Page 92 of Brutal Legacy

My sister Giadawas most at home behind a computer screen. Right now, she was doing her thing, making sure that Prosecutor Bellisario got the message that his daughter had married a De Sanctis. Her fate lay in the hands of the De Sanctis family.

I was pacing the wall of windows in her office as Giada worked away. Bran was in the garden with Carmella and Charlie, charming the socks off both women, as was his gift.

I needed to go for a run, or to the range, or just kill someone with my bare hands. My aggression was building up, and it needed out. The box I kept the past in was threatening to burst open, and I didn’t know what the fallout would be. It was unpredictable, and therefore, dangerous.

“So, it’s done.”

“What is?”

She held up one finger. “One, changing the names on the marriage license.” Then another finger went up. “Two, Bellisario will get the message and rat on the Ravellis.”

“Well done.”

Giada raised a hand. “Question. What if they don’t back down once they start getting into hot water in Naples?”

“They barely have a presence here in the US. Once their capo in Naples goes down, they will crawl out of their hiding places and go back to Italy to fight over the scraps of the business or to squeal on each other.” I sat in a leather armchair and tried to calm the fuck down.

“Hmm, like Papa did,” Giada murmured.

Ah, yes, the great, illustrious Santori Senior, who’d barely made enough money being a low-level thug to support his two children, had watched his wife die of poverty, and then turned around and tried to cut a deal in prison, without caring that he’d made me and Giada the kids of a snitch. Once the family he was snitching on got wind of him, he’d been killed. He’d left us a brutal legacy, and we’d just had to get on with it.

Strangely, I hated Prosecutor Bellisario and Georgia more. My father’s betrayal, I’d expected. He’d never hidden the kind of man he was.

But the Bellisarios?Her?

“Sorry, what did you say?” I focused on my sister, suddenly aware she’d asked me something.

“I asked how your little bride is getting on? I was pretty surprised to hear what happened… You did tell me you’d rather die than marry that specific woman. If I’d known it was going to be my own brother’s wedding, I’d have bothered to show up and even would’ve worn a hat.”

She was nearly pouting, and it drew a chuckle from me.

“It wasn’t planned.”

“But why do it? De Luca wasn’t a big deal. Sure, he’d been naughty and got caught with his fingers in the cookie jar, but going by your usual punishments, it was more of a maiming situation. He’d lose a few fingers, or a hand, and learn his lesson. Executed in front of the don was a little much, when he’d just gotten married, no less.”

“And now anyone who’d been thinking of following in his footsteps is discouraged.”

Giada nodded thoughtfully and then smirked. “And you just happened to get the girl… the one you hate.”

“Just business. There’s nothing personal there.” I stared my sister dead in the eye.

She just laughed.

“Sure there isn’t. You’re very convincing, but you forget that I know you. So, tell me about the new Mrs. Santori. You knew her, right? In Castel Amaro? Don’t tell me she was your childhood sweetheart or something.” Giada laughed again.

I saw the exact moment she realized she’d hit close to home.

Her face morphed from amused to stunned. “You’re shitting me. She is? You’ve never spoken about her apart from asking for that report years ago. I thought it was business related… but it looks like it wasn’t.”

“Until ten days ago, she was dead to me. I wish she still was.”

Giada raised an eyebrow. “She hurt you?”

“She destroyed me. She hurt you, too, you just didn’t realize it. She’s the reason it took so long to bring you to the De Sanctisestate to live. She’s the reason I ended up serving my fucking country for the better part of my life.”

“Whoa, wait a second. Are you serious? How can there be a woman who is this important to you, and I knew nothing about her?” Giada exclaimed.

“I told you. She was dead to me.”

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