Page 29 of Brutal Vows

The doubtful look both of my brothers give me wavers my resolve, but I won’t let it snap completely. My mother loved my father, there is no possible reason that I can think of that would make her betray him so viciously. Salvatore must have threatened to harm my sister, Antonia, if she didn’t comply. He would have known that her words would build a stronger truth than his.

“You have to be prepared that it might be the truth.” Kenzo’s hand rests gently on my shoulder. “Trust me,Kyodai, it is better to prepare for it than to not see it coming.”

He’s right. The logical side of my mind comprehends the reality of his words, yet the tender corner of my heart, the one that adores his mother with unyielding devotion, refuses to accept the stark truth confronting him. As a child, I vividly recall my mother as a beacon of kindness and compassion. She was a woman who wore her emotions openly, her heart visible for all to see. I watched as she tended to the needs of the wives and daughters of my father’sCapos, her gentle touch and soothing words bringing comfort to all.

In no world can I imagine she would betray my father.

Or me.

Still, the dark thread of doubt lingers in the back of my mind, ready to be pulled at any moment. Kenzo never suspected his mother would betray him and look where we are now. Megumi’s actions have shaken our foundation and everything we have gained over the years. How much of what we have built is because of others like her moving in the shadows? How many of the ideas we put forward were truly ours and not some unseen manipulation.

Every enemy. Every ally. Every business.

Every single one of them must now be scrutinized with a discerning and critical eye, leaving no detail overlooked. What is worse is that we can’t trust the people in our own organization to undertake this task because we have no idea who is truly on our side.

“You’re right.” It is a heavy admission, but I make it. These men, the ones I call brother, will always tell me what I need to hear, even when I simply want to bury my head in the sand. They will never let me hide. “We need to set up a meeting with Ivankov in Boston.”

Kenzo nods and pulls out his phone, shooting off a quick message.

“We also need to have someone audit all of our businesses and associates, legal and otherwise,” I tell them. “I want someone to go through every enemy, every known associate, and see if any of those have been tainted by Megumi and the organization she worked for.”

Another mystery for us to solve. The mysterious organization my uncle and Kenzo’s mother are a part of.Taglia una testa e un’altra prenderà il suo posto.

I’ve seen that phrase before, a long time ago, when old traditions were rooted deep in the De Luca family. I never gave much thought to the whispers of the secret society when I was younger, and my father never gave me any indication he knew about it.

“Do you remember the old library at Elite?”

Adrian’s brows knitted into a thick cable, crossing his stormy blue eyes which are squinted mildly as he thinks back to our days at the academy. Kenzo is doing the same, dredging up the memories from so many years ago that are muddled with the grief of our father’s passing.

“I remember it being creepy and full of spiders,” Adrianjokes but I can tell he is still trying to recall the exact memories. The ones that led us to create the Sovereign Brotherhood.

“Sub hoc principe iuramento stamus. Simul ut unum. Fratres in perpetuum,” Kenzo recites quietly. “Under this sovereign oath, we stand. Together as one. Brothers forever. It was the oath of a fallen Roman society. But that isn’t what you wanted us to remember, is it?”

“There was a book there.”

With a swift motion, I snatch my laptop from the counter and carry it to the dining room. Placing it gently on the polished wooden table, I pull out a chair and settle into it, positioning myself comfortably in front of the screen. My fingers fly across the keyboard as I search for the file I need.

Bingo.

“The Camorra?” Adrian tilts his head to the side when I bring up the old Italian mafia information on my screen. “What do they have to do with this?”

“The Camorra as we know it today came together sometime in the 18thcentury,” I tell them. “I came across it during my studies at Elite when I was researching old Italian families.”

Kenzo groans. “Delbadish and his ‘know where you come from’ assignment.” His face twists in distaste. “This is elementary school all over again with the family tree.”

All three of us chuckle. When you are part of a mafia family, school family tree assignments become complicated.

“Anyway.” I click to another screen. “I went searching for answers in that old library and came across an old Camorra book with ties to my family going back centuries. Behind this book, stashed in the back was this—” I point to the texts I have scanned onto my hard drive.”

“That is some ye ‘old text, brother,” Adrian teases as he leans in for a closer look. “Shit, this is really old Italian.”

“The book is a handwritten account of one of the oldest secret societies in Italy,” I inform him. “TheGeryon. It was founded sometime in the 14thcentury in a Spanish prison.”

“I’ve heard of that,” Kenzo adds. “But it’s an old Italian myth. It was all traced back to a 19th-century book by Victor de Fereal that was published in the 1850s.”

“That is what they wanted everyone to believe.”

Adrian and Kenzo share a doubtful roll of the eyes.

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