AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Dom implements the instruction without question, staring at his GPS. “Next stop is the print shop.” Then my twin ends the call, turning his head to silently let me know that if I’m going to move on this, my brothers are coming with me.
9
My pussycat had better not be awake. If she rouses and I’m in another state, I’ll never forgive myself. I’m supposed to bring her lunch and let her know that she’s moving in with the Moretti men.
And also that Domani might start calling her his sister.
I don’t understand what I’m looking at when Dom hands me the prints that are still warm from the photocopier. “Get Antonio on the phone,” I tell my twin.
Before I can swear at the paperwork again, Dom has Antonio on speaker as we slide into the car. “You’re the reason I’m going to be a pill tomorrow, I hope you know. A sleepless night isn’t good for me, Bruno. Thus, it’s not good for you, either.”
“What the fuck am I looking at, Antonio?”
My middle brother chuckles. “Just get the signature at the bottom before you kill him. I‘ll notarize and file it once you get back. Make sure the body isn’t found for at least a day or two, so we don’t run into any bureaucratic red tape.”
“I still don’t get it,” I admit.
Antonio chortles. “Doesn’t matter. This gift isn’t for you, anyway. It’s for my new sister.”
I have no idea what his game is, but I go along with it anyway, mainly because I’m getting tired, and I just want this whole thing over with. The sun is nearly rising, and I’m itching to get back to my woman.
“Fine. Whatever. Once we get there, we’ll be in and out.”
Domani frowns at me. “I can’t work that fast. You know it takes me at least three hours to do my thing.”
I shake my head. “We don’t need information out of him, Dom. We need him dead, so he can’t make Jessica miserable anymore. My woman needs to be free.”
Antonio speaks up. “That’s what my gift is about, Bruno. It’s freedom for Jessica, so she can make a clearheaded decision about living with you.”
“Huh?”
Antonio is firm. I can picture him pushing his black thick-rimmed glasses up on the bridge of his nose. “I need to know she doesn’t want you for our money.”
My upper lip curls, but Antonio ends the call before I can ream him out for insulting my woman. “Asshole.”
Domani motions out the front window as I drive. “Just a bullet to the brain? Why am I even here?”
“Because of Rule Number Two: Don’t go in without backup. Now it matters if I come home in one piece. I have a girlfriend to come back to, so I want you with me whenever I pull my piece. Not Gio. Not Antonio. You.”
Dom rears back, as if I’ve never said anything so strange. “Okay,” he says slowly. “You’re nervous about this suburban wifebeater guy? You think you, Brunello Moretti, can’t handle him?”
I shake my head. “Maybe I just want my brother with me this time around. This isn’t a kill for the family business. This is for me. This is something I want just for me. I don’t want to be alone while I do it.”
I don’t offer up any further explanation, and luckily, Domani is so confused at my logic that he doesn’t ask any follow-up questions.
It’s just as well.
By the time I pull into the driveway of 2704 I-Don’t-Give-A-Fuck Avenue in Podunk, Nowheresville, I am ready for this to be over.
It’s my twin who reminds me that we need Michael’s signature on Antonio’s papers before we put a bullet in the man’s brain. Dom smacks my hand with the pages when I reach for my piece. “Keep your head,” he hisses as we step out of the car and make our way to the back entrance of the ranch-style home.
My queen deserves a goddamn palace, not this lackluster home with an overgrown lawn.
It’s easy to break in, and even easier to let my rage take over when I see the middle-class suburban life this asshole is living, while my baby slums it in a single bed shithole apartment. Everything I see makes me that much angrier. Every knickknack and dish that catches my eye is fuel for taking Michael’s head and shoving it through a window.
When my gaze falls on a pink hairbrush that I can tell is Jessica’s, it hits me afresh that she really did leave everything behind to get away from him.
All he had to do was let her go.
