Page 2 of Ruthless God

“I’m going to fucking destroy every one of thosebastardi,” he said, working on the chains holding me to the wall. His muscles strained as he pulled, and when that didn’t work, he looked around the room, stopping when he found a metal bar not too far away. I watched him as he walked over to grab it and returned to my side.

“I’m gonna get you out of here.”

I grunted. I had no doubt that he would. It had always been us against this world. While we were close with our other three younger siblings, Elio and I were closer in age. And we’d experienced more cruelty together under our father’s hands than we did apart.

I closed my eyes when Elio hit the metal bar against the chain over and over again, sweat gathering on his forehead; all the while, the war raged on outside. I didn’t know how many of my father’s men followed my brother on this rescue mission, but I sure as hell hoped it would be enough.

Elio weakened the chain enough before he grabbed it and started pulling.

I didn’t know how much time had passed when I felt the chains detach from the walls. Elio helped me stand up. I still had the chains around my wrists, but that could be dealt with once we got the fuck out of here.

“Did you bring an extra gun?” I asked Elio. He grinned and pulled out the pistol tucked behind him. I gripped the handle, feeling a burst of adrenaline going off and giving me enough motivation to fight. Elio and I walked out of the room that led to the vast and empty space of what looked like an abandoned factory.

I looked around, catching sight of probably fifteen of my father’s men in the thick of battle. Father was nowhere to be found. I wasn’t fucking surprised. Of course he wouldn’t have risked his head, not even for his children, but fuck, that hurt worse than all the wounds inflicted on me. I shook away the thought and focused on the problem at hand.

Getting out of here alive.

1

MASSIMO

PRESENT DAY

I lookedup from my phone when Antonio pulled the car to a stop. Sitting beside me was Elio, who had been silent for most of the car ride here.

On my other side was Romeo, my third brother. He looked up front and met my youngest brother Matteo’s eyes. They seemed to share a silent language none of us were privy to. Not that it mattered much now. I was sure my brothers were all thinking the same thing I was.

Nothing good came from a meeting requested by Enzo De Luca. The reason I was even entertaining our uncle was out of respect for the traditionalists who had served under our father.

They remained loyal to the dead bastard, even to this day, and to an effect, they remained loyal to Enzo. How ironic, considering our dear old uncle hated our father more than we did, and that said something, since we had experienced nothing but cruelty from our father’s hands growing up.

But Enzo hated our father for taking everything he deemed belonged to him. He wasn’t wrong. Enzo was five years older than our father. He was supposed to have inherited the empire from our grandfather. But how unfortunate that Uncle Enzo was caught in the wrong bed. One of the daughters of a politician,who also happened to be of Russian loyalty. The men could forgive Enzo for cheating on his wife with the daughter of a politician. But they fucking hated the Russians, and if there was one thing they couldn’t stand for, it was the mixing of bloodlines. Especially since the affair produced a son—Enzo’s only son. There was no way the traditionalists would have allowed Marco to be the heir to the De Luca empire.

The old traditionalists from our grandfather’s time came in and pressured him to give our father the position of capo dei capi.

It helped that Marco was too inept to run anything, let alone the De Luca empire, mixed blood or not.

I let out a sigh when my brothers turned to me expectantly. “Let’s go see what he wants.”

Matteo smirked. “Maybe the bastard will do us a favor and announce his retirement.”

Romeo shot Matteo a look. There was no such thing as retirement in our world. Hell, most men didn’t make it to retirement age.

“The only way to an early retirement is to the grave,” Elio commented.

“That can be arranged,” Matteo answered, a glint entering his eyes. If I didn’t get a tighter rein on my brother, he might just lose control one of these days and rip our uncle to shreds.

I shook my head. “Let’s just get this done and over with.”

Matteo let out a small sigh. “You take away all my fun.”

I didn’t know what more I could say to that, so I said nothing, watching as my youngest brother climbed out of the car.

“No matter what, we got your back,” Elio said when Matteo closed the door behind him, pulling my gaze away.

That didn’t need to be said. I knew my brothers had my back. All of them. There was no one I trusted more in the world than them.

I nodded. “I know.” I turned toward Romeo. “Try to stay close to Matteo. Try to keep him from speaking out of turn.”