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“Boys.” He said in a not so pleased greeting. “I see you’ve forgotten the very basics of good manners.”
I held my fist up and condescendingly knocked on the door three times with a single knuckle.
“What do you want?” He asked, rolling his eyes at my gesture.
“We just came across some extremely sensitive information in regards to the Battaglias.” His eyebrows shot up into his receding hairline, a shimmer of bloodlust shining in his eyes as he thought we’d come with news from our spying assignment.
“I can’t wait to hear it. An early Christmas present, I see.” His sickening smile had me grimacing with the need to pluck every one of those yellowed teeth out.
“Something like that.” I said instead, clutching those bullets in my jacket as I had done earlier today, warming them up for a different Don now.
“Spill then. I don’t have all day.”
“Giancarlo here got hold of Elena Battaglia. Forced her to marry him.” My brother cooed, steering the conversation at his will.
“You WHAT?” Don Moretti stood up, his chair falling behind him from his shock, his eyes bulging as he studied me for a hot minute. “That’s a brilliant fucking move. You take over his reign through her, and everything Don Battaglia ever owned becomes mine. Brilliant, Carlo, fucking brilliant.”
How that was his takeaway was beyond me. Even if he hadn’t had his minutes counted, I would never give up the power of earning the Battaglia reign to him. How fucking blind did he think our loyalty was?
“If only father was here to see me marry his Don’s daughter.” I said nonchalantly.
“If only he was here.” Don Moretti repeated before his slow brain registered the entirety of my words, his hand dipping into his jacket. “Wait, what?”
“Don Battaglia told me a little story this morning as a wedding gift. It was called The Tale of the Fucking Sleaze-ball Who Killed Our Parents.”
His face went pale, and before he said a single word, he drew his gun and pointed it at me. Toni wasn’t far behind him while I took my time. I picked one of those bullets and clutched it until its form was engraved in my palm.
“A little traitor just like your fucking father.” He accused, his voice dipping into direness. “You think you can be a Don? That’s why you married the Battaglia whore?”
If I was seething before, hearing his insult towards my wife had me diving into a crazed state that didn’t give a damn about how much his bullet would sting on its way out. He swung the gun between me and Toni, his lunatic glower telling me he was a second away from pulling that trigger.
“Your mouth is too filthy to even mention her name.”
He laughed, the sound of it grating on my nerves like sandpaper on an open wound. “Your thinking was a little late, but you get an A plus for execution.”
What in the ever flying fuck was he talking about? Confusion must have been carved into my expression because I didn’t need to ask for him to elaborate. “Don Bartolini owes me. He was going to marry her and take over the Battaglia famiglia only to hand it over to me. It’s ironic as fuck, though, right? Flipping the fucking coin twenty-five years in. And the mother fucker didn’t even see it coming.”
Fuck! He’d taken one out of the Battaglia play book and spun it right back onto him. I knew I didn’t like that Bartolini fucker as soon as I laid eyes on him. And now, I’d left the path wide open without so much as a bump in their road to cause trouble.
“Now I just need to kill you so that our original plan is back on the table. Bartolini will marry the little Battaglia whore, and I will have my rightful kingdom. Let’s see how Armando Battaglia likes welcoming the traitor that will light the match to burn his legacy to ashes.”
“I don’t give a fuck about the Battaglias.” Toni said, slowly walking closer to Don Moretti, his gun in such a tight grip his knuckles were white. “You can have the old man, the whore, and the kingdom for all I care. All I want is the truth. I wanna hear the words, Moretti.” My brother hissed, thrusting his gun further.
“What words? How your mother squealed like a fucking pig when I lit their bed on fire? Or that they smelled like rotten meat and gasoline? I watched, you know? Every single second until they stopped squirming. Quite a show.”
Disgust churned in my stomach while the pain of loss twisted my gut. For the loss of my parents, of course, but for the loss of a fucking lifetime serving a vermin like Moretti.
Footsteps echoed down the hall. Our time frame was getting shortened by the second. I dared a glance towards my brother, watching his red face mirroring the feelings running through me.
“Nel sangue siamo nati.” In blood we are born. I said, knowing that, as every other time, Toni understood.
“Nel sangue moriremo.” In blood we die. He finished before squeezing the trigger and shooting Moretti.
My eyes flashed closed at the sound for a single second before snapping back open.
Everything in the room came to a standstill as if that trigger had frozen time, and the clock stopped its tick. The smell of gunpowder blended with blood, pulling my lips into a twisted smile that came straight from the darkest parts of me. The parts that craved revenge and bloodshed for the murder of my parents.
Suddenly, I realized that Moretti’s gun was fuming, too. He had fired. A sharp sting pierced my chest as if a precious bond had been severed, and Toni fell to the floor with a loud thud.
