“Bellino, he was always your father. He did everything with you. I was passed from maid to cleaner to housekeeper. I was never a son. We were never brothers.”
I scoff at him. “So you want nothing from the man who favoured you your whole fucking life, who gave you everything, made you his perfect little boy while he beat and abused me.” I snarl at him.
“I think you have me mistaken, Bellino. I was the one who was abandoned, left out, so you could inherit his empire. Well, I want none of it. It was never mine. He only ever bought me pain. I was always just the fucking spare. The backup plan.” He snarls at me, standing and stepping forward, jabbing his finger at me.
Arianna steps in between us. “Can’t you see? Can’t you see he used you against each other your whole damned lives, and do you know fucking why?”
She doesn’t wait for us to answer. Vittorio is already standing. We’re chest to chest now, and Arianna pushes her hands between us. “Because together you will be unstoppable. Together, we will burn the Syndicate to the ground and take it all for ourselves.
“Why should I trust you?” I spit. Sounding like a broken record, we keep going over the same thing but not knowing how to move forward.
“Who else do you have?” Arianna crosses her arms over her chest, glaring at us both. “We can do this together; we just have to be totally honest. Who else do we have?”
“What makes you think we can work together? What makes you think I want to?” I ask angrily.
“We should at least try.” She places a hand on each of our chests. Me and my brother stare at each other, daring the other to ruin this. We’ve never been close. I’ve never had anyone, but it would be safer to band together to have someone watch my back. For now, anyway.
“You’ll have to prove yourselves. I want total transparency, a vote each, and if you band together against me, I’ll kill you both.”
Arianna nods and smiles. “Then let’s get to work.”
Don’t be fooled, I don’t think this is going to work, but I’ll use them until I have no further need for them. She nods to me to take the seat beside her. She fires up the computer and cracks her fingers.
“Okay, gentlemen. Let’s rob the Syndicate blind, starting with your father.” She taps a few keys, and I stare as she goes into the banking app. “Account numbers, sort codes, passwords—do you have them?”
I nod. I’ve just never known what to do with the information. I’m the muscle. I implement Father’s regime. I’m the cruel one, the screwed up one, the Neanderthal. I’m lethal. But computers, they’re not my thing. She brings up a screen full of numbers, tapping at the keyboard, her massive smile getting bigger and bigger as her fingers fly across the keys.
She gets me to spell out my name, making sure all the details are correct. She adds me as a silent partner, if you will. To all his accounts just floating in the background. She explains that because I’m now on the accounts once he’s gone, then power will automatically transfer to me and everything will be mine—the house, the cars, the money, everything.
“If you double-cross me, I will hunt you down and rip your flesh from your bones with my fucking teeth.” I snarl at her, then glare at my brother. “And you don’t want anything?” I scowl at Vittorio like I’m seeing him for the first time.
“I’m not even a Ricci anymore.” He shrugs.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I’m a Bianchi.” He walks to the side of Arianna and bends, kissing her on the head and smiling. “I took her name. I always hated Father. The beatings, the drowning, the murders, the abuse—all to save you, all to protect you. Well, that’s what he said, anyway. I took the beating, so you didn’t have to. I killed the men who betrayed him. So you didn’t have to. I took the abuse so you could lead one day, and I was supposed to stand by your side and shelter you from the burden. Vittorio Bianchi. That’s my legal name now. We burned her father’s legacy to the ground, and now we’re creating our own.”
“You expect me to believe that? That you did anything for me? That you were… protecting me?” I huff.
“He said all that to me. He made me think you were the special one. The important one. I had to do all those things, so you didn’t have to. But if he made us fucking do it all anyway,then what was it all for? What was even the point? I was eleven when I killed for him the first time.”
“I was ten.” I shake my head. I’m a year older than Vittorio; we should have been close, we should have had each other’s backs, but I feel cheated. “There’s nothing we can do about it now.”
“How about we take him out together?” Vittorio sticks out his hand with a devious smile etched on his face, and we shake on it.
Arianna claps and squeals. “My boys, doing shit together.”
“I’m not your boy,” I snark at her.
“We’ll see.” She grins. Her fingers are still tapping on the keys as she changes God knows what.
“If you screw me over, I will destroy you.”
“Yeah, yeah, not gonna happen, Bellino, we’re gonna be the best of friends, you’ll see. We will be an unstoppable force. We will create our own legacy. Now let’s get the next step of the plan ready.”
“Operation kill the old man,” I smirk. Me and my brother share a look. Even if we destroy him and then each other, it’s a means to an end. We’ve worked together before, so there has been a level of trust. And with that, it shouldn’t be too hard. But I will reserve judgment on Arianna. I don’t know her. I don’t know if I can trust her, but only time will tell.
Leonardo
