One of the men tentatively said, "Boss...you shouldn't go down there."
The Don nodded. He didn't care. "My son's waiting for me, boys. I want to go see him. Right now."
Then: stumbling footsteps were heard, distant. Coming up the steps...then down the hall. Toward the study room. Toward Nico.
And Guido entered, with a woman dragging him in front of her. She held one of his arms behind his back, and her other arm was wrapped around his throat. All four soldiers around Nico brought up their guns, ready to fire. The woman kicked the back of one of Guido's legs behind the knee, forcing him into a kneeling position on the carpet. She smoothly let go of both his arm and neck and placed her hands on the sides of his head, took hold of it and almost covered his face. She gave a slow twist that made Guido yell out in pain. She was ready to break his neck.
Nico, for his part, was stunned. "Guido -- !"
"Pop," Guido said in a strangled voice. "Pop...I-I'm sorry!" With desperate eyes, he looked at the guards. "She...she ain't packin'! Just fuckin' shoot!"
But Guido was in a bad position, all things considered, and the soldiers knew it. They couldn't fire without risking hitting him. One of them spared a glance at Nico, uncertain. "Mister Roccoli?"
Then Yuki spoke to the father of the man at her mercy. "I need a moment of your time. That is all I want."
Boss Roccoli stiffened and flushed with barely-contained fury. "You want some time with me. For what, your fucking funeral? That's exactly what you've got, lady."
The woman looked Japanese, he thought. Yakuza, maybe?
Then she said something that caught Nico off-guard: "I am not here to harm you or your son. I have something to show you."
Nico's mind raced. What the hell does she want from me? The fact he had the queerest feeling in his life...the feeling she was looking not just as him, but into him...
didn't help matters. He finally said, "Let my son go. If you're here to deal with me...
then you goddamn well deal with me. I will not see my son hurt by anybody while I live."
Guido, genuinely afraid for his father: "Pop..."
"You insist on believing I am here to harm you," Yuki said. "Be assured: if I wanted
you dead, you would be. I only need a moment to show you something. That is all.
No tricks. You and your son will not be harmed, I give you my word of honor."
The Don's eyes narrowed at that last statement. "I don't even know you, lady. And you want me to trust you."
Danny Choi stepped into the room behind Yuki and Guido. "You can trust her, Mister Roccoli."
Guido's lips peeled back in a snarl hearing his voice. His father's reaction wasn't much better when he realized, but it was restrained. "I once trusted you, Danny."
"You still can, sir," the enforcer said. "But Yuki requires you."
Nico looked back at the woman. "Yuki," he said. She nodded. "What the fuck do you need me for? At least spell that out."
Yuki's next words didn't make much sense to the Capo Crimini: "Even if I had shown your son, even if he had supported me, you would not have believed. You would not even have believed your own blood. It is not something that can be told to you in words. You must see."
Nico Roccoli gave it a moment of thought...and in the end he did understand, whatever this lady had to show him, if it meant his son wouldn't be harmed... "All right. But any tricks, and you're dead. One word from me, and you're both dead."
"Very well," Yuki said, and she let go of his son. He awkwardly got up off his knees
and stepped away from her quickly. He was sorely tempted to order dad's soldiers to
cap her anyway, but:
"Stay back, Guido," Nico said, stepping slowly toward the woman. "I don't know what her game is...but I'm gonna find out."
Guido was dubious. "Pop, I don't like this shit -- !"
"Just...stay back." Boss Roccoli turned to his enforcers. "Remember: I say the word, kill them."
Nico and Yuki converged in front of his desk. She stepped up to him until she was barely more than a foot away. Guido tensed up...he knew she could do anything to his father from that kind of distance, but a warning glance from Nico kept him where he was.
Then Nico looked at Yuki. She looked back at him...and into his eyes. Nico looked back into hers, not understanding what the hell she meant by showing him something, telling him she had something for him to see. He opened his mouth to say as much --
And then it happened.
His mouth stayed open as he looked into Yuki's deep brown eyes...his own eyes showed surprise and total confusion. His jaw worked slowly...unsure...and then he managed to say, "What...what in the name of...?"
Guido, with alarm: "Pop?"
Surprise and confusion turned to fear. His head shook very slowly...fear deepened for Nico until it became a numbing terror so profound it seemed to palpably hang about his being like a shroud. "Oh, my God...oh..."
His son shouted, "Pop?!?"
"Oh," the Don moaned, and his expression seemed to...break. He trembled; his entire body trembled as if there was a quaking in his very soul. His eyes became as big as saucers and flooded with tears, portals to unthinkable, terrible agony. Agony he gave voice: "Oh...oh, Jesus fucking...CHRIST! I-I-I..." Yuki placed her hands on both sides of his face, her eyes never leaving his. "IT CAN'T...OH GOD, IT CAN'T...
uuaa-AAAHHH!" Nico fell to his knees, but Yuki stayed with him. Her eyes never left his.