Chapter 38
AJ Pov~
It had been hell laying in this bed all day and all night. Our parents insisted on staying with us, so at least we had company. But honestly, that didn't make it any less torturous.
Ever since I was a little boy, I hated the word "resting." The doctors, my parents, everyone always used it like it was some magical solution to everything.
If I was sick, I usually tried to hide it from my mom because I knew she would force me into bed rest. And don't even get me started on when I broke something during training. You would think I was fucking dying by the way everyone reacted.
But I could never stay still. Eventually, I would sneak out of my room and be back on my feet, trying to convince everyone I was fine.
Now that I was older, you would think it would get easier. It didn't.
Thankfully, it was finally the next day, and we were getting the hell out of this place.
My dad had been on the phone most of the night, catching up with the other Mafia families. Updates, concerns, requests, alliances...the things the Capo had to keep track of. The entire world rested on his shoulders, and somehow he still made it look effortless.
My mom stood beside me, holding onto my arm as we waited for my uncles to finish signing the discharge paperwork so we could leave. Raf was bandaged up pretty badly. He still couldn't walk properly, so they had him in a wheelchair.
Against his will, of course.
Damien was in one too because of his broken leg. He complained about it every five minutes, but none of us were surprised. Marcio and I exchanged a look. Neither of us said anything, but we both knew. Something had changed.
Before, we trained for situations like this. We prepared for danger. We learned how to fight, how to protect, how to survive. But yesterday wasn't training.
Yesterday was real. And for the first time, we understood exactly what our fathers had been carrying all these years.
The responsibility, the fear, and the weight of knowing one wrong decision could cost someone their life.
Ales grabbed my hand as Mom walked over to Dad. I looked down at her, and she gave me a small reassuring smile.
"You okay?" she whispered. I nodded. But she knew me too well. "AJ..." she said softly, tilting her head slightly. "What's going to happen to us?"
Her question wasn't just about yesterday. It was about everything. The bloodline. The training. The enemies. The expectations. All of it.
I stared at her for a moment because, for once, I didn't have an answer.
I had spent my entire life preparing for what came next, but standing there, looking at my family, I realized something.
We weren't kids anymore. The world had finally stopped warning us about what we were.
It showed us. And now there was no going back.
What was going to happen to us?
Before this, we were just school kids. We trained, we fought, we prepared for hypothetical situations that we always assumed were years away. Something big that might happen someday.
But yesterday?
Yesterday we were thrown straight into a war we didn't even know existed. And we were forced to become the people we had always pretended to be back home.
Now that we had seen it, felt the consequences of this war we were dragged into, and were finally reaching the end of it, where did that leave us? When we went home, were we supposed to just become those oblivious, stupid kids we used to be?
Pretend like none of this happened, like we didn’t see the fear in our parents’ eyes or feel the weight of every decision we made. Age was just a number, and experiences were what truly aged you. I looked at Ales and realized she had come full circle.
She had spent so long trying to figure out where she belonged. Trying to understand her strength, her power, and how to accept the part of herself that was always there.
Yesterday, she finally did, she found it and I knew she was afraid of losing that, afraid of going back to being the person she was before. I understood that feeling, because I was afraid too.
"Not sure," I finally answered.
She sighed softly as Leo walked over, sporting a major black eye from the fight yesterday.
"Uncle Niccolo is going to drive us and our moms to the council. Uncle Adriano and Uncle Matteo are going to swing by the house, grab Aldo and something else, then meet us there."
I raised my eyebrows. "My dad is actually allowing us to go to the council meeting with them?"
Leo nodded. "I know, dude. I was scared to question it before he changed his mind." He chuckled before walking back out.
Ales and I followed behind him, making our way down the elevator with everyone else. Getting everyone into the SUVs was a whole damn mission by itself, but eventually, we managed.
As we drove toward the council building, I stared out the window. The city passed by in a blur, but my mind was somewhere else.
My side throbbed from where the stitches pulled against my skin, a constant reminder of yesterday. A reminder that this wasn't some training exercise. This was our reality now. And as we got closer to the Basilio Council, one thought kept circling through my mind.
