Previously---

I walked in and was relieved to see people. The relief was short lived though as I saw what all the men had their eyes trained on.

A tv screen was on and had a man strapped to a chair. His face was bloody, bruised, and swollen. His clothes were torn and splattered with blood as well.

I wouldn't have recognized him if I hadn't knowing him my entire life. A loud gasp escaped my lips as he lifted his head and I was staring straight into the eyes of my father. -------------------------------------------------------

All the heads in the room swiveled to face me, but my eyes stayed glued to the screen front of me horrified at the sight.

"Dad." I whispered and covered my mouth.

"Jessica. What are you doing in here?" Joseph said standing in front of me efficiently blocking my view of the tv screen.

I ignored his question and asked one of my own. "What the hell is that?" I questioned pointing to my bloody father behind him. "What is going on?!" I yelled and looked around the room. All the other men in the room looked down at the ground to avoid my eyes.

"Jess, why don't you sit down and we can,-"

"No!!" I yelled cutting him off. "I will not sit down. I want you to tell me why my father is being tortured!" My panic was rapidly transforming into anger.

"Hey look at me." He gripped my chin and pulled my face to look him in the eyes. "It's alright we're handling everything. You're dad is going to be alright.

I opened my mouth to speak when I heard a voice on the tv. "Joseph buddy you there?" I narrowed my eyes at the man speaking on the tv. He had tanner skin, dark brown maybe black hair with little specks of gray here and there, and for an old man he didn't have many wrinkles.

Joseph mumbled under his breath before heading over to his desk and picking up the phone dialing a number. "Ramono you son of a bitch let him go." Joseph growled over the phone.

"Oh yea you know I don't think I will. You have two of my men, well actually one now considering you killed one of them." He said it so calmly like the fact that one of his dying didn't bother him at all. "Plus it's been so long since I tortured someone. I don't really want this to end." He said gleefully.

"You sick bastard! You let him go or I swear to,-" Joseph was cut off by the man on the screen, Ramono.

"Ah ah Joe I don't really think you're in the position of making threats, do you?" He said tsking his tongue and walking around my father putting his hands on the back of the chair he was strapped to.

"I have one of you're men too Ramono I can do the same things to him you've done to Richard." Joseph threatened once again.

"Do it." Ramono shrugged. "He is easily replaceable. I fear though that this man is a little more important to you than just any old guy. You can't replace him. He's your pretty little Jessica's daddy isn't he?"

I clenched my fists. I'm sure if we were in a cartoon right now steam would have been coming out of my ears. My dad was there because of me. He wasn't there because we killed one of his men, he was there because Ramono knew that hurting my dad would hurt me and in turn would be hurting Joseph.

"Don't say her name!" Joseph yelled into the phone. He look just as furious as I did.

"Joseph, I'll make you a deal. You give me the girl, and I'll let you're guy go." Ramono said sitting down in a chair of his own.

"You're not a stupid guy Ramono you know I would never do that." Joseph said in voice that made even me scared.

"Well that's too bad Jo. You know I remember when you were a kid you were always so compliant. You did what ever your father asked you to do. What happened to that little Jo?" Romano asked with a cock of his head.

"I grew up. When you knew me my father was alive and you hadn't killed my mother yet. Things have changed Ramono." I couldn't remember a time I had seen Joseph's demeanor so dark. His eyes looked almost black the green was so dark. If I wasn't so worried about my father I would've been worried for him.

"Ah yes your mother. Lovely lady she was." He said looking like he was almost reminessing about the times they'd shared together. "Always thought your father was a lucky man to have her, and then when I had her I realized what a bitch she was." He said a bit angrily showing the first sign of real emotion since the conversation had started.

"Don't you dare speak of my mother like that!" Joseph screamed into the phone. Everyone in the room jumped at the sudden outburst.

Ramono chuckled. "Still a little touchy about the subject I see." He said laughing. If Joseph gripped the phone in his hand any harder it would break. "Anyway back to the business at hand." Ramono pulled a gun out of his suit. "I want the girl. My son has seen her and has a soft spot for her and if you know my son he doesn't got told no."

"Maybe he should more often then." Joseph growled into the phone. "That way he wouldn't take this time as such a disappointment." If the situation weren't so serious I would've laughed at the remark. "Oh he'll still get what he wants whether it's today, tomorrow, or a year from now he will have her." I cringed at the thought of being in his presence, let alone his son that I had never met that apparently had a thing for me.

"Well then he'll have to wait for awhile because she's not going anywhere."

"Hmm what a shame. Richard was it? He seemed like a good man." Ramono raised the gun to my fathers head and switched the safety off.

"NO!!" I screamed and covered my mouth in horror when the trigger was pulled. Blood was splattered everywhere. My knees buckled underneath me. Tears fell freely from my eyes as I watched his head fall forward.

"Ah little Jessica is listening." Obviously hearing my scream. "Well let this be a warning for you. I'm coming, and I don't loose."

Just before the screen connection went dead I heard Joseph whisper into the phone "I will ruin you Ramono." Then the screen went black and we lost sight with the evil man along with my father.

"No." I whispered shaking my head rapidly. "No. This can't be happening." I said salty tears wetting my cheeks. My heart felt like it had been ripped from my chest and stomped on a couple of times and then put back in my chest damaged and broken.

I felt arms wrap around me I could tell who it was just by the way he held me. "No! No get off me." I said thrashing around in his arms. "How could you let this happen?! You said you were handling it! He's dead Joseph! He's dead!" I sobbed and collapsed into his chest. I gripped his chest. I knew it wasn't fair to blame him but I didn't know what else to do, who else to blame besides myself, and I was already feeling the weight of that.

"You are all dismissed." He said quietly to the other men in the room. They all left swiftly shutting the door behind them.

I couldn't stop the sobs that racked through my body. I felt like I couldn't breath and was gasping for breath in between each sob.

It took a good hour before my eyes couldn't produce anymore tears. I sat numb in Joseph's arms while he rubbed circles in my back and caressed my head.

"It's my fault Joseph. It's my fault. If it weren't for me my dad wouldn't have even been there." I said withholding any emotion, so I sounded eerily calm.

"Hey." He gripped my jaw and pulled my face up to look at him. "It'll be ok. We'll get through this together." I had never heard or seen him be so gentle before. Not when I drowned, not when we talked about his family, never. He looked like he was just as devastated by the death of my father, minus the tears. "Don't blame yourself. There was never anything you could have done." He said and pulled me closer to him.

I relaxed in his arms not at all feeling better, but I was glad I didn't have to go through it alone. It was amazing to me that Joseph had hundreds of people working for him and yet he took the death of my father seriously. Like an actual member of his own family had died. He treated everyone like they were irreplaceable and in the midst of all the emotions that were running through me I found a way feel joy that I knew him.