Page 89 of Mafia Don's Secret Baby

***

“You think you can bullshit us after you killed two of your own?” Matteo shouted, twirling a hammer in his hand as if it were a baton. His three men were chained in a cellar beneath a local Italian restaurant. His chef friend had no problem offering the space.

One of them spit at Matteo, and he went rigid, wiping the spit from his chin and flicking the glob away.

“They were never my men,” one said in thickly accented Italian.

Matteo tossed the hammer into the air. I watched it twirl and land in his hand before his long fingers wrapped around it. In an instant, he swung it. The crack of the man’s jaw rang through the room, and I didn’t flinch as he shouted and cried out.

“I’m not here to bargain with you,” Matteo said. “I’m not even here to ask for information. I have everything I need to know. The men who died because of your betrayal had family who watched them die. That family is waiting outside. They’ll take care of you however they see fit.”

I scowled at the men, even as one of them shook so hard that he should have slipped from his restraints. A pool of liquid darkened the front of his pants, but I turned away and looked at the six men chained behind me. The six men who had betrayed me. Six men who had double-crossed me.

There were more who had fought for the Russians and been killed. These six men sat out of the fighting altogether, waiting to see which side would come out on top.

They were my responsibility.

“I have no use for soldiers who aren’t loyal,” I said quietly. Everyone could hear me. All their eyes bore straight through me as if they could intimidate me. “I don’t know if you were like this with my father, but I guarantee he wouldn’t have stood for it, either.”

I grabbed a revolver from my holster. I’d considered how I would approach this situation. I still needed to establish my dominance over my father’s men, and killing these men in private wouldn’t do that. I needed word to continue spreading that I was a force to be reckoned with.

“You’re not your father.”

I met the man’s eyes as I reached into my pocket and grabbed a bullet. I slid it into the chamber and pointed the weapon.

“No,” I admitted. I pulled the trigger before he could say anything else. “I’ll be better.”

Matteo’s comforting presence settled at my side, and something inside me eased as I pulled out four more bullets and loaded them into the gun. All the other slots were empty.

“You didn’t outright betray me. You didn’t fight against me, but you all proved that you’re expendable. You proved that you aren’t loyal. I had to decide how to handle that, and I came up with the perfect solution. One that serves all of our agendas.” I looked between them. “Do all of you regret what you’ve done?”

They all nodded dumbly.

“I don’t think they’re sincere,” Matteo said with a tsk.

His men shifted behind us, terrified by what was to come for them. “Hmm,” I muttered. “Are you?”

They all nodded again.

“Good,” I said. “I thought you’d all be agreeable given your predicament. I also anticipated that you’d each be apologetic. But I can’t let your crimes go unanswered.”

“We—we didn’t know which way this war would go, and we needed to be employed. We needed to be on the right side. I’m sorry,” one of the men said, stumbling over his words.

“It’s too difficult to keep track of five potential traitors,” I informed them, walking toward the first. “But I can keep track of one. I can watch him very closely. I’ll let fate decide.”

I pointed the revolver and pulled the trigger.

The man flinched so hard that he cracked his head into the wall, but the gun didn’t go off.

“Four bullets, five men. We’ll see which one of you gets a second chance.”

I needed to be seen as both merciless and merciful. I needed to be feared, but not fought against. I needed my father’s men to transition to my leadership, and this was the way.

I walked down the line of men, and the third time I pulled the trigger, the gun fired a bullet with a sharp noise that rang through the small space. The same thing happened to the third man. Three men remained. Two of them sobbed, and the other sat with his eyes closed, mumbling to whatever God he served. I wanted to apologize to them, but I knew this was what had to happen. I would have to grow used to blood on my hands.

I knew from experience that mercy got people killed.

I wouldn’t make that mistake again. Not without doing it very intentionally. The man who walked away today would be watched closely by Marcus for weeks before we allowed him full freedom again.

---