Page 1 of At The End Of The Day

Chapter 1

Vincent da Silva

Friday 8.16.2019

My best friend wanted me dead. It was a very difficult pill to swallow, knowing he was hunting me down, plotting my death which would more than likely involve some sort of torturing. Since I was barely twelve years old, that man had been my most trusted confidant. I would die for him. Now I was going to die because of him.

As a child, I never gave much thought to my life as a grown up. Living under the hateful thumb of my stepfather, I had been reminded on a daily basis I had no future, I would never amount to anything. Having that drilled into my head by the time I was six years old pretty much snubbed out any potential I could have had to be a normally functioning member of society one day.

Constantly being compared to my little sister who was going to one day rule the world had been difficult. I’d never harbored any hard feelings toward her, for she was innocent. If anything, I supported the rickety pedestal everyone placed her on, even at my own expense. Sometimes, it was my spine, my blood, sweat, and tears, that kept that unstable base on sturdy grounds. Growing up with a whore as a mother and a drunken father in one of the worst neighborhoods in Mobile, Alabama, we didn’t exactly have the resources needed to be successful at our fingertips, so whenever something got rocky, I was the one who stepped in to save the day. Even if no one knew.

I was the one who sometimes kept the electricity on at the trailer. I put food in that house. I paid for Violetta’s needs at school. When Mom was busting her ass and working herself down to the bones being a janitor at the hospital so Dad could sit at home and suck the insides of liquor bottles dry, real-life necessities sometimes got overlooked. So, at the young age of eleven, I went out and did whatever I had to bring money to the home.

Being so young, legit jobs weren’t available, so I improvised where needed. Within no time, I had become a very stealth pick pocketer, I’d learned to swipe bracelets or watches from people without them ever suspecting a thing. I’d figured out how to break into homes, bypassing security alarms, to steal laptops or other valuable items I could hock. Whatever means necessary to make sure my little sister was taken care of and had no idea how shitty our parents truly were.

That’s how I met Edoardo Jackson “Jackyl” Bianchi. When Violetta turned six and needed glasses, I knew I had to step up my game, so I’d dared something I’d only thought about. I stole a car. Not just any car, a sixty thousand dollar, brand new Cadilac. I’d heard a few things on the streets about a certain “chop shop” down near Brisbane Avenue, so, at twelve, I’d driven the car out there and took a chance, knowing I would either get my ass killed or bring home the money I needed.

Jackyl saw me coming from a block away. Zigzagging all over the road since I had no idea how to drive, he’d stood on the curb, weight to one leg, arms crossed, and just stared, a toothpick rolling from one corner of his mouth to the other. Nearly hitting him because I’d accidentally hit the gas instead of the brakes, he’d not even budged when the front bumper came within eight inches of his legs, the tires screeching on the asphalt.

Over the next several weeks, he’d taught me how to drive and shoot, and within six months, I’d stolen over three hundred thousand dollars’ worth of vehicles, even going so far as to flat out carjack a few people.

To this day, I have no idea why he so readily took me under his wing instead of beating the shit out of me. Against the protest of other Serpents, he kind of stepped in as my father figure. Being eleven years older, I’d immediately looked up to him, eager to learn whatever he wanted to teach. By the end of the year, I had officially been “welcomed” into the gang at the expense of a few broken ribs, a busted nose, and dislocated shoulder. It could have been worse, at least I hadn’t lost a tooth, like he had. As much as it looked normal on him, I didn’t think I could pull off a gold incisor.

Ever since, he and I had been connected at the hip, hardly ever seen without the other. Everything about the man I was today was thanks to him. I was strong, street smart, financially well off, and not in jail with a twenty-five to life sentence, the exact opposite of the path I’d been heading down before I became a Serpent. So, after being my mentor, my father figure, and then my best friend, it had only made sense when he shifted into brother-in-law status.

Him and my sister falling in love had never once been on my radar during my incarceration when she was a teenager. When he promised to keep an eye on and protect her while I was locked up, him preying on her naivety was the absolute last thing I thought would happen.

