CHAPTER FOUR
KAGE
My little brother Reaper’s wedding is in three days, so when he calls me at five in the morning, I’m sure it’s about that, which pisses me off. He continually asks me for advice about women, even though I don’t know jack shit about them. I like to fuck them, but beyond that, I know squat. I answer the call, intending for him to hear my annoyance.
“What the fuck do you want, Reaper?”
His voice comes out shaky, and instantly alerts me that something is very wrong.
“Kage. They-”
Is he fucking hyperventilating?
“Reaper, breathe. What’s going on, brother?”
I can hear through the phone as he attempts to take a deep breath.
“They took her. Kage, they have Bella.”
Once again, he’s calling me, when he should be calling my older brother, and head of our family, Bones, but I won’t turn him away.
“Who?”
“The Abruzzos,” he growls, his voice reverberating with so much pain.
“Get to Bones. I’ll meet you there. Have your driver take you.”
We hang up, and I put my coffee cup away and go upstairs to get dressed. I call my brother Psycho on my way.
“What?” He growls, sounding as annoyed as I was, when my phone rang early this morning.
“Meet me at Bones’ house. The Abruzzos have Bella and, as you can imagine, Reaper is losing his fucking mind.”
“Fuck,” he says, but I also know he’s smiling, or at least will be. Not because our little brother’s girl has been taken, but because he knows he gets to see some action today. The only one in our family that enjoys killing more than our serial killer little brother is Psycho. The way he kills isn’t bloodless like our youngest brother. It’s prolonged and brutal. If the Abruzzos have Bella, it will not end quickly or painlessly. One thing is guaranteed. The suffering will be great. Women will not be spared. If they are in that house when we get there, they will die.
The Bonetti men are not what you’d call good, by any stretch of the imagination. If you’re going to be bad, you better be good at it. And we are. There’s nothing we do better than protecting our own, and the moment Reaper decided Bella was his, she became ours. That baby she is carrying has part Bonetti blood running through its tiny veins. If anything happens to his child before we get there, my little brother is going to kill everything that moves, Abruzzo or not. Reaper isn’t what most people would label as mentally stable to begin with. Bones has managed to keep him somewhat in line. However, losing Bella, and his baby, will push him over the edge.
I finish getting dressed, and head to my brother’s house as quickly as I can, which means speeding. Luckily for me, I don’t have to worry about the police attempting to pull me over. Being a Bonetti has its perks, and owning the higher ups in the police department is only one of many.
Swerving in and out traffic, I ignore the blaring horns as I chuckle to myself. If they knew who I was, there wouldn’t be a single one, but I’ll let it go, because I have bigger fish to fry.
The fucking Abruzzos.
I know they’re pissed about my brother killing three of their sons, and I don’t blame them at all. Going after the women of the family is fucking weak. Real men go after the true target, not what they perceive as incapable of defending themselves. I can’t help but chuckle to myself, as I pull into my brother’s driveway, because Bella isn’t like Athena, or any other mafia woman I’ve ever met. If she isn’t restrained one hundred percent of the time, we may show up to find a lot of dead bodies.
As I park my Escalade, I spot Reaper’s Range Rover, as well as Psycho’s Outlander, and decide I better get my ass inside, before my youngest brother loses his goddamn mind. I don’t particularly understand his obsession with Bella, any more than I can comprehend Bones with Athena. Both of my brothers are fucking psychotic over their women, whereas I have never met a woman I could stomach to keep around for longer than two days. Once I fuck them, it’s over. The best part is the anticipation, but once that’s done, so are we. Wanting to be inside the same woman for the rest of your life? I don’t fucking think so. I’m not sure what the hell happened to those two, but it’ll never happen to me. Reaper, I kind of understand, because he was a virgin when he met Bella. Bones, though? I don’t know what the hell happened to him.
I walk into my brother’s home and make my way through the entryway, while Athena tries to comfort Reaper. They sit on the sofa, talking between themselves, while Bones stands next to Psycho, not taking his eyes off his wife. He trusts Reaper; he knows our little brother loves her like a sister, but this is his way. Bones only looks away from her when he doesn’t have a choice. It’s fucking weird if you ask me, but whatever.
“What’s the plan?” I ask, as I stand beside Bones.
He doesn’t acknowledge me, but his wife.
“Butterfly.”
She immediately gets up and goes over to him, and he kisses her on the forehead, speaking low, but I can still hear him.
