The Cardinal
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Copyright 2021 Monica Clayton
Published by M.E. Clayton
All Rights Reserved
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your enjoyment only, then please return to Smashwords.com or your favorite retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
This book is a work of fiction. The entire content is a product of the author’s imagination and all names, places, businesses, and incidences are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons (living or dead), places or occurrences, is entirely coincidental.
No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any manner, whatsoever, without the express written consent from the author, except in the case of brief quotation embodied in critical articles or reviews.
Formatting: Smashwords
Cover: Adobe Stock
Warning: This book contains sexual situations and other adult themes. Recommended for 18 years of age and over.
Table of Contents
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Author's Note
Contact Me
Dedication
Playlist
Prologue
1. Salvatore
2. Blake
3. Salvatore
4. Blake
5. Salvatore
6. Blake
7. Salvatore
8. Blake
9. Salvatore
10.Blake
11. Salvatore
12. Blake
13. Salvatore
14. Blake
15. Salvatore
16. Blake
17. Salvatore
18. Blake
19. Salvatore
20. Blake
21. Salvatore
22. Blake
23. Salvatore
24. Blake
25. Salvatore
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Other Books
Author’s Note
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Just a couple of things before I let you go and get your read on. While I am doing my best to work with better editing and proofreading software, all my books are solo, independent works. I write my books, proofread my books, edit my books, create the covers, etc. I have one beta who gives me feedback on my stories, but other than that, all my books are independent projects.
That being said, I apologize, in advance, for the typos, grammar inconsistencies, or any other mistakes I may make. Since writing is strictly a hobby for me, I haven’t looked into commitments in regard to publishers, editors, etc. My hope is that my stories are enjoyable enough that a few mistakes, here and there, can be overlooked. However, if you’re a stickler for grammar, my books are probably not for you.
Also, I am an avid reader-I mean an AVID reader. I love to read above any other hobby. However, the only downside to my reading obsession is when I fall in love with a series, but I have to wait for the additional books to come out. And because I feel that disappointment down to my soul, when I started publishing my works, I vowed to publish all books in my series all at once. No waiting here…LOL. Now, the exception to that will be if enough readers request additional stories based off the standalone, such as in Facing the Enemy. At that point, if I decide to move forward with a requested series, I will make sure all additional books are available all at once. As much as this is a hobby for me, I am writing these books for all of you, as well as myself.
Thank you, for everything!
Contact Me
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I really appreciate you reading my book and I would love to hear from you! Now, unfortunately, because I do have a full-time job, and a family I love spending time with, at this time, I’m afraid it would be very hard for me to maintain a multitude of social media sites. However, for the sites I do participate in, here are my social media coordinates:
Website
Facebook
Instagram
Email
Newsletter
Dedication
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For everyone who wanted Sal’s story –
This is for you!
Playlist
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Way Down We Go - Kaleo
Prologue
2019~
I didn’t feel a goddamn thing.
Nothing.
Standing next to my two brothers, you think there’d be shock, resignation, regret, hurt, remorse, but I couldn’t say I felt a damn thing.
Anger had come and gone swiftly after we’d found out about Gio’s betrayal but that’s probably the only emotion I could attach to the dead body lying at our feet.
Giovanni Benetti was dead, and while he’d taken the coward’s way out, we all knew it would have only been a matter of time before Luca had put him in the ground himself.
As the firstborn, Luca had endured some sick shit at the hands of our father, whereas me and Leo had gotten by unscathed for the most part. Our mother, Carlita, had doted on us, but she had left Luca to be raised by Gio and he hadn’t had an easy time of it. However, it had made him the man he was today, and that man was the fucking Benetti Family Boss.
Luca was finally sitting on the throne of all we were about.
I never envied my brother’s place in the family. Not anything I ever wanted, I never coveted anything that either my brothers had. We all had our place in the family, and I was happy with mine. My place let me color outside the lines. My place allowed me to feed my demons. My place let me be me.
Where Luca was the leader, and Leo was the analytical one, I was the bloodthirsty one. Even with as badly as Gio had treated Luca, he never lost himself to his demons. Always in control and always one step ahead, Luca was the epitome of control.
Leo was the youngest and the softest, thought soft wasn’t a word I’d use to describe him, really. Leo didn’t have a problem putting someone down, he just preferred not to. Leo was more comfortable dealing in the management side of things.
Me?
I lived for the blood of our enemies.
If I could bathe in that shit, I would.
And Giovanni had turned enemy the second he started keeping a cop as his mistress.
“Good riddance,” I spat at the dead body on the ground.
“Ditto,” Leo agreed, and that surprised me a little.
Luca slapped us both on the back before turning to deal with the second traitor and my dick almost got hard at the thought of what we were going to do to that bastard.
