“Help him to his feet,” Mother said, indicating Savio.
An older man, one of my father’s old Captains, grabbed Savio’s arm to pull him to his feet.
Savio jerked his head forward, breaking the man’s nose with his forehead. “Go fuck yourself, motherfucker.” The man staggered back, clutching his nose, then he raised his gun and pointed it straight at Savio’s head. My own body went into fight mode but I forced myself to stay put.
Our mother waved the lighter. “I told you. They’ll burn.”
I looked to Kiara and Alessio. She was stroking his back, her gaze on me. She wasn’t crying, only looking at me with absolute certainty that I could save them, and no matter the price, I would. Those kind eyes had helped me tear down parts of the walls from the past and today I’d smash the rest of them. Maybe I wouldn’t survive; it didn’t matter, as long as I took my mother and those traitors with me so Kiara and Alessio could live in peace.
Savio staggered to his feet and moved toward us, limping slightly. There wasn’t a bullet or knife wound in his leg, so I hoped he’d only twisted his ankle.
“Where’s Adamo?” Mother asked, flicking the lighter open, causing Kiara to flinch and me to take a step forward. Mother smiled at the orange flame before her gaze latched onto mine then to Remo. Her expression, full of manic excitement, it had haunted many nightmares of my past.
“He disappeared after you tricked him into helping you.”
“Poor boy,” she crooned. “He’s weak, lost. He isn’t like you or Benedetto.” She regarded the flickering flame of the lighter again and every fiber in my body tensed. I wouldn’t reach Kiara in time if Mother touched the flame to her hair or clothes. Her eyes became eager again. “What about those kids and wife of yours, Remo? Where are they?”
Remo’s nostrils flared.
“Everyone knows about that kidnapped girl and those twins that look like you,” she continued. “Especially that boy. Your spitting image. Your tainted blood.”
Remo gave her a wide grin, full of maniac darkness. “You know me, don’t you? You really think I could ever have a woman in my life without killing her?”
Mother tilted her head and closed the lid of the lighter. “You killed her?”
“Her and those useless kids.”
Mother regarded him closely, but from the look on Remo’s face even I would have believed his words to be true if I didn’t know what Serafina and his twins meant to him.
“Why don’t you douse us with gasoline? That way you can guarantee we don’t act out of turn and you can let Kiara and Alessio go,” I said carefully.
Mother’s laugh was girlish, too high, too fake. “Oh no, no. I won’t let the past repeat itself. She stays. You’ll behave as long as she does. You don’t want her to get hurt, do you?”
I swallowed hard, trying to suppress the need to attack, to dish out the pain she deserved.
“We need to hurry up here,” Carmine said, looking at Remo. My brother appeared to be imagining all the ways he could break the man before him. “We don’t know if they didn’t alert their soldiers. As long as they still live, every fucking Made Man in the city will follow their command.”
Mother gave him an indignant look then sighed before smiling at us. “Okay, this is how it goes, boys. I want you to cut your wrists, all right?”
Savio scoffed.
Remo’s face transformed into a mask of absolute fury. “I should have killed you right after they cut Adamo out of you. Father wouldn’t have stopped me. He would have found a new woman to terrorize.”
I held Kiara’s shocked gaze and she shook her head, asking me not to act on my mother’s demands, but that was a promise I couldn’t give, because my life wouldn’t matter without her in it.
Mother smiled. “And I should have killed you first, in your sleep, but I didn’t know how strong you were. I do now, my son.”
“Don’t call me that!” he snarled.
She glanced from Savio, to me then to Remo at last. “This could have been over many years ago. It must end this way, don’t you see?”
I could only stare at Kiara who was clutching our son with tears in her eyes, and the love in her face grounded me, gave me peace and certainty. She’d live no matter the price.
Mother opened the flap of the lighter and I took a step forward. “No!” she screamed. “All three of you will cut your wrists now. I’ll wait until you’ve passed out before I burn down the mansion and your bodies in it. If you don’t, I’ll burn her and the baby right in front of you and have my men shoot you anyway.”
Carmine and the men exchanged looks, obviously not in on the plan until now. Hadn’t they realized how crazy our mother was?