Page 2 of Mafiosa
Luca cleared his throat.
I tried to pull my thoughts from the inferno that had ripped my world away. The fire was over. The pain was all that remained. I tried to ignore my mother’s face as it swam behind my eyelids. Those kind eyes, that gentle watery smile.I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, Mom.
‘And the rest,’ Valentino prompted. ‘Sophie. Finish it.’
I blinked hard. The paper was nearly gone now. The flames had chewed it up into floating silver flecks.
‘Sophie.’ Luca’s voice, quiet and stern, brought me back. I refocused. I remembered why I was here. What I had to do.
‘La famiglia prima di tutto,’I finished.
The family above everything.
The family comes first.
My family.
Valentino dropped the last shred of paper. ‘Sophie Marino, this ceremony symbolizes your rebirth into the Falcone family. From now on, you will live by the gun and the blade.’ He beckoned me closer. I went, like a puppet on a string, jarred by the streaks of similarity between him and Luca as those deep blue eyes loomed larger.
Valentino pressed a hand to either side of my face and brushed his ice-cold lips against each of my cheeks, the movement quick and perfunctory. He was inches from me, our noses almost touching, and a shiver raked up my spine. I stared right into those calculating eyes, as he said,‘Benvenuta nella famiglia, Sophie.’He dropped his hands and pulled back from me again. ‘We are one until death.’
I expelled the breath that had been swelling inside me.
‘So, that’s it, then?’ It was over as quickly as it had begun. There was a strange tingle of warmth blooming in my chest.‘I’m one of you now?’
‘Almost,’ said Valentino, pushing back from the table and rolling his neck around until it cracked.
Luca answered at the same time: ‘Yes.’
They looked at each other, heads tilted in matching displays of confusion.
Valentino twirled his hand in the air, but when he spoke, it was in reply to Luca, not to me. ‘She will have to kill a Marino before she can fully commit to the Falcone regime.’
‘Ah!’ Felice, who had unfolded all his limbs and was on his feet now, lit up like a glow stick. ‘Christmas has come early.’
Luca was still staring at his twin. ‘You can’t be serious.’
Valentino’s eyes narrowed. ‘How else would we bind her to us?’
Felice’s words flashed in my head.Try not to let your cowardice show.‘Who?’ I asked, hearing the rasp in my voice and hating it. ‘Who do I have to kill?’
‘A small player,’ Valentino replied. ‘A test. I’ll let you know the target soon.’ He was so nonchalant it almost tricked me into a feeling of normality. In place of fear, a sense of duty began to rise. This was my task. Of course I would have to do something to prove myself. Of course it would be this. How else would they know I wasn’t a Marino spy? How else could they help me avenge my mother?
‘It’s fine,’ Nic said, the flicker of a smile lifting the hard edge of his cheekbone. ‘It’s not like she’ll have to do it alone, Luca. We’ll help her.’
‘She’ll have to make the killing blow,’ Felice warned. ‘Make sure she pulls the trigger.’
‘Of course,’ said Nic, without missing a beat.
‘Of course,’ I echoed, feeling a million miles away from the girl I had been just a few months ago.
‘It’s settled.’ Valentino’s words floated over his shoulder as he moved away from me. ‘The next Marino casualty will belong to Sophie. And then Sophie will belong to us.’
I had barely reached the hallway when the distant sound of shouting filtered through the house. I jogged towards it, following Gino’s voice as his pitch climbed higher and higher, the sudden wrongness of it echoing around me.
I sprinted past the kitchen, ignoring the laughter of Paulie’s three little girls, skidded into the foyer and wrenched the front door open. Outside, Dom and Gino were already trekking towards the end of the driveway.
In the distance, flames were billowing above the entrance toEvelina. My heart leapt into my throat as an onslaught of dread careened over me. It prickled in my fingers, slithered up my arms, flashed warmth beneath my cheeks. Memories crowded against my mind, trying to push their way in.
