Page 4 of Merciless Vows

Then, using the penny, I cross his chest and place it back over his eye. That’s when I notice something I hadn’t before. I glance between the two coins several times, and a piece of the puzzle begins to form.

“2006,” I whisper. I furrow my brow as I wonder if it’s sheer coincidence or something more.

“What was that?” Uncle Ray asks.

“Both the coins were minted in 2006.” I remove the gloves and jam them into my jeans pocket as I stand. “We need to go.”

Then, without looking back, I head to the door.

I hate to leave Tony this way, but if my hunch is right, I may be one step closer to finding his killer. And getting revenge.

We leave through the back door, where the police and crime scene investigators have been waiting. There’s no need to hide. Not when half of them are on the Sinacore payroll.

Chief Hall watches us from inside his car and nods. He knows the importance of keeping the information given to reporters as vague as possible. Even if he didn’t know why, he’d do it.

I slide into the passenger seat of my uncle’s black Land Rover, then through the rearview mirror, I see him signal his men to follow.

“Are you going to tell me now what you’re thinking?” Uncle Ray asks as he enters the SUV and starts the engine.

“First, I want to confirm my theory.”

Forty-five minutes later, we drive through the main gate and move up the long driveway to my childhood home in Todt Hill. Briar House. The large Victorian mansion my mother insisted on buying because it had been her dream to live in an old place. She’d always loved history, and the house, built in 1922, was perfect. But it scared the shit out of my brother.

“It’s creepy,” he’d said. “I think it’s haunted.”

If not for the sense of duty he felt toward the Sinacore legacy, I believe he would have left the moment he hit eighteen.

The house scared me too when I was young. But in a good way. It reminded me of the haunted mansions from the horror movies we watched, with its pointy roof and dirty stained glass windows. Even after the house was brought back from extreme disrepair, it seemed as if it had a life of its own—the windows its eyes, its front door a mouth that would eat you whole. An entity that was aware of us.

Tony was the scared one, yet I was the one who left. It wasn’t the house I ran from, however, but the man who lived in it. I ran from the control he attempted to wield over me. The nightmare our constant fighting created for everyone. My complete inability to please him because I refused to bow down to him, regardless of who he was.

Nico Sinacore was accustomed to obedience, and I wasn’t one to give it.

So the instant I got hair on my balls, I left to pursue other…endeavors. One would have thought he would’ve been pleased about that. It only made him angrier. How could I leave everything that came with being a Sinacore? Money. Power. Respect.

It was easy, when I was reminded on a daily basis that none of those things were mine. I hadn’t earned any of it. Probably never would.

“You are my biggest regret.” Those were the last words he spoke to me before I walked out the door.

Nico Sinacore did not need another son. He already had one to follow in his footsteps.

The family business was Tony’s deal, not mine. He was the one who needed to be groomed into being the next Godfather of the Sinacores. It was he who would lead thefamigliaas my father did. My little sister and I were just there for the portraits.

We pull under the portico, where several guards stand to attention. One of them comes to my side and opens the door.

“Mr. Sinacore,” he greets. “I am so sorry for your loss. Tony will be missed.”

I step out and nod, finding it strange that he knows who I am even though I don’t recall his face. Another reminder of how long it’s been since I’ve been to Briar House.

Blowing out a long breath, I make to enter the house, but before I can, my younger sister bursts through the front door.

She throws herself into my arms as huge sobs wrack her body violently. “He’s gone, Luca. He’s gone!”

I embrace her slim frame tightly and run my palm over her back in a poor attempt to soothe her. I’ve never been good at it. That was Tony’s deal too. But for her sake, I try.

“When did you get in?” I ask her. “I didn’t expect you until tonight.”

“A few minutes ago.” She throws her thumb over her shoulder, pointing to the luggage just inside the foyer as she sniffs and wipes her nose on my shirt. “I took a cab.”

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