After I saved him from bullies by sheer accident, I began to see his underlying strength over the length of our friendship while he ended up being the only person I trusted with my secrets. Thankfully, he took them to his grave.
Gaze drifting over the expanse of verdant hills and valleys spotted with occasional trees, I inhaled deeply. The peace and quiet here, an absurd contrast to the family raised within the walls behind me, was breathtaking.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Frank came up beside. With his hands in pants pockets, he stared out into distance. “Think you can live here permanently, forget about the mafia world back in the States and make a life here?”
I snorted a laugh and stood. “The second Lorenzo screws his head on straight, I’m out of here,” my words were flippant.
“You need to stop running, my boy.”
Meeting his gaze, I frowned. “Running?”
His expression softened somewhat. “From your past, Remo.”
If he wasn’t a man I respected, my fist would’ve showed him how to get lost. “What makes you think I am?”
He fished a pack of cigarettes from his pants pocket, removed two, lit them and handed me one. After we took a few silent drags, he looked at me, his expression solemn. “You’ve tangoed with your demons for a long time, son and in doing so, you’ve let them take the lead.”
That had me wondering what the fuck he was alluding to. Granted he had an ear to the ground when it came to our family; he knew jack about my demons. “You can’t conquer the demonsyou enjoy fucking,zio.” No way he’d get me to admit defeat even if he’d always been an attentive ear when I was younger.
“True.” He gave me that knowing grin, having faced his fair share of torments. “But sometimes, the only way to fight your demons is to sit them down and propose a reprieve from their own ludicrous miscalculations. Perhaps offer them a bottle of scotch they’ve been dying to taste. You’ll be surprised how nice they’d play, letting you in and just when they begin to trust you, you dissect them into tiny little fuckers not even the best osteologist would be able to piece back together.”
“Great concept.” I watched a puff of smoke curl up toward the sky. “Not everything that is conquered can bring change, though.” My gaze slid back to him.
Dropping his cigarette butt and squashing it with a shoe, he turned fully to face me. “But nothing will change until its conquered, son.”
“Why bother when the bearer of those demons have long ceased to exist?” I dropped the remains of my cigarette and ground a heel into it, my anger surfacing. “What the fuck am I doing here again?” I muttered. “I should be back home, like Rayden says, fucking up more shit.”
“What if they haven’t?” he asked quietly, pulling a frown from me.
“What do you mean?”
“She’s still there, Remo,” he replied so quietly, I thought the wind was playing tricks on my ears.
“Who?” Hackles threatening to explode, I sought confirmation.
“The queen bitch,” his words weren’t much of a bombshell, more a venomous whisper.
Aware my skin must’ve paled with shock, every nerve in my body froze. Not waiting for him to elaborate, I spun on myheels and stormed off, a blazing torrent pissing fire through me, charging my veins with revulsion.
twenty-one
. . .
Remo– 36 years old
If anyone saw me rush through the estate, they would’ve assumed a live bullet was on my ass, yet I never stopped until I reached the secluded basement where no one dared to visit. Our staff were superstitious and believed my mother’s ghost haunted this place. Those were the stories Evelina told me she’d heard when she visited Italy.
A year after Lorenzo took her title, Mother died of a heart attack. Well, that’s what I was told. According to Lorenzo, she couldn’t handle the disgrace.
Remembering how affected I was by his disclosure, how pain filled me to core where hatred should’ve danced, I glared at the metal frame responsible for torturing me and my siblings. Where every transgression received three days of punishment, with no food, water and just the nightmarish darkness as our companion.
My first time here, I screeched like a coward, scraping at the door until my nails bled. My second, I cried for the first two hours and by the third, I’d welcomed the darkness with open arms.
And now, that very door hid from me an impossible lie I’d believed over the last two years. A lie Lorenzo was going to explain before I sucker punched the shit out of him.
My feet heavy, I stepped forward, entered the code into the panel to the side and listened to the dense sounds of the double locks disengaging as the door slowly eased back.
A second or two passed before the lit room registered. This place should be dark, was my first thought. Mother demanded it. No matter how often we cried for her leniency, she remained steadfast in her decision for punishment.
