Page 32 of And Twice as Twisted (Agostino Crime Family #4)

APOLLO DELUCA

“ W ill the defendant please rise,” someone commanded but I barely registered their words as I followed the motions. “In the light of Miss Agostino’s testimony, the prosecutor has dropped all charges.” The judges gavel pounded the counter, the sound reverberating in my mind.

“Great.” I flexed as they removed my cuffs.

“You realize it was all Sienna, right?” The sound of her name on my attorney’s lips forced me to glare in her direction. “Even after whatever you did to her, that girl is still loyal.” She turned on her heel and strutted away.

Loyal. Sienna was loyal to a fault.

“She’s right, you know.” Bella caught my attention as we stood in front of the courthouse. “Sienna is loyal. To you. To this family. Sound familiar?”

There was that word again.

Loyalty: noun. The state or quality of being loyal; faithfulness to commitment or obligations. An example or instance of faithfulness, adherence or the like.

I had plenty of time to think while I was locked away and made a few neuropathic connections.

Studies had implicated that the striatum, an area in the brain known for calculating anticipated rewards, was directly associated with loyalty and faithfulness.

Sienna likely experienced increased activity in the striatum, proving loyalty was associated with benefits of greater emotional attachment.

I’d always assumed she had a vicarious limbic structure that was overwhelmed when it came to behavioral and emotional outbursts. The limbic system was located deep within the brain, interconnected structures that controlled one’s emotional state.

But when you took everything into consideration, it all came down to the same variable.

“Her loyalty is a shield. It shows you she will do anything for you, no matter what it does to her,” Bella continued. “You hide behind loyalty much the same, except it closes you off to believing you can’t be anything else.”

Fuck.

“She’ll probably gift that loyalty to someone else. Someone who appreciates it.”

My neck snapped in her direction. The thought of someone else touching Sienna made me murderous.

“She isn’t going to come back,” Bella added with a shake of her head.

“Yes, she is. Even if I have to drag her back by her fucking hair.”

I cracked my knuckles, ignoring Bella’s muttered, “Finally,” as I left the courtroom behind me, in search of a certain mafia princess.

Sienna had disappeared. Her normal pattern of behavior would have her returning once she composed herself. Her absence spoke volumes to the discord that continued to plague this family.

Sienna turning Gio’s own gun on him set in motion an uncontrolled cataclysm. Enemies were materializing out of thin air, looking for their pound of flesh. We’d learned Gio had legally bound, open contracts with hitmen—who’d been prepaid to avenge his death.

And I continued to work diligently to ensure Sienna’s name was kept out of the mix. The underworld was guessing, at best, that the Agostino offspring were involved, while I was lining up one body after another, keeping my promise to protect this family.

Especially her.

Gio had taken what didn’t belong to him. Had taken what belonged to me. And I wanted… no, I needed her back.

“Where have you been?” Mario stopped me.

I held my breath, using my newest coping mechanism to stifle my uncontrollable rage. I counted in my head as I pressed my thumb to each finger before responding. He knew the answer, but harbored such animosity in the wake of so much destruction that he needed to hear it for himself.

I didn’t suffer from the fake ideology that I was, socially acceptable or otherwise, okay by any definition of the word .

I’d closed myself off after the trial, dumbfounded by the repetitive reel in my head of Sienna’s loyalty throughout the years.

In her absence, the need to speak to her was chronically debilitating as every attempt to find her turned up empty.

Mine. I would protect mine.

“Did you handle them?” His question only infuriated me further, but I swallowed it back and nodded. “Good. On to the next.”

Sienna is next, I thought to myself, because I would find her. And soon.

His silent dismissal wasn’t going to work this time. I’d replaced my entire Brioni collection, rebuilt my apartment in the city, and bought another piece of land near the compound. I was focusing on building a life outside of the mayhem I imposed.

Do not allow these facts to muddle your perception of me. I still did whatever was needed to protect this family.

I needed her return to confirm my hypothesis. It was a logical assessment, the belief that we shared the same sense of duty above all else, but I had to see Sienna to put the puzzle back together. I’d come to the realization her loyalty matched my own. And with that loyalty came ownership.

