AllFreeNovel
Share Us
What’s important is that my brother and I come to an agreement about how to best handle the recent problems and which people we need to deploy or eliminate to restore stability. Order members dislike shake-ups, and even though they happen every year when we distribute severance packages to the underperforming families, under normal circumstances, the rest of the members remain in the dark about what’s happening. If not in the dark, they remain unaffected.
Business as usual.
My wife’s face plastered all over the news is certainly not usual.
The red serpent slithers across my telephone screen before the screen turns red and the ring tone starts to blare. He’s calling on an emergency line, so this conversation is going to be as fun as I anticipated.
I decant a whiskey and sip it neat before sitting on the couch and turning off the TV. The red serpent slithers over the screen again, this time around a flashing bright red light. Taking my sweet time, I grab a stack of hardbacks from under the living room table. I place them on the glass and lean the phone against them.
Only then do I answer his call.
Severio’s hair is pulled back and away from his face, which gives me a clear view of his stormy blue eyes.
“Corrado,” he says calmly, even though I know he’s anything but. My brother waits for no one.
I smirk. “Severio.”
He whips the towel from behind his neck and smacks it on the treadmill. “You’re lucky I’m not around or I would slap the smirk off your face.”
That took all of five seconds. “You wouldn’t dare.”
Severio grinds his teeth.
Messing with my brother amuses me. Because he’s older and he taught me just about everything, I know he still thinks I’ll fall in line for him. He can lead when I allow him to lead me. This isn’t one of those times.
“I’m only smirking because I’m trying to think of how I’ll retaliate for you putting out a hit on my wife.”
“There was no hit. It was a precaution.”
“Still, she could’ve died, and I wouldn’t have taken it well.”
“Why not?”
“Reasons.”
“This is not the time for jokes or whatever midlife crisis you’re going through. Her picture is plastered all over the American news stations, and people we’re dealing with speculate Benvenuti Sr. lost his eyes for appreciating your wife’s tits.”
“They are right.”
“And his son?”
“What’s the word on the street?” I ask.
“That he’s dead.”
I nod in confirmation.
Severio’s eyes widen. “You were there?”
I nod again.
Severio slides off the treadmill and takes a moment to catch his breath. “I trust you were careful.”
“I was, and Drago went back and cleaned up whatever he thought should be cleaned.”
“And what was there to clean up?”
“A thumb.” I threw Dom’s body part out the window, and Drago wanted to keep it just in case someone could lift something off it, so he went back and collected it from the friendly forensics team already working the crime scene.
