The Mafia and His Obsession: Part 1 (Tainted Hearts 4)

I swiveled around to face him, ignoring the pain. Trying so hard to ignore the fact that I had just been shot in the ass. I had a hole in my ass cheek!

This wasn’t some Deadpool bullshit. And I sure as hell wasn’t some super mutant who could pop bullets out of their asses.

Yeah…he was a dead man.

“Ayla’s going to be pissed when we get back home and she finds both of us shot,” I drawled, reaching behind me.

I never got a chance to get my gun. He was now aiming at my chest, right over my heart.

I froze. My muscles locked as I stared at Alessio in surprise. He wouldn’t…

Raising my hands in surrender, I took a step back. “Alessio, we can talk about this.”

At least not my heart. He could shoot anywhere but the heart. Or my dick.

“No. We can’t,” he simply replied. His eyes appeared darker than usual, anger glistening in them. Alessio was a madman when he was angry.

He would blur the lines between right or wrong. Nothing mattered to him except his revenge. He would do anything and…everything.

In that moment, I was on the other side. Not beside him. But against him. For the first time since I had known him.

Instead of our guns pointing at some other bastards, his gun was pointed at me. And only one reason made sense.

“Did you think I wouldn’t find out?” he hissed. I saw his fingers tightening around the gun. His index finger laid on the trigger, waiting for the right moment, dragging out the suspense.

He loved the chase, the adrenaline in making others shake and whimper in fear. Except I wasn’t shaking or whimpering.

That probably pissed him off more.

“I was going to tell you,” I answered.

Lies. I wasn’t.

Because there was nothing to tell. Nothing was what it seemed to be. Every action, every word had a meaning behind it.

Nothing in our world was the perfect image. Everything was in pieces, and we had to put all of them together to find the truth. A piece in the puzzle to get the whole vision.

Everything was a lie.

Everyone was a lie.

Every fucking day was a game to play. A game we had mastered.

Believe nothing. Whatever you see or hear is a lie.

That was one of the lessons learned and a lesson to remember.

“Let me explain,” I tried to convince him. Anything but another bullet in my body.

“You know damn well that I never give anyone a chance to explain,” he snapped. Thrusting his gun toward my chest, his lips curled in disgust. “And you aren’t any different.”

“Boss,” I heard someone say. There was a warning in his tone. Maybe he was trying to save me? We were a brotherhood after all.

Alessio smirked, just the corner of his lips turning up, and I just knew. My death had just been signed, and I had no choice over it.

The veins in my neck throbbed. Blood rushed to my ears until the only thing I could hear was the pounding of my heart.

Their voices sounded like they were underwater as my dreadful life flashed in front of my eyes. This was it.

The end.

BANG!

I closed my eyes as the gun went off, sounding so loud, so evil to my ears. The connection of the metal and my skin was quick. So quick that I could have missed it.

But when the pain came later…there was no escaping it.

Sweat dripped down my forehead as my blood dripped down my body. The cold bullet penetrated my chest, and I prayed it didn’t hit my heart.

A laughable thought that was.

Alessio had the perfect aim. If he wanted me dead, shot in the heart, there was no escaping death.

He was death.

My eyes fluttered open as I regarded my brother for one final time. His hand dropped to his side, still holding the gun.

The anger in his eyes was gone, replaced with hurt and pain. His expression changed to one of regret. “I didn’t want to do this, but you gave me no choice. You fucked up. And you fucked up bad.”

I know that!

I wanted to scream, but my lips felt numb. My throat grew tighter as the pain spread across my body. It felt like I was burning from the inside as the ground turned darker with the red shade of blood.

Through blurry vision, I saw Alessio pointing the gun at me again. I closed my eyes, waiting for him to end this. Waiting for this indescribable pain to finally end.

The fired round seemed to float through fragile air, my ears barely registering the gunshot. It pierced my chest without consideration, without real meaning or relevance.

A sacrifice made from my part. A sacrifice I was willing to make. For my family. For her.

The small wounds leaked blood similar to how crying eyes leaked tears.

I sank to my knees, my body too weak to hold myself any longer. I gasped for breath, pleading for air.