Page 50 of What's Left of Us

“For?”

Xeno doesn’t reply right away, looking around the room. I don’t think he has any intent of filling me in, and I try not to be offended by that. After all, I’m leaving Florida soon. Jo will always be my priority, and although it made things difficult with my brothers and sister for years, most of my siblings understand my decision. Echo seems to be the exception.

“I spoke with Viggo,” he tells me, surprising me with the sudden switch. My youngest brother was very small last time I saw him, but now he’s an adult I haven’t seen in person yet. “He’s going to come back home with Lorenzo.”

My brows shoot up. “To this hell hole?”

“No,” Xeno says quickly, dragging his fingers across his scars on his cheek. “Not to Citrus Grove. This is Massimo’s home base. He built the house on the blood of his enemies.”

Frowning, I lean against the wall. Glancing at the shelves around the room, I realize there’s a thin layer of dust. My parents always had cleaners to take care of that, so I can’t imagine what would make them stop that service. “What’s going on, Xeno?”

“I told you things are changing,” Xeno replies, staring out the window opposite him. He texted me asking to cometo the house, but I didn’t expect this. If anything, I thought Massimo would be here to raise hell. “Papa’s time as the Capo is coming to an end. I know you haven’t kept up with things down here, and I don’t blame you, brother. You have plenty going on back home. I’ve heard your club is successful in Denver.”

The frown deepens. “What do you know of my club?”

Xeno chuckles. “Relax, Vinny. Anyone I know wouldn’t pass your requirements to join. Your tech guy is good at cyber security I hear.”

“You’ve heard a lot,” I tell him.

“I like to know who I’m working with,” he agrees. “Don’t worry, none of my associates would apply for your club. They wouldn’t pass the background check, so you don’t have to worry about the militia taking an interest in Sins and Secrets.”

I straighten. “What the hell are you doing with the militia?”

He gives me a bored look, sitting forward in the chair. “Things are changing down here, Vinny. Like I said. Massmio’s going to burn the family legacy to the ground, and then where would we be? Echo couldn’t finish college, and our brothers wouldn’t have something to come home to without the family.”

Shaking my head, I step closer to him. “Xeno, this doesn’t have to be the focus of your life. If Massimo is destroying the family, you can always find a way to dissolve it. Surely-”

“I don’t want to dissolve it,” Xeno interrupts, sounding confused. “I want to expand on it. Just because Massimo’s time as Capo is coming to a close doesn’t mean I’m handing the legacy off to someone else. We’ve played nice over the years with most of our allies, and the time has come to build anew. I’ve already got allies of my own in place if something tragic were to happen to Massimo.”

“This life is violent,” I tell him, softening my gaze. Just because Massimo trained me how to be something I’mnot doesn’t mean I’ve forgotten what it was like to follow him to meetings, standing in the background and watching the violence. “Altering his footsteps won’t change the path you’re following. Ending Massimo’s rule over the family early will lead to more violence. You don’t have to follow the legacy.”

When I got to spend time with Jo freshman year, she showed me a softer side of myself. I hadn’t had a reason to really speak to her up to that point despite living in the same town. We were partnered up for science, and it changed my future once I got to really know her.

Jo didn’t believe that absolute violence solved everything. She said her mother taught her to know when and how to manipulate something to keep aggression down and dissolve a dangerous situation. I thought it was a creative way to manipulate the situation back then, but now I wonder if Porscha was trying to impart some of her dark ways on her daughter. It didn’t end up working out that way.

“Violence and life go hand in hand,” Xeno says, and I instantly don’t agree with him. “You didn’t want your birthright, Vinny, and I’ve never faulted you for that. You wanted your future with Jo and that’s perfectly fine. But I stepped in where you didn’t, and this is going to bemylegacy now. You don’t have to be happy for me, but you’ll respect that this is my choice.”

“Your choice is to bring our brothers back here and have them back you when you move to become Capo?” I ask, shaking my head. “If you try to unseat Massimo, you’ll have to kill him.”

“I’m aware of what must be done,” Xeno says, his voice devoid of emotion. I’ve never heard him sound so cold. “And this is my decision to make now. It’s what's best for the family.”

“Really?” I ask him sarcastically, crossing my arms. “And Echo? What of her? You think her life will be easier with her older brother clawing his way to power?”

Xeno’s jaw tenses. “You do not have to be happy for me, but you will respect me.”

I scoff. “Respect? Be careful of the backs you break on your way to power, Xeno. You’ll end up with as many enemies to contend with as Massimo.”

Instead of looking offended, he chuckles. “Don’t worry brother, I’ll take my affairs away from Citrus Grove. Enough nightmares have happened here. I’ll be moving the family permanently downstate when Massimo is no longer in charge.”

Shaking my head, I look away from him. “You’ve gone mad. Is this because of that girl we saw?”

Xeno sighs, and somehow my younger brother manages to sound disappointed despite the plan he’s laid out for me. “I don’t plan on killing as liberally as Papa does. His methods have caused us enough grief. More than a few people are our enemies now instead of allies. I plan to fix the rifts, and that girl is part of the rift. She knows I’m coming for her when it’s time to build new alliances.”

“How exactly are you planning on doing that?” I ask with a scoff.

“Don’t worry about that part, Vinny,” he says, leaning back in the chair again. “It’s already underway.”

A creeping feeling slithers down my back, like Xeno’s already gone and done something he can’t come back from. I study my brother, trying to decide if his method of bad puts him on par with Alastair. They are both killers, cut from a different cloth. Xeno kills for power and credibility, and Alastair killed for…

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