Chapter 39
MICHAEL
“I warned you!” My father bangs a fist atop the bar, the most loyal of our men gathered with us. “I told you Raph was too far gone, but you wanted to give him chance after chance.” His sharp inhale is thick with wrath. “What he did to Sophia…I’m going to kill him myself.”
“You won’t do a thing.” My tone’s dipped in madness, coated in the taste of revenge. He won’t see this coming. “He’s my kill.”
I face the men now.
“Any of you kill him, and you die. Understood?”
“Yes, boss.”
“We go in less than three hours,” I tell my father. “Are you coming with us?”
He snickers. “You think I’d miss this?”
“I thought you retired?” I plaster on a slow-forming grin.
“Not for this.”
“Fine. We all go, then.”
The men scatter, leaving Gio and my father. I reach for the decanter and pour myself some whiskey, drowning in the burn as it sweeps down my throat.
But this is nothing compared to what I’m feeling without her already. I miss her in the most violent way. Like a part of me has been cut out permanently. I never knew what I needed until she came into my life.
My hand digs for my cell in my pocket, hoping Elsie texted something. Anything. Even to curse me out, because I’d deserve it all. I hurt her.
But there’s nothing there at all. She’s truly gone.
Maybe someday she’ll thank me for not ruining her life. And on that day, I’ll still be the same man, wanting her the same way I do today. Never forgetting a moment we’ve spent together.
I lead the way through the dark woods, past the trees, our bodies brushing against the low shrubs on both sides. The only reason we can see a goddamn thing is because of the moon. Or we’d be blanketed in utter darkness.
Only a short distance remains between my brother’s fortress and the war we’ve been destined to have.
We’ve brought thirty of our best men, including Patrick’s sons. He’ll be outnumbered and outgunned. We will win.
Once we make it out of the clearing, our feet hit the grass, and we march forward. His house towers from beyond, guarded by a tall steel fence.
“Where are his men?” my father asks behind me, expecting them to be guarding around the perimeter.
“Maybe he knows we’re coming and they’re hiding somewhere, waiting to smoke us,” Gio adds.
My eyes drift over the three-story brick house. It’s dark inside, except for a single window with a bright light, a shadow slipping past the curtain.
“He’s home,” I whisper. “Move in.”
We go as one, nearing the fence from the back end so he can’t see us coming.
One by one, the men climb over, their weapons at the ready once they hit the ground.
And slowly, we march forward. I’m the first climbing the four stone steps leading to the door, quietly trying the knob, not expecting it to open.
With a finger in the air, I tell them all to hold their positions before I gradually push the door, finding the place empty, a small lamp in the foyer providing the only source of light. My gaze hits the spiral staircase up ahead, a good yard away.
“It’s time to end this, brother,” I shout, my words echoing. “We have you surrounded.”
Silence greets us when I pause to see if I can hear him.
“Show yourself. Don’t be a coward.”
Laughter plummets from somewhere in the distance, his footfalls thudding nearer.
“Never been a coward, Michael. I’m glad you all finally decided to come.” His voice drags closer. “I’ve been waiting for this for far too long. Seems like I’m not the coward after all.”
His chuckle’s filled with vitriol, and the next thing we see is a barefooted Raph climbing down the stairs.
My men draw their weapons and point them at him.
“Where are your men?” I ask him.
“They’re gone.” He stretches out his arms, descending lower, one step at a time. “And as you see, I don’t have any weapons.” He continues toward us. “You came here for one purpose, so let’s get it over with.”
“Kill him, Michael,” my father grits.
“Nice to see you too, Pop.” Raph doesn’t simply stare at my father, but into him, as though he’s stabbing him with a mere look.
I gesture for Patrick’s oldest son, Tynan, to grab Raph, and my brother immediately raises his arms in surrender.
“Tie him up on the chair. Do to him what he did to Sophia and Elsie.”
“How is my favorite niece doing?” he asks, a smile tethered to his face while my men yank and throw him on top of a stool one had grabbed from the kitchen.
“Misses you.”
He inhales and shuts his eyes, his expression growing less harsh at the mention of my daughter. “I miss her every day.”
“You fucking liar!” My father rushes at him just as the men tie his arms behind his back with zip ties. “After what you did…” He hits him with a punch square to his jaw. “…you don’t deserve to even utter her name.”
Raph doesn’t so much as flinch. He only glares harder at our father. And I’m there separating them.
“Stay back,” I tell him. “This is my kill. My daughter.”
“And she’s my granddaughter!” His chest expands as he bangs a fist to it.
“Yeah.” I nod slowly. “She is.”
