Page 46 of Filthiest Of Them All

“Your father knew?” I bite out.

“Of course he did. He told her to see if I had what it took to be a real man. I clearly failed because the mantel fell to Carnage. Alex only bolstered his reasoning when he and Carnage started doing raids of their own. My father started noticing that Alex loved the blood and gore. When he captured one of our rival family’s captain, he brought Alex to the basement and told him that if he could get him the intel he needed, he would be welcomed into the family through marriage.”

My jaw unhinges. “Desire,” I mutter.

Omen nods. “My sister was in love with Alex. She was obsessed with him and would do anything to get his attention, but he never noticed her. Needless to say, Alex got the intel Roberto needed and from the age of seventeen, Alex became my dad’s leading man. Carnage started to get annoyed because Roberto was focusing more on Alex. It only got worse when Alex announced he would take the De Santis last name when he married Desire.”

“What happened, Omen? How did it all go bad between your family and him?”

“I don’t know but Alex does. Something changed in him after Roberto died. When he turned twenty-two he came to me, Vat, Pope, Halo and Carnage and told us he found our way out. In my family there is no out. You’re blooded in and the only way to leave the Cosa Nostra is in a box. When he said we would all get our freedom, we jumped at the chance.”

“I get why you would want to leave but why did the others?”

“Roberto forced us to do things we never wanted to do. He beat us. When men would pledge their loyalty to him they needed to be blooded in. It was me and my brothers that would face off against grown men. They had to either knock our asses out or kill us, one guy nearly succeeded in killing Halo until Carnage shot the cunt. He was beaten within an inch of his life for that.” Bile rushes up my throat and this time it isn’t from the alcohol.

“I’m so sorry.”

He waves away my concern. “We didn’t know the price of freedom would cost Alex fifty lashes. He was whipped fifty fucking times, ten lashes for each person. His back is shredded because of us. He refused to leave us behind and took that shit just so we could be free of our family.” My chest aches at the thought of what he went through. I’ve seen his back it looks like someone took a grater to it.

“Why didn’t Carnage leave with you?”

“He didn’t want to live in Alex’s shadow anymore is my guess.”

“What happened between him and Desire?” I push.

“Honestly, I don’t know. She was head over heels in love with Alex but he never cared about her the way she wanted him to. If Alex spoke to another girl Desire would lose it and have her killed. Alex had no idea until Pope told him about what our sister was doing. She lost it when Alex wanted to leave. He has my family’s name inked on his skin and refuses to remove it because he says it's a reminder of what we have all survived. I never knew what a real family was like until we all left. Wrath and Rage were never like us and Alex never tried to take them with us.”

“I don’t blame him,” I mutter.

“Not only did he get whipped, he had to swear he would never kill again.The Butcherbelonged to the De Santis family and upon his release from the family, Desire vowed to wipe his existence from the world so no one could ever hire him or use him against her. He agreed. We can never have our own operations?—”

“Hang on, you are the Denver Kings though.”

He smiles wickedly and wags his brows. “Are we?” he purrs.

“Oh my God, she has no idea that you are all doing… business behind her back, does she?”

“She does now.”

“Why did she leave you alone for years and then come after you now?”

“For two years, the five of us fumbled our way around trying to build something of our own. Alex came up with the Denver Kings. We aren’t a gang or anything, we're a family. We sell firearms on the black market and use our moving companies as a front to transport or load across state lines. We’ve never dabbled in the skin trade or drugs not after…” He claps his mouth closed.

“Ellie,” I say for him.

He nods stiffly. “For two years we built our empire from the ground up. Alex has always been our leader but more than that, he’s a brother and Ellie, she was our girl. The only woman we would ever let into our sanctuary. Alex’s parents wouldn’t let him stay in their house. We got our own place and Ellie spent every minute she could with us. Pope and Vatican fell in love with her. I thought Alex would kill them but to my surprise, he just said if she felt the same about them then he wouldn’t stand in their way. All he wanted was to see her happy and for a while she was. Pope and Vat made her smile every single day, she was their sunshine from the darkness they were raised in.”

“It sounds like you guys really loved her,” I whisper, feeling my heart ache for the girl who’s life was stolen from her.

“We did. But, Alex loved her more. He told us he wanted to use the arms deals as a temporary solution until we could go legit.” That revelation floors me. “He wanted to start investing and build a legal empire that he could leave to his sister one day, and we all agreed because we loved her. His lust for blood vanished when we came back here and Ellie was around. He didn’t crave the kill anymore, he was just… Alex. The Butcher was no more until three years ago.”

I exhale slowly and drop my gaze to the grass. “That's when she died, isn’t it?”

“She didn’t die, Tatum, she was murdered!” I flinch at his harsh tone. “That night, when Alex got the call and saw her lying there, he died right beside her. The Butcher was reborn that night. His thirst and hunger for the blood of his victims tripled, he was uncontrollable. We were forced to clean up his mess so Desire wouldn’t find out. Anyone that was at that party that night is dead… all except one.” I choke on my spit.

“He slaughtered all of them?” I whisper in horror.

“Every single fucking one,” he says without remorse.

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