Page 52 of Vicious Rule

My brother doesn’t smile at my father’s order, which tells me he isn’t the one who’s achieved prime ass kissing tonight. It must be Angelo, but I have no idea what he’s accomplished to make him the star son.

I reluctantly take the glass of red wine from Mario as he hands it to me accompanied with a look that could turn someone to stone. Never a fan of wine and especially not the variety my father prefers, I pretend to be happy and raise my glass like everyone else has.

“What are we celebrating?” I ask no one in particular.

Angelo sits in the chair closest to my father practically gloating, which means he’s done something to improve his position in the family. Knowing this brother, it isn’t marrying a wealthy woman. He prefers the cheaper kind that he doesn’t have to work so hard to impress.

That means it has something to do with the family business. I can only hope it isn’t a move that will get in the way of what I’m doing behind the scenes.

My father gulps down the last of his wine and holds his glass out in front of Mario. “Fill me up so we can toast this occasion properly now that your brother has joined us.”

Growing surlier by the second, my brother does as he’s told and then slams the bottle down on the bar next to where he’s sitting. Unlike usual, my father doesn’t notice his passive aggressive acting out or ignores it.

Whatever Angelo did must be pretty great because my father rarely ignores anything, and I’ve never seen Mario so miserable since he met his girlfriend. For a second, I consider the idea that Angelo stole her away, but I quickly decide that could never happen. That woman obviously doesn’t have good taste since she’s agreed to marry Mario, but no matter how ridiculous she is, I can’t imagine her liking my other brother enough to choose him. Angelo may be in better shape than Mario, but he’s as crass as they come. At least Mario can pretend to be a gentleman sometimes.

“To Angelo, who fired the first shot in the war with the Rules!” my father says, raising his glass high in the air and gloating like someone just declared him emperor.

“Literally!” Angelo says with a chuckle, clinking his glass off my father’s.

Just as I feared, he’s done something that’s going to make my side gig with Alex Rule all the more difficult. God, this family never fails to make my fucking life miserable.

My father turns to look at me and still smiling asks, “Have you heard from your new buddy tonight?”

I shake my head, forcing a smile as I imagine all the blood is draining from my face. Did Angelo kill Alex? Christ! What made him do something like that now?

“Not to worry, baby brother,” Angelo gloats. “He’s not dead. Just injured, but now they know we mean business.”

That cryptic statement does nothing to calm my fears.

“Oh yeah?” I ask, hoping my voice doesn’t show how upset I am to hear he’s started a war with the Rule family. “What happened?”

“Your brother took the bold move of taking a shot at that asshole Rule tonight. He’s not dead, but you can bet he understands that the Olivetti family isn’t anything to fuck around with. Call it a shot across the bow. Now we’ll see if they understand what they’re dealing with in our country.”

My father’s emphasis of the word our only solidifies my belief that he has no idea of how the world works these days. It has nothing to do with who’s Italian and who isn’t. Who controls this part of Italy has to do with who has the most money. Period. Money equals power. The Rules have more, so they can do as they like. They can hire more men, buy more guns, and crush us like bugs.

As my family celebrates this pyrrhic victory, I know anything Alex and I were working on has been blown to smithereens. There’s no way he’ll trust me now. Why should he? My fucking brother just launched an attack on him and his family. Alex may have been willing to go behind his father’s back to make a little extra money, but he’s not going to side with a relative of the man who tried to kill him.

The question is: does he know my family was behind the attack?

My best course now is to try to meet with him, but that’s risky, to say the least. If he knows, then I’ll be walking into a meeting that will mean certain death. If he doesn’t, then I might have a chance, but I know how word spreads in these parts. It won’t be long before he finds out the truth, and when he does, he’s going to strike back.

I pretend to take another sip of wine and set my glass down on my father’s desk. “Congratulations, Angelo. That was a ballsy move. I best go see if he knows who took that shot at him.”

“No, no!” my father says, stopping me in my tracks. “The time for working with the Rules is over. Now that your brother has started this war, your job with Alex Rule is done.”

“But I thought you wanted to ruin him and his family.”

I sense my chance at making my own money slipping away as each word passes my lips.

Shaking his head, my father grins like he’s won already. “Not anymore. That plan was fine, but now that your brother has taken the bull by the horns, it’s not needed. Get ready, my boy, because we’re at war!”

Everyone in my family cheers at that idea, even Mario, but I know better. Helix Rule and his son aren’t like the families we’re used to here in Italy. They don’t respect the things we always have for centuries. They see business as cutthroat, not something to finesse. The only reason Alex was willing to work with me at all was because he was trying to pad his own bank account. Now that we’ve attacked first, any chance at peace is gone.

My family has no idea of what’s about to happen. I could tell them, but they’re drunk on their own miniscule success and won’t listen.

“We’ll celebrate our win tonight, and tomorrow we’ll see if they’re strong enough to fight back. I bet they aren’t. We surprised them. It will take them time to figure out how they want to retaliate, but that will be time we can use to our advantage,” my father says, completely blind to how little he understands the Rules.

“We have no idea what he’s thinking or how much he knows. This is a dangerous time for us,” I warn, knowing no one will listen.

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