AllFreeNovel
Share Us
His eyes flashed. “I think it’s time I told you the truth about what happened to your uncle.”
I leaned back in the chair, my head tilted. “The truth?”
“What do you remember about Oscar’s death?” he asked through clenched teeth.
I wracked my brain, counting how long it had been since I’d even spared my uncle a rare thought. He’d died when I was sixteen and I was too angry at everyone to give a shit about another cartelcapobeing murdered. Back then, all I’d thought about was how I wished it’d been my father who was dead. “He was gunned down by the feds.”
The ripples from that day still ricocheted through the organization.
When acapodies, a great mourning takes place. Nearly everyone affiliated, top to bottom, gathers to celebrate the deceased before the real work begins– the right of succession. In Oscar’s case, my father stepped into both roles and didn’t name anothercapountil he’d deemed me suitable.
My father’s lips pulled into a thin smile. “He was my partner in everything. We called him acapobut it was only a title. He was asicarioand he was damn good at his job.”
I nodded, listening to his low voice.
“He started training Matteo when your brother was only thirteen. You remember.” I did. Everything changed for us back then.
I closed my eyes and let my mind wander back to those days. The scent of tobacco was the first thing that came to my mind with my uncle. His cigarette-stained teeth in a wide grin when he would open up his arms wide to hug us kids. I never told Matteo that I was jealous of the extra time my uncle spent with him, but I found reasons to be jealous of everyone back then. Especially those who weren’t under my father’s thumb like I was. Oscar would stop by and wrestle with Matteo and me until we were out of breath and our cheeks hurt from laughing so much– but then he would only sling his arm around Matteo when it was time to leave. “See ya’ kid,” he’d say to me as if he didn’t realize he was breaking his nephew’s heart.
“I remember.”
“Business was easy. We read each other’s minds, almost.” My father coughed, the wheeze of his lungs rattling throughout the room. I reached for the glass of water on the nightstand, but he shook his head. “I’m fine.”
“What happened?” I prompted him back to the story, knowing it was only a matter of time before his body demanded a rest and I’d be damned if I had to leave without hearing the rest of the story.
“A couple of years later, he met Beth.” His eyes narrowed like for a moment he saw her standing at the end of the bed. My brows knitted and I tried to find a memory with a woman named Beth, but none surged forward. “He fell in love quickly.”
His eyes shot to mine and narrowed like he’d struck a chord.
“Beth wanted to settle down. She gave him an ultimatum. Her or us.” He yawned. “Do you know which one he chose?”
I nodded. He was a lifer, there’s no way he would have gotten out– not when he sat comfortably at the top.
“You’re right. Oscar chose us and Beth ratted. I told Oscar to get rid of her, but instead, he faked her death and sent her to the U.S. for a fresh start.”
My mouth dropped open. The picture was starting to become clearer, and it made sense why I never heard the story. A hint of disloyalty was never tolerated. Not by Cesar Zaragoza.
But I still didn’t understand what that had to do with his death. If he wasn’t gunned down by the feds, did Beth kill him herself?
“That was the day your brother grew up to be a man.”
My heart thumped loudly in my ears. “Matteo?”
“Yes,” my father nodded, the same emotionless face staring back at me. “Matteo caught her, slit her throat, and then I made him execute the uncle who’d taught him to do it.”
I sucked in a breath and froze, unsure of where to look. My heart ached for my brother the same time a quiet rage rolled through me at my father’s order. How could he have been so cruel to his oldest son? Three years Matteo had spent under his wing…
How could I have worked alongside him for two decades and not known?
“You see, my boy, you’re playing with fire having Ms. Munro here in our home.”
I couldn’t speak. Could barely see my father over my blinding fury. Darya was Beth in this story and my father thought me stupid enough to be my uncle. He’d saved that lie in his back pocket until the opportune time, then used it against me.
“Now you’ve introduced her to your sister. What are you going to tell her when Darya is a corpse in the back of Matteo’s truck? That she was gunned down by the feds?”
I slammed my fist down onto the arm of the chair, pain stretching across my palm. My upper lip curled at the image of Darya’s limp body and my fingers itched to strangle the man in front of me. His message was crystal clear and even as he lay dying in this bed, I knew his threats were real.
And that he wouldn’t hesitate to give Matteo that order even if it was hislast fucking wish.
