Page 18 of Phantom Mine

He’d turned towards me with a crazed expression on his face, licking his lips as he announced, “She screamed for you the entire time I killed her.”

Rocco had stared at me as he continued desecrating her, not wanting to miss a single expression on my face. It’s what motivated him, what has always motivated him, to needle and stab until he found the weak spot he was searching for.

Because no matter how much he’d hurt me, no matter the blows and burns and scars, I’d never given him what he wanted. I’d never screamed. Never lost my cool.

Never broken.

And I didn’t that day either. I simply turned on my heels and walked out.

The next day, I left. I went to Italy for college and stayed there long after I’d graduated, brewing on the same thought that I’d had since the first time he hurt me — revenge.

Life stopped being about survival. I became consumed by my need for vengeance. Even back then, I knew that one day, I’d take what he so arrogantly assumed would be his from between his fingers and that he’d never see it coming.

I was going to see the moment he realized he lost in his gaze before he ever saw anything in mine.

That was going to be my ultimate revenge.

“I’ll be blunt with you, Emiliano. I didn’t come back to London just to be a second son in a failing organization. I intendto overthrow my father and take my brother’s place as the new Don of theFamiglia,” I announce matter-of-factly. “And I’d like your help in doing so.”

Chapter Six

Matteo

Emiliano stares at me, a slow smile spreading across his face, and then he bursts out laughing. He laughs so hard his entire body shakes and he clutches his chest with his hand.

Enzo throws me a concerned glance that I don’t return. I expected a reaction along these lines.

“You’re more than just your good looks, Matteo. Who’d have thought you were a comedian as well?”

“What makes you think I’m joking?”

He stops laughing and his smile drops off his face, replaced by a severe expression I know all too well. My father may be the Don and my brother his heir, but Emiliano Marchesani holds as much, if not more, power than both of them combined.

Rocco is my father’s second in command. Under him, theFamigliaspiders into three branches, each helmed by a differentcaporegime. I lead the remaining Leones and our foot soldiers. Aldo Romano leads the second branch and is firmly in my father’s pocket. Emiliano leads the third and largest branch.Because of their power, my father has purposefully kept them out of his inner circle, near ostracizing them these past few years. It’s the reason why I believe he’ll want to align himself with me.

“You can’t possibly take them both on and win. Not even with me as your ally.”

“Let’s speak objectively for now. Through his leadership, my father has driven theFamigliaalmost completely into the ground, and we both know Rocco is far more interested in cutting up animals and mutilating women to do any better.”

Emiliano watches me and makes no move to interrupt me, so I continue.

“This enterprise used to rule the Underworld with an iron fist. I may have been too young to remember it, but I know you do. We had a monopoly of the market. Whatever other organizations existed, they bent the knee tous.Weput this city on the map, the Italians did,” I argue forcefully. “Fucking that up should have been near impossible, and yet that’s exactly what’s happened over the past ten years. Our profits are down anywhere from twenty to thirty percent in any given quarter, and those numbers are continuing to trend downwards.”

“More importantly, we’re facing irrelevancy and obsolescence if we don’t do something to stop the bleeding. Thiago da Silva and the Colombians are killing us on the drugs side. Darko Mitrovic may be a recluse but he and the Serbians are growing every day, getting guns in from the East. Where we were once the impregnable fortress in the Underworld, we’re starting to look like a relic. My father has left the doors wide open for competitors, and they’ve walked in, helped themselves to the food in our kitchen and made themselves right at home in our fucking beds,” I snarl.

Emiliano nods along solemnly, but he’s not so easily convinced. “Pretty speech Matteo, but you’ve been back a yearand a half,” he points out. “If you’re so concerned about the state of theFamiglia, why haven’t you done anything?”

“I am,” I say, tipping my chin at him. “Right fucking now.Thisis how I’m doing something about it. I’ve tried having this conversation with my father and brother, to no avail. Augusto thinks we’re simply navigating rough waters.”

Emiliano crosses his arms. “And you don’t?”

The fact that he hasn’t put a bullet in my brain and walked out is a good sign. I keep going.

“I might, if it wasn’t for recent developments.” My jaw shifts side to side. “Three Leone cousins dead and dumped with no accompanying message as to who’s behind the attacks. It’s one thing to turn around a business, but another one altogether to fight an invisible enemy who’s slowly picking us off one by one.”

Whoever has been killing my cousins is unintentionally playing right into my hand. Not only in getting rid of truly useless members of my family, but also by inadvertently destabilizing my father’s reign and opening up yet another wound for me to pick at.

Emiliano chuckles, the sound deep and raw. It raises the hair on my neck, but I show him no reaction. “I’ve noticed it’s a tough time to be a Leone these days.” An evil smirk pulls at his lips. “Why shouldn’t I just let this all play out?” he asks. “Let whoever is coming for your family continue to do so until you’re all dead and my path is clear?”

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