Page 1 of Mafia Heir's Alpha
1
ORI
The train squealed to a stop at the station, and I jolted awake. For a second, I considered just staying inside the damn thing and going wherever it took me. That had to be better than stepping onto home soil after all I’d lost.
Except for Dad’s funeral, I hadn’t had the guts to come back home even for a short visit. But now that school was over and I had the diploma I’d been working so hard for, I had no more excuses. I had to go back to my family’s estate and continue to process what had happened to my father.
Van Russo had never been a kind man, but he was my father.
A car was waiting for me at the station. The driver was a man I didn’t recognize as having worked for us since I was a child. He held the door open for me and placed my suitcases in the trunk.
Walking in the door without my dad to greet me was surreal. He wasn’t overly sentimental, but he was always waiting when I came home from boarding school. Hugging me and taking my bags upstairs while he asked about my ride in and how I’d been. It was the only time he showed me any sort of affection. Any other time he was cold and distant. Being the head of a criminal organization didn’t exactly lend itself to a nurturing environment. The times he was kind to me were nice, but I didn’t appreciate how much I needed that connection with him until was gone.
Gone forever.
I’d spent ten years living in the country at a boarding school nowhere near the chaos and drama that surrounded the family business. Dad wanted to keep me as far away from the dangerous stuff as possible, but clearly that wasn’t foolproof. Danger found him, and the chaos kept coming.
I appreciated that he wanted to protect me, but being raised by teachers meant I now only had spottymemories of my dad. Outside of summer and Christmas vacations, I was rarely in the same room as my dad. And that fucking sucked now that he was gone.
All I had were my own memories and rumors that floated around like dandelion fluff in the spring.
The weight of my loneliness set in as soon as I walked up the stairs. It didn’t feel like my home anymore. Truthfully, I wasn’t entirely sure what home meant if I was completely alone. I never planned to take over the business. I barely knew what the business was, just that it was illegal.
The estate now felt like a group of buildings filled with servants and guards and strangers. Strangers who were paid to take care of me but had no actual interest in my life. They obviously didn’t do much to save my father when the Ferrinis came for him.
"Orlando." My uncle Mario was waiting in my father’s den as I passed it. He was wearing a white shirt that was unbuttoned a bit too low in the front and his sleeves slumped at his wrists. Despite having tons of money, he gave off a used car salesman vibe that always gave me the creeps when I was younger. Not much had changed. “I’m glad you’re home.” He ran onehand through his silver hair as he waved me to sit in the guest chair on the other side of my father’s desk. “We have work to do.”
“Work?” I knew what kind of work he did, and it wasn’t exactly my style. “What do you mean?”
“Revenge, boy.” He shook his head as if I were being intentionally obtuse. “For my brother. Your father. We need to reclaim the territory they took from us and send a message to everyone else that Russos won’t be fucked with.”
I glanced around the room I hadn’t stepped foot in since I was a kid. “What do you want me to do about it?”
Uncle Mario relaxed in the chair and rocked forward and back. “You’re the man of this house now, Ori. You need to step up. Take care of business.”
“Kill someone?” I whispered the words because I didn’t want to acknowledge that was what my uncle was suggesting. How could he think I’d do that? Could I do that?
“Cord Menetti made the call. He’s the one you need to take down. Cut the head off the viper before he strikes again.”
“Again?” I wasn’t sure what he meant. “Like, they might come after me next? I thought the Ferrinis were involved?” Was it sad that I didn’t actually know who was who in the crime world? I should know who had killed my father.
“They were. They’re all working together now. Conspiring against us. They could come after me. Who knows?” He shrugged. “But it doesn’t really matter because you’re gonna take care of him before he has a chance to do anything.”
“Yeah, I guess I can do that.” I’d never hurt a fly in my life, but apparently, I was now signing up to become some kind of vigilante assassin to avenge my father. I was glad I went to college for that. I slid into the leather chair, my limbs going numb.
“Listen, Ori. Your old man was an asshole, but he had guts. You got his eyes, and you got his stubborn personality. I’m telling you this is what needs to happen because you can’t sit on the fence anymore. If you want to take over where your father left off, you have to prove yourself. To me. To the other families. And most of all, to yourself.”
I swallowed hard and knew he was right. I couldn’t keep hiding from my legacy any longer. If I was goingto step into the family business, I had to be fully in. And that meant shutting down competitors who thought they could just walk into my home and take my dad’s life. “Yeah, I’ll do it. Am I safe here for now?”
Never mind the fact that I barely knew what the family business was. Illegal gambling? Stealing?
When I was a kid, I overheard my dad talk about robbing a bank once in his youth. Did they still do that sort of thing?
Uncle Mario scoffed and sat forward with his elbows on the desk. “Nobody’s safe anywhere, but you’re not worth the trouble to them yet. Keep your head down, worm your way in with the Menettis, and get justice for your old man.”
I watched his face and considered what he’d said. “How do I do it?” I felt stupid asking, but I really didn’t have any idea what the next step was. I’d never handled a gun or a knife before. I was my father’s only child, an omega, who never got my hands dirty.
He grinned from ear to ear. “You’ll figure it out. You’ve got a pretty face, Ori. Maybe you could get close to someone in the Ferrini family. Or Menettis. It won’t be hard for you to earn their trust. Just don’t tell anyone your real name.”
