Page 5 of Sins and Secrets

ALESSIO

Pulling open the front door and stumbling on dead bodies while going out for my morning run wasn’t what I had pictured for the day. I look down at the blood staining my shoes before I crouch down beside the dead men.

One look is all it takes to tell me that these men are two of my most trusted capos. Their eyes have been pulled out and most of their fingers are mutilated.

My stomach lurches.

Dead bodies are nothing new to me, but it still doesn’t make seeing them any easier. Especially when they are the bodies of men I grew up with.

If they are here on my doorstep instead of buried somewhere that nobody will ever find them, then it’s a message to me.

Yet another message that I don’t need from Paolo Marino, the ringleader in the circus of problems the famiglia has been having lately.

Every time I turn around, he is testing my control again.

When he left with over a dozen men to try and be my competitor, I slaughtered the men but left Paolo alive out of a sense of duty.

A few weeks after those men died, Paolo started recruiting men outside the famiglia. I have no doubt he has spies inside as well, though I haven’t been able to root them out yet.

He began playing his petty games, sending message after message but none was as brutal as this.

Murdering my dead brother’s best friend is something I haven’t been able to bring myself to do, but this time, he crossed a line. After this, brother’s best friend or not, Paolo is going down.

These men supported me without question when my father died ten years ago, and I came into power.

I was young and they were two of only a handful of people who didn’t fight me every step of the way. They were there for me even when it was clear this life wasn’t my dream.

This life was never what I imagined for myself. It was supposed to belong to my brother until he died. I was the spare. The one who was going to start his own business and make millions of dollars a year.

The one who wasn’t going to be involved in the mafia. Who didn’t have to kill people for a living.

Guess the joke is on me.

I’m going to find whoever did this and I won’t rest until you both have justice.

I pull out my phone. My first instinct is to call Arturo. Normally, he would be the one to handle the bodies, ensuring that they were both given a proper burial. However, he is teetering on the edge of death. I suspect Paolo had a hand to play in that as well, though I have not been able to find any evidence yet.

“Davide,” I say as soon as the call connects. “I need you and the doctor to come to my house immediately. Ricardo and Dario are dead.”

Davide is quiet for a moment, shuffling around in the background. “I’m on my way and I texted Doc. He’s going to meet me there.”

“I want you to gather whatever information you can on Paolo Marino and his hideouts. While Arturo is in a coma, you are to be the acting consigliere.”

“Thank you, sir. I will bring what information I already have and touch base with several of the capos on my way over.”

“See that you do,” I say, heading inside and grabbing a throw blanket from the storage ottoman in the living room. “I want this handled as quickly as possible. Paolo has been making a fool out of me for too long now. It is time that this comes to an end.”

“Yes, sir.”

I end the call before draping the blanket over the two dead men. As I stand, I look out over my property.

It is large and surrounded by trees. Just beyond the line of trees is the rest of the compound.

The majority of the famiglia lives outside the compound but I made sure when I became their leader that I had enough room to house everyone if I needed to.

However, I built my house segregated from the rest. A good leader cannot be too involved with his people. They must still fear and respect him.

At least that’s what my father used to say before he died twelve years ago. He left my older brother in charge of the famiglia back then. I was supposed to have my own life. Then Enzo died and it was up to me to take charge of an operation I never wanted.

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