Blood and Secrets 3 (The Calvetti Crime Family)

by Rose Harper

  “Father Avery, who are you talking about?” I ask, making my way toward him.

  Wide, alert, fearful eyes meet mine, and I instantly want a hole to open up in the floor to swallow me. There’s no way the papa isn’t going to catch wind of this, of my mistake. He’s going to rip my spine out through my back when he gets finished with me.

  “No,” Father Avery whispers. “I-I can’t tell you. He was only supposed to pop in for a moment during the vows, then go hide again until I was done. I begged and pleaded with him to just stay at the mission, but he wanted to watch her get married. He said he wouldn’t miss it for the world since he’s missed everything else.”

  “He? Father Avery, you’re not making a bit of sense,” I groan. “Just fucking spit it out.”

  “I-I can’t.” He slumps in my brothers’ hold, forcing them to carry him the rest of the way to the table.

  The click of a gun resonates throughout the eerily quiet dining area. Then, I feel the cool, sharp point of a blade placed in front of my throat. Searing pain assaults my body as just the tip digs into my skin, causing a bead of blood to drip from the wound. My entire body stiffens in awareness, as the cool prickles of this person’s rage blasts against my back in tumultuous waves of fury. Whoever this is exudes nothing but cool unadulterated rage.

  “He can’t, but I can.” His deep, demanding voice resonates through the room, the heat of his breath coating my scalp as his gun digs in painfully against my side.

  “Who the fuck are you?!” Dom blazes, jumping to his feet. His gun is trained, locked, and loaded on the man holding me hostage.

  “She knows exactly who I am. And I’ll give her two guesses. If she chooses wrong, he dies.”

  5

  CARINA

  I can’t believe this. My dream; it was true. How in the fuck is that possible?! Was it even a dream? Did it happen, and my mind blocked it out, morphing it into something my brain could handle?

  “Luca, what are you doing? H-How is this even possible?”

  “I don’t like the way you implied that,” he says, sinking the knife deeper into Mateo’s neck. “That was your first guess, princess. Try again.”

  The sight of Mateo’s blood running down his throat causes a blistering rage to settle in my gut. Besides the shock of seeing Luca … or whatever this wily bastard’s name is … I can’t negate the fact I’m practically frothing at the mouth at the audacity of this man if he thinks he’s going to get away with hurting Mateo.

  “You are my brother,” I say.

  His smile is anything but warm as it stretches across his face. “Getting a little warmer there. Now, what is my name? I’ll give you a hint … I’m the real one.”

  I don’t know what the fuck his name is? And, the real one? What does that even mean? Hellfire, the only fucking brother I had was Luca, and he’s been dead for over thirteen years. I don’t know who this imposter is. Even though this man steps in here wearing my brother’s face, flesh, voice, and attitude, I don’t know who he is.

  “Whoever the fuck you are, I suggest you let our pretty boy go,” Lucio says, causing my eyes to glance toward him. He’s staring straight at me, a smirk lining his full lips. “Or our little demon here is going to get pretty creative.”

  “Like I give a fuck,” the imposter says, punctuating his words with a flick of his knife, the tip barely grazing the surface of Mateo’s neck. “Ticktock, princess.”

  More blood runs down the front of his throat. The pain I see settled in his eyes stays there while the rest of his face is a blank mask. I can practically see the wheels turning in his head, beckoning me to figure out what he’s pondering. Only, I’m not a goddamn mind reader. If he wants something, he better tell me before I have to go through him to get to this motherfucker.

  “You’re Marco, aren’t you?” Mateo inserts, sucking in a sharp breath as the knife threatens to slice his throat open.

  The man leans forward, his breath causing Mateo’s hair to blow forward. “Mm, so close but still so far.”

  My mind is trying to play catch up, but no matter how I look at it, I can’t find a logical answer to his question. He says he’s not Luca. Then his hint stated he’s the right one. Mateo said Marco, yet, we’re still not right. What the fuck does he expect me to say? The only thing I know at this point is that this imposter is about to get a boot in his ass if he doesn’t put that fucking knife down and step away from Mateo.

