Page 7 of Blood and Lies (A Twisted Duet 1)

“Cut the crap. Stop playing fucking games!”

“I’m not. I’m not playing games.” Oh God, it felt like I was about to throw up while I choked on my own tears.

With wild eyes and a furious glare, he placed his hands on the bed, leaning closer to me before he yelled, “You fucking killed my brother! Because of you, my family and I had to bury Carlo!”

My heart stopped. It stopped, and all the life drained out of me within a split second. I couldn’t even comprehend what I just heard. The words that came out of his mouth made absolutely no sense to me, and it was like my mind came to a screeching halt.

“What do you mean, I killed your brother?” My voice was so damn soft I could hardly hear myself.

“You weren’t the one to pull the trigger, but you might as well have.”

“No…no.” I looked down at the bed, confusion sweeping through my mind. “You’re wrong.”

“Excuse me?”

I looked back up at him. “You’re wrong. He’s not dead.”

“Then who the fuck did I bury seven months ago, huh?”

All I could do was shake my head, thinking about the day Carlo never showed up for our date. It never once crossed my mind that something might have happened to him. After all, we were only together for a little less than two months, so I assumed after he disappeared and disconnected his phone he had moved on. It was then that I realized I didn’t know anything about his family other than that he was from Italy and his parents owned a vineyard there. So to think he went back to Italy, to his home without me, was a natural conclusion to make. But never, not once, did I think he was dead.

I lifted my head to look at him. “Please tell me you’re lying and this is all just some sick joke?”

Castello straightened, but nothing on his face told me that he was anything less than serious.

“Please,” I started and moved forward closer toward him on my knees. “Please tell me Carlo isn’t dead.”

He just stared at me. He didn’t even goddamn blink. The expression on his face was unreadable, and it scared me—it terrified me, chilling every bone in my body. I was so desperate for him to tell me this was all just a twisted game that I grabbed his hand in mine. “Castello, please, tell me it’s not true.”

As if my touch had burned him, he jerked his hand out of mine and stepped back suddenly, looking bewildered and confused.

“You—” He pointed at me while he kept on walking backward. “You better cut your bullshit right now, or I swear to God you will regret it.”

“I’m not—”

But he stepped out of the room, and the door slammed shut before I could finish my sentence. I didn’t even try to go after him, or to escape, for that matter. My entire body was frozen, my insides completely numb and void of everything. It was like my mind went blank, every emotion drained from my soul.

Carlo, dead? How could that be? After all these months, I thought…I thought…

Oh God.

Was he really dead? And why did Castello believe my family and I had something to do with his death? But the better question…what did he plan to do to me?

Chapter 3

CASTELLO

What in the ever-loving fuck was that?

I couldn’t completely process what the hell just happened. I stood there staring at the damn door, trying to figure out what the fuck was going on. At first, I thought for sure she was playing games, trying to trick me. It only made sense that being a Linscott, one of the most powerful families in America, her father would have prepped her on these things, taught her how to handle herself when things got tough. But now I wasn’t so sure. The way she reacted, the expression on her face when I told her Carlo was dead—I wasn’t sure one could fake that. Either she was telling the truth or she was one hell of an actress. But I was willing to bet a lot of money it was the latter. With the death of my brother and father, I learned the very costly lesson that one should never underestimate the Linscotts.

Our families had never crossed paths until Carlo’s death, and now it was a full-on war—a war I intended to win. They knew nothing of theCosa Nostra, and they clearly had underestimated us by thinking they could get away with murdering one of our own. They had no clue what it entailed, being a powerful Mafia family such as ourselves, what it meant in every sense of the word. It wasn’t just about ruling and throwing your weight around. It wasn’t a motherfucking gang dabbling with shit like drugs and illegal gambling, where you could do whatever the hell you wanted and then have your entourage of stupid, trigger-happy idiots save your reckless ass. All those shitty movies based on what the world thought about our kind were nothing but a bucket of bullshit. We didn’t go around killing because some motherfucker didn’t aim straight when he took a piss. There weren’t bodies of junkies who couldn’t pay their loans piling up in our back yard. Our businesses had long passed being street thugs.

But being Mafia was first and foremost about family, loyalty, protecting your own, obeying the rules you swore to uphold, and carrying the consequences if you didn’t. We didn’t ruin and rule just for the fun of it, to go on some fucking power trip. We fought, we conquered, and we earned every luxury our lifestyle awarded us with. Nothing came easy. Our wealth and power didn’t just fall out of thin air right into our golden laps. We earned it.

The streets of Manhattan had been ours for years. Everyone knew not to fuck with the Fattores, but apparently the Linscotts didn’t get the fucking memo all the way in Oklahoma. William Linscott thought because he was the owner of Linscott Resources, one of the most powerful and successful resources companies, specializing in oil, that he could go around killing whoever the fuck he wanted. Now, because of their ignorance,shehad to pay the price;shehad to atone for the loss our family had been forced to endure. Why her? Because it all fucking started with her.

If she hadn’t clawed her way into my brother’s life in the first place, he would still be here, my father would still be here, and I wouldn’t be stuck with the responsibility that was never supposed to be mine.

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