All Is Fair

The burial site was teeming with people in black. No one said a word as the casket was lowered six feet down, never to see the light of day again. The wind blew through the open graveyard, tossing hair like dust in the wind, and drying the tears that were streaming down faces, watching silently as a young man was lowered to never rise again.

With every second of the lowering process, Toni felt like her heart was sinking with it. She felt like her blood was freezing over in her veins as her eyes water; the salt did not spill over, though. The nineteen year old would wait until she was alone in her room to cry, to weep for the fallen family member.

Never before had Toni Paziali felt a pain so sharp. A steel cold knife had made home in her heart, spreading out and piercing through her. She felt like she was slowly sinking in the coldest water of the coldest river, pain all over her body. All because Gabriel was gone now. He was a phantom, just another name in the paper.

The girl’s blue eyes flicked up. She saw other members of her family looking down at the grave with tears streaming down their faces, small mementoes of Gabriel’s passing. Licking her lips, she looked up at the sky, blue as ever. It was the same blue as her brother’s eyes, the eyes that the light had left.

Anger raged inside of Toni as well as sadness. Her brother had been murdered. In the life of a mafia member in New York, you learned to live with the idea of loss, and you had to grasp that sometimes things like this would happen. But Gabriel Paziali was the son of the strongest mafia family in town, he was supposed to be untouchable.

But they had killed him. Though they didn’t have much proof of what happened that night, or who pulled the trigger, the only person who would have shot Gabe and sent him to his grave that night was a member of the Moretti family, an opposing, very strong, and very established mafia family.

The two families had been shoving one another to be the top of the totem pole for years, but neither could beat out the other. For a long time now, they had reached an impasse, trying to live cohesively. But now it seemed they were trying to get a one-up by killing one of the most important members of the Paziali trade. And they were enraged.

A hand slipped into Toni’s, which made her realized a tear had escaped her eye. She wiped it with the other hand quickly, but looked up at her adoptive brother Louis. Louis Tomlinson had come to be Toni’s brother at age seven, when his parents had died. Toni’s mother wanted another child, but it seemed that it was not in the cards for her. So she found a broken boy with nothing, and gave him a home.

Toni squeezed Louis’s hand. His big blue eyes held a silent rage laying in wait for the family that had taken their brother. Louis loved Gabrielle more than anything as well. Gabe had been one year his senior, and had gave Louis the big-brother role that he needed. His passing was hard on Louis in a very different way than it was for Toni.

When the dirt began being placed over the grave, Toni’s mother lost it. Caroline Paziali was a strong woman, but she broke at seeing her own son vanishing. Toni extended her hand and latched onto her mothers. It was all she could give her, because her father was standing right behind them, still as a statue and cold as ice.

Nico was a very loving father. But at that moment in time, he was showing that he would not let emotion get the best of him. He would not let the Moretti’s reduce him to tears, and he certainly would not acknowledge the emotional breakdown his wife was having in public. He was brought up to believe that you had to save tears for the pillow, or not at all.

When the service was over, Toni and Louis ignore the hesitating family members, going straight to the sleek black Tahoe. The windows to the car were extremely dark, near impossible to see in as Toni slipped in the drivers seat, turning the car on. For a moment they sat in the car in silence.

“What’s the address?” Toni asked, looking at her brother next to her. He glanced at his phone, his eyes scanning over the scrawled paper in his hands. “Hopefully Adrian got the address right, this time. I don’t want dad yelling at me because we’re late for a stupid meeting.”

Louis listened to her light voice, touched with an accent only identifiable as New York. “I can’t read this fucking handwriting. Honestly.”

Toni took the paper, her eyes scanning over it before she threw it into the back seat, making a disgusted noise. She did not want to deal with these idiots today, so against her better judgment, she pulled her phone out, dialing a number. When Louis gave her a questioning look, she said, “I’m not dealing with these idiots today. Someone else can take care of it.”

“Dad is-“

“Dad has to deal with a million other things,” she interrupted, waving his warnings off. Toni did not care how angry her father would be. All she had to do was break down about Gabe, and he’d blow it off. Maybe. “And if he threatens me, you know what I’ll do.”

Louis shrugged and looked out the window while Toni barked orders on the phone for the men under her to go to the meeting with one of the smaller families in town. She had no idea what or where it was, but she told them to figure it out themselves.