Patting Leo on the back, I said, “I’ll clean up Gio’s body. Do you want to be the one to tell Mom?”
Leo nodded. “I’ll go talk to her as soon as we leave here. I’ll join you guys at The Funhouse tomorrow.”
I smirked. “It’s a new era, little brother.”
“I know,” he replied. Then he nudged Gio’s body with his foot. “I feel nothing.”
“That’s because for all your desk work and clean hands, you’re still a Benetti, little brother,” I told him. “And your demons are as dark as mine and Luca’s.”
He looked over at me. “How dark can Luca be when he was ready to kill his own father for love?”
I stared into the same green eyes that mirrored mine. “Do you really think it’s money and power that bring out the worst in men, Leo?” I asked. “Because let me tell you something, the lure of
money and power are nothing compared to what a man will do for the woman he loves.” Leo didn’t comment, but then he didn’t need to.
Even if Gio hadn’t been caught betraying his own, Luca would never stand for someone threatening the woman he loved, and my brother loved the fuck out of Remy Christian.
Glancing around the barn, I knew there were Capos who were going to balk at Luca naming me Underboss, but there’s no way it could be anyone else. Leo didn’t have the stomach for it and the position had to go to a blood-born Benetti.
However, what nobody in this room knew was that my wavering loyalty ended the second Gio put a bullet in his head. With Luca now at the helm, my loyalty was unquestionable. With Gio, I’d never follow a man I didn’t trust into battle. But with Luca, things were different.
It was a different Benetti Reign, and it was one I wanted to be a part of.
It was one I completely trusted.
Chapter 1
Salvatore – 2020~
Motherfuckers never learn.
But then that’s what sickness did to a person. It erased all common sense and need for self-preservation. Whether the sickness was alcohol, drugs, sex, gambling, or the home shopping channel, it didn’t matter. If addictions were something you could control, you wouldn’t be addicted to it.
Now, I had vices just like everyone else, but vices were less-than-healthy enjoyments that didn’t threaten to take over your entire existence the way addiction did. Vices were just strong bad habits that could be kicked with the right incentive.
Addictions?
Addictions had me at your house, in the middle of the night, dealing with you because you’re a Benetti soldier and not just some random dickhead.
My brother, Luca, didn’t suffer fools gladly and he had strict rules when it came to being a part of the Benetti Crime Family. We always wore suits. No matter what, we were always dressed as if we were about to run into our worst enemy. We also had to work out. Even the retired men had to keep in shape. Though they were technically out of the game, there was still a chance they could be called upon and they needed to be ready for it. And, obviously, loyalty was a must. I mean, that went without saying. There was also Luca’s insistence on respect for the fairer sex. You could put your woman through a lot but striking her was like signing your own death warrant. And then there were the expectations.
No addictions.
Ever.
Addicts couldn’t be trusted and when the entire foundation of your organization was built on trust and loyalty, well, addictions were a lot more powerful than people gave them credit for. Only addicts understood other addicts.
And the reason I was here, at Constantine Ribicci’s, at goddamn two in the morning, was because while Luca was the Benetti Family Boss and Leo was the Benetti Family Manager, I was the Benetti Family Underboss, and I was the one who dealt with traitors within the organization.
At thirty-one, Luca was the oldest, and take whatever you thought you knew about Mafia Bosses, multiply that by fifty, and you got Luca Benetti. As ruthless as they come, Luca was cold, hard, brilliant, and completely unforgiving. And while I had never trusted our father, Gio, I trusted Luca in a way that cemented my loyalty to him and the organization in a way I never had before.
At twenty-seven, Leonardo was the youngest, and was the only one of us who had a conscience. Though Leo had no problem killing someone if he had to, that wasn’t his niche. Being the youngest, we had protected him a lot and he’d even gone to college for his MBA. He was smart as hell and he managed the business side of things like a professional. He was a good kid who recently married a good girl. Or, at least, she had been until Leo dragged her into our family affairs.
Me? I was the middle child and I suppose you could say I took the whole middle-child syndrome to a whole other level because I was a bloodthirsty sonofabitch. However, I didn’t feel like the middle child. I never did. Luca had been left to be raised by Gio, so I wasn’t as close to him as I was to Leo. Gio had let our mother, Carlita, have a hand in raising me and Leo, so it had kind of always felt like it had just been the two of us. Though Luca had been around, he’d been so busy being groomed to take over the family or healing from Gio’s beatings, he didn’t hang out with us like most brothers did. Then there were the people who trumped me and Leo, though we were his blood.
Growing up, Luca had formed an unbreakable bond with Ciro Mancini, Phoenix Fiore, and Francesca Mancini, and I had no doubt that if Luca had to make a choice between me and Leo or Ciro and Phoenix, he’d choose them over us with no regret.
