Page 5 of Bound to the Mafia King

I gulped. I looked away from his heated stare and stared out the side window. This was not how I wanted him to find out. In fact, I didn’t want him to find out, period. It was not only embarrassing, but I felt this overwhelming feeling of shame. I had been caught, and in the most mortifying way possible.

“What the hell, Valerio?” he asked.

The hurt in his voice was clear, but I didn’t dare look his way. I was worried that if I did, his gaze would be the sucker punch that ended me. My brother and I had always been honest with each other, and the fact that I had lied to him point-blank was not okay on my part.

“I’m not speaking to myself, brother. Why the fuck were you on drugs?” he asked again, but this time there was a little morebite to his words. “Not only that, but you are antidepressants, too?”

My head whipped around to him so quickly that I thought I would get whiplash. “Who told you that?”

“Is that really all you care about? The person who told me, rather than the fact that you hid this from me like I’m some kind of stranger?” The betrayal permeated through his eyes as he stared at me. “We are brothers, Valerio. That means that we don’t go through these kinds of things alone. Why didn’t you tell me you were on antidepressants? When did you even get onto them?”

“Does it matter?” The pressure in my chest increased. I didn’t want to talk about this right now. I didn’t even want to be on the fucking pills, but the doctor had told me they would quiet the screams at night. “Does it matter when I started taking them or if I’m taking them at all?”

“Yes! Of course it matters! You were going 200 miles an hour in the middle of a fucking storm. It’s like you were trying to kill yourself.”

“And what if I was?” The words exploded out of my mouth with a loud bang. “Would it matter to you or any other fucking person?”

“It would matter tome, Valerio.” He stormed to the side of my bed and stared down at me with a mixture of hurt and anger in his eyes. I could feel the rage rolling off him in waves. “It matters to the entire Brotherhood. We depend on you; we count on you. What is thisreallyabout? You’ve been off the rails for the last year. Dad? The merge of the families? What is it that has you so… not you?”

Where would I even begin? There was no beginning on anything. Even if I wanted to explain, I couldn’t. I still didn’t even understand my own complicated emotions towards the whole thing. I knew that the majority of it had to do withmy messed-up relationship with my father. But I also felt like, maybe, it all ran deeper than that, much,muchdeeper.

I opened my mouth to speak, but nothing came out. My older brother stared at me, waiting for my explanation, but nothing ever came.

“I’m on your side, Valerio.” He sighed deeply. “But if you continue like this then I’m putting you in rehab. I cannot have you leading the Syndicate like this. You are too volatile and brash. We need to get to the bottom of what is troubling you.”

I already knew, but I didn’t utter a single word.

“Fine,” I agreed.

My brother looked slightly taken aback by my acceptance of the terms he had set. Something like this normally should have set me off, but now it didn’t. It was like I had no more fight left in me, at least for now.

“Good.” He schooled his features. “I need to make a few calls. I’m sure you need your rest. I will be back.”

He didn’t wait for me to reply. He turned on his heel and walked out of the room, leaving me to my thoughts. When the door shut, I relaxed back into the pillow and looked to the ceiling of the room.

The fight had been intense, but now that some of the things I had been hiding were out in the open, I felt relieved. A weight had been lifted from my shoulders, and I felt like I could finally breathe a little easier.

But though my chest felt lighter, my mind raced with the blurry image of that woman who had rescued me from the carnage. Those angelic eyes had given my soul so much peace for a moment, I had thought that I had found heaven. And her voice,oh,her voice, it was like the sweetest of honeys to my ear.

I owed her my life. She was my savior.

I didn’t know her name or what she truly looked like. The only thing I had to go on was the small pendant that hungfrom her neck. There were approximately 4 billion women in the world, and I was looking for one specific one basing everything on a little necklace. It was like looking for a needle in a haystack. But I didn’t care.

I would find her.

Chapter Three

Valerio

2 years later

Ididn’t want to be here, but I had no choice. Not only had my sister-in-law forced me to come to this place, but I had to stay for the whole duration of the gala.

Savina was hosting her annual gala that entertained the most influential crime Families in the country. Truthfully, this entire little shindig was the FBI’s dream. A place where some of the most wanted people in the country were all gathered under one roof, ripe for the picking. You would think that Savina would conclude not to host these kinds of gatherings anymore, but the thing with my sister-in-law was she did what the fuck she wanted.

No one could tame her, and those who tried to would soon stare down at the barrel of her gun.

I had just walked in, and I had been bombarded by drunk women from several Bratvas and Syndicates. I had received a few death glares from several high-ranking men from various Families, and I had the unfortunate pleasure of running intoRomeo, my cousin from my mother’s side. The man was a sleaze at best and a pedophile at worst. He had a thing for underage girls that was a not-so-secret, secret. How he was still allowed to be around us was a mystery to me.

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