She belonged to me and I’d kill anyone that came for her.

I climbed into my newest toy, my Lamborghini Veneno Roadster . It cost me almost five million by the time I added a few bonus features. Prior to this, I cared little for the formidable amount of money in my bank account. I wanted things for myself now.

And I wanted her.

“Fuck!” I hissed while narrowly avoiding Al, who was charging towards me from the side yard. “You motherfucker!” I pulled the car to a stop and stepped out, checking the front tire well, which had slipped into the rock embankment.

“Apollo! Those are my hydrangeas!” Isabella Agostino shouted from the stables.

“He made me do it!” It wasn’t one of my finer moments, but it was a factually based declaration.

Isabella trotted over on one of her horses, hopping down gracefully and tying her thoroughbred to the fence. She waved for me to reverse my car and before I even stepped out again, I could see her displeasure. Al and I stood side by side, like a pair of petulant children about to be scolded.

“This is the first season I’ve gotten these damn things to bloom and then here you two come along!

” She picked up a snapped blossom. “You! They! Ugh, forget it.” Her chin wobbled and my jaw clenched.

She yelled out a few choice statements about her inability to keep nice things intact before hopping on her horse and taking off across the field.

I retrieved my phone from my pocket and looked at Al.

“It’s a damn bush,” he scoffed, earning himself a palm to the back of the head.

“It’s a lot more than that, asino. ” I called Mario, relaying the message and directing him to Isabella.

I inspected my car once more, turning at the sounds of fast-trotting hooves.

Mario raced out of the stables, heading in the same direction his wife had fled.

The family was falling apart, and Mario was taking all of it on himself.

He’d chosen this life for them and everyone was paying for his mistakes.

But he wouldn’t let any of us help him through it.

“Was there a reason for your asinine display, other than a death wish?” I inquired, picking a stray piece of nothing off my suit.

“Sienna’s apartment alarm was going off.” Al’s chest heaved as I turned for my car and we sped down the driveway.

We were born, we lived and then we died.

To some, it was a daunting truth they preferred to ignore.

But when the sun rose on each new day and you awakened to realize you survived again, life was good.

If the sunset didn’t set you aflame, it was the devil knocking on your door who would drag you to hell.

“You really don’t know where she is, do you?” I asked while aggressively honking my horn at a cab.

“I don’t.” His anger spoke of his truth. “I don’t think anyone knows where she is, just that she’s okay.”

“Unacceptable,” some bastard hissed in our direction, and I scoffed at the cab’s passenger presently rolling down his window to shout at us. “Talking to you, ya fucking idiot!” He threw spare change at my windshield, the offending copper pinging off my tinted glass.

“ Che cazzo .” Al chuckled. “No, Apollo!” He reached for my arm, but it was too late.

As I stepped from the car, I shook out my jacket, showing my Glock safely tucked under my midnight-blue Brioni suit. I bent down and picked up one of the pennies from the ground, tossing it into the air and catching it.

“You dropped this.” I pinched the dirty copper between my thumb and pointer finger, reaching just past the bastard’s window. “Take it.”

“Man, I’m s-sorry.” He slumped farther back in his seat, trapped like a rat in a small cage.

“I said. Take. It.” Then, moving quickly and with deadly precision, I latched my hand on to his jaw and tugged him forward. His mouth opened in shock, and I jammed the penny inside, clamping it closed. He sat immobile, watching me, unsure what was next. “Swallow.”

Before I could force the command, Al was at my back, muscling me into my car. “You good?” He slid in beside me and I nodded. “I know you’ve worked hard to collect yourself. But, shit, did I miss that part of you.” His amusement only heightened my serenity.

“If there truly is a god, he made me a sinner and I’m content with who I am.” I couldn’t hold back the grin ticking the sides of my lips.

“And, fuck, if I haven’t missed it.”

As much as I didn’t want to admit it, I missed this back and forth too.

I was in control and there was no going back now.

I had a lot of wrongs to right and this visit was just the first of many.

A part of me was missing in her absence.

Something dark and sinister always consumed me but she was the final piece of the puzzle I needed to feel whole.

Tasks like this were what kept my mind busy.

Approaching Sienna’s apartment, Al and I motioned to each other before breaching it.

