Chương 2: Arch nemesis

WILLIAM DE SANTI

Every syndicate family has secrets.

Some of my family's secrets have been laid out for everyone to see. It's the reason why Valentino De Santi is currently standing in the defendant stand, wearing a ridiculous orange suit.

My mother is sitting next to me. She tips her head in my direction and whispers, "orange kinda suits him. He looks like a pumpkin."

I have to hold back my laughter. Ever since I found out the relationship between my parents is nothing like the sunshine and roses they make everyone think their marriage is, she has not hidden from me the fact that she would gladly put a bullet in his skull if she had the chance. This is the next best thing.

Valentino—that bastard may have sired me but he lost the right to call me his son the minute I was born—thinks he is going to walk out of this with a slap on his wrist.

It's one of the perks of being the don of a mafia syndicate. It doesn't matter what kind of trouble you get yourself into, you can always get out of it.

In Valentino's case, the feds got a mysterious tip of harriet and molly in his car. He was intervened on his way home, searched, and sure enough, he had a shit load of it in his trunk. He still had a grin on his face when the feds whisked him off.

As he stands in the defendant stand, he thinks this will be over in a minute. He made a deal with the judge to reduce his sentence to half a year, after which he will get out and roam the streets like this never happened.

Which is why I find his expression comical when the judge awards him ten years behind bars for class A-1 felony.

This isn't how things are usually done but no one cares. Valentino has been on the feds' radar for decades. No one cares if he is treated unfairly. His overpaid attorneys won't do a thing about it either.

If he paid any attention to his surroundings, he would realize the tip to the feds was no coincidence. Someone planned it and planted the drugs in his truck at the same time, and then offered the judge and lawyers a better deal for them to look the other way. And by someone, I mean me.

It's against the De Santi commandments, which I'm better aware of than anyone. Valentino made me recite them hundreds of times while I spent hours in the little box he used to lock me in as punishment for not being a loyal lapdog. Well, until I grew too old for his bullshit and punched him in the face when he tried that shit. He pretended he was proud of me for standing up for myself but I know he's still sour about it even though that was twenty years ago.

I used the commandments he drilled into my head against him. No associating with the feds, no turning against one's own family…not that I was a fair man but he turned against his own family years ago.

Mamma looks pleased when Valentino is taken away.

"I hope you're coming home for dinner." She whispers. "I am cooking a big Italian feast."

Not many women would celebrate their husbands being sent to prison but Mamma deserves this. I nod. "I'll be there."

She cups my face and kisses my cheek right before she stands.

___

My pleasure from putting Valentino behind bars is already starting to fade. Not much pleases me, which is why when Francesco gives me a call at night and mentions having found out something that will please me, I am wired and ready to go.

I meet him in the booth informally reserved for De Santis at The Vortex.

Francesco is already on his third drink by the time I order mine. I want to slap the liquour out of his hand, prefering him sober while we discuss business. But, he's no lightweight.

"What is it like, being the new De Santi don?" He jokes.

Though I know my best friend well enough to tell it's only a half joke. I am the eldest legitimate heir of Valentino De Santi. Whether I want it or not, I am the new boss. He cannot rule from behind bars and since he is not leaving that prison alive, I may as well embrace my new rank. It's not exactly what I wanted but it's the only way my ducks will remain aligned for the forseeable future, so I'll take it.

"I'm still the man I was yesterday." I guzzle down my beer and slam the empty can on the table to startle him. "Start talking."

He digs into his pocket for pictures of a woman. I want to empty my gun into his chest.

"A woman?"

"Not just any woman." He smiles. "Do you remember that rumor about Simeon getting a girl pregnant twenty-five years ago? Some say she was a looker and others say she was barely out of her teens. Well, that rumor disappeared but this." He tapped the picture with his inex finger at every word. "This is proof that the incident happened."

I look down at the picture. It's a grainy security feed picture but that's more than enough to show how beautiful the woman is. Blond, almost silver hair in a tight bun, revealing a breathtaking face with eyes so deep blue they are almost purple. It's a color I don't see every day. I'm lost staring at her smile for almost a minute before I remember how this conversation started. She looks way too young to be in her forties. In fact, she should be half that age. It doesn't take long to realize what Francesco is saying about this woman.

"Simeon's daughter?"

"That's right." He grins. "I couldn't believe it either. She's too beautiful for that ugly fuck to be her father. But hey, her mother was pretty."

I don't care what her parents look like. I just discovered my arch nemesis's biggest secret. "Tell me about her."

"Catalina Rossi."

_____

I stare at the grainy picture in my hand and compare it to the woman I've been watching since Francesco told me about her.

Cat.

That's what her friends call her. I almost think I have her pegged just from her nickname but as soon as I dig into her, I find out she's no helpless kitten. She's a fucking tigress.

She wasn't a day older than sixteen when her father died in a tragic accident that left her mother paralyzed, leaving Cat to fend for her two siblings as well as her mother. As long as there's an adult present, social services usually don't dig deep enough to know what's really lurking behind closed doors. That didn't make her give up.

Instead, she started working two jobs at barely seventeen and managed to get herself into med school. She only lasted two years before her mother's medication became too expensive and she had to drop out and take up an extra job. She is currently juggling two full time jobs and a temporary gig, keeping her family comfortable and trying to get her siblings into college, and you wouldn't know it looking at her. She looks like your everyday pampered princess with everything handed to her on a silver platter, mostly because she's drop-dead gorgeous.

I'm not judging, but I also know she doesn't have to work her pretty fingers to the bone if she doesn't want to. There would be a line-up of wealthy men—and women—ready to do anything for her if she wanted. But she didn't take that chance.

Which is how I know I can't just walk up to her and get her to come with me by telling her who I am and who she is to Simeon. I plan my move more carefully than I've planned any hit before.

It makes my body simmer with excitement. It's not every day I find a formidable opponent. Catalina Rossi is probably the worst enemy I'll ever meet but even then, I can't help admiring her.

I finally manage to get close to her and rear-end her, giving me enough time to put a tracker in her car. When I nick her, I don't take her blood. She would notice that too fast. Instead, I use it as a distraction while I pull out a few strands of her hair. Her hair feels even softer than it looks, the long strands feeling like silk between my fingers. I tuck them in my pants pockets until she disappears, then I drive off to the DNA testing center I looked up on my way.

Francesco said she is Simeon's biological daughter but I can't take any chances. Not when she doesn't resemble Simeon in the slightest bit. Besides, I don't think she and Simeon have ever met. He either covers his tracks too well or doesn't know he has a daughter. Either way, I know she will be perfect for the next part of my plan.

Francesco is already waiting at the DNA testing center with Simeon's sample.

The results come in quite fast and it's just as he said. So, I wait in Catalina's apartment's parking lot all night and when she finally comes rushing out in the morning, I knock her out.

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