Page 28 of Dominance

“Our mother is dead!” I growl, resisting the urge to shake my head, muttering under my breath, “La terra ti sia lieve.”

“And so much so for her being a saint! He called her a?—”

“I don’t care. The whole point of you meeting up there was to get info on Dom’s layover with Darko’s group.”

“We did get info. Alto’s sister told me all about it right after we ditched the club and dodged the cops.”

“The cops?”

“I checked. They’re mostly all paid off anyway,” Ero chimes in, sitting in the back.

“Great. That doesn’t mean you can set fires everywhere you go. Sometimes I think you two aren’t taking this very seriously.”

“What is there to take seriously? We’ve got our thumbs up our asses while you try and figure out what to do about Dom.”

“Because I don’t want to make a wrong move, okay?!” I didn’t mean to shout. I really didn’t.

Stress is just eating me.

“The minute we take him out, there could be a dozen mob leaders ready to chop our fucking heads off with the promises he’s made. I need more time.”

“We weren’t criticizing, just saying.” Ciro sniffs.

“Yeah, well. Like always, it falls to me to come up with the idea, to concoct the plan. Then you two just come in guns blazing and take all the glory.”

“You can have some too.”

“I don’t want glory. Just a fucking nap.”

We’re almost to our destination, taking an alternate route to avoid attention. Even so, I know they know where we’re going.

It doesn’t make any of it any easier.

“What the?—”

“Fuck.” Ero clips, in as loud a tone as he ever uses. To us, it’s a gunshot coming from him.

The Diamante family compound was once an impressive estate. Walled, stretching for several blocks, it stood for decades, growing over the last fifty years into a fortress.

But inside, it was a haven. Sweeping grounds and gardens.

Now, it’s a burnt-out husk.

We stand there looking at the wreckage for a bit. I’ve already been here a half-dozen times. It doesn’t surprise me, however, that neither of my brothers reacts beyond looking grim.

They grew up in this world. This is how things go.

You lose people. You never take what you have for granted.

Even if we did grow up privileged compared to most.

Mob life is fucking tough. Especially for four kids without parents trying to find their place in a criminal organization.

It’s something I don’t think Alessandro ever really understood about the three of us.

He was already an adult, or almost, when we lost Ma and Pa.

We never knew anything else.

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