As Luca climbed the ranks, he’d brought Ciro and Phoenix up with him. Luca was known as The Father of Morgan City as it’s always been known that he was going to be Boss one day. Ciro was Luca’s right-hand man, and known as The Son of Morgan City, Ciro was our number one enforcer. Phoenix was right there with them, and known as The Holy Ghost of Morgan City, Phoenix was our number one hit man. They were known as The Holy Trinity on the streets of Morgan City. Hell, the entire state, really.
Then there was Francesca Mancini-Fiore. As Ciro’s only sibling, Phoenix’s wife-whom he’s been in love with since they were seven-years-old-and Luca’s best friend, Frankie was known as The Church. She was the one person who connected all three men together and any one of them would obliterate the world for her. Francesca Fiore was as powerful as they came.
Even with Ciro and Luca being married and their wives being just as powerful as their husbands, Frankie was something else entirely and we all knew it.
Ciro’s wife, Robbie, was a sweet thing and she reminded me a lot of Leo. Robbie was in charge of our legitimate properties and she only got her hands dirty if she had to.
Leo’s wife, Sienna, was a nurse and the plan was to keep her out of the family business as much as possible. She wanted to continue to be a nurse, but Leo was working on changing her mind. It wouldn’t do to have a Benetti wife just running around like she was normal people because she wasn’t. Not anymore.
Luca’s wife, Remy, was a bit tougher, though she’d been just a regular girl, living a regular life, before Luca had gotten a hold of her. Now she worked with me in security for the family, but she did a lot of work with kids. She’d been a social worker before she had become the wife of the deadliest Mob Boss in the state.
Frankie handled a lot of the personal and legitimate finances for the guys, but really, she was involved with a lot of everything. Growing up with Phoenix, Ciro, and Luca, she’d been raised for this kind of life and the girl didn’t scare easily. One thing I was certain of; if anything ever happened to Phoenix, Ciro, or Luca, Francesca Fiore would rain hell down on this city. The same girl who stashed 7-Ups for Luca in her refrigerator for whenever he stopped by.
So, we all had our roles and part of mine was dealing with traitors within the family. I was the Benetti Family’s boogieman. I was the one Luca sent you to when you fucked up and there was no coming back from your mistakes. My kills were designed to set an example for all others who were dumb enough to entertain thoughts of fucking with us.
And I fucking loved my job.
Somewhere between playing with Leo on the floor of the living room, action figures littered all around us, along with crayons, coloring books, and the like, and me getting my first stiff dick, I had developed a taste for blood and torture. Not sure where the compulsion came from, but I had no problem skinning a man alive, then going home and sleeping like a baby afterward.
Did that make me a psychopath? Probably. Did I care? Not at all.
Staring down at a bloody, beaten Constantine Ribicci, I let out a deep sigh. “It didn’t have to go down like this Ribicci,” I said. “I just want to point out that you were offered help.”
Constantine had a problem with the cocaine, and because it was cocaine and not heroin, Luca had been feeling generous enough to offer some substance addiction counseling and help since Constantine had been with us for so long. Still, the lure of that white powder had rejected that little offer and so here we
were.
“Just get it over with,” he snapped, spitting out a glob of blood onto the floor.
“That’s not how this works and you know it,” I reminded him. “We’re going to take a little trip to Wonderland where we’re going to spend the next two days together. Me, you, a pound of cocaine, and various torturing devices.”
While I was more than welcomed to use Ciro’s Funhouse, I only used it for serious betrayals or if I was dealing with more than one person. Ciro’s Funhouse was a morbid place filled with so much torture equipment that it was like going back in time to the deadliest eras in history. The Spanish Inquisition had nothing on what Ciro Mancini was capable of doing with his array of gadgets.
Now, my spots really didn’t have certified names like Ciro’s Funhouse, but with as much cocaine as I was going to shove up Constantine’s ass, Wonderland seemed like an appropriate description of where I was taking him. I also knew I was going to have a grand time at it, so it sounded like a good time for all.
“Maybe Luca-”
“Luca’s already written you off, Ribicci,” I said, breaking the news to him. “Do you really think he’s interested in listening to any of your pleas?” I shook my head. “We all know how much he hates hearing you assholes beg.”
Constantine’s swollen brown eyes narrowed at me. “You are all going to burn in Hell for all your sins,” he hissed.
“Just our sins?” I asked. “Not yours?” I leaned in closer. “Because, Constantine, my friend, you’re not exactly squeaky clean yourself.”
“But I’m not evil like you,” he fired back.
I smiled.
Little did he know, no one was evil like me.
Chapter 2
Blake~
Mondays were always the worst.
The Cardinal (The Holy Trinity Duet Book 2) Page 1