  My mind works overtime as I stare into the same hazel eyes that still haunt my nightmares. Then, like a bomb going off inside me, the pieces slowly start piecing themselves back together. My outlook on Luca or Marco—or whatever the fuck his name is—starts burning brighter and brighter in my mind.

  “Y-You are Luca,” I whisper, seeing his smile continue to spread across his face until his lips pull apart, displaying his straight, white teeth.

  “Ding. Ding. Ding,” he murmurs slowly.

  “Now, Luca, you need to calm yourself,” Father Avery coos, holding his hands out. “This is not the way to handle this; it’s not the way we taught you.”

  My mind is screaming at me to do something, anything. But the only thing I can do is hold stock still while Father Avery’s words play over and over in my mind, solidifying my assumption.

  “You … I …” I stammer, stepping toward him. “Tell me how you did it. I watched you bleed out in front of me—saw the life drain from your eyes.”

  Smiling sadistically, he replies, “You watched Marco bleed out.” He pushes Mateo away from him, chuckling when he almost falls on his face. “Not me. If you hadn’t guessed, baby sister, he’s the brother you knew nothing about. My twin.

  “Our father was keeping him at the mission as a scapegoat if things went south. He was fucking useless—a total waste of bones and flesh! A fucking pussy! Daniel would rather sacrifice that piece of shit than me, so he waited. He postponed it all until the opportunity presented itself, then that’s when he struck. He went to the mission took Marco, beat the living fuck out of him, then let his little girl finish the job. Our father planned this all from the very beginning.”

  Planned what? I want to scream at him for the shit I’ve put myself through over the years. The pain, torture, the guilt that wracked my mind every minute of every day because of what I had to do. That’s something no ten-year-old should be put through. The thought of killing the only person they loved, when all the while he was safe and hidden, does things to a person they can never come back from.

  It fucks them up. Turns them into a shadow of themselves. Add that to the fact my father forced me to start training to take Luca’s place when he was gone completely, and you have a recipe for disaster.

  “What do you mean he planned this?” I ask, swallowing hard to rid myself of the emotion clogging my throat.

  “Daniel Ricci is a man of very little words. He’s all about action, without the thought of any recourse. He did this. Put this shit into motion because it was decided you would join the family business. When you were promised to that … Calvetti,” he says the words with a modicum of revulsion, “things started fraying at the seams.”

  “But why?”

  “There’re some things you don’t know about me, baby sister. Shit, that would make the devil tremble in fear, but I don’t kill when there’s no call for it. I may be a bastard, but I do have morals.”

  Walking toward the table, like he hasn’t a care in the world, he takes a seat and rests his hands on the arms of the chair, regarding me in silence. More or less, studying to see how much of a threat I am. He better not fall short in his assumption of me. Many people have, and many have died because of that fact.

  Tension builds between us to a crescendo, until I can no longer take it anymore. I have to say something. I have to get the answers only my brother can give me.

  “Why?” I ask again, more forcefully.

  Heaving a sigh, he trains his hard eyes on mine, the depths speaking more than his words ever could. “When Daniel took his target out, I
had a clean opening of mine, but didn’t take it. Instead, I froze, watching him cower in fear as he tried to protect the little maggots around him. The mark was so young—too young to have a contract like that out on his head. It didn’t make any sense, still doesn’t. So I walked away, and the contract holder was pissed.”

  His admission knocks the breath from my lungs. My gasp resonates throughout the room, and the only thing I can train on is the fact my brother is the cause of all my discomfort over the years. That he’s the reason I had to train to become this monster in the first place.

  “Who was it?”

  He gives me a blank stare, never once offering anything. It isn’t until silence envelopes us for what feels like forever that I know I won’t get an answer out of him, even though I crave it with everything in me. Even if we’re killers, we have a code we abide by.

