Page 2 of Sacred Blood

My little chest pushed out with my father’s praise. It was hard to get noticed in a house with six brothers, let alone that we were already sharing his attention with the rest of la familia and I didn’t take the words for granted, storing them in my mind.

“Now here is my advice.” He leaned toward me, his expression serious. “Don’t challenge Romeo. You may be the bravest, but Romeo is the leader and will be head of the Vitale family, with Simo as his enforcer. They will always win, inteso?”

I understood, but that didn’t make the pill any easier to swallow. I was about to ask how that was fair, but held back. My father always said nothing in life was fair.

“Tano, when we adopted you and your brothers into the Vitale family, we changed all three of your destinies. I have been very aware that you have a special gift—an eidetic memory and a deep sensitivity. You feel big feelings, Tano, and you need to guard that. Many people, including your brothers, can use that against you. Always guard your heart, son.”

I nodded.

My father stood up. “I must go and speak with Romeo. Are you coming?”

I couldn’t pull my gaze away from the sunlight sparkling on the surface of the pool like a glittering treasure. Maybe that is what Vincenzo saw and didn’t realize it was water until it was too late.

“I will, Father, but I need to think first.”

He patted my head and walked away. I stored everything he said and repeated the sequence of words while the picture cemented in my child’s brain. I would never forget them.

Twenty years later, the words he’d spoken that day are still safely tucked away, never to be forgotten, nor the sun sparkling on the water like a treasure trove.

“Earth to Tano. Anyone home?”

I opened my eyes. My boy vanished and the man returned, just as the plastic pool chair became a seat at the back table in Buono Come Il Mamas, one of my little brother’s restaurants. Vincenzo, no longer the little lion cub we’d nicknamed Simba, stood before me, hands on his hips.

“Where were you just now?” he teased.

“Remembering a certain toddler almost drowning in the family pool.”

Vinny’s eyes sparkled in merriment. “Which time? Poor Mama got tired of me taking a trip off the edge unguarded and had that fence installed with the security lock.”

Who was he kidding? He’d always been guarded. After that day, my father assigned Vinny his own guard whose sole purpose was to keep him safe, taking the pressure off us boys to keep him in line.

“You want the usual?” he asked me now.

“You know I do.”

“Seriously, bro won’t you try anything else? Maybe the special? It’s gnocchi, one of your favorites. Come on, the hospital’s not going to burn to the ground because you took an extra hour for lunch. I’ll open a bottle of wine, you can enjoy yourself for a change.”

While his offer was tempting, I kept things tight during my shifts at the hospital. I didn’t want anything throwing me off my game while I was at work. There was a lot riding on me and my ability to control a sizable staff while still maintaining a full time surgery schedule.

It was a dual task I relished as it gave me little time to idle and kept me focused on the hospital my parents had helped fund right from the ground floor. The Vitales remained generous supporters, but I considered it my hospital.

After med school, it had made sense to do my residency there and then I was offered a full position. My eidetic memory and aptitude for medicine allowed me to rise quickly through the ranks, as others called it, I moved up and eventually became the CEO. It was a great opportunity, but not a great role for me in that I was responsible to a board of directors more concerned with profits and efficiency than people. Not one of them could be trusted with power over someone else’s health, and a large part of my job was mitigating the damage they were determined to do with their cost-cutting. Ironic, considering I had grown up as a member of the Vitale mafia family, that these were the most evil people I had ever met, and it was all perfectly legal.

“I don’t want to enjoy myself,” I told my brother. “I have a board meeting today. The usual. Please.”

Vinny nodded and hustled away. He’d make my lunch himself, he always did, and just the way I liked it. He at least understood my need for consistency. My other brothers thought I was stuck in a rut, that I needed something more in my life. And the way Romeo recently asked me about women with a glint in his eye, I knew he was thinking it was a woman I needed.

I’d blankly replied with a ‘not a chance’. His wedding taught me two things: One, don’t marry the enemy, and two, don’t marry a brat. His wife, Vittoria, was just such a brat and had completely overtaken Romeo’s life, even though he vehemently denied it. Neither of them had any control when it came to the other. Always at it, like rutting animals. Whereas I choose to unleash my inner beast through calm, controlled mutually beneficial play in the dungeon at Club Carnage.

I was lost in thought again when Vinny returned with my lunch.

“Enough with the zoning out already,” he groaned, placing my plate before me. “Now what are you thinking about?”

“Never mind, and trust me, you don’t want to know.”

He nodded his head in acceptance.

“I’ll see you later for dinner?”