Page 83 of Inherting the Mafia

I pointed the rifle at her leg. "Want to try for the leg or has your memory been jogged?"

"Okay, okay, okay!"

"Start talking," I demanded. I could hear Vito moving around behind me, but kept my attention on my mother. "How do you know the Romanos?"

"Geno," my mother said. "He was the man I left with. We got married and I've been living with the Romano family ever since."

That actually made more sense than I thought it would.

"So, you married into the Romano family. So what? How does that relate to you trying to kill me?"

"I wasn't trying to kill you," my mother insisted.

"The bomb on the airplane? The crash? Getting kidnapped? The attack on the Sabatino estate? None of that was you trying to kill me?"

"Him." My mother pointed to Vito. "I was trying to kill him."

I didn't know whether to get angry or laugh.

"Why would you want to kill Vito? He's done nothing to you." At least nothing I knew of and I was pretty sure he would have told me.

"Because he's one of them."

"Them?"

"A D'Angelo."

"Actually, he's an Antonelli."

"He works for them. He's worked for your father for years. I hate them, all of them."

"That's why you killed them?" I asked her. "Some petty revenge?"

That was stupid.

"They deserved it," my mother snarled. "I should have been treated like a queen after that old man knocked me up. Instead, I was left with a brat and a monthly allowance that barely paid the rent. I had to turn tricks just to keep a roof over our heads."

I snorted in disgust. "You had to turn tricks because you never learned the fact that, despite popular belief, Prada is not a necessity."

She let out a bitter sounding laugh. "In your world I am sure that's true, but in my world, it is, and I want to continue living in that world."

"Let me guess, you made a deal with the Romanos. Eliminate the other families and they would give you whatever you wanted, right?"

A sly grin crossed my mother's lips. "Pretty much."

"You're an idiot." I pointed the rifle at my mother's head and pulled the trigger. I was walking away before her body even hit the ground. I walked right into Vito's waiting arms. "I want a nap."

"Okay,cara mia." Vito wrapped his arms around me, pressing his hand to the back of my head. "Help is coming. We'll let them deal with this mess once they get here and we'll go back to the villa for a nap."

I snuggled into Vito, burying my face in his neck, until I heard several boats approaching. When I lifted my head and glanced toward the water, I saw Franco, Carmine, and another man climbing out of one of the boats. Several heavily armed guards were climbing out of the other two.

Franco, Carmine, and the stranger hurried over to us.

"Are you two okay?" Franco asked.

"Vito has a gunshot wound in his arm, but other than that we're okay," I answered. "How is Nico?"

"A little shaken up," Franco replied. "Luca is with him and the doctor is looking at him now."

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