How the hell was I supposed to know he’d been grooming her? Literally, since the day I was arrested, he’d been planting himself in her life, chipping away her promising future of one day going to law school one bit at a time until she was so damn dependent on him, she never saw a single red flag. When I initially found out about their relationship, I had been so damn relieved to be out of jail and back in Violetta’s life, I had just swept the warning signs under the rug. It was Jackyl, for christ’s sake! The man who had pretty much saved my life. He was my brother, my best fucking friend, the only true fatherly influence I’d ever had. Why the hell would I even suspect their story had been less than authentic?

Never, once, did I think one day, we’d be here. Locked in a house buried in the woods on the side of a mountain, far from home, hiding. Plotting a way to get rid of him before he could snub us out. Not just me and my sister, but her lover, another Serpent, and my niece and nephew. Jackyl wanted us all dead.

Fate always seemed to find a way to fuck people in the ass sideways when they least expected it. I don’t know if it was a rite of passage, or just for shits and giggles, but it never seemed to fail, just when life was going good – BAM! – a hard dick shoved in the ass raw and dry to remind just who the fuck was in control.

At the end of the day, we were all just pawns for a higher being that seemed to take pleasure in watching us suffer. Now, after twenty years of brotherhood, I was locked and loaded, ready to put a bullet through Jackyl’s eyes. Anything to protect my little sister.

Chapter 2

Vincent da Silva

Saturday 8.17.2019

The Greatest Hits of Tyler Warren pouring through my earbuds filled my brain with words of heartache, love, longing, and disappointment. The whole trip from Alabama to Georgia when I snatched my sister and her kids from under her husband’s nose, she tried to get me to understand why she couldn’t stay away from Tyler, despite it putting a target on her back.

I tried, Vinny, you know I did. You saw me, you saw how much it was killing me. I love him, I can’t explain it. I wanted to forget about him. Jesus, look at everything I did to make this marriage work. He’s not who I belong with.

A sigh pushed through my nostrils, making them flare. If anyone knew about being in love with someone they couldn’t have, it was me. How in the hell could I be angry at her for buckling when I prayed almost every day for the same opportunity? At least Tyler was willing to take a stand. It was more than I could say for Billy.

If I was going to put my life on the line for this son of a bitch, I wanted to know more about him. Would he follow through? Would he be the man my sister needed, or would he walk when things got too hard because Edwina and Eddie were going to give him troubles one day? Those two kids knew who their daddy was and that would never be Tyler Warren.

As his smooth, soulful, raspy voice crooned and infected me with the sorrow he’d felt the last decade, I cursed under my breath and bowed my chin. My elbow on the arm of the chair, I rubbed a temple, the headache that had been tightening my skull the last couple days intensifying. This man was head over heels for Violetta. There wasn’t a doubt in my mind he was in it for life, given the chance.

Which was why I was here, sitting in Dash’s old bedroom. Large enough to fit two normal sized rooms with a full ensuite at the rear, one half was set up for sleeping with a king-sized bed, dresser, and nightstand. The side I was occupying had a wide desk, the wall covered in monitors, each one connected to a different camera that overlooked the entire, twelve acre property.

I huffed and sank further in the chair, crossing my arms while skimming the screens. I was never going to get my chance, so I was going to make damn sure she did. One of us deserved happiness with the love of their life.

I checked the time in the bottom corner of one of the screens and rolled my eyes. It was only two in the morning, and I’d promised Dash I’d take the first night shift so he could get some rest. I still had about four hours left before he got up to take over.

My fingers tapping my sides, I thought about him and what he was going through right now. Just a few days ago, Wads and I buried his wife at the Mobile-Tensaw River Delta. By now, I was sure every trace of her was gone, but he had honestly loved that woman. As long as I’d known him, I’d never seen him so devoted to one person. Hell, he’d even had a kid with her, something he’d sworn he’d never do.