I knew my father. I knew that calm look he got when he had already planned ten steps ahead. Whatever Adriano Basilio had prepared for Aldo...It wasn't going to be simple.
Matteo Pov~
I sat beside a silent and brooding Adriano. Which honestly wasn't anything new.
His grip on the steering wheel tightened the closer we got to the Estate. The tension radiating off him was almost suffocating. Anyone else might have been intimidated, but I had known him my entire life.
I knew when something was bothering him. And right now? Something definitely was.
"So, are you gonna tell me about this secret thing you have planned?" I asked casually as the Estate came into view. The golden gates slowly opened, revealing the massive property behind them.
His eyes flickered toward mine for half a second. If I blinked, I would've missed it. "How did you know?" he bit out.
I rolled my eyes. "I know you too well, stupido." That earned me the glare I expected. He didn't answer. Of course, he didn't.
Instead, he pressed harder on the gas and drove through the gates as they closed behind us.
I sighed. My brother was impossible.
"I have a secret on Aldo," he finally murmured. I turned toward him, waiting for more. Nothing. I stared. He continued driving like he hadn't just dropped a massive piece of information. "Sooo..." I dragged out. "You're not going to tell me?"
“Nope,” he said, the answer coming way too quickly. I groaned as he pulled the van into park in front of the house. “You are the most annoying person I have ever met.” A smirk tugged at his lips as he opened the door. "And yet, you keep following me."
I muttered a few curses under my breath as I climbed out after him. We made our way through the house and down toward the cellars, where we were met by Gio standing guard outside the door and Leena.
I stopped and looked at her with a questioning expression, and she immediately narrowed her eyes at me. “Don’t look at me like that.” I raised my hands in surrender. “Geez.” I backed away slightly. Women were terrifying. Especially the ones married into this family.
"He's inside," Gio informed Adriano. "Chained and ready for transport." Adriano nodded once, his face unreadable, cold, hard, like a brick wall. He was ready, ready for this entire nightmare to finally be over. Honestly? So was I. So was everyone.
But Adriano carried a burden none of us did. He was the leader. The Capo. Every decision fell on his shoulders, every life lost was something he carried, and every threat against this family was his responsibility to handle.
And dealing with Aldo? That was going to be something I enjoyed watching. Because if there was one thing we all felt right now, it was that familiar feeling, the beast inside us, the Basilio curse, the thing we spent our lives learning to control.
The rage, the instinct, the need to protect, it had always been there, clawing beneath the surface, waiting for a reason to come out.
And as much as we hated admitting it...it had saved us more times than we could count. It made this life bearable. Because when the world came after us...the beast reminded everyone exactly who they were dealing with.
"Get him in an SUV and take him to the Italian Council. I need to grab something from my office, and then we leave." Adriano's voice left no room for argument.
Gio immediately nodded and moved toward the cellar door, following his Capo's command without hesitation.
Leena looked between us, her eyes narrowing slightly. "Are you going to kill him?" I looked at my brother. And for a moment, I saw something in Adriano's eyes that made even me pause.
The anger, the rage, the absolute hatred he had been holding back since the moment we stepped onto Italian soil, it was stronger than I had ever seen before.
“Not yet,” Adriano answered calmly, and that calmness was almost worse. “I’m going to do something far worse.” Leena’s eyebrows pulled together in confusion as she asked, “What’s worse than death?”
Adriano turned toward her, a dark smirk slowly forming on his face. "Taking away a man's power and strength," he said. "You take away his world." Then, without another word, he turned and walked back upstairs.
I stood there silently, watching him disappear.
Leena and I exchanged a look before she stepped closer, tilting her head back to look up at me as her voice lowered, "Make sure he doesn't cross a line even the All-Feared Capo can't come back from." The seriousness in her voice made my smile disappear.
Because she wasn’t asking me to stop Adriano from protecting his family. She was asking me to make sure he didn’t lose himself in the process. I watched her walk away, my thoughts drifting back to my brother.
Adriano had always been the strongest person I knew. The one everyone feared. The one everyone followed.
But even the strongest men had limits.
And right now...I wasn't sure where my brother's limit was.
Adriano Pov~