Fucking Silvio.
I choked down my rage, focusing on the smoldering tip of the cigarette hanging between my fingers. Impatience slithered under my skin. I observed our guests from the second floor. Below me, they were oblivious to the violence that almost took place outside the walls of this mansion. Oblivious to the violence I was about to mete out as soon as I concluded my duties as the oldest De Lucci heir.
Paulie appeared beside me. “It’s done.”
“No one saw you?”
“No, we used the entrance to the basement located at the back of the house.”
I took a drag of the cigarette. “Ava?”
“They left a few minutes ago,” my brother informed me. “Listen, it wasn’t a good idea to approach her in the kitchen. You just started a shit-storm of trouble, and it’s not what we need right now.”
I didn’t answer him immediately and exhaled a stream of smoke. “Control your wife.”
“Damn you, Cesar,” Paulie snarled. “You think it was only Carlotta who noticed you couldn’t keep your eyes off Ava? Everyone,” he stressed. “Everyone noticed how your eyes followed her. We could still play it off as you being interested in some tail, but you have to back off until we get our own shit resolved.”
“First of all,” I gritted. “Never refer to Ava as some tail.”
“Fuck you,” Paulie shot back. “You know what I mean. That was in reference to how the Mafiosi would see her. If you react like this every time one of those motherfuckers insults her, then we have a problem.”
My brother was right. I needed to contain my obsession with Ava McGrath. An obsession that started six months ago when I looked into the McGrath family after one of her brothers joined the Attorney General’s office of the Southern District.
She was a complication I had no intention of unraveling from myself. The file I had on her bordered on stalkerish. She had no idea what lengths I’d gone through to put myself in her path.
“You never even noticed her when she was hanging out with me when we were teenagers,” Paulie pointed out.
I angled my eyes at my brother. “We’ve had this conversation before. When she was fifteen, I was twenty-six. I’m no pedophile.”
“I knew she’d turn into a knockout,” he continued.
I glared at him. Paulie knew how to push my buttons. He chuckled, “Hey, she’s more comfortable with me. Remember that.”
“I’m not discussing this with you.”
“It was me she called for the catering job. Don’t beat yourself up about it.”
“I put her in a situation with Silvio.” By getting close to her, I put her on everyone’s radar. I underestimated her effect on me once we were in the same room. I needed to see her up close. See the face that had captivated me from a mere photograph. A reality surpassing the fantasy. Not her dark, drab clothes, nor twisting her flaming hair in a knot could she hide that energy that bled from every pore. That was what intimidated Carlotta. That was what Silvio wanted to crush.
That was what I wanted to possess. The lethal combination of Ava’s innocence and strength.
“What about the guard Silvio bribed?”
Paulie emitted a disgusted sound. “My men are going to make an example of him. I’m sorry, bro. I will vet Pop’s guards better.”
“Money is not an issue.”
“Damn you, I know that,” Paulie growled. “The Rossis are trying to make us look weak.”
This was one of the reasons I came back. The power play. My uncle’s focus as acting boss was on the family business, and I was worried Pop might become a target if the New York families clashed. Everyone seemed to be a hair-trigger away nowadays.
“What do you want to do with our guest in the basement?” Paulie asked.
Gorski was Silvio’s territory. The man was a hothead and thought he was untouchable. Having to be forced to do a favor for the De Luccis that benefited Eamonn’s was seen as a slight, especially since the Rossi crew were backing a rival pub. I was familiar with the culture of pride among these made men. They equated their ego to honor. To Silvio, hurting Ava while doing it on De Lucci property must be his big idea of retribution spurred by tiny-dick syndrome.
“Give him what he deserves.” For hurting my woman.
Even to my brother, I hesitated to reveal the depth of what I was feeling for his friend because I was having trouble wrapping my mind around it. I walked to the small sitting area near us and snuffed the cigarette in the ashtray. “I’ve had enough of this circus. Send everyone home.”
“You’re dead, De Lucci,” Silvio spat. “You think my crew won’t look for me?”
The man who attacked Ava was tied to a chair. Paulie went home with his wife and I made sure Pop didn’t come looking for me before I took care of the business I had in the basement. I unwound the wrap around my hand. Having cut up knuckles when I checked on Ava later wasn’t ideal. As for Silvio, his face had become unrecognizable, and he was missing a few teeth.
“I can make you disappear, stronzo,” I informed him in a bored tone as I walked over to the table and unrolled my set of knives.
“I’m a made guy!” he said. “The Cosa Nostra will hang you for this.”
I glanced over my shoulder. “You’re not listening. They’ll never find you. For all they know, you’ve turned federal witness and are off somewhere under a new identity.”
“What the fuck? You’re gonna frame me? They’ll never believe that I turned. I’m loyal.”
My fingers tightened around the handle of my favorite blade.
Turning to face him, I regarded him with disgust. “That’s just it, isn’t it? Loyalty has become a scarce commodity.”
His eyes narrowed. “Wait. I told you what you wanted to know about Gorski because the Rossis have an alliance with the De Luccis.”
I raised my brow. “Do they?”
“Fuck. Ask your uncle. I’m not telling you no more.” He winced when he tried to lick the corners of his bloodied mouth.
“It’s because you have nothing else to tell me. Your capo has been withholding shit from you.”
“You’re lying.”
“I have no reason to lie.” Satisfaction rose inside me when the meaning of my words hit him. Through the swelling of his eyes I could see it track nervously to the knife in my hand.
“I can’t believe this. All this for a fucking cunt,” he spewed.
“Call her a cunt again. I dare you.”
His fat lips thinned. “You should be ashamed of yourself,” he said finally. “Think about Lorenzo. You dishonor your brother’s memory.”
Hatred hazed the edges of my vision as I stalked toward the man in the chair, raising his chin with the tip of the blade.
Before he mentioned Lorenzo, all I could see was the knife the bastard used on Ava, splitting her skin, making her bleed. All I could feel was the rage that blinded me when I imagined what could have happened if I hadn’t listened to my instinct that she was in trouble.
But at the mention of Lorenzo, it took me back to that day I walked into the study where my brother was spinning a revolver on the table.
His face was a study of agony. A bottle of whiskey sat empty beside a glass that was half full.
“What’s wrong, bro?” I asked warily. There was no one else in the house. How long had he been drinking?
“Everything,” he replied. He lifted tortured eyes toward me. “All my life I wanted to be a made man. Follow in Pop’s footsteps.”
I forced a smile. “And you made it, right?”
He shook his head. “Tonight, I had to watch Tony Cap kill a pregnant woman and her son. Uncle Jackie and I just stood there and let it happen. The husband was a federal informant.”
Fuck. Bile turned in my stomach at the depravity of the Rossi capo on this team-up between the two families to hunt the person who’d given evidence to the feds that put several of our soldiers in jail. My brother witnessed this?
“What happened to our vow that women and children are not to be touched?” he asked. His eyes brimmed with unshed tears. “I’m not cut out for this, Cesar. You always hated the business. Leave New York, you follow? But … promise me … don’t let Paulie become a made man.”
“No. You are going to make sure.” I approached, hoping to get the gun away from him. “Not me.”
The regret that etched Lorenzo’s smile was one I will remember for the rest of my life.
He pointed the gun to his head. “You’re the best of us De Luccis, bro.”
My eyes squeezed shut at the memory of what happened next, but when I reopened them, Silvio’s face reflected everything I hated about the mafia. I was born into it, I had to live within its circle to keep everyone I cared about safe.
His throat swallowed. “Wait. Wait. I have more information …”
“No. You don’t.”
I plunged the knife into his jugular.
