Total pages in book: 24
Estimated words: 23833 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 119(@200wpm)___ 95(@250wpm)___ 79(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 23833 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 119(@200wpm)___ 95(@250wpm)___ 79(@300wpm)
The garlicky, buttery smell of toasted bread slowly filled the kitchen as Francisco chopped fresh onion leeks, and his thoughts drifted back to Ezio's eldest brother as he started mixing everything together to make an omelet.
Giancarlo was expecting him at the office after breakfast, and the older man could already imagine how the Marchetti firstborn would react to his youngest brother's return.
Giancarlo took his role as the protector of his famiglia extremely seriously, and rightly so. Danger would always lurk in the corner when one was famiglia, and the wealth the Marchettis had amassed, and the power they presently wielded over the city, had not come without a price.
Rivalries and betrayals between famiglie had led to the murders of the Marchetti patriarch and his only son. A plain housewife had been forced to transform herself into La Strega. And her young grandchildren, thrust abruptly into a world of darkness, had been forced to trade their innocence for a violent rebirth.
Grown men would've been completely broken by the training Francisco had subjected them to under their own grandmother's orders. But the four boys had instead thrived, and as time passed, subtle differences that distinguished them from each other had also become gradually evident.
Giancarlo, the eldest, was like Arthur wielding Excalibur in battle; honor was his greatest strength, but it was also one he would never relinquish even to the point of death.
Cesare, on the other hand, was the brute enforcer of his family, and his weapon of choice could be anything from a heavy-duty machine gun to a barbed whip. Whatever it took to prolong his enemy's torture before completely destroying him.
Or at least that was how it used to be, Francisco mused, before La Strega found his missing bride.
Falling in love with Penelope had not just changed Cesare. Nearly losing his wife had turned him into a new man, and it was with La Strega's blessings that Cesare had turned his back on his old and violent ways.
And then there was Massimo, whose extraordinary charm also hid his extraordinary streak of cruelty towards those he deemed unforgivable.
This particular grandson of La Strega was more like a magician with an armory of potions and sleight-of-hand tricks, and Francisco couldn't help but wince when he remembered how Massimo had been in his younger and more violent days.
He had been at his most wicked and most charming in those years when the Marchettis' enemies were still aplenty. And that was why all Massimo had needed that time was a moment.
Just one moment to slide a knife between another person's ribs. Slip poison in his drink. Or push him over a cliff.
All it had taken was one moment, just one moment to make his opponent draw their last breath.
But that was then.
Now, just like Cesare, Massimo had also changed after being reunited with his first love Ysabel. Their wedding would take place in a week, and while that would certainly explain why Ezio was back in Boston...
Francisco's gaze turned pensive as his gaze flicked back to his unexpected guest. Ezio might already be in his late twenties, and a billionaire in his own right, but Ezio and his brothers would always be boys in Francisco's eyes.
The days Ezio had used to train under him seemed as if they had only happened yesterday. Nothing had fazed La Strega's youngest son then; it was as if the boy didn't hold his own life sacred, and words like 'fear' and 'risk' were alien to him.
Francisco had tried asking Ezio about it once, but the boy had only smiled at him.
It was the same smile he now saw, after they had finished their meal in relative silence.
"You're trying to figure something out again," Ezio murmured. "And it has to do something with me."
"I just worry about you," Francisco said gruffly. "I was hoping you'd change over the years, but you haven't."
"I'm still just as bad?"
"Unpredictable," Francisco grumbled. "And it's what you make you the biggest pain in the ass."
This should've made Ezio laugh. He knew the boy well enough to be sure of that at least. And so when Ezio only nodded, that was when Francisco knew something was up.
"Out with it," the older man ordered.
"You know how my people always send out feelers?"
"Nope." No one really knew what role Ezio had in his famiglia. Or at least no one except for Ezio himself and the matriarch.
Ezio finally cracked a smile. "Touché."
"But if I'm understanding you correctly, you do this regularly? To check if we have any snakes in our midst?"
"Sì."
"And someone took the bait."
"Unfortunately."
"And with your brother's wedding taking place in just a week?"
"Another unfortunate thing."
"Shit."
"My sentiments as well."
Two
THIS IS IT.
A moment that had been five years in the making.
And that was why she was dancing around her bedroom like a ballerina.
Or a lunatic with delusions of being one.