Page 106 of A Taste Of Darkness

“Arlo wants me to step back and make him the boss,” Milo told me, sounding angrier than I anticipated.

That wasn’t what I had in mind at all.

“Isn’t that a good thing?” Seriously, was I being stupid?

Milo didn’t want to be here, I didn’t want to be here. Arlo clearly wanted to be here. If Arlo was in charge, Milo could go and live wherever he wanted, and Arlo could control this place however he wanted.

Surely Arlo wasn’t going to allow these people to continue to chase Milo, and he wouldn’t allow them to kill him either. They wouldn’t have any other choice but to oblige.

At least I thought so.

It sounded good enough to me.

“I can’t just step back,” Milo said, the tips of his fingers dipping into my skin. “Mafia boss is a lifelong position, unless I’m old, retire, and have an heir. Anything else could get me killed.”

“Not exactly,” Arlo spoke. “There are instances that could get you demoted, like when you’re not good enough for the family. You could walk away without a scratch.”

“Again, if I was old.” Milo raked a hand through his hair. “I’m in my mid-twenties, Arlo. I was trained to do this. A demotion from boss to underboss or even lower will get me killed, even with you in charge. You know this.”

“Why would you?—”

Milo cut me off. “Because I’d be seen as incompetent,” he said. “And if Arlo allows me to live after that, he could get demoted as well, and we’ll both be dead.”

That was a bit harsh, but then again, I barely knew anything about this god-awful place. The parts that I’d gotten to know, I could now say I loathed.

Why did everything have to end in violence with these people? I understood they were criminals, and mostly bad people with only a few exceptions, but didn’t they still care for each other? Why would they want to see each other dead rather than be glad everyone was alive?

“All of them hate me already. Anything I do will have deadly consequences for me if not planned out perfectly. Demoting myself is not a choice.” Milo stood up and started to pace around the room.

“Well, we had a rule not to harm innocent women or children, and that one was violated, yet your father wasn’t killed for allowing it to happen, so…” Arlo spoke and leaned back on the sofa like this didn’t bother him at all. “There’s a chance that they’d just be glad you’re gone again, honestly.”

Milo stopped in his tracks, turned toward his cousin, and stared at him for ten whole seconds without saying a single word. “He wasn’t killed because I took matters into my own hands. Nobody believed me when I said your father fucking raped me. They said I was being ridiculous, and that he’d never do something like that. He wasn’t killed because not a single person here was on my side when I needed them to be. It was my word against everyone’s belief that I was simply disgusted by myself and decided to let it out on a family member because I could. It was brushed off as temporary pubescent insanity.”

I knew this wasn’t the time to feel bad for Milo, but I couldn’t help it.

He must’ve been so frustrated with everyone, hurt that nobody believed him, especially that his parents didn’t care. He was only a child who didn’t understand why everyone was against him, why nobody heard him.

It was no surprise that he sought revenge now.

54

WHISPERS OF EXODUS

Milo Marucci

I couldn’t fathom that I actually believed Arlo had a good idea for once, only to get disappointed by the reality.

He was as useless as Kai without a stack of money shoved up his ass.

I left the mafia once, and it was already risky enough, there was no way I’d make it out another time without slowly killing all of them first. I knew I shouldn’t have allowed myself to have a little hope, but this was Arlo. If one of us got an idea, it should’ve been him.

Suddenly, Sterlie stood up and walked over to me. Her eyes were filled with tears again, and I wanted to punch myself for putting them there.

If only I had reassured her more, if I hadn’t proposed to talk to Arlo. If I hadn’t even been close to her in the first place, she’d never known this pain.

Sterlie was the last person who should’ve been put into this place. And it was all my fault.

I opened my arms, taking her into my embrace because I honestly felt like every piece of me was about to crumble, and she was the only one who held me together.

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