Ruthless Empire: A Dark Mafia Collection

Luca led the charge, falling in love with Molly, something deeper and more real than his relationship with his daughter’s real mother. He needed Molly like addicts needed drugs or like addicts needed recovery, depending on the day. When they were on, there wasn’t a force in the world that could stop them, but the rapidly growing tear between them made it feel like the world was turning a bit slower. I saw the way Alessandro broke when he thought he lost Willow, the way he shifted into an Alessandro-shaped version of my father, and I feared the same happening to Luca. I had to ensure that he and Molly stayed together. Their relationship was probably the last remaining strand of our family fabric that wasn’t fraying, and after letting Alessandro down, I’d dedicated myself to a personal duty to keep that strand strong.

“Gabe!”

I jumped as if someone had screamed into my ear with a megaphone when it was just the dull sounds of my car phone to the tune of Marco’s voice.

“Yeah?” I hadn’t even realized I’d called him yet. “Sorry. Distracted.”

“You called me,” Marco hummed. “What’s wrong?”

I sighed. There was no clear answer to that question. Nothing was presently wrong, but it felt like everything was wrong. Like all of the books in my life were just slightly out of place. Not knocked over so much, but askew in a way that was noticeable, with one of the bookends dangling perilously close to the edge.

“Luca wanted me to call you.”

Marco let out an audible sigh. “You didn’t want to call me?”

“Uh, no. I didn’t mean—”

A laugh cracked across the line.

“I’m fucking with you, man. God, I was hoping the last few years would have made you less skittish.” That was slightly comforting to hear. You couldn’t have convinced me my eldest two brothers were hoping anything for me, honestly. “What’s up?”

“Have you talked to Sandro recently? Luca heard from Willow this morning, and apparently, it’s not good.” I turned my truck around a corner at my navigation’s behest. It was slightly scary that I was driving when I didn’t even remember getting to where I was. Marco hummed for a moment before going silent. “Hello?”

“Yeah, sorry. Just trying to think of how to phrase it.”

“Is it that bad?” I found the yoga studio I was meant to go to with time to spare. I parked my car in the nearest spot.

“I mean. I want to call it boredom, but I don’t know. Sometimes he gives me this feeling. It reminds me of—”

I cut him off. “Dad?”

Marco sighed. “So you’ve felt it, too?”

I wanted to tell him I saw it. That I watched our father reach up from the fiery pits of hell and drape himself around Alessandro. I wanted to tell him how much I feared that the sa

me switch that had flipped in Alessandro was deep inside all of us. How I suspected that once flipped, that switch was difficult, if not impossible, to turn off again. It had to have happened to my dad at some point, too. The Varasso bloodthirsty switch. The thing that changed us from boys into beasts. Men into monsters.

“Yeah, I’ve felt it.” I couldn’t bring myself to admit the truth. I was afraid the little bit of love and grace I’d earned from my brothers would fly out the window. Between Alessandro and me, they’d choose Alessandro every time. “It’s not good.”

“Somedays I go over—Kelly and I have dinner with them whenever we can—and he’s fine. He’s laughing. He has work stories, and he’s taking really great care of Willow and Alexis. Then, other days, he’s restless and unsettled. I think he’s bored, but not bored like if he goes to the movies or the mall, he’ll be okay. It’s not like you don’t know. Our lives have been nothing but nonstop chaos and violence. I found it relaxing when that wasn’t my life every day anymore, but something else is wrong with Alessandro. Like he craves it.”

“That’s really why Luca wanted me to call. He’s hoping you can hang out with him even more, really try and knock him out of this whole thing.” I sighed, imagining Willow reaching her wit’s end and leaving Alessandro again. Losing her once brought him to where he was now. If she left again, no one would be safe. “Before something irreversible happens.”

Marco used to be in the witness protection program. After his wife Kelly’s brother tried to get him, and really our whole family, arrested, Marco had no choice but to give up sensitive information on the Binachis to wiggle free. There was no love lost. They’d already called out a hit on our dad, and any remaining traces of an alliance between our family and theirs was gone when the Binachi patriarch, Donovan, rolled over on Marco. He was perfectly fine to give up Donovan and his sons Dario and Dante in order to save himself and chase a happily ever after with Kelly. Luca approved of Marco’s choices even though he disagreed with them because Marco had saved his own life.

For almost a year, we only had contact with Marco through our family attorney, eventually our brother-in-law through Willow, Ricky. It wasn’t until Alessandro snapped and went rogue on Luca that we unearthed an operation of the Binachis keeping tabs on Marco. Even though Alessandro was way out of bounds, we were able to take out one of the Binachi’s head henchmen, and with Donovan, Dario and Dante convicted, the need for Marco to stay under wraps dissolved.

He and Alessandro lived in California with their wives and children. They were supposed to be living carefree, domestic lives, but things were not panning out exactly as we had hoped.

“I’m doing the best I can, Gabe, but I have a family, too, you know?” Marco’s rough, exhausted voice pierced my thoughts. “This is bad timing all around.”

I hunched my brow. “What does that mean?” Before Marco could answer the question, I got another incoming call from none other than Alessandro himself. “Oh, this is actually Sandro. Hang on. I’ll add him to the call.”

I clicked over to my other line, hoping that I could mask my concern for him. “Sandro.”

“Hey, Gabe.” His voice sounded pretty normal. Nothing out of sorts. “How have you been, man? It’s gotta be stressful just being with Luca.”

“It’s not too bad. I’m actually on with Marco, too. I’m gonna join the calls.” I clicked a few buttons to conference Marco and Alessandro in together. “Hello?”