  We never tell anyone about anything. You trust no one. Not even yourself.

  Worrying my lip between my teeth, his explanation swirls through my mind. His words, which I thought meant so much, mean absolutely nothing to me anymore. If he could keep up a ruse that he died by my hand, how can I trust anything he says?”

  “So, after all this time, you weren’t dead after all. Instead, Marco took your place and your silence and ineptness to complete a mission is what did this to me?” I ask as the first tinges of fury swirl within me. “Do you have any idea the shit I went through after you were gone?” Taking a step toward him, my hands ball into fists at my sides. “I was raped, Luca! By that pathetic piece of shit, Rossi. For years!”

  “He did what?” he asks, the first stirrings of anger entering his voice.

  “I was forced to kill you, or someone I thought was you, then immediately start training for a job I didn’t even want. I killed over and over and over again, praying it would bring me one step closer to slaughtering them for what they made me do to you and for what Rossi kept doing to me! Every goddamn thing happened because of you! Now, out of nowhere, you’re back? Just like that?”

  He jerks up from his seat, and I jolt back from the abruptness. His nostrils flare in anger as his eyes swirl with death and ruin. “Rossi. Did. What?” he snarls, getting up and striding toward me.

  It’s nothing new what Rossi did. Hell, even I’ve come to terms with what a sick son of a bitch he is. But Luca has no right to appear as if he’s angered by it. He’s the one who left me there to rot. He’s the one who allowed me to believe I actually killed him, without ever telling me any differently.

  I loved him, and now just by his actions, I want to kill him. But this time for real.

  “Why do you care?” I fume, showing my back to him. “It doesn’t matter. Just like the first, second, third, fourth, and fucking eighth miscarriages don’t count to someone like him. He took me repeatedly. For years, I was forced to be with him when our father wasn’t around.”

  “Miscarriages?” he asks, his eyes darkening with each breath.

  The first traitorous tear slides down my cheek, leaving a scalding hot trail of anguish and misery in its wake. “Yes. Miscarriages.” I choke on a sob. “My first child would be twelve right now if Rossi hadn’t beat me to a pulp when he found out. Every time I got pregnant, he’d beat me, saying I didn’t do what he expected in the training room, which we both knew was just his excuse to cause me to miscarry. He beat a total of nine children out of me. And our father? He didn’t give a rat’s ass when he saw me bleeding! He still made me get up and train, even when I was in so much agony I could barely see straight!

  “Do you know how many nights I laid awake and held their bloody, little bodies in my hands? I had to be sent to the hole so I could bury their bodies in peace without anyone knowing.”

  “I-I had no idea,” he whispers.

  Snorting, I reply, “I wouldn’t expect you to. The moment you didn’t come and tell me it was all just a sham is the day you truly became dead to me. Stay away from me. I don’t give a shit if you just had to pop in for a moment to see a wedding that isn’t even going to happen. If I were ever that important to you, you wouldn’t have hidden all these years. You wouldn’t have been the pussy! So back off, leave everyone in this house the fuck alone because the next time I see you, or you even try to converse with me, I won’t think twice about slitting your throat and letting you bleed all over the floor.”

  Turning around, I make my way out of the dining room without a backward glance. It’s taking everything inside of me right not to unleash on him, let him feel every single stab of unrelenting pain I’ve felt for the past thirteen years. All the loss. The solitude.

  The feeling I was never good enough for anyone.

  6

  MATEO

  “Luca!”

  The decimal of Father Avery’s voice takes all of us off guard. The men who were sitting at the table are now standing at full attention. The sound of chairs sliding against the marble tiling greets my ears. If we weren’t in a fucked-up situation, I’d feel the need to laugh my ass off. But considering Carina is God knows where, hurting and alone, and we’re dealing with a blast from the past that shouldn’t even be an issue, it doesn’t seem like the time.

