn't want to hear this, Sonny. This is business not personal,” Tom yelled.

“They shoot my father and it's business, my ass!” Sonny said sitting down.

“Even shooting your father was business not personal, Sonny!” Tom retorted taking a seat a little away from Sonny.

“Well then, business is going to have to suffer. And please, do me a favour, Tom. No more advice on how to patch things up just help me win, please?”

“I found out about this Captain McClusky who broke Mike's jaw,” Tom replied leaning forward in his chair.

“All right, what about him.”

“He's definitely on Solozzo's payroll and for big money. Now, McClusky has agreed to be the Turk's bodyguard. Now what you have to understand, Sonny, is that while Solozzo's being guarded like this he is invulnerable. Nobody has ever gunned down a New York police captain before. It would be disasterous. All the other five families would turn against you. The Corleone Family would be outcast. Even the old man's political protection would run for cover. So, do me a favour, take this into consideration.”

“All right, we wait.”

“You can't wait,” Mike said surprising me.

“What?” Sonny asked surprise in his voice also.

“You can't wait. I don't care what Sollozzo says about a deal he's gonna kill Pop. He has to. It's a key for him. You gotta get Sollozzo.”

“Mikey's right,” Clemenza chimed in.

“All right, Professor,” Sonny said standing up and walking over to Mike and I, “what about McClusky. What do we do with this cop here?”

“They want to have a meeting with me, right? It will be McClusky Sollozzo and me. Let's set the meeting. We get our informants to find out where it's going to be held. Now we insist that it be held in a public place, a bar or a restaurant where there'll be other people there so I'll feel safe. They're going to search me when I first meet them, right? So I can't have a weapon on me. But if Clemenza can figure a way to have a weapon planted for me, then I'll kill them both,” he said receiving and appalled sigh and a glare from me. I received a glance from both of the men in front of me.

Sony started laughing, “what are you gonna do? Nice college boy, didn't want to get mixed up in the family business. Now you want to gun down a police captain. Why? Because he slapped you in the face a little? What do you think this like the Army where you can shoot 'em from a mile away? No you gotta get up like this and, badda-bing, you blow their brains all over your nice Ivy League suit. C'mere,” he then kissed Mike on the head, “you're taking this very personal. Tom, this is business and this man is taking it very, very personal.”

“Where does it say that you can't kill a cop?”

“Come on, Mikey...” Tom replied.

“Tom, wait a minute. I'm talking about a cop that's mixed up in drugs. I'm talking about a - a - a dishonest cop - a crooked cop who got mixed up in the rackets and got what was coming to him. That's a terrific story. And we have newspaper people on the payroll, don't we, Tom?” At this Tom nodded, “and they might like a story like that.”

“They might, they just might.”

“It's not personal, Sonny. It's strictly business.”

Sonny smiled, as did everyone else but me. I had enough and walked out, I was angry, no I was beyond angry. A thousand thoughts went through my head and I couldn’t find an answer to any one of them. I was half way to my house when I heard Sonny call my name. I ignored him but he caught up to me, grabbed my arm and whipped me around.

“Adriana calm down,”

“Sonny why should I right now Michael is going to have more practice shooting at things so he could kill a couple of people.”

“So.”

“So...Things could go terribly wrong, I’ve already lost people I loved and I almost lost another I don’t want to lose him.”

Sonny kissed my forehead, “you know Mike just as well as I do and you know he can take care of himself. Expect him tonight all right, he feels terrible for not talking it out with you.”

“All right tell him I’ll have supper waiting for him,” I then saw the look he gave me, “Sonny say hello to Sandra for me.”

I then walked the rest of the way home, half-heartedly.