The Mafia Contract Series

I am wound up so tight I almost can’t breathe. Fucking idiot. He went against my orders and did the one thing I expressly forbid him to.

As he heads into the room and throws his rucksack on the floor, I say from my seat, “I’ve had a delivery.”

I’m not sure how I keep my voice even and controlled because all I see when I look at Alessandro Majerio is a traitor to everything we have built these past few years.

“I’m guessing this ‘delivery’ concerns me.”

He stares at me with a hard expression, and I toss the note I received this morning toward him and watch as he unfolds it and stares at it with a sigh of resignation.

“Who sent it?”

“A coward. Someone who wants to cause trouble, someone with a grudge against us. The list is fucking endless.”

I lean forward and stare at him with a warning of what’s coming. “That doesn’t matter. What does is that you compromised my sister’s safety because of what you wanted.”

To his credit, he looks as worried as I am and not because of his own safety, because of hers. Then he says roughly, “I won’t apologize for caring for your sister.”

“I don’t want your apology.”

I snarl, “I thought I could trust you, Alessandro. I thought you knew how this works.”

“I do” “Then explain why you thought kissing my sister on open ground would help solve her problems because I’m struggling to think that you thought of her once in this.”

He stares at me long and hard and growls, “We both know I would never compromise your sister’s safety.”

“But you did.”

I stand and he faces me with a hard look in his eye and snarls, “Maybe I’m not prepared to let her go without a fight. Maybe I’ve thought of a way out of this shit storm and maybe I want to protect her as much as you do.”

“You’ve only just met! You don’t know shit, Alessandro, and this is your dick talking. My one instruction was to stay away from my sister, and I knew you would be a problem the moment I saw the look in your eye when you met her. If you disregard the importance of this, what will you be like when we move this on past graduation? I can’t trust you now, and that is our biggest problem.”

The door opens and Winter rushes through as if running a race, closely followed by Malik. She looks between us, and I see the relief in her eyes when she sees we’re in one piece and says quickly, “What’s up?”

I laugh bitterly. “This.” I nod to Alessandro, and he tosses her the photograph, and she sighs. “Big deal, so I kissed a guy in college, sentence me to life imprisonment. Oh, I forgot, I’m already heading there.”

She faces me and says roughly, “One night only, isn’t that your fucking mantra, Angelo. I asked for one kiss, nothing else for one night only.

Alessandro tried to refuse. He struggled with that but sometimes the moment catches you and nothing else matters.” She looks at Alessandro and smiles ruefully. “I’m sorry I brought this on you. I knew it was wrong, but I don’t regret a thing.”

Then she looks at me and says sadly, “Angelo, you do far more than kiss.

Why is it so different for me?”

“Because of where that kiss could lead!”

I slam my fist down on the table, making her jump a little and I shout, “We all know a kiss just isn’t enough! What happens if it leads to something more and God forbid your fucking husband discovers his virgin bride is anything but and slices her neck in revenge because we all know that would happen. How can I keep you safe if you won’t take this seriously?”

Winter stares at me in shock and I snarl, “I will say this only once. Stay away from one another for both your sakes. Whoever took this photo knew its significance.”Belonging © NôvelDram/a.Org.

“What are you talking about?” Winter looks horrified and Alessandro looks as if he wants to kill something.

“Kids kiss around campus every minute of the day. So why is this breaking news? Have you asked yourself that?”

I snarl, “The fucker who sent this knew it would cause a rift and set us against one another.”

“Has it?”

Malik steps in and says in a calm and deadly tone. “It looks like that from where I’m standing.”

We look at him because he is the voice of calm in a raging storm right now.

“Stop fighting among ourselves and work out who stands to gain from delivering this like a coward in the dead of night. Who wants to cause a break in our tight family because I’m guessing it’s not a college prank? This is serious and if you stop and think, you’ll see we have a far greater problem than your sister sharing a kiss with her brother’s friend.”

Winter looks worried and Alessandro curses as he snarls, “Have you any idea who it could be?”

Malik faces us with a spark in his eyes and I know this is exactly the kind of thing he loves.

“No but give me twenty-four hours and I’ll have a list of names.”

“Twelve, and the clock is ticking.”

I snap at Winter. “Stay away from Alessandro and don’t put him in that position again.”

Turning to him, I snarl, “The best way you can keep my sister safe is by keeping your hands to yourself. This isn’t about you, me, or Winter. It’s about what happens after graduation, and we don’t have our plan in place to save her from that.”

Winter sits on the couch and sighs heavily and I know my twin and can tell she’s thinking about something.

“What?”

“Nothing.” She dismisses me and I say to the others. “Leave us.”

They move away as I knew they would, leaving us both in the room and taking the seat beside her, I say firmly, “What are you thinking?”

“I’m just wondering if I can somehow escape. Make a run for it and bury myself somewhere they would never find me.”

“Do you think I haven’t thought of that already?”

She looks at me in surprise. “Have you?”

“I’ve thought of everything, Winter and not a lot else. That may buy you some time, but they would find you in the end. You know how it works. This life doesn’t let its prisoners go, and we must be smart. Work out a plan that will set us all free and not just for a few weeks or a few months, but forever.”

“But how, we’re just kids. They have connections worldwide?”

“Then you have you answer. We play the game, and we learn to master it.

Just do me a favor and play your part because God help us if you make it to a marital bed and discover it’s your death bed instead.”

She shivers beside me, and I reach out and grasp her hand, squeezing it tightly. “Trust me, I’m working on it. Just don’t take any chances, not now.”

“I’m sorry Angelo.” She sounds beaten, defeated already and I feel like the biggest bastard alive because above everything I want my sister to smile, to experience freedom and to be like any other kid on campus. Sometimes the impossible is just a decision away and I completely understand why she made that decision last night. One night only, that’s all it can be because if that photograph ever made its way home, she would be shipped out within hours and married before the day was done.