Working as a bodyguard years ago, I found myself sitting in a car, in the driveway of a house protecting a family from a 'bomb' threat... It was dark and wet. I had another guy with a shotgun inside the house, sitting on the couch watching television in the wee hours of the morning; probably munching on popcorn, unless he fell asleep.
In those days, we didn't have the luxury of cell phones to text each other with.
'r u sleeping up there or what?'
'naw just watching tv'
'yeah right...hows that popcorn?'
'i ain't got no popcorn'
'yeah...right'
'the lady only gave me some pretzels'
(That's probably how a two or three o'clock in the morning conversation goes these days, in similar situations)
So, there I was in the driveway facing the street, with a 38 Special in my lap, waiting for a guy to come along and throw a bomb at me... That's when I had an awakening..."What the 'fuck' am I doing here...I better move to the road"
I wondered if the guy in the house was having an awakened moment too...? He was a sitting duck inside of that place; toast if someone threw a bomb before I could shoot him...
In my mind, I played it out like this: A car would come crawling, slowly down the street...I'd sneak my car door open a wee bit, and slip out in a crouch until they got within good shooting range; then I'd blast them...
Eventually, I decided to leave the car in the driveway as a deterrent, and hide behind some shrubbery in the front yard instead; I felt safer out in the open...the rain had stopped, and it was nice and warm outside.
The thing that bothered me the most was, inside of that house was someones wife and kids...innocents...
One of the rules of the Mob was, you 'never' whacked a guy in front of his family, by a church and certainly, never hurt their family. So, even though I didn't know who wanted this guy dead, I knew it wasn't the Italians...not the guys I knew...they had an unbreakable code of honor.
Another thing you couldn't do back in the day, was to leave your wife for another woman...not if you were 'in' so to speak. It all had to do with the 'vow'... "Till death do I part, so help me God" Simply put...if you broke a vow, any vow...you could never be trusted ever again.
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The Mob took their vow seriously; the Omerta...It was blood in...blood out...It wasn't just a Hollywood movie thing; it was real.
If you left your wife, you not only broke a vow, but you left her to fall prey to another man who she might casually mention things to, who didn't need to hear them. She might mention names, places...things you did...and with who you did them. We always tried to be discreet as possible about our work, but sometimes a wife sees and hears things.
Anyway...nobody came with a bomb that night, and we moved the family to a safe location later in the day. The wife and kids still needed protection for awhile afterwards, and I was happy to oblige, along with a few other guys, until the threat was neutralized; if you know what I mean...
That's it for now...I'm outta here my friend; see ya when I see ya.
Ciao