Page 78 of Brandishing Betrayals
His brothers laughed around us and I felt like I was missing the joke.
“Alessia is…strong-willed, you could say,” Leo said, choosing his words wisely. His eyes crinkled in the corners as he smiled. His sister was twenty years younger than us and sounded like she was coming into her own.
I chuckled. “Well, good for her.”
Leo nodded and looked around the table at all the people gathered. “Ready?” Leo asked me.
I shook my headno, but wiped my mouth anyways.
Leo stood up, making a formidable sight at the head of the table, and everyone fell silent as conversations tapered off. “Thank you everyone for coming. Sunday family dinners have always been important to our family, and I love that all of you make it a priority as well. Though we’ve all had our differences over the years, we’ve always tried to come together and put family first. While individual needs can at times feel more important, family should always be included in our priorities.That being said, I want to welcome Nicolia back to the family.” Leo motioned toward me.
As one, everyone at the table turned to me. I swallowed and slowly stood. Not one to be nervous, I still felt on edge. My mother was here. I didn’t want to disappoint her further than I already had in the last ten years.
“Hey everyone,” I greeted, looking around the table as Leo sat down. “I know I’ve been gone for some time now, and I only have myself to blame for that. While I might have always marched to the beat of my own drum, and maybe I didn’t always prioritize this family, I always loved this family. Ten years ago, I was in a bad place and I found myself in some trouble. Uncle Augustino and I may have never seen eye to eye, but I always respected him. When he told me he couldn’t help me, I was hurt. I had just lost the love of my life, and in my pain, I lashed out at Uncle Augustino.” I paused, looking down at the table, gathering my words. “It wasn’t my finest moment.” I paused again and took a sip of my whisky. “I’ve recently come to learn just how severely my actions back then had truly impacted those in my life, my family included.
“I’ve come to dinner tonight to apologize to our family and to beg your forgiveness,” I glanced at Leonardo as I spoke this part. “I am deeply sorry for the hurt and disrespect that I have caused you, your brothers,” I glanced to my other cousin’s, “your mother, and to the rest of this family, by not going to Uncle Augustino’s funeral. I apologize for not being someone this family can count on. If you’ll agree to me returning, I’d like to prove that I can be relied upon by this family.”
The room was silent as I finished, all eyes on Leonardo as he stood again. Leo smiled broadly and rounded the table. “Apology accepted. Glad to have you back, cousin,” Leo said formally.
Relief swept through me so hard that my damn knees felt weak. Cheers and clapping erupted around the table as Leoclapped me on the shoulder and pulled me into a full hug, no bro slapping half hugs that I did with my brothers. Leonardo hugged me tightly and I had to hide my wince as Leo purposely crushed my ribs. “Welcome back.”
I covered my wince with a cough and forced a smile on my lips. “Thanks, cousin.” Purposely using the term that Leo had agreed upon, after rebuking me not that along ago.
“We’ll talk after dinner.” Leo nodded his head as he patted my shoulder one more time, before stepping away to leave room for his brothers to embrace me, much the same way Leonardo had, hard squeeze and all.
Nico
By the time dinner was finished, I was aching and exhausted. I wanted nothing more than to go home and lay down, but I needed to get through the after-dinner drinks in Leonardo’s study to discuss the family helping Kara and then Maya. We needed to take care of Vince Carmichael in prison to get him to agree to the plea deal for Kara. Kara could finally inherit her father’s law firm, and we could finally kill Dax fucking Hillcrest for being a douche. Hopefully then Maya would admit that he’d been harassing her all this time.
I didn’t know for sure, but I had a hunch that was why Maya was so adamant to stay away from us. If Luke’s explanation of her being terrified of flowers was anything to go by. I would dowhatever I had to for the family—and I’d already done two of Leonardo’s three requests—to ensure Maya would be safe.
Once the plates were cleared, Leo rose and so did his brothers. I followed them through the house to Leonardo’s—Uncle Augustino’s—study in the back of the house. The old school mahogany paneled office dripped of old money. Italian leather couches sat in front of a massive fireplace, bookcases lined the walls full of likely first editions of the classic literature, most of which was probably never read by one in this house.
It was a very showy and opulent room, made to intimidate those who visited it. I had spent several nights in this office, biting my tongue as my uncle raged at me over my short comings to the family. Choosing to ‘hang out with delinquents in the ghetto of Creekton when he was raised in Crestwood was a dishonor to the family’. Then later when I joined the Devil’s Psychos, I had ‘brought dishonor to my mother for not following the family business’.
To say I did not have found memories of this study was an understatement. I could only hope that Leonardo wouldn’t force me to come back here too often.
Taking a seat at a couch by the fireplace, I took the offered cigar from my cousin Tino and nodded in thanks.
“Alright cousin,” Leo started, sitting at an armchair facing the couches and fire, like he was holding court. “Tell us about your problem.”
I took a deep breath and began. I explained how Kara’s father had embezzled money from his own firm and pinned the crime on Mac Taylor, president of the Ravager Knights MC. I explained how through Kara’s involvement, she had her father arrested and currently awaiting trial. “Marcos Candella’s sister Kara, needs help convincing her father to accept a plea deal. In order to inherent the firm, she needs him to either plead guilty, or be found guilty in trial.”
“So why not just wait for the guilty verdict? It sounds like she has a solid case,” Leo asked.
I sighed. “We can’t wait that long. The trial and sentencing could take months. We need this to happen ASAP. Kara is under the impression that if she can get her father to change his mind, then she can get him sentenced by end of this week.”
Leo frowned and sucked on his cigar; his eyebrows furrowed together as he thought. “How does this effect you?”
I took a deep breath and continued, feeling the weighing gaze of all my cousins in the room. “Kara was kidnapped by Las Serpientes last year.”
The room erupted into growled curses and raised voices.
Leo glared hard and raised a hand silencing everyone. “The snakes?”
I nodded. “Yeah. Because of their involvement with my president Buckley, Mac Taylor was killed, and Kara was kidnapped while she was pregnant.”
Again, the room erupted into angry voices. This time, Leo let them spit their angry vitriol. There was one thing the Seratelli men all hated more than anything and that was abuse against women. The second thing they hated more than anything? That would be Las Serpientes.
