Page 20 of Matteo

“Nora and I found this on our little trip to Corsica…”

My head whipped up at the mention of our ancestral home. “You went there?”

Mason’s hand had gone to his hip, his eyes staring at the booklet intensely. “Yes, and it was creepy. We broke into a crypt.”

“Jesus, the two of you are a regular Batman and Robin, huh?” Carmine's face showed small bits of astonishment.

“That was dangerous and stupid,” I looked at him.

“Augustus is laying low,” Mason shrugged.

“Still…”

Mason held up his hand. “Let me finish. This thing right here…. it's like old ass scientific research and findings on…”

“Corsicans,” Carmine whispered finally picking up the old manuscript that looked like it could fall apart from even the slightest touch.

Our attention couldn’t be pulled away from the diary, Carmine gently flipping through it as if it were a fragile newborn. His eyes were crinkled with every flip.

“None of this is in English…” Carmine handed it to me and I took my turn, sitting my beer on the desk.

The paper felt weird under my fingertips and I wondered what it actually might have been made of.

“Nora thinks it might be Latin,” Mason sighed. “She’s been running some linguistic programs on some of the text trying to get a match.”

Finally done with my inspection and knowing I wouldn’t be able to add much to the conversation about it, I handed it back to Mason.

“You think Dad was looking for this?” I asked.

“No idea. But remember when I was in Italy looking for Gisella?” My brother tucked the item back where it’d been on his person.

“Yeah?”

He took a breath. “We ran all these names that we’d found in her calendar. At first I thought maybe she had a roster of men she was sleeping with. When we finally took a better look, all the men were involved in different aspects of business, foreign governments, banking.”

“Deep pockets,” Carmine volunteered.

I picked my beer back up and finished it off. It felt so cold hitting my stomach, and my taste buds seemed to enjoy the citrusy aftertaste that it left. For a few moments I thought before speaking.

“Dad promised those men something,” I finally spoke, nodding while still thinking. “He’s a fucking arms dealer, hedeals in weapons. The fact that your psycho ex-marine buddy popped up and started killing…these pieces are starting to look like a puzzle.”

“You think Augustus was funding synthetic Corsicans?” Mason’s eyes widened just a bit.

“He wouldn’t bankrupt himself….and Nora said there was a feed that night. Watching you and Tobias fight…”

Mason nodded in agreement, considering the weight of my words.

“We all just need to be aware,” Carmine leaned against the desk but stood up and straightened himself. “I have eyes on Asher and Cody. They can take care of themselves but as long as Dad thinks they’re not a threat they should be fine.”

“It’s the two of you he’d want to kill,” I shrugged.

Mason and Carmine’s Corsicans were active and deadly.

Mine not so much.

“None of us are safe, brother,” Mason sighed.

“Look….I’d love to sit around in here circle-jerking it with you half the night. But have you seen Nora’s sister? Holy fuck, what a fucking smoke show,….she’s watching the dog by the way…”

---