Slowly, the door slid ajar and I held my position and waited.

As expected, they began firing through the opening, quickly depleting what I was sure was their limited arsenal.

After a moment of silence, one of the fuckers stepped closer to peek around the corner.

“Hello.” I smiled, while his look of dread and the smell of defecation had that smile widening into a full-on grin. It took less than a minute to subdue the intruder and his cohort, both unable to stand their ground.

“I’m not telling you shit!”

I narrowly missed the wad of spit descending towards my Alessandro Galet Scritto Leather Oxfords.

Al chuckled, looming over the prone form behind me.

I drew my foot back and my three-thousand-dollar loafer broke his tooth, forcing his neck to crack to one side.

His incoherent mumbling was a consonance of pride that built within me.

I was back. A rejuvenated version of myself at least.

I unbuttoned my blazer and placed it on a chair, rolling my sleeves to my elbows.

I glanced at the counter, faltering as the iridescent metal glinted under the light.

A gift I’d given Sienna. “A memento, how fitting.” I gripped the cool steel in my hand, enjoying the snap and the glint of the sharpened edge.

“The parotid duct is what releases your saliva and I can very easily get to it with one solid swoop of this blade.” I waved the knife around for effect.

“N-no… I-I won’t-t t-ta—” he stammered.

“Your increased heart rate, erratic breathing, and the sudden rush of epinephrine and adrenalin from your amygdala is inducing that stutter. I suggest we counteract your body’s natural response to fear.

” Slowly, I took in a breath through my nose and exhaled out my mouth.

“Here.” With a flick of my wrist, the seven-inch serrated knife embedded his hand into the wall.

There was a crescendo of screams that made my nerves settle and a visceral calm float around me.

“Looks sharp,” Al taunted, the man beneath him moaning.

“Doesn’t take much pressure to slice through the risorius and buccinator muscles in the cheek.

Then you’ll never be able to spit again.

” Another kick to his face stained my leather shoes red.

“A future of drooling and groaning, unable to communicate.” I pinched the muscles in question between my fingers, straddling him when I saw the puddle he produced.

“There, there.” I went to pat his head, stopping at the excessive release of sweat from his eccrine glands. “Who sent you?”

“I-I can’t.” His shrill voice was like nails on a chalkboard.

“ Can’t insinuates you’re unable. You are, in fact, able. Just unwilling. However, I can change that. And I do promise you won’t like it.” When he didn’t answer, I sat back on my haunches. “As you wish.”

I stepped to his partner, who was still sprawled beneath Al, the bastard’s eyes wide with fear.

It was so sad really. They were nobodies, hired for a simple snatch and grab.

They wore cheap suits and used too much hair gel.

They were attempting to work their way up in an organization that didn’t prepare them accordingly.

I lifted my gun, the sound echoing across the marble floors as the bullet tore a hole through his partner’s head.

“Are you ready?” I ripped my knife from his hand, dropping to his level as he blabbered with a mixture of snot and tears. “Now, tell me.”

“It-it… doesn’t matter! I’m already dead!” His good hand was too slow as he struggled to draw his Glock from his back.

“Do it,” I challenged, wanting him to have the courage to be a man once in his miserable excuse for a life.

Instead, he raised it in one shaky swoop, pressing the barrel to his throat.

But his angle and the bullet trajectory were all wrong as he pulled the trigger.

The projectile tore through the omohyoid muscle in his neck, his jugular detaching as he slowly bled out.

I watched with a detached fascination as the life drained from his eyes until his body stopped twitching.

“I’ll be damned…”

I turned to Al, my eyes dropping to the wallet in his hand.

“He’s from Philly.”

I stared at Al in confusion, his expression mirroring my own. Either this was a threat against us or an attempt to steal Sienna for himself. Each possibility was just as likely and would be Romano’s undoing.

I stepped to the window and stared out at the city that I called home.

The calamity of the mafia was hidden amongst the common people who littered the sidewalks.

We were a prosperous organization that did what it had to, to earn a profit and protect the streets that belonged to us. Now we had a new threat.

Romano Bianchi wanted to take what didn’t belong to him. But he’d never live to tell the tale.