Read Online The Heart of an Assassin by Tony Bertot - Free Book Online

assumed the FBI and most government
agencies had been too consumed with the ongoing investigation of
the assassination of President Kennedy, which occurred in November
of the previous year.
    Felicia felt a lot of dirt could be swept
under the rug without the FBI’s intervention at this time. However,
though Felicia and Fabio knew that the FBI could not pin anything
on the Giordano family, they decided to call for a truce with any
remaining families. “Why push our luck?” Fabio stated, with which
Felicia agreed.
    While skeptical and mistrustful of the
Giordano enterprise, the truce was accepted by all. As a result,
the businesses owned by the Costellino family were turned over to
the Giordano family. The San Francisco families divided up the
businesses in Chicago, while the Giordano family took complete
control of the businesses in New York.
    The family sold their East Hampton estate and
moved to Bristol, New Jersey, (approximately seventy-five miles
from New York) where they purchased fifty acres of prime real
estate. The new home was built with state of the art surveillance
equipment as well as a twenty-four-hour armed security force whose
numbers could only be estimated at fifty or better. Felicia knew
they had made a lot of enemies, and it would take some time before
they could root them out and/or turn them.
    During that period, she had tried to
incorporate the help of Nick Costello. It wasn’t until the third
try that she finally got a response. Nick explained to Felicia that
he had been away on assignment and could not be reached. He also
told her that he would be unable to accept any assignments for a
few years because of previous commitments.
    “Years!” shouted Felicia into the phone.
    “Yes, I will contact you when I am once more
available. Good-bye,” Nick calmly responded and hung up.
    Felicia was beside herself. She was used to
calling the shots, not being treated as if she didn’t matter, or
told what to do or to be. She gave the orders and people
jumped.
    How dare he brush me away like that, she
thought. Could he have been hurt, or worse identified? What if he
was identified? No one would dare to come forward. Not if they
thought he was working for us. Who the hell is Nick Costello,
anyway?
    Felicia decided to mount her own
investigation as to the real identity of Nick Costello. An
investigation that took five years only to find that there were a
few thousand Nick Costellos in the United States, not to mention
more than a few thousand out of Sicily and Italy. None of the
hundreds she pushed to investigate proved viable. Nick Costello
remained a mystery, a ghost or phantom who came and went as he saw
fit.
    Though Felicia felt more secure in her
mansion, the thought that Nick Costello was still out there haunted
her for months afterward. She knew his style and technique were
beyond her ability and man power to overcome. He was fluid and
swift. He worked alone, thus, enabling him the ease with which to
move undetected and undeterred. The ball was and always would be in
his court, and she did not like the rules of his game. She wanted
to own, to harness, to control what was beyond her reach. She knew
too well that she needed, but could never trust, Nick Costello, the
bastard.
    After conferring with her brother on how she
felt, Fabio was able to convince Felicia that even though they now
lived in a more secure environment unknown to the assassin, if Nick
Costello wanted to come after her, for any reason, there really
wasn’t much they could do about it. However, Nick had saved both of
their lives, so why would he come after them? This put Felicia at
ease somewhat, but not totally. Nick would find them if he so
wished.
    The last twenty years had taken their toll on
Felicia. She made many enemies on that fateful day back in ’64. As
a result, there had been several attempts on her and her brother’s
lives. But now things had calmed down; with little threat from any
of the newly created families, it was