The Showdown (The Salvant Brothers #4)

Chapter 1

Axl

Who would have thought in just under a year Felix, Adam and I would have the love and support of a strong family unit that we once craved when we were kids?

I thanked God every day for bringing Monica and Ladybug back into my life.

Those two along with my brothers help keep me centered.

I would give them the world, hell the whole fucking universe if I could.

Now that Felix and Adam have found their lady loves, I see our family growing even larger.

This has truly been a journey for my brothers and me.

I would do it all over again in a heartbeat to get what we have right now.

When Romano, my father, held me in his basement where I dubbed the dungeon, one of the things that kept me going was dreaming of Felix, Adam and I living in a big house with our families.

The only person missing from the dream was our mother, Elena.

I would often dream of her in our large kitchen cooking one of her delicious dinners as she spoke Italian to me as she would do when I was a little boy.

Speaking Italian became my second dialect at the time.

Her husband, Sergio, who could not speak it would yell at us to speak English in his house.

I believe the fucker was jealous and probably thought we were talking about him. Truth be told sometimes we were.

I haven’t spoken the language since I was a kid but since we were getting ready to go to Italy, I have decided to brush up on it.

To refresh my memory, I downloaded a How to Speak Italian app to my phone.

As I listened to it, the words came rushing back to me.

It was as if they had never left, like my mother was sitting next to me speaking her language.

Before I knew what was happening a lone tear escaped my eye followed by many more.

I missed my mother so fucking much and I if I could have one wish it would to be for her to be here with us.

Once I got myself together, I closed my eyes and said a silent prayer to the Lord above thanking him for bringing us through such a trying time and also asking him to let my mother know her boys were doing just fine.

After I said amen and opened my eyes, there sitting on the outside window ledge was a white dove.

Call me crazy but I smiled because I knew that beautiful snow-white bird was my mother letting me know she was still with us.

Since deciding we would be traveling to Italy to meet with the other families Felix, Adam and I have started the process of having our last name hyphenated to add Romano.

If you would have asked me a year ago if I would have ever thought my last name would include that of the man who was my tormentor for years, my answer probably would have been your death.

I will never forget our past and the shit he put me through but as insane as it sounds, I feel like it made me a stronger man.

It made my brothers stronger by not having me around to protect them.

I am not excusing what he did but the more we sat and talked, I started to understand him better and the scariest thing was his story was almost as identical as mine.

“Axl, it wasn’t that I didn’t love you, because I did.

I really did. I loved you from the first day I saw you in your mother’s arms that day I ran into her at the store.

The moment I looked into your emerald, green eyes; I knew you were mine.

I also knew that if I publicly claimed you, it would have put you and Elena at risk because of my father’s wrath.

What I put you through was nothing compared to what my father did to me.

” Romano removes his suit jacket as he stands followed by his dress shirt.

I was at a loss for words as he stood in front of me with his marred chest on display.

Jagged scars and puckered skin run along his chest down his torso.

He slowly turned revealing the same evidence of torture on his back.

“This was how my father, Giovanni Romano, showed his love. This was the only way I knew how to show mine.”

As he put his shirt back on, we talked more in depth of what his father was like and I must say the motherfucker sounded like the devil himself.

My treatment was mild compared to what Romano endured and just like me it made him into the man he is, or should I say the man he used to be.

Romano is not the same person who took me away from my mother and brothers that night.

The person who stood before me was someone who was on the path to redeeming himself to those he hurt and was now building a foundation with his family.

Since that night at the strip club when Felix and I took out Juan and his crew, he has stood by my side even when I tried to push him away.

Yeah, I can honestly say the old man is growing on me.

I had Felix and Adam accompany me to the Romano Enterprises office so they could learn more about our businesses.

They were surprised to learn we owned several high-rise condominium buildings, and an IT firm, which Felix appointed himself head.

We had holding in several lucrative stocks.

We owned one of the largest gyms in the city plus a few small businesses like laundromats and currency exchanges.

The list just went on. Then there were the not so legitimate businesses like the drug sales, loan sharking and weapons deals.

We pretty much didn’t have to get our hands dirty dealing with those because we had as Romano called them, captains who ran the four corners of the city for us.

Romano set up a meeting with them to let them know I would be taking over.

Things went left as soon as the meeting began causing me to let them know who the fuck was in charge.

Romano had us meet at the old tire factory where he was shot by Rocco and I in turn snatched Rocco’s soul.

My brother’s and I rode in my Range Rover as Romano and Lorenzo rode in his Yukon with Maxillo driving.

When we arrived four cars were parked outside the old building.

As we parked the other gentlemen began exiting their vehicles.

They were the same men who met with Romano when he was about to go to war with Nolan.

There was Marco (not Felix’s friend) who ran the southside, Philip ran the north, Gio ran the west and Dominic who ran the east. From what Romano told me, these four ran our operations with no problems but what he failed to realize was I remembered each one of them and knew which one that had to go.

“Gentlemen, thank you for joining us. Please, let us go inside so we can discuss some things.” Romano greets as he shakes their hands. Maxillo walks ahead unlocking the door to give us entry.

Once inside I stand next to Romano with Felix and Adam to my right. Lorenzo and Maxillo stand on Romano’s left.

“So, what was so urgent that you called us here on a Sunday evening? I usually spend time with my family on Sunday’s.” Dominic states with a twisted-up face.

Romano steps forward with his hands laced behind his back.

