Page 265 of Syndicate of Sin Bundle

46

chiara

People from the family gathered in Il Giardino del Cancio with cigars, guns, and bottles of sambuca. There were so many people that they spilled out onto the sidewalks. I guess word traveled quickly about my father. From the outside, all I could hear was arguing about who was going to be the next don of the mafia and leader of this family.

It was a bunch of men who thought they were better than everyone else, who thought they could lead better than anyone else, who thought they deserved being the boss more than anyone else.

But there was only one person who deserved this.

Me.

I pushed through the family men and walked right into the restaurant, getting dirty looks and being called a whore. With my gun in one hand and Alessandro’s hand in the other, I refused to listen to them. I was ready to kill anyone who wanted to test me today.

Instead, I walked right up to the bar and stood on top of the counter. “Shut the fuck up!”

They ignored me and continued shouting and arguing with each other.

Having had enough, I cocked my gun and shot a bullet right through the counter underneath me to get their attention. Everyone went silent again, one hand on their gun, and looked up at me.

Some yelled that I was a traitor. Others told me to get my whore ass off the counter. Alessandro responded to one of them with a punch right in the throat. I watched the man drop his gun and fall to the ground, gasping for breath.

I cleared my throat. “None of you will be the next leader of this family,” I said.

Some of the men started chuckling, and I silenced them with another bullet into the counter.

“I am the next leader of this family, and if any of you want to challenge me for the spot, then step up,” I said with so much anger in my voice, daring them to do something.

More men started chuckling.

“I’m serious,” I said. “None of you knows how to run a business anyway. You’re clueless and useless.”

“So, what, we’re going to let a woman run the family?” someone yelled out, which earned him a cheer of laughter.

I tightened my grip on my gun and squeezed hard. “Yes.”

He stood up from the back and shook his head. “No. I’m not going to let—”

I shot him straight through the head. Blood splattered everywhere, and he stumbled back, hit the wall, and slid down it. Dead.

I stared around at everyone else. “Who else? Which one of you stronzos wants to die next?”

Another man stood up by the windows, and I put a bullet in his head, not blinking once.

The men started to whisper, yet none of them stood up to challenge me.

I looked around. “Who else?” I asked. “Do it now because if you try to challenge me later, you won’t get an easy death. I’ll hang your family by their fucking toes and make you watch as they bleed out to death.”

Everyone stopped, eyes widening. After a few moments, when nobody else said a word, I dusted off my shirt.

“Good, because I’m about to clean this family up. I’m running this place differently. Nobody touches a fucking child. Nobody thinks about touching a child. If I hear word that you are going against that one and only demand of mine—even if it’s a fucking rumor—you’re dead.”

I wouldn’t allow that child-trafficking shit. We were professionals, and it was about damn time they started acting like it.

The End

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