Twisted Bonds (The Camorra Chronicles 4)

“Problem is Remo doesn’t tell us what his fucking motives are,” Savio said, then shrugged and piled his plate with pancakes. “But this is his game.”

“Aren’t you hungry?” Kiara asked when I didn’t fill my plate.

I nodded distractedly and grabbed a few pancakes. Digging in, my hunger returned and Kiara smiled.

The door swung open and Remo walked in, only in briefs. He nodded and headed over to the coffee maker to pour himself a cup. “One of you needs to take up breakfast to Serafina.”

“It’s not going to be me,” Savio said. “I need to get ready for training with Diego and Gemma.”

“I can do it,” Kiara suggested.

Remo cocked an eyebrow at me.

“I’ll do it. I don’t trust the girl’s mental state so shortly after seeing her brother,” I said.

“Why don’t you go up yourself?” Adamo asked Remo.

Remo sipped at his coffee. “Not in the mood to see her.”

It wasn’t that. Sending my brother a disapproving look, I got up, grabbed a plate with pancakes, and left the kitchen. Remo was losing track of his goals, which was a major problem.

On my way back downstairs after dropping the pancakes off, I ran across Savio who was already dressed in fight shorts. “Listen,” he began, grimacing. “What happened in the kitchen? Your expression when I mentioned Adamo’s birth was scary as fuck.”

My defenses rose. Remo and I had tried to keep most of the horrors of the past from our younger brothers. Telling them everything didn’t serve any purpose.

“You know as well as I do that Adamo wasn’t mixed up.”

Savio groaned. “Come on. Stop the shit. You know it was a joke. Don’t use this ‘I don’t get your emotions’ shit on me. I noticed that you changed in the last few weeks. I’m not blind.”

I frowned. “It’s nothing.”

“Sure it is,” he said. “I don’t remember what happened, and you and Remo do, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to know the truth.”

Savio wasn’t a kid anymore, far from it. He’d been fighting at our side for years now. He knew our mother had tried to kill us all, but not what happened after.

I leaned against the wall. “Our father’s men stitched us up so we didn’t bleed out. Then they took us home where our father was waiting with the doctors of the Camorra. Two of them tended to Remo and me while the others performed an immediate C-section on our mother, cutting Adamo out of her.”

Savio stared at me. “They cut him out of her with you and Remo in the same room?”

I flexed my hand, staring at my scars. “Blood’s blood. Father thought it would make us stronger.”

Savio touched my shoulder and squeezed. “Fuck. That twisted fucker. I wish you and Remo could have killed him.”

“Regret over the past—”

“Is wasted energy, I know,” Savio said, then pulled back and ran a hand through his hair. “Fuck. Now I really need to beat the shit out of someone.”

“Diego is a decent opponent.”

“He is,” Savio said. “But I’m supposed to fight his sister first. It requires too fucking much concentration not to seriously hurt Gemma.”

I nodded. Training with Kiara always proved much more stressful than fighting my brothers, because with them I didn’t have to be careful of every move. If I made a mistake, I paid with pain. With Kiara, I could end up seriously injuring her.

“Does Adamo know?”

“No, he doesn’t know anything of what happened.”

“Not even that our mother’s alive, I assume?”

I shook my head. Adamo had been in a difficult phase and it seemed unwise to burden him with the weight of the past.

“You should tell him. He isn’t a little kid anymore, and this concerns him too.”

His phone buzzed and he fumbled it out of his pocket. “Need to go. Diego’s already asking what’s taking so long.” He typed in a message then looked back up. “Are you going to come over to the gym later? I’d like to spar with you and go over possible moves for my cage fight.”

“I’ll bring Kiara along. I need to work on her defensive skills.”

“All right.”

I watched my brother leave, considering what he’d said. Maybe he was right. Adamo deserved to know the truth about his birth, and why Remo and I were messed up. But Remo was even more volatile than usual with Serafina in the mansion, and Adamo was on edge because of the situation as well.

When I returned into the kitchen, only Kiara was inside, humming as she stirred reddish dough in a bowl. She smiled over her shoulder at me.

I asked, “What’s that?”

“I’m trying a recipe for red velvet cupcakes. I want to perfect them for Savio’s fight. I’m sure he’ll want a sweet treat after.”

“Savio usually treats himself to a whore or two.”

Kiara pursed her lips. “Well, maybe they’d like a cupcake too.” She laughed, shaking her head. My own lips twitched seeing her joy.