Chapter 8 - THE SINS OF THE BROTHER
The rain was pouring in sheets across the manicured lawns of the estate when Lorenzo was dragged out to the center of the garden.
Matteo, his shoulder bandaged, stood holding an umbrella over Alessandro. The rest of the loyal men formed a wide perimeter in the darkness.
Lorenzo was on his knees in the mud. His eyes were red and swollen from the chemical burn, his face bruised from Sophia’s strike. He looked up at Alessandro, coughing up rainwater and blood.
“You think you’re better than me?” Lorenzo spat, the venom returning to his voice now that the shock had worn off. “Because you wear the suits and give to charity? You’re a killer, Alessandro. Just like me.”
“I kill to protect what is mine,” Alessandro said coldly, staring down at the man he had once loved as a brother. “You kill for greed. You killed Alvarez, a civilian, because he was useful. You tried to poison a child’s mother to cover your tracks.”
“I killed your father, too!” Lorenzo screamed, the confession bursting from him in a desperate attempt to wound Alessandro one last time. “Sixteen years ago. It wasn’t a rival family. It was me! He was weak. He wanted to go legitimate. I took his brakes out. I took the empire!”
The men in the perimeter murmured in shock.
Alessandro’s face remained a mask of stone, but the thunder cracking overhead seemed to echo the fracturing of his soul. Sixteen years of hunting ghosts, of punishing rival syndicates, of building an impenetrable fortress—and the monster had been sleeping in the guest room the entire time.
“I suspected,” Alessandro lied softly. In truth, it shattered him. “But thank you for the confession.”
He drew his pistol and aimed it directly at Lorenzo’s chest.
“You can’t do it,” Lorenzo laughed, a wet, rattling sound. “I’m blood. The council will—”
The crack of the gunshot silenced him forever.
Lorenzo fell backward into the mud, his dead eyes staring up at the stormy sky.
Alessandro lowered the gun. The war was over. The rot was excised. But as he stood in the rain, surrounded by the blood and the darkness of the life he had inherited, he realized he didn’t want to be the king of this graveyard anymore.
“Matteo,” Alessandro said, not looking back.
“Yes, boss.”
“Call the council. Tell them I am stepping down. The DeLuca family’s illegal operations are to be dissolved. Any captain who wants to go legitimate can stay with the corporate side. Anyone who wants to run the streets is on their own.”
Matteo blinked, shocked. “Are you sure, sir?”
May you like
Alessandro thought of the little girl with the rabbit, and the fierce woman who had fought a monster with cleaning supplies.
“I have a different family to protect now,” he said.
