◆ Some Bad Blood ◆

× WARNING × Graphic content below intended for mature readers. ×

◆ MILES ◆

Shoot the bastard? Watch the guy murder his own brother? Or shoot the bastard after watching him murder his own brother?

As I weighed the pros and cons, my mother paced behind me, barely containing her panic. Not her fault.

We all came here to spend time with family, not watch this display of unrestrained violence right in the middle of my cousin's pristine dining room.

Where in the flying fuck's Ricchar?

Leandro, the last person we expected to show up here in the estate, threw another couple of punches at his victim. This drug-dealing psycho just didn't give a shit.

Everything looked so out of place. The stream of profanities. Loud grunts of palpable fury. Cries of terror and pain. Stoic, tense-jawed armed guards surrounding the scene...

Were they enjoying it? The fuck's wrong with these people?

I gripped the gun but stayed put.

My best guess: Lorenzio was catching up with Mamma here in the dining room, clueless that his brother would find him here, beat him up and show him what "dominance" and "untimely death" meant.

"Do something!" My mother shrieked at the sight of blood on Lorenzio's cheek.

"Back off, Mamma." I stayed put in front of my mother. We kept a safe distance from the Tomassini brothers. A warning shot might work. Or should I just let it all play out? If I interfered, these barbaric assholes might pull out their guns and spray bullets all over the house.

Behind me, Mamma gripped my forearm, sounding like she was hyperventilating. "Stop it!" She mewled. "Maxim, stop him!"

"Stupido! Tradictore! Figlio di putta—" [Stupid! Traitor! You son of a bi—]

"Leo! Ti p—" Lorenzio struggled to shield his face with his arms, his nose already bleeding from the assault. Bright red streaks of his own blood now smudged his lips.

It reminded me of that day at the hospital when I tried to work him over for what happened to Mykaela. Seeing him now being used as a punching bag thanks to his brother's temper, I actually felt a bit guilty about my actions then.

"Leandro, fermati! Per favore!" [Leandro, stop! Please!] It was my mother trying to butt in again and appealing for all of it to stop. She tried to get closer to the commotion, but I kept blocking her way.

"Mamma, stay out of it." I hid my panicking mother behind me. My face twitched as she went on pleading for the psycho to stop. From the looks of it, the nutjob had every intention of punishing his own brother for some reason I had yet to figure out. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if the monster got off on pure violence in every shape or form.

"Maxim, he's going to kill him!"

"Calm down. Stay put."

"Leandro!" Mamma just about sobbed at Lorenzio's curled up body as his arms desperately shielded his face from Leandro's furious jabs. "Berto, per favore!" [Berto, do something!] My mother shouted to Lorenzio's bodyguard who was being restrained by two of Leandro's men, barely able to see his boss.

I kept my ground. Muttering reassuring words to my Mamma wasn't enough to calm her down, but I couldn't do much but grip my gun in case the situation escalated into even more life-threatening circumstances involving every one of us stuck in this room, witnessing the awful assault between flesh and blood.

Her audible breathing sounded like she was about to start bawling. Outright violence. Right before our eyes. My mother wasn't used to any of this. Quite unusual for someone who'd been married to a mobster for as long as I could remember, but, she was never as tolerant as I was when it came to my father's crimes.

Soulless piece of shit.

"Maxim! Do something!"

I could do something about it, sure. I had a loaded weapon at my disposal. But I wasn't going to commit an irreversible crime in front of all these felonious morons.

Perhaps Leandro heard and found out that:

1) His own brother told us that he was willing to send Leandro to prison.

2) Lorenzio confessed about that night he visited one of their warehouses in Florence, and he caught Leandro and his men moving containers out to different locations.

3) And worse: Lorenzio found out that the containers served as temporary prison cells of homeless people—some were drugged up teenagers—that were held against their will.

Lorenzio said he'd demanded answers from his brother, but Leandro only threatened to hurt him if he didn't stop meddling in his illegal deals with the other mafia clans. Hence Lorenzio deciding to give Ricchar some private information about Leandro's itinerary. That way, we could intercept future transactions Leandro and my father had planned for their drug and prostitution rings.

The assholes probably got bored with their current drug sales and small-time arms deals in the black market. So now they're dipping their filthy hands into the human trafficking scene.

