Page 6 of Brutal Legacy

A remnant of a time when the organ I housed in my chest used to beat.

I used to be a living, breathing man.

I used to have hopes and dreams and hot blood running through my veins.

Georgia Bellisario had been the end of all of that.

The day I met her, I started my descent into hell. Now, I lived there.

“Of course, it’s Georgia Conti now, isn’t it?” Renato mused. “Now she’s the Conti widow.”

Widow. She’s the Conti widow. A widow. The word threatened to send me into a spiral.

“She’s what?” I managed.

“A widow. Her husband passed not too long ago. Some illness. Everyone is dying,” Zio Sal said, dramatic as ever. “You didn’t know?”

I shook my head tightly. No. I didn’t know. I didn’t let myself check on her. I didn’t let myself wonder. My life only worked if I continued to be a cold, emotionless machine, performing tasks and following orders without question. Looking up the woman who had ripped my heart from my chest and left me to bleed out didn’t fit. It wasn’tallowed.

“Ah, yes, she married the Conti boy, didn’t she,” Zio Sal muttered, nodding. “Those two were always inseparable.”

Right. Inseparable. The reminder that Georgia had married her childhood boyfriend after all, when my life had burned to ashes, was just the reminder I needed to reinforce my indifference to her situation now.

“Who do you suggest for the husband?” Renato asked.

I glanced at him and met my capo’s eyes. There was a question in them. Something that saw beneath the steel cage enclosing my mind.

I looked away.

“That’s not my decision. It’s none of my business. But I pity the poor bastard.”

Renato chuckled softly. “I’d bet my fortune that Georgia is still a handful. I’ve only ever heard of one man handling her.”

“Renato,” I interrupted him. I had no desire to walk down memory lane. I’d decided long ago that the woman in questionwas dead to me. She’d died on a warm, late summer day, lying under the shadows of an olive tree. She’d died. She was gone forever. I didn’t care about what was left over.

Renato blew out a breath, sensing my determination not to get dragged into the situation. He thought, nodding decisively. “Jimmy. Jimmy will marry her.”

“Jimmy… Jimmy who I think is skimming off the casino Jimmy?” I asked, surprised.

Jimmy De Luca was a low-level made man, one who I was pretty sure was a traitor and deserving of the same punishment I’d dispensed last night.

Renato nodded. “He’s the right age and single. Maybe it’ll make him less annoying… or Georgia will kill him. Either way, it’s a win-win. You got a problem with that?”

He cut his eyes to me.

I studiously avoided his gaze and shook my head. “No. No problem. It’s not my business.”

“Right.” Renato sighed as though I was the most trying person he’d ever met. “One part is your business, however. Georgia lives in LA. Her fiancé lives in Atlantic City. Someone needs to go and get her… and that someone is you.”

“Me?” I repeated.

Ren nodded. “You. Once all this business with Bellisario gets out, you don’t think the Ravelli family will have the exact same idea as us? Right now, it’s about who can act fastest to help old Alfredo make the right choice about who to rat out. I don’t trust anyone else to bring the daughter back in one piece but you.Cheer up. You’ll only have to put up with her for a few days, then Jimmy will do his duty and take over.”

“I can send a trusted man,” I stated flatly. Everything inside me resisted the very thought of seeing Georgia again, never mind talking to her, being around her… I wasn’t sure either of us would make it to the wedding in one piece.

“Don’t overthink it, Colonel. Just follow orders.” Renato gave me a grin.

He knew exactly how ingrained the habit of following orders was for me. When you’d dedicated your entire life to serving your country, questioning orders, or worse, refusing them, felt like an unforgivable betrayal.

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