“Go upstairs with Lucia.”
“Luca,” she complains.
He shakes his head and narrows his gaze at her.
“We have a child now. I need you to stay away from danger for him, if not for yourself.”
She nods with a long drawn-out sigh.
“Please be careful, Luca. We need you.”
“I promise,” he says before he kisses her softly.
“I love you, Butterfly. I’ll be back as soon as possible.”
She turns to walk away but throws over her shoulder.
“I love you too, Luca.”
Psycho grimaces as he shakes his head, making me bite my lip to not laugh.
“Fuck. That was disgusting. Can we go kill these assholes now?” Psycho asks.
Bones glares at him.
“Take a fucking seat, Psycho. We aren’t storming in there, without everybody knowing what the hell we are doing.”
He rolls his eyes, but takes a seat beside Reaper, and I walk over and sit on the other side of my youngest brother.
Bones pulls a remote out of his pocket, and a screen comes down from the ceiling, with a picture of a large house on it.
“This is the Abruzzo compound. It’s much larger than Frank’s mansion, where we found Bella last time. This isn’t confirmed, but I’m told this crazy asshole has explosives along the perimeter of his home, and if he thinks he can’t win, he’ll blow it up. So we’re going to be extra careful, because I’m not prepared to make my wife a widow. Understood?”
Psycho and I both nod, but Reaper sits on the couch, bouncing his knee while running his hand through his hair. He was fucked up last time she was taken, but this is worse. Maybe because of the baby. He looks like he might break into a thousand fucking pieces at any moment.
“Reaper. You with us?” Bones asks, as gently as he’s probably capable of right now.
“Yeah, I get it. Alright? While you drone on about your safety shit, my girl and our baby are having god knows what done to them. I knew I should’ve gone by myself. You’re going to cost me everything.”
Bones sighs audibly.
“Let’s get through this, and we can go get Bella.”
He points to the picture on the screen.
“The front door leads to an entryway, that goes to a kitchen and living room. There’s another of each on the second floor. The third floor is all offices. But through this garden,” he points to the side of the property before continuing, “This leads to an outside basement. Inaccessible from inside the house. If I were a betting man, I’d put money on it that Bella is here.”
Reaper groans loudly. “Fuck.”
All four of us know the kind of shit that happens in basements. Nothing good. We come by that knowledge, because the terrible things that take place down there are things we have all probably done. None of us are saints, by any stretch of the imagination. At the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter where they keep her. We know she isn’t being treated well, if she’s even alive. If they really want to make Reaper pay for what he’s done, she probably isn’t. In our world, you don’t kill three men in one family and live to tell about it. My brother is a lethal man that few want to go up against. So it’s not really surprising they didn’t come after him, because the fact is, the Abruzzos are weak. Their only chance is to hurt women, and get my brother where he’s vulnerable. This is the most powerless he’ll be. Bella makes him weak and everybody knows it. The same goes with Bones having a wife.
“The De Lucas will not be joining us because they have other commitments, but if we need help, an acquaintance, Max, and his team of assassins are on standby. I am confident we can handle this on our own. We’re going to start here and try to get her out. These men are no match for us, but given enough time, they are brutal with women. So priority number one is to get Bella out. Then we will teach them a lesson about fucking with what’s ours.”
We rise and follow him to the door. All of us are dressed in black pants, and black button-down shirts, including Reaper, which is a change.
Once we get to the vehicle we are taking, Bones’ brand new Range Rover, he opens the back and hands us all bullet-proof vests, and weapons. He turns to Psycho with a narrowed gaze.
“I know you prefer knives. Just fucking humor me, okay? I want everybody armed with more than they need.”
I don’t think we’ve ever worn a vest, so that tells me he’s concerned about this more than normal. None of us question it, because Bones is the boss. Even Psycho keeps his mouth shut. He should’ve been the head of the family after our father died, but it was handed to Bones because Psycho is an uncontrolled asshole, much like Reaper. Psycho still gives Bones a hard time occasionally, but this isn’t the time for that, and even he knows that. We pile into the vehicle and Bones drives off, clearly knowing where he’s going. I know the Abruzzos unfortunately, but I’ve never been to their home. Even before Reaper started killing the sons, we weren’t exactly friends. Yet it was my brother’s carelessness that put us in this situation. Bones is the only one complaining though, because while we might not be serial killers like Reaper, we do enjoy it.