Driving away from her brothers grave, a knot formed in her throat. “I’m taking you to your house. I’m going to run some errands of my own.” Louis began shaking his head, not wanting her on her own any where, but she put up her hand. “Bother me one more time about going out by myself, an I’m going to shove my foot up your ass.”

*

The burn of whiskey went down Toni’s throat, not for the first time that night. The girl sat alone at the bar, drinking away the thoughts that were plaguing her, targeting her brain like a dart game. Licking her lips, she shook her head, knowing that this wasn’t working. Somehow she knew that it wasn’t going to work, that alcohol wasn’t a Mr. Clean magic eraser.

Setting the glass back down on the dark, wood bar, she slid the cup towards the bartender, a family friend. He let her drink whenever he was here, seeing as her father protected his bar from people wanting to steal or anything of the sort. He paid Nico for protection in money and by letting various members spend their days there.

Throwing cash down, Toni stood up to leave. The bar owner took the money and tossed it back at her, shaking his head. He gave her a sad smile and said, “On the house, kid. Careful when you walk to the car. You’re dad will have my head if something happens to you out there.

Though Toni did not like the sympathy, she gave him a smile and nodded once, thanking him. She exited the rowdy bar, stepping outside the back door where there were a few men smoking, as she searched for keys in her purse, only looking up in disgust when one wolf whistled at her. “Oh please,” she scoffed, looking back in her purse as she walked by. “Choke on that cancer stick of yours, will ya?”

“Well, well,” another called, pushing himself off the wall and taking a step towards her. She stiffened, not believing her eyes when she saw that two of them were advancing on her. They had no idea what was coming for them. “Feisty, huh? I love girls like that.”

“If you know what’s good for you, you’ll stay your ass on that wall.”

“I don’t think so.”

The bigger of the two reached out for her but Toni was faster, her closed fist connecting with his jaw so fast that he barely had time to blink before he was stumbling backwards, the tears assaulting his eyes as he clutched his nose, hollering into his hands.

Though her hand hurt, Toni snickered, shaking her head. The other man paused before knowing what to do, but it seemed that Toni wasn’t going to have to hit him over all. Someone had come out the back door and snatched him away from her, shoving him towards the other man.

Toni watched with raised eyebrows as the tall boy, hardly older than herself looked at him, turning his back on her. “So you like being rough with women?”

“Fuck off,” the first man spat, swinging on him. The boy dodged it easily and returned the swing, hitting the man directly in the face and knocking him on the ground completely before he was on the other man, scrupling until he had thrown him on the ground.

“Yeah,” the boy said as they both lay there, out of breath and in pain. “Don’t touch her. Other wise you might not be happy that you did.”

Licking her lips, she blinked as her savior turned around. He was much taller than she was, with beautiful features and green eyes the haunting color of jade emerald glinting somewhere in the shadows. His curls were brushed out of his head, and he licked his pink lips, giving her a bit of a smirk.

“Am I supposed to thank you?” she asked, turning and moving to her car once more. He followed, catching up to her easily and matching his strides. The smell of cologne was coming off of him in gentle, lapping waves, filling her nose. “Because I was actually quite alright.”

“Oh I know you were,” he answered in a deep voice. It matched his handsome exterior perfectly. “Nice right hook. Reminds me of one I’ve seen before.”

Toni slowed, looking at him through narrowed eyes. He grinned at her, and she got the sense that he knew who she was. She couldn’t say she had ever seen him, because she certainly would have remembered a face like his. “Who are you?”

“A knight in shinning armor.”

“Damn, it’s a shame I’m not a damsel in distress.”

Toni turned around, unlocking the car and opening the door. He held it open as she got in, earning a pointed look from her. “You can call me Harry Styles. Can I call you?”

Toni’s blood went frigid in her veins, a sharp breath entering her lungs. She clutched her keys very tightly, knowing the name. Rage worked it’s way up her throat like lava in a volcano, spilling over. “Go fuck yourself. In fact, go to whatever you want while you’re alive.”

He laughed, despite the threat. It seemed he had expected that much. “Any other words, now that you know who I am?”

She frowned at his easy going personality. “Yeah, you hit like a little girl.”

Harry grinned and closed her door, giving her a bit of a wave as he turned around and left. Toni started the car and sat there, confused. At first she thought maybe he was there to harm her, but if he wanted too, he would have. He wouldn’t have stopped those two men, either. So why’d he help her when she was the enemy?

“Ah hell,” she cursed, turning off the car and opening the door. “Styles!”