“First of all, if I were you, I would remember who you were talking to.” Dominic lowers his head.

“Second, you don’t ask me shit! If I tell you to be at the fucking moon in one hour, you better find a way to get your ass there or face the consequences! ”

“I apologize, Boss. I meant no disrespect.” Dominic cowardly states.

Romano regards him before turning to the others.

“Do you have a problem with being here?” They each shook their heads from side to side.

“Now, the reason you were called here was I wanted to officially tell you that my oldest son is now the head of Romano Empire. I’ve decided to step down and hand everything over him and my other sons - the full operations. ”

The four examine us with shocked and curious expressions. Dominic is the first to speak. “Wait you’re going to hand everything over to your son? Mr. Romano, I have seen Andres Jr. and he is just a child. Surely, you are not turning everything over to a boy.” He begins to chuckle.

Romano remains calm as a slow smile spreads across his face. “Yes, you have seen Andres Jr., but he is not my only son nor is he the oldest.”

Dominic halts his laughter when I step forward. “Him? He’s your son? No way! There is no way this mindless robot can be your son.”

I continue to walk in his direction as he continues to rant.

When I am close enough, without a second thought I back hand him so hard he’s lifted off his feet before falling on his back.

Dominic holds his mouth as he stared up at me with fear in his eyes.

The others ignore him as I have now captured their full attention.

“I am Axl Salvant-Romano, the new head of the Romano family and if any of you have a problem with it you need to speak the fuck up now because I won’t take lightly to any bullshit in my organization.” I step closer to them. “Do you have a problem, Marco?”

“No, Axl, I mean Boss.” Marco replies with his shoulders squared. Good.

I move to Philip. “What about you, Philip?”

“I’m good, Boss.” He affirms.

I slowly nod my head before going to Gio. “And you, Gio, do you have an issue with me taking over?”

Gio smiles before saying, “Absolutely not, Boss. As long as you don’t bitch slap me like Dominic, I will continue as I always have.”

I knew those three would continue business as usual but Dominic, he had to fucking go. Looking down at him on the floor, I cross my arms over my chest. “Your services are no longer needed.”

“What the fuck are you talking about? I have worked with Mr. Romano for over fifteen years! You can’t just come in here and throw me out!”

“Oh, but I can because as my father has stated I am now the head of the Romano Empire and I don’t need your services any longer. Now you should probably go and spend time with your family while you still have your life.” I say with no emotion.

Dominic stands taking his hanker-chief from the pocket of his designer suit.

“Andres, are you going to let him do this? I have worked diligently for you over the years. I have brought in more money than any of the other corners of the city! You can’t tell me you’re going to let your mutt come in and take away what we have built! ”

I let off a sinister laugh as Romano side eyes me.

“Worked hard? Are you fucking serious? Yeah, you’ve worked hard...

padding your pockets! You see I have more resources than my father did.

I have state of the art technology on my side.

My little brother...” I turn pointing to Felix.

“Is a computer whiz, and when I was given the info on the four of you, I had him do a background check on all of you. He also ran the figures each of you were bringing in and guess what? Yours didn’t match.

” I look over at Romano who now has a death look on his face.

“Felix got it with the help of our other computer genius Marco, oh not you Marco. Those two were able to find out some pretty interesting things about you Dominic.” His eyes grow big.

“Not only were you shaving money off the top of my father’s take, but you were also reducing the shit down to sell it at a higher cost to fatten your pockets.

So, yeah like I said your service is no longer needed.

I don’t need dishonest motherfuckers in my camp. ”

“Look you bottom feeder...” Dominic hisses as he charges me.

He doesn’t finish his rant because when he reaches me, I pull out my knife, plunging it into his heart.

“May your soul rest in peace” I whisper to him as I watch his life drain from his eyes.

He stares back at me with his mouth agape as he descends to the floor.

I squat down next to him, grabbing his suit jacket to wipe his blood from my knife.

When I stand, I study the remaining three.

“Nothing will ever get past me, so if you think you can ever get over on me and my brothers, I want you to remember this moment when we had a snake in our camp. Neither my brothers nor I will put up with betrayal. If you have a problem with it there’s the fucking door.

You can leave with your lives intact because the three of you have shown loyalty to my father but as the new leader, I will expect the same.

So, once again I will ask you if you have a problem with me taking over?

” And once again, the three support my new role as the head of Romano family.

“I want to thank the three of you for your dedication to my father and your acceptance of me. Until I find a more suitable person to take over the east side, I will need for you to add that territory to your own. I promise it won’t be for long; I just need to find the right person for the spot. ”

Romano steps forward. “Now that we have that out of the way, I want you to continue with business as usual. As you can see, my son has the capability of knowing if there is some shady shit going on. Please do not disappointment me, gentlemen. Axl could have removed every one of you from your posts but has decided on keeping things the same.”

Gio runs his hands through his hair before saying, “Well, Axl...Boss, you don’t have to worry about us. We have always been loyal to Mr. Romano and our loyalty will be with you as well.”

I nod. “Thank you, Gio. I will be in touch with a schedule for the three of you regarding the East side operations. I don’t think you’ll have to cover it for long because I expect to have someone in that spot soon.

I don’t want you gentlemen to overextend yourselves or your men. ” I shake their hands.

Personally, I think I was being fair. One thing I learned in the shadows of Romano’s operation was that if you didn’t keep your employee’s happy then there will always be unrest and I couldn’t afford that, so it was best I kept my three captains at ease during the takeover.