“No mercy for the enemy,” Raph chuckles, his features blanketed with roughness. “Isn’t that what you taught us?”
“That’s right.” Our father narrows a hardened expression at Raph. “And today, you’ll learn what that statement truly means.”
“I think the only person who’ll be learning that lesson….” Raph laughs cruelly, instantly separating his arms in one single move. “…is you.”
The zip ties scatter to the floor as he pushes up to his feet, stalking closer to my father, whose eyes have grown two sizes too big.
“W-w-what is this, Michael?” He backs away, the shock swimming in his widened gaze. “Shoot this traitor! He—he came after your daughter!”
But no one does a thing to stop Raph. Instead, when he extends a hand toward Cillian, Cillian hands him a pistol. And in one swift moment, all of Raph’s foot soldiers come out of hiding and stand beside him.
Gio shuffles a step, jerking his head back. “What the fuck is happening?”
My mouth curls with a sneer.
“I’ll explain everything in a moment,” I tell him, unable to peel my eyes from the man who destroyed everything, blaming Raph for it all.
I couldn’t wait for this day. Waiting for a chance to avenge his sins.
But I had to become king before I destroyed the former one.
I needed the men’s loyalty, and I had it.
Most of theirs, at least. I needed them to know what he had done to the family.
Watching and waiting to destroy him has been the hardest thing I’ve had to do.
But this is where it ends.
Especially when he put my daughter and my wife in harm’s way. No one does that and lives.
“The only traitor I see, Father…” Raph lifts the weapon and points it straight at his chest. “…is you.”
Our father backs away, his breathing rapid. But with a loud click behind him, all the weapons point at his head, every one of the men ready to strike him dead at my command. Because they’re mine, after all.
Raph moves forward, the muzzle of the gun pressing into my father’s forehead. “Are you ready to admit what you’ve done? How you tried to blame me for everything you’ve been doing?”
Fear binds my father’s body. I can practically taste it. His face contorts in shock, but there’s a momentary shift, and suddenly he’s laughing, his shoulders rocking.
“Is this a joke?”
He turns his head to me, and I raise my semi-automatic at him as well.
“What the hell are you doing, son? After everything I’ve done for you?” His tone rises. “After I gave you my rightful place? You turn on me?”
“You turned on this family,” I remind him. “You know what you’ve done. You know why you’ve been blaming Raph for everything you yourself have orchestrated.”
“Michael?” Tension swells with a blanket of rage on Gio’s face. “You’d better fucking tell me what the hell is going on before I lose it.”
I make it a few steps toward him, clasping him on the shoulder. “I’m sorry we couldn’t tell you. But I had to be sure everything went smoothly.”
“Fuck,” he strains with gritted teeth. “You two have been planning this all along?” He snaps his feral gaze between Raph and me. “You didn’t trust me?”
“Of course we trust you.” I squeeze his shoulder, looking him hard in the eyes. “But I knew if we told you everything, you’d kill him.” I inhale a deep breath. “And I know once you’re like that, no one can stop you.”
He narrows a thoughtful glare. “The men that came for Sophia? That was him too?”
There’s bloodlust brewing in his eyes. I can taste it.
I nod, and he slowly turns his head at our father, who doesn’t even deny it.
“Why?” he roars. “Why would you do that?”
Shoving my hand away, he marches up to him. And with a grunt, he pounds a fist into our father’s jaw. Over and over, until there are too many to count.
“You’re fucking dead!” he roars. “Dead!”
It takes me, Raph, and two other men to grab him and tug him away, even as he fights it. My brother can be the most volatile if you give him a reason. And this is something that would make him snap. But he hasn’t heard the full extent yet.
“Relax,” I whisper in his ear. “Just relax.”
His body calms, and eventually he nods, letting us know he’s all right now.
We drop our arms off him.
“Tell me everything,” Gio demands. “Don’t keep a damn thing from me.”
I immediately stare back at our treacherous father.
“Okay.” I flip the gun in my hand, pacing around the room. “But I think Raph should be the one to tell you.”
Gio’s curious gaze is on Raph now.
“Let me tell you a story, brother,” he tells Gio. “Let me tell you how it all began.”
He circles my father, the gun clutched at his side. He’s the one who’s lost the most. He’s the one who gets to kill our father.
Gio stares intently.
See, I already know everything. A lot more than even Raph himself does. But I can’t tell him that. It will only hurt him more. My father has done enough.
“It all began when our father started fucking Bianca and wanted to cover up his secret at all costs.”
Gio stiffens, shuffling back a step, outrage riddling every inch of his face.
But instead of looking ashamed, our father gives Gio a smug look.