Page 12 of Wicked Tricks

Really, I understood why he got punched in the nose more often than most.

“What happened?” Mother gasped, waving us inside and leading us all into the kitchen. She flipped on the lights and filled up the kettle. I smiled, nostalgia sweeping over me.

I remembered hovering at her ankles as a boy while she made coffee for Dad and his closest allies as they talked business all night long.

From as young as six or seven, I was involved in those meetings.

My father wanted me to be prepared. I had been groomed and trained for this job, to take over from him. Every part of my childhood was constructed around my future, this future - leading The Family.

Robert told her what happened, and Ren corrected him and reeled in the exaggerations as they fell out of his mouth. Mother touched her fingers to her lips in shock, and shook her head with wide, dramatic eyes.

“Antoni, what are you going to do? This girl thinks she runs the place now? What did Diana say?”

“That she would handle it, and that this girl was just mad at Robert and acting against her orders,” I sighed.

Mother scoffed, “and you believed her? She’s always been a smooth talker that Diana, she had your father wrapped around her little finger.”

I rolled my eyes. Dad had a lot of women wrapped around his finger.

It was no secret that he was never faithful. He had kept an active roster of mistresses right under Mum’s nose while she was at home with us, taking care of the family - including all of the men under his command.

As I got older, the more I resented him for how he treated her.

“You need to find out what’s going on, Antoni,” she said, “you cannot let this get out of hand. It starts out with this girl, an outsider, thinking she can threaten The Family and make demands, and then everyone thinks that they can get away with it,” she paced back and forth, gesturing wildly with her hands as she spoke. “You can’t let this slide. You need to step up and show them who’s in control, show them what happens when they disrespect us. Just for once, be the Boss that your father raised!”

“What do you want me to do? Kill her?” I snapped.

My mother stepped back from me, her hand reaching out and searching for the kitchen bench to grip and steady herself.

Though she had spent the majority of her life beside my father, it was easy for her to censor and filter out the dirtier parts of it. She could shield herself from certain realities because she had never been truly exposed to it.

I believed that she didn’t even realise what she was suggesting until I said the words out loud. She was suggesting that I kill the girl.

We didn’t mess with women or children.

My father, though he was hardly a role model, had never killed a woman or child. Threatened, blackmailed, extorted - sure, but never killed. That was what I once believed to be true, but I wasn’t quite sure any more.

It was pretty much the one thing we didn’t do. It was the one shred of morality that we clung to and hoped that it granted us mercy in the eyes of God.

Mum opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out.

“We’ll just stay away from Lilith’s,” I said, putting my hands out and trying to ease her mind, “it doesn’t really matter.”

“But it does matter. Do you really think that’s all she wanted? That was her only motive? Why would she risk her life, knowing who we were, just to get us to stay away from her little nightclub?”

I couldn’t answer her. None of us could.

There was a heavy silence weighing in the air.

She had a point. It took either balls or stupidity to approach us as Rome did.

“Fifty bucks gets you twenty minutes with her,” Robbie scoffed quietly to Ren, “that’d be enough time for me to get it out of her.” He laced his fingers behind his head, leaning back in his chair and puffing his chest.

They chuckled and I shook my head, I wasn’t in the mood for their jokes.

“Well, she was fucking hot,” Ren said quietly to Robbie, and Dimitri nodded.

Like I hadn’t noticed.

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