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I wasn’t sure how much later it was, but eventually Alessio arrived with my breakfast tray. Mr. Fluffy was sitting on the bed beside me, tucked up into my side as if he knew something was wrong. He had always been able to sense my moods; however, even he couldn’t soothe my frayed nerves today.
“What’s going to happen to my brother and Cornelio?” I asked Alessio as soon as he stepped through the bedroom door.
However, he did not answer and merely put my tray down on the dresser and then went to leave. I rushed toward him and grabbed his arm before he could leave the room.
“Please—it’s my brother. They don’t deserve to die because of me. They were only following orders. They would have had no choice.”
“They are Made Men. They knew the risks they were taking when they entered our territory. They killed four of our men at the perimeter to get into the grounds.”
With that, he shook his arm free from my hold and left me standing there. I ignored the tray of food and sank back onto the bed, giving in to my tears. I didn’t care if my crying showed weakness.
Two men would die because of me, my brother would die because of me. My conscience had never felt so heavy, and my heart ached when I thought about what I would lose.
MARCO
I reconvened with Alessio and Camillo in the morning. “We’ll leave the Società men to fester in their own juices for the day.”
That way, their imaginations would further torture them, coming up with scenarios of how they would die at our hands. Further threats were not needed from us when they could easily imagine their fates.
With the mood I was in, I couldn’t face Juliana today. I had woken early this morning and left her sleeping in bed. “Alessio, take Juliana’s meals to her today. I’ve got other things to take care of.”
Alessio nodded and wisely did not question me over this. It was better that I did not face Juliana when I was in this state, and Alessio knew me well enough to understand this.
Instead, I took out some of my aggression in our gym room fighting Camillo or, more accurately, kicking his ass. Unfortunately, Camillo was not as perceptive as Alessio, and he didn’t know when to keep his mouth shut.
With three Made Men living in the house, and Danio in training for his initiation, it made sense to install our own gym in the mansion.
When we had moved in, we’d converted part of the ground floor into our gym. It held our fitness equipment and weights, and we also had an area for fight and knife training. We needed to train every day, and it had meant that Alessio and I could spend more time at home when my siblings were younger and needed us more.
Camillo was the gym junkie of the family and was bigger and had more muscles than the rest of us. He was a scary fucker with his huge size, thick neck and arms, and countless tattoos. But he was a big softie around his siblings, particularly with Debi and Danio.
Camillo would win a battle based on brute strength, but I was quicker on my feet during fights, which meant that we always had a good sparring match against each other. Today, however, he was no match for me in my current fury.
“I thought that this marriage was supposed to bring some peace to the Fratellanza,” huffed Camillo, breathing hard after I had knocked him to the ground once again during our fight training.
“We didn’t get married,” I snapped. I wasn’t in the mood to talk about Juliana.
“Yeah, but you know what I mean. What’s the point of her being here if we haven’t even got an alliance with the Società now?”
“I own her now and I’ve owned her since she signed that contract. I wasn’t going to let them take away something of mine.”
“But Juliana has done the opposite of bringing peace. Ever since she’s arrived, either you’ve been in a bad mood and majorly pissed over that girl, or you and Alessio have been arguing over that fucking dog.”
“How about less chat and more training?” I growled. “If you spent as much time planning your moves as you do yakking, you might be able to land a few more blows on me.”
“Have you fucked her yet?” Camillo had the subtlety of an elephant.
“For fuck’s sake, are we girlfriends now?” I snapped. “What gave you the fucking impression that I want to share details?”
Camillo merely shrugged. “I’m just saying, maybe that would make you less pissed off all the time?” He just didn’t know when to shut his trap.
“Christ, Camillo, you’re really fucking irritating sometimes. You would try the patience of a fucking saint.”
Camillo raised one eyebrow at me. “You being the saint, I take it?”
“Yeah, me being the saint,” I huffed. I knew, as did Camillo, that I was as far from a saint as any man could be.
