The First Sin (Sins of the Past 1)

Sonny nodded. “Let’s go check it out.”

We got out of the car and crossed the street to get a better look. Not a soul was in sight. I was about to reach for my gun when Sonny made a weird sound, his voice muffled. I turned to look at him, but he grabbed the sleeve of my jacket and pulled me into the alleyway.

When I spun around, I was surprised to find another man—a man who wasn’t Sonny. A lanky guy in his late forties had Sonny pressed up against the wall next to me with a knife to his throat. He was wearing a black suit, his dark hair combed off his face. There was no denying he was a Wiseguy. So was the asshole holding a gun to my temple?

“I knew they would send you two.” He took a drag of his cigarette and blew the smoke in my face. “Your brothers would never come here themselves. They always send you to do their bitch work.” He tapped my forehead with the barrel of the gun, his finger close to the trigger. “You owe us a few lives.”

“I don’t owe you shit,” I spat back. “I don’t even fucking know you.”

“You don’t know us, but we know you. Blood must be paid with blood. Doesn’t the old man teach you that?”

I attempted to reach for the gun at my waist, and he beat me to the punch. If he were smart, he would have taken it from me before he even had the nerve to put the barrel to my head. With neither of us having a gun, Sonny and I were out of options. The gun I kept at my ankle was too far to reach without my brain matter ending up on the ground.

“What do you want?” I growled at him, my hands balled into fists at my sides.

“You can right the wrongs of the past.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”

“The war between your old man and Enzo started over land.”

I shrugged against the brick wall. “So.”

“So, you can fix this.”

I laughed. “There’s no fixing what Enzo did. He got his men to turn on our family. He killed innocent people.”

“He never killed innocents.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “No? What do you call the woman he killed with a car bomb? She had nothing to do with this.”

He smirked. “Car bombs aren’t Enzo’s style. On the other hand, the Irish love them. You might want to look a little closer, Little Morelli. You put your trust in the wrong people. We had nothing to do with blowing up that lady.”

“Who did?”

He crushed the cigarette under his shoe and grinned. “Your family aren’t as innocent as they seem.”

“What are you saying?” I was so confused.

“And you’re supposed to be the smart one.” He smacked me in the head with the gun. “If you look close enough, you’ll figure it out.”

“Stop being so cryptic. What the fuck do you want? If you were going to kill us, you would have done it by now.”

“The beef between Enzo and your old man started over a plot owned by Carlini Construction.”

A chill ran through me. “That doesn’t make any sense.”

“Your girl’s old man, he had something to do with it. He played his part. Now, she has to play hers.”

“Stay the fuck away from Gia, or I’ll hunt you down and kill you and every member of your family.”

He laughed. “You talk a good game for someone with a gun to his head.”

I smirked. “Pull the trigger, motherfucker. You think I’m scared of you. I’m not afraid to die.”

We both knew he wouldn’t kill me. This visit was another message for my father.

He took a step back, and the man with the knife to Sonny’s throat pointed the gun in his other hand at me. The asshole in front of me pulled the clip from my gun and then tossed the pieces on the other side of the alley into a pile of trash. Then, they took off toward a car that rolled down the street.