“Watch and learn.”
When my father died by my mother’s hand, I shed tears of pain and loss, while hating her. Grief stricken; my brother Lorenzo, had held himself together like the proper made man he was yet went out of his way to comfort me. In a matter of minutes, he’d become the father I’d just lost.
I was eleven then.
When my oldest brother, Mateo, died, my life took a turn for the worse. For twelve days I was alone in my misery, only because Lorenzo, by my mother’s hand, was prevented from consoling me. Slowly, I died on the inside until nothing, but a walking corpse remained.
I was thirteen then.
When I lost my best friend, my soul crashed too. The nightmares were easier to handle than the grief. I’d cried for three months, hating anything and everything, slowly losing my compassion. Once more, Lorenzo became my conscience, reminding me to keep living, to keep breathing and most importantly to believe in fate. Weirdly, I did. It made my days bearable.
I was fourteen then.
For the next twenty-two years, I stared death in the face many times without flinching. I didn’t feel, I didn’t love, I didn’t care. Through it all, Lorenzo became my one constant, neverletting me forget he was always there for me. He’d become my father, my brother, my friend, my family and the only man who I’d allow to dictate my fucked-up life.
So, when anyone with balls big enough took the liberty to threaten him, I made sure they’d regret it.
Once we reached the basement, I paused at the entrance to the massive entertainment arena consisting of blackjack and poker tables, half-naked girls pole dancing or having one of their holes fucked and headed for the cigar lounge. Immediately, five women approached, baring their assets as if they could easily charm a fucker like me.
Ignoring them, I continued down the passage toward the main room. There, two suited guards nodded their greetings, each pulling open a large black door. Inside, I scanned the sea of faces, finding Tony Manetti, my mother’s nephew and the fucker I’d made the special trip to see.
“Stay here and keep your eyes open.” I motioned for Gian to wait at the entrance.
He nodded, opening his jacket to give him easy access to his gun as I walked further into the room. Shrouded in soft yellow lighting, a misty haze of smoke and a ton fuck of brown furniture, this place catered only to dons and their underbosses, no soldiers.
So when Tony, who ranked nowhere close to those titles, spotted me heading in his direction, he shot up from his seat, the color draining from his face. My gaze shifted, taking in the long wooden table in front of him, cluttered with various firearms and stacks of cash. A middle-aged man with a hardened face and sharp eyes, standing opposite Tony, glanced over his shoulder at me.
Emin Agassi, the Armenian mobster whose brother I’d killed a year ago. Tony came around the table to Emin’s side and whispered something to the older man. By the flare of Emin’seyes, I guessed my stupid as fuck cousin just told him I’d offed the man’s brother. I hoped for Tony’s sake, he also told him how I did it. With my bare hand around the fucker’s neck.
“Hey, Remo,” Tony greeted, holding out a hand as I reached them.
“What’s scum like you doing in a place like this?” I ignored his hand, my tone dripping sarcasm.
He bit the corner of his mouth, knowing better than to argue, but I didn’t miss his arrogant smirk he quickly tried to hide behind a smile. “I was invited,” he offered, his gaze slipping to Emin.
Teeth grinding, the burly man’s dark eyes declared war on my soul. At his rear, two heavies, legs planted wide, their shoulders suggesting hostility, moved their hands to their holstered guns. They didn’t draw, yet.
“Hmm.” Disregarding them, I rubbed a hand along my jaw, glaring at my cousin. “So, you want to tell me what happened to Hector’s delivery?” He paled, his eyes jumping to Emin again. “Don’t fucking look at him, Tony.” I clenched my fists or risked killing the bastard before he had a chance to explain shit. Emin’s men stepped forward. “You boys seriously don’t want to fuck with my patience.”
Either the look on my face convinced him it was in his best interest to stop them or my reputation preceded me, Emin quickly shouted something in his language and his men backed away.
“You were saying?” I brought my gaze back to my cousin.
“I didn’t have much of a choice. I was ambushed.” He pointed to the red splotch on his brow and a cut on his lip, reminding me of a kid who’d experienced his first school fight.
Silently, I studied the fucker, watching him squirm. Hands at his sides, he shifted from foot to foot, his thumbs and forefingers tapping a steady beat. Four years older than me, he was eighteenwhen he assaulted a girl at a family gathering and tried to blame it on me. I beat the shit out of him and knocked out his two front teeth, forcing him to have them replaced with implants. After that, he made sure to steer clear of me.
“Either you’re as dumb as the first day you sucked your mother’s tits, or you think my brother is?” When Lorenzo mentioned Tony had accompanied the driver delivering Hector’s consignment, I knew he’d not only played us, he’d cut a deal with someone to sell the white powder. His first mistake was allowing Hector to threaten Lorenzo. His second was assuming that crying ambush would make me feel pity.
He dragged a hand down his face, his eyes darting around the room, a telltale sign of his anxiety. “Fuck, man, I should’ve been–”
“Honest?”
Emin moved closer to him and that somehow gave my cousin the inspiration to be a overenthusiastic idiot.
“I’m not under the Rossi empire anymore, Remo.” Tony puffed out his chest, squaring his shoulders as if his scrawny frame could intimidate me. “I have friends in higher places now, so you can quit being all important because I no longer give a shit and I’m not about to kiss yours or Lorenzo’s ass.”
My hand snapped out so quickly the fucker barely had time to evade it before I grasped his neck and faceplanted him to the table. “Who the fuck do you think you’re talking to?” I seethed, pressing his cheek to the solid wood hard enough to turn his skin an unhealthy red. “I will rip your fucking cock out your mouth and have you re-ingest it, just to taste what a useless fucking dick you are.”
