Ruthless Empire: A Dark Mafia Collection

I could hear Luca calling out to me, but I was paralyzed. Stuck in a nightmare that I desperately wanted to be awake from.

“Gabe.”

I could have just stopped Alessandro altogether. He wasn’t in good shape, that was clear. I never should have brought him to Willow’s in the first place.

There was a sharp pain against the back of my head. I looked up, and Molly was staring down at me, her long, black hair hanging just inches from my face as her brown eyes looked me over.

“Molly?” I questioned. I hadn’t heard her enter.

“Come back,” she said. “We can’t lose another brother.”

The memories of Alessandro snapping still haunted me more than I cared to admit. He’d gotten better after my brothers fled to his rescue when he went rogue. He had a baby and got married, and everything seemed okay, but then Willow reported changes in his demeanor. No one could figure it out, but I knew. Alessandro had made a weak attempt to stitch back the pieces of him that had blown out when he thought he lost Willow forever. That seed of evil that had existed within my father, that hadn’t yet truly bloomed in any of his sons, started to vine out. It was taking Alessandro over, and I feared what would happen if we couldn’t figure out how to snip the bud.

“Sorry.” I scratched my head and then looked up at Luca, fearful. “Sorry.”

Luca threw himself back in his chair, closing his eyes in frustration and massaging his head. Molly walked over and gave him a kiss on the forehead. “Calm down. Your blood pressure.”

Luca nodded. Molly was like a lighthouse. As long as she was around, darkness didn’t cling to Luca as much as it did when she wasn’t. “You’re right. Sorry, baby.”

“How’s Willow?” she asked.

“I was just telling Gabe that she isn’t great. I told her to reach out to Marco for help with Sandro. They’re both in Cali now, so they should be able to have each other’s backs.”

Molly leaned back against the big, bay window that looked out over my family’s massive, well-tended garden and hedge maze. It was something my father thought would keep his sons entertained. By entertained, I mean blindfolding us and then leaving us in isolated parts of the maze as children, expecting us to find our way out. I always found it fun, but Luca and Marco always seemed to hate him more for it. Maybe it was his tendency to wake us up in the middle of the night and snatch us out of bed to do it. Maybe they were just searching for reasons to dislike him.

“I can call Marco later, too,” Molly suggested. “Give him a heads up.”

“Please. Gabe and I need to focus on trying to figure out what the Binachis are up to. They’ve been quiet for too long. They’ve got to be planning a major retaliation.” Luca pulled a manilla folder off his desk and held it out toward me. “These are some contacts for people who could be working with them. I need you to follow-up and see what you can learn. Rough ‘em up if you have to.”

My heart sank. I didn’t want to rough anyone up. “Okay.”

Luca rolled his eyes. I hadn’t hidden it well. “Forget it. Switch.” He handed the folder to Molly. “You follow the leads. Gabe can call Marco.”

I was as relieved as I was disappointed. I didn’t want Luca to think I couldn’t handle my share of the responsibilities now that Alessandro and Marco were gone, but I’d worked hard not to get my hands dirty in this family, and I didn’t want to tarnish that now. “Sor—”

Luca glared at me. “I swear to god, if you apologize, I’m coming across this desk.”

I tucked my head between my shoulders and remained silent.

Molly tapped the folder on Luca’s head. “Be nice. It’s not a bad thing that he’s a good guy.”

An indignant suspire left Luca’s lips. “Just go.”

I didn’t need to be told twice. I hopped up out of the chair and walked from the room. I was hopeful it wasn’t a pace that was fleeing in nature, but it probably was. I was halfway down the hallway already when Molly’s voice followed me.

“Gabe.” I looked back at her, embarrassed. She walked up to me with a warm, if not pitying, look on her face. “Try to be less afraid of him. He loves you. You’re brothers.”

That was never quite the feeling I got from Luca. Until recently, I don’t even think he would have said so. “Yeah.” I twisted my neck, and it crunched loudly.

Molly let out a whistle. “That sounds nasty.”

“It’s been like that for a while,” I admitted, rubbing the side of my neck in search of relief.

Molly took out her phone, clicked away on it for a minute, and then my phone buzzed in my pocket. I pulled it out and looked down at it, and she’d sent me a text with just the words ‘Hoga Studio’ in it. “Hoga Studio?”

“It’s shortened for Holistic Yoga. It’s a yoga studio I go to downtown whenever I’m not too busy. This shit is stressful, and yoga helps. The woman who owns the studio is also a health consultant and does all the classes herself. You should give it a try,” Molly explained.

I shook my head. “I don’t know that yoga’s my thing.”