  “Father Avery,” I say. “I am extremely sorry, but we’re going to have to postpone all this wedding business. If you would, please follow Liam and Jake up to your room for the night. You will be right down the hall from Lucio and Giovanni, and they will be more than happy to assist you with anything you may need. It seems I have to take care of some family business.”

  “Family business?” Luca scoffs, earning a scowl in return.

  “Carina is part of my fucking family now. If someone is willing to lay down their life to protect me and mine, they become part of me and mine. It may be because I trust too easily, or I’m suffering from a lapse in judgment, but I couldn’t care less. If you had even one iota of morals, you would have known doing that to Carina made her more fucked up than your father ever could.”

  The last few days have been too much, and I want nothing more than to sleep and forget about all of it. The pain of losing Vinny turned me inside out, and to be honest, I’m not even sure I want to find my way out. Now, this? I don’t know how much more I can take before I implode.

  I’m surrounded by the darkness, my cup almost running over, and I’ve been running away from this my whole life. But lately, it’s getting so much harder to reign it all in, and it’s like my entire being is welcoming it with open arms now that it’s catching up to me. It’s relishing the feeling of having back that one piece that’s been missing.

  People think I was bad before? If I allow myself to truly be me, then no one on God’s green earth will be able to handle it and come out on the other end unscathed. There’s a lot I hold back. There’s so much people don’t see, it’s unreal.

  When I said I was bloodthirsty, I meant it. Just the sight of blood excites me, morphs me into a person too close to becoming the devil that no one would be able to differentiate the two if thrust side by side. That part of me loves, thrives, and delights fear, despair, and agony. Just the scent of a victim cowering in front of me, pleading for their lives, is enough euphoric bliss to get high. Hell, I get hard just thinking about it.

  There are people who claim they’re dark, demented, and so messed up everyone fears them. Then there are people like me. They don’t claim anything. They just are.

  They’re the monsters that creep into your room at night.

  The devils that wreak havoc on your soul.

  Carina may be a trained killer with no emotion, but I’m Jack the fucking Ripper.

  I don’t care about marks, contracts, or any shit like that. I kill who I want when I want. It’s the only way to keep the darkness inside me at bay so I can live my life as normally as possible. And it’s been so long since I’ve felt the blood of an innocent drenching my fingers. Just the thought makes me salivate for a taste of the coppery essence as I lose myself in the lust of letting their lifeforce.

  But I know I must rein myself in.
If not for the sake of myself, but for the people I surround myself with. They wouldn’t understand me as my true self. Even though they’re hardened to what this life brings us, they would be lost to the reason I am the way I am. The only person who knows the battle I war with inside me is the doctor who helped care for Carina when I first brought her here. She knows how bad it can get and how fast I can allow my true self to overtake me if I allow it.

  “Father Avery can stay, but you have to leave. And you better be gone before we get done in my office. It will do you well to heed my warning, Luca. Family will always come first with me, and right now, you’re hurting one of them, which, in turn, means you’re threatening me.”

  Snapping my fingers, all my men come to attention then follow after me. My brothers leave without giving me a second glance. They know what it is we have to do, and they’re already on top of it. The only one who stops is Dom, and without saying a word, he claps me on the shoulder. His expression is one of warning, and trust me, I’m reading it loud and clear.

  We have faith in no one but family, and even then, you have to pick and choose who to trust. A threat can hide in front of you in plain sight, or it can camouflage itself with a disguise in the shadows waiting for its time to attack. Either way, it’s best to be ready for anything.

  Stepping past me, I go to exit the room, only to have Luca halt me in my tracks. And what he says causes the blood to ignite in my veins. I think someone is going to die, and that someone might possibly be Carina’s motherfucking brother.

  7

  CARINA

  Making my way down the stairs, I mull over what happened in the dining room this morning. The fact my long lost, supposedly-dead brother is not only back from the dead, but it was actually his twin that I killed is almost too much to take. I should have killed him right then and there. The only thing that stopped me is the fact that those damn emotions were getting to me.