And that means the task falls to you. You have to save our Family before it’s too late. For your mother. For Leona.
For me.
All you have to do is look for the answers, and you’ll find them. Then, you’ll know what to do.
Remember what I taught you, son. Remember that I love you.
I dropped the journal onto the desk, where it splattered in the spilled alcohol. I snatched it up and wiped it with the sleeve of my shirt.
Was Papa really saying that Uncle killed him?
That our whole lives have been a lie?
That the answers to where everything went wrong were inside these pages?
I flipped through the journal, but my eyes blurred and my hands fisted. Rage rolled through me. My blood burned inside my veins.
I yanked open the first drawer of my father’s desk, where his pistol lay on top of a pile of papers. My hand closed around the grip as I pushed to my feet.
I had to kill Uncle.
I had to.
He’d ruined everything. He’d killed Papa. He didn’t deserve to live. I wanted to take my father’s gun back to Luciano’s house and shoot him in his bed while he slept. It would be easy. No one would suspect. No one would stop me.
Remember what I taught you, son.
I dropped the gun back in the desk drawer and pressed the heels of my palms to my eyes. A sob choked my chest.
Papa taught me what to do. He’d been training me for years.
Act from strength. Act with logic.Think.
If I killed Luciano now…then what? What would happen to me? To Leona? To Cas?
There would be chaos. The other four Dons would leap on our Family and tear it to shreds at any sign of weakness. We’d be carrion to the buzzards.
Papa wouldn’t want that. I was smarter than that.
With shaking hands, I pushed myself to my feet, swiped the journal off the desk, and tucked it under my arm. I made my way to the kitchen, where I poured a giant glass of water and downed it. Then another.
Papa said the answers were in the journal, and in the others he hid. I could find them. I could figure out what to do. I could build my own allies, turn the Family against Luciano with the proof within these pages, get vengeance for Papa.
I could take the Family for myself.
I just had to be strong. I had tothink.
Cas. I had to show him. My feet took one step toward my bedroom before I paused. Leona, too. What about Leona?
Could I kill her father? Take from her what Uncle took from me?
My hand clasped the water glass so hard I thought it might shatter. I leaned over the kitchen sink, convinced I was about to throw up, as I tried to slow my breathing.
I had to control myself. Choose carefully.
Cas was blindly loyal to Luciano. Even if he believed my father’s journals, he’d never turn on the man who saved his life.
Leona would never believe the truth. She looked at her father and saw a saint. She’d argue there had to be a misunderstanding.
