AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He wouldn’t die. He was too mean and tough.
“They’re dead, my son,” my mother croaked, terror crawling into her voice.
“No. Josh is alive. He has to be.”
I slowly lowered the phone, the echo as it rang and rang and rang pounding into my ears. Whenever my mother used the term ‘my son’ it meant she was either furious or distraught. Tonight I knew it was both.
I turned toward her, taking gasping breaths. She was shaking, her breathing so hard I was worried. And her face. I didn’t need light to see the same terror in her expression I’d seen in Tatiana. I was going to kill the fuckers. The ringing continued. Then someone answered.
“I have a message for you.” The voice wasn’t one I recognized, husky and rough as if the man had smoked four packs of cigarettes every day of his life, the broken English difficult to understand.
“What?” I barked, fisting the phone with enough force the plastic case cracked.
Pop! Pop!
“Now, we’re even.”
Even.
One massacre for another. Blood spilled. Lives lost.
The fucker had just killed my friend.
The war waged on between our families, all in the name of total control over the city. Hissing, I glanced at the screen then tossed the phone across the room.
The Vincheti family would soon learn nothing was over.
Far from it.
The war was just beginning.
CHAPTER2
Sevastian
Six months later
Spring.
There was nothing good about the season. Pollen. Allergies. Fucking flowers. Who the hell liked flowers anyway? I’d been called back from the university, forced to attend a function with my father. It wasn’t that I minded getting away from the ridiculous power plays that occurred every day on the campus, but I also didn’t want to be reminded of the carnage that had happened inside the house.
There were far too many new faces, the men replacing those who’d lost their lives while trying to protect ours. My father had even hired a bodyguard for Tatiana, as if that had helped her nightmares. She’d written to me often, letters that were full of anguish, begging me to come back. I couldn’t help her or return on a permanent basis until I’d received my degree.
The house had been redecorated, the grounds swept of any sign that six people had been murdered in cold blood, but that couldn’t hide the ghosts lurking in the darkness. I shook my head, glaring out into the garden.
Nothing could change that night and the fact my father hadn’t started a war pissed me off. Maybe that’s why I hadn’t wanted to return home. He’d always handled business before anything else. Why he’d held back I couldn’t understand. I’d wanted to crush the Italians, destroying everything and everyone they cared about, but my father had refused. He’d even been hesitant to allow me to return for Christmas. Tatiana had begged him, wanting nothing else under the tree.
Now I stood in my father’s office, waiting for his arrival. Whatever big event he wanted me to attend, he’d spelled out exactly what I was supposed to wear. A dark suit, crisp white shirt, and red tie, complete with the black onyx cufflinks embedded with our family crest. Who the hell was he trying to impress?
My father walked in without hesitation, his long strides putting him behind his desk within seconds. He appeared well, completely healed from the gunshot wound. When he leaned over his desk, I realized he’d never look healthier in his life. He’d even gotten some sun on his face.
“We don’t have much time, son, so I’ll cut right to the point. You’re a man now. You more than proved your worth with how you handled the invasion.”
My father rarely gave compliments.
“Thank you, Papa.”
“Now that you are, it’s time you have the glory of working with me on an important mission.”