"He's killing him!" Mamma tried not to shriek but she sounded like she was crying now.

Fuck this. We didn't need another senseless murder in our yard. "Leo!" I sighed and took a step forward, cocking the gun at the terribly disturbed nutjob spilling his own brother's blood onto my cousin's white tiles. "Cazzo. Esca di qui!" [Fuck. Get out of here!]

Finally Leandro stopped bludgeoning his brother's face in. The guy got up from his knees to regard me, as if bothered by my display of authority. "Scusa?" [Excuse me?]

Great. Now I had to reason with an erratic psychopathic murderer.

The lunatic stood over his injured brother's limp figure on the floor. Leandro stared at me and Mamma. Fucker even grinned, the dangerous glint in his eyes enough for me to suspect which contraband he'd been snorting before he and his entourage got here.

"Get the fuck out. Kill him in your own house." I kept the gun pointed at the guy's face. Not the first time, but my hand still trembled. I stepped forward to show off that I wasn't intimidated.

Another murder in our territory?

I did not sacrifice my peaceful, violence-free life in Brichese just to end up behind bars for someone else's mindless crime.

I looked at Lorenzio. The grunts of pain coming from him assured me the guy was still conscious. Not fatally hurt. For now. I wanted to sigh. Good enough that the guy was still in one piece. I was fucking exhausted and in no mood to dig a secret grave tonight.

"What's that?" Leandro smirked at me.

My insides tensed up. "You deaf?"

The veins along his brawny arms and neck threatened to pop while he clenched his fists. "You're telling me what to do now?"

I ignored the slight tightening in my chest and the heavy gut feeling of something much worse happening if I said the wrong words. The psycho wasn't pointing a gun back at me, but Leandro was armed, too.

Almost always. No doubt he wanted to shoot me now and he wouldn't even flinch for a split second. His bodyguards came in strapped as well. I pulled a face at the thought. One wrong move, my entire family would be mourning me and my Mamma Eleana first thing. The only good thing about this was that Mykaela wasn't here right now to witness all this bullshit.

"Ciao! Come va il giro?" [Hey! How’s the round going?]

Ricchar.

Fucking finally! I almost let out a breath of relief at the sound of my cousin's oddly cheery voice. "The fuck took you so long?" I snapped at him when he walked past me. I opted not to physically interfere with the brothers' issues—the situation we were in was already volatile enough. It could implode any moment now, and I didn't want my crying, hysterical mother to witness all of it. For her own good.

At the sight of the actual owner of the house sauntering into the rather crowded dining area, Leandro stepped away from his brother whose arms still covered his head. Bloodstains painted Lorenzio's sleeves a bright red. Lorenzio got up quick and backed away, keeping mum, but he watched his brother's every move with a seething glare.

Seeming totally cool and the least bothered, Ricchar ignored the scene. Ricchar even handed a glass of wine to Leandro, who now seemed done with his unwilling victim for tonight. "Va bene?" [All good?]

"Sì." [Yeah.] Leandro wiped the sweat off his forehead with his bloody knuckle. His broad chest heaved while he caught his breath. He spat at Lorenzio, then turned to grin at Ricchar. "Don't mind him."

I kept the gun pointed at the bastard, but Leandro completely ignored me the moment Ricchar showed up.

"Ucciderlo sarebbe il contrario di dargli una lezione." [Killing him would be the opposite of teaching him a lesson.] After loosening his dark tie, Ricchar glanced to Lorenzio and simply nodded at the bodyguards. The speechless men immediately grabbed Lorenzio to get him away from the unstable brother, their big boss.

"This stupid, selfish idiot just keeps messing with me." Leandro didn't bother throwing another glance at his brother and proceeded to drink the wine Ricchar offered. He stood in the corner of the dining room with Ricchar pointing to the maze.

They chatted about the labyrinth for the next half-minute. At this point, everyone else in the room fell dead silent, merely watching the scene transpire before us. Not one of the bodyguards and security staff dared to speak.

Playing the welcoming host, Ricchar put an arm over the psycho's shoulder to guide him further away from us and his injured brother. Ricchar then led Leandro towards the tall patio doors. "Allora, possiamo parlare dei vostri investimenti. Va bene?" [Well, can we discuss your investments now?]

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