Total pages in book: 61
Estimated words: 59804 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 299(@200wpm)___ 239(@250wpm)___ 199(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 59804 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 299(@200wpm)___ 239(@250wpm)___ 199(@300wpm)
Did they beat their children?
Did they even have children?
I had so many questions. Too bad I was about to die.
Chase, the Abandonato Underboss, shoved the knife deeper against my skin until I felt the warm trickle of blood slide down my throat. “There is no out clause, brother.”
Brother?
Brother.
That word hit me harder than murder. I hated him even more for using something so sacred. “I’m not your fucking brother.”
“Listen, you little shit,” Chase was right in my face, his blue eyes cold yet blazing with fury. “The minute you work with us, you’re family; there is no out clause because you’re bound by blood, so yes, you will be our fucking brother. Deal with it!”
I swallowed, tasting bile in my throat. When would it end? I wanted to put the monster away, not awaken him, and all these dicks kept doing was make me want to show them just how angry I truly was, just how lethal I could be.
They would blink and be dead.
I was that good.
That revered.
Let them try.
Brother, my ass.
I ignored the way the word made me sweat, made me want. How pathetic. Had Dad truly not beaten my soul out of me? Had this life not done so?
I lifted my gaze to the men. “So? What will it be? Piranhas? Quick shot to the head after a nice stroll through Lake Michigan with cement?”
“You came a long way just to ask a question you already knew the answer to. Also, your imagination is entirely too disappointing right now. Lake Michigan is for amateurs.” Tex stood. “But you still came, which means you’re willing to do whatever it takes for us to forget you exist.”
Should I say it? Could I? To these men? This wasn’t the meeting I was expecting. It was the complete opposite, but I had nothing left to lose. “I want out.”
“Why?” His eyes narrowed. “You have the most kills any hitman has had in the last decade, and they call you the fucking mafia Grim Reaper because nobody can even hear you approach. You wanna throw that all away? For what?”
“A girl.” Chase guessed, slowly pulling the knife down from my throat. “It’s the only reason any of us would walk away. It’s a cute story, bro, this fantasy you’ve built up in your head that you can actually walk away from what’s in your blood, what’s poisoning your soul.”
He wasn’t wrong.
I didn’t give him the satisfaction of agreeing out loud, but I knew he could see it in my eyes; his grin was cruel. Ending him would be so satisfying. The great Abandonato executioner.
People compared us, me and Chase, for our willingness to do whatever it took to get the job done, for our love of blood, and spilling it for vengeance.
It was the one button I hated people to push.
Because I knew I was better.
He’d argue that point.
I’d get angry.
He’d get angrier.
I’d laugh, get punched.
A brawl would break out, and it would be useless because he’d be protected by every man in that room, and I’d have nothing but myself.
Not that I wasn’t completely used to that. Being alone. It was easier that way.
“One more job,” Tex said, surprising the hell out of me so much that I nearly knocked my chin on the blade of Chase’s knife. “We have a… situation.”
“You want me…” I burst out laughing. They didn’t. “…to work… for you guys?” I waved my hand between them. “Yeah, not happening.”
“Then the answer’s no. Enjoy your flight back to Europe, and do send some wine when you get there, Grim Reaper. Hey, what do you guys want?” Tex asked the room. “A good merlot? How about a cab?”
“Dibs.” Dante laughed and tossed a knife in the air while Chase pulled his back—the guy didn’t even wipe my blood from it.
Lunatics. All of them.
I let out a defeated sigh. Did my grandfather know? Was that why he sent me? Betrayal choked my throat, and I swallowed it down, but it lingered when I finally met Tex’s intense stare. “Who am I killing?”
“That’s the spirit.” Chase backed fully away and joined the rest of the men as they sat in different seats by the metal tables as if they were the jury and I was on trial.
Phoenix pulled out a bottle of whiskey and nodded to a leather seat. “It’s delicate, needs to be done from an outside source so nobody can link it back to us… it seems the Sinacore Family made some enemies when they re-joined the fold here in the US.”
I snorted. “No shit.” They fucking woke the sleeping giant was what they did.
I still remember waking up out of a dead sleep to the news. The Sinacore Family had just joined the Five Families of the US.
Royalty was reborn.
Half the people rejoiced.
The other half rebelled because they knew without question that the rest of the Families in Italy would be sucked into the same vortex.