1
TOMMASO
There seems to be a never-ending fountain of conflict in Tessari, Italy. That’s how it’s always been, and how it will always be. My family is one of the reasons any sort of order is kept. There are people who would say that our presence is the reason for the chaos, but I know the truth. Without us, the wolves would be hunting every single night for fresh meat, and no one would be there to protect the mice.
Perhaps we’re the wolves ourselves, but we keep our enemies out of our territory. We take what is ours, and keep others from claiming it.
The winter months are nearly behind us, and the sun is staying out longer. So much time has passed with my brother Carmine delaying our mission that fucking spring is almost here.
“I feel like a sitting duck,” I tell him as we stand in the boardroom of our family estate. “You’ve come up with nothing that we didn’t already know in the last few weeks. It’s time for me to go get some intel.”
“No, Tommaso,” Carmine insists. “You’re too hot-headed and you know it. You’ll get yourself into trouble before we’ve had the chance to even observe the Bianchi family for a full month.”
“Observing…fuck that,” I growl out my words. “What is observing getting us? Absolutely nothing. They’re watching us, we’re watching them, and we’re both on edge. We need to end this war before it even starts.”
“How exactly would you suggest we do that?” Soren, Carmine’s boyfriend, asks me.
I’m surrounded by men who all seem to want to work against me. All of my brothers—Carmine, Alessio, Tiberi, and the youngest, Cassian. They all have their own interest in this mess, but none of them seem to be willing to put in the work.
“The underground operatives in San Damiano have more information on the Bianchis; I know it,” I explain. “They have eyes everywhere, and I know a few of them. They owe me.”
“How do we know that they won’t turn on you?” Alessio asks. His boyfriend, Damian, stands nearby as well, working as a guard for us these last few weeks. He’s a shadowed presence that I rarely notice.
“They have too much to lose. They don’t want to get on our bad side,” I tell them.
“Wait, if they have information about the Bianchis, they probably have information about us too, right?” Nikolas, Soren’s cousin asks from the corner of the room.
He’s just a kid, barely sixteen years old, but Carmine insists on preparing him for the life we live by having him involved in these discussions. At first I thought it was a good idea, but I’m quickly questioning that.
“Yes, probably,” I admit. “Even better that I go talk to them. I can make sure they’re keeping their mouths shut.”
“First you say it’s about getting information about the Bianchis, now it’s about making sure they don’t talk about us… How do you know they’ll even talk to you then?” Cassian asks me, a look of doubt on his face that makes my blood boil.
I throw my hands up and huff. “Look if you can’t trust me to do my job then what the fuck am I even doing here?” I ask everyone. “The whole reason I have contacts with the operation in San Damiano is because you, Carmine, decided it was a good idea for me make nice with them three years ago. Father was still alive then. It wasn’t your call. He didn’t want me to. You were the one who supported me going against his word and doing it anyway.”
“Things are different now,” Carmine says. “We have to be careful. We’ve lost quite a few people over the last couple of months.”
“And we gained dozens more when Soren signed over the Fiorelli family to you,” I remind him. “Since when do we just sit on our asses being careful instead of getting the job done?”
Carmine sighs. “Just give me another week, Tommy. We need to find out just how closely the Bianchis are watching us before I let you go hunting and get more people involved.”
“Son of a bitch,” I hiss. “You don’t understand. We’re already in deep. If the Bianchis want our ass, they’re gonna get it. We gotta fight back, not stand in the way.”
“I understand your concern—” Carmine starts but I cut him off.
“You can miss me with that understanding my concern crap. You don’t treat Alessio this way; he’s your second in command. But I’m lower on the totem pole, huh? Well, if you can’t trust me, so fucking be it.” I glare at him and everyone in the room before I turn around and head for the door.
“Tommaso,” Tiberi says my name, but I ignore him. My blood is pumping through my veins hot and fast.
All in a second I send my fist into the wall beside the entry way to the room and feel the crack of stone against my knuckles.
“Let him go, he needs to cool down,” Carmine mumbles.
He’s right. If I stay here, I’m going to get into a fight with someone and no one wants that. Killing one of my brothers is something I want to do on a damn near daily basis, but it’s not something that I want to live with afterward.
I stomp out of the room with blood dripping from my knuckles onto the floor. You would think the first place I’d head to would be the bathroom to get my fist cleaned up, but no, I grab my leather jacket and head out of the estate entirely.
The cool wind of the evening helps settle me ever so slightly as I step out onto the porch and suck in a deep breath. I wipe off my hand on my jeans and pull my keys out of my pocket before heading for the massive garage that accompanies the estate.
