Page 40 of Brandishing Betrayals (Devil’s Psychos MC #2)

Nico

T hursday night, I walked into Sera’s and gave my name to the hostess. I was immediately led toward the back and down the hallway to Leo’s office. This time, the hostess knocked and waited until it was opened by none other than Giovanni Seratelli, Leo’s younger brother and Underboss.

I paused in the doorway, meeting my cousin’s gaze. “Hey Nic,” Giovanni smiled tightly.

“Hey.” I nodded my head. The hostess left us and Gio opened the door further, showing the full scope of the packed office.

All five of the Seratelli brothers were inside, along with another five men that I didn’t know.

Or maybe I did, because Fredrico Accardi, Leonardo’s best friend, was standing against the wall.

“Come on in,” Gio said. He stepped out of the way.

I squared my shoulders and steeled my spine as I walked into the Lion’s den. I met the eye of every man in the room, stopping when I reached the center in front of Leo’s desk.

Leo sat like a king on his throne, holding court before his Family. I thought that was an apt description, considering who Leo was to these men.

I met his gaze, as Leo watched my every move, looking for weakness. “Why are you here, Nicolai?” Leo asked, his voice deep and commanding.

Guess they were starting right away, huh? I cleared my throat and spoke clearly. “To apologize and ask for forgiveness from the family.”

Leo’s lips twitched slightly in the corners. Had I not been watching, I would have missed it. “Why are you here, Nicolai?” Leo repeated the question.

“To apologize and ask forgiveness from the family,” I repeated.

Leo nodded, seemingly accepting my response. “Nicolai Gage, you have been disowned by your Don ten years ago. You turned your back on your family and chose to align yourself with another organization. By all rights, you should be dead.”

A muttering of both approval and disapproval went around the room. I took the moment to eye the men that thought I should be dead—thankfully they weren’t family—though Fredrico was one of the few that thought I should be dead. Interesting .

“For the debt you owe the family, your punishment is a stomping, to be carried out tonight, by the men present in this room. You will also give a formal apology at Sunday’s family dinner, and you will work for the Family again.”

“But—”

“You can keep your little biker club,” Leo glared, speaking right over me. “But you will also work for the family. You’ll be given a list of names we need eliminated, and you will do so, without question.”

I swallowed and nodded my head once. It was the last thing I wanted to do. Contract killing was the main reason I wanted nothing to do with the family in the first place. I could kill if I needed to, but I wasn’t a stone-cold killer like some guys—that shit ate me up.

I would do anything I had to at this point. Anything for Maya. Even if it meant selling my soul to the Devil. “My girl—”

“We’ll talk about anything further after —or rather if you survive the beating.” Leo stood up and the men along the walls straightened.

“Come.” Leo stepped passed me, gripping my shoulder briefly as he passed by. He led the way out of his office and I had no choice but to follow.

With a wall of muscle behind me, and Maya and Luke’s future in front of me, I followed Leonardo and Giovanni out of the office, across the hall, through another door and down a set of concrete stairs that went deep under the restaurant—like two floors underground.

The large concrete basement was much larger than the restaurant above it, like Leo owned the entire city block beneath the buildings. I swallowed; this was shaping up to be the worst-case scenario. I hoped that Marcos and Jason would be able to get me out of this at the end.

When we reached the center of the open basement, Leo turned around. “Search him.”

Giovanni walked over and took my cut from me, while Augustino Jr. “Tino” gave me a tight smile as he started patting me down. “Sorry about this,” Tino said softly.

I grunted in return, holding out my arms so Tino could finish quickly, while watching as Giovanni folded my Cut with care and set it gently on floor against the wall, out of the way.

I had been hoping for the leather of the cut to protect me from most of the damage they planned to inflict, but they had thought about that as well.

I appreciated my cousin’s care and respect for the cut though, that meant a lot to me.

I waited in the middle of circle as my family and their guys circled around me.

Leo made a show of taking off his suit coat and slowly undoing his cuff links before he rolled up his sleeves.

I would have laughed and egged him on if it were just the two of us, if we were still as close as we had been as kids.

But I couldn’t, we weren’t that close anymore.

I had burned that bridge when I left.

Kinda like Maya had, when she left.

I hadn’t thought about how my situation could be compared to Maya’s. We both walked away from family. We both came back looking for forgiveness. Or rather, asking for it because we needed help , though Maya didn’t exactly ask for he—

I was yanked out of my musings by Leo’s fist cracking against my cheek bone. I backed up a step, stunned and my ears ringing. The second fist landed on my jaw, before I even thought to bring my arms up to block my face.

It didn’t matter though, because those two headshots delivered by Leo were the only ones anyone even tried to land.

They must have gotten an order not to hit me in the head, because as one, they rained down punches on my torso.

Someone got in a kick to my ribs that had me doubling over and that was all it took for them to get me on the ground and begin stomping on me and kicking me with their steel-toe boots.

I curled up into a ball to protect myself as best as I could with my arms up and protecting my head, but it didn’t do much to protect me from ten guys stomping my ass. I would be lucky if I survived this beat down.

Jason

Marcos and I were led through the back door of the restaurant and down a set of concrete steps to an open basement that was massive. I did a quick sweep of the area, but it was mostly empty aside of Nico curled up in the center and the Seratelli brothers standing around him, smoking cigars.

I gritted my teeth as I took in the slightly ruffled Italians.

There had never been any deep-seated friendship between the two crews.

Though the Psychos used to run coke for the Mafia, it was only as a way to earn money.

It was something the Seratelli’s had come to us about, not the other way around.

It had happened after Nico left the family.

It had been a mutually beneficial agreement, until it wasn’t.

Mac Taylor going to the Italians to cut out the Bratva had been a huge upset to not only the amount of money the Psycho’s were earning monthly, but also to the drug scene as a whole.

It had started a whole cluster fuck of dominoes falling across the fucking board and he wasn’t even alive to deal with the aftermath.

I was still pissed at the man over it. And fucking Buckley for teaming up with the fucking snakes to take on Taylor. It was all bullshit I didn’t want to deal with.

Now, here we were, trying to pick up the pieces of that aftermath, and prayed to God that Nico was still breathing and this whole fucking beat down had been worth it. If his fucking cousins didn’t accept his apology, then this was pointless.

They needed the Seratelli’s help. Desperately.

“Leonardo,” Marcos nodded at the Don as he shook his hand.

Leonardo Seratelli for the most part looked unruffled, though his suit coat was missing and his shirt sleeves were rolled up, but the overly handsome bastard was stone faced as he puffed on his cigar and watched them walk toward Nico’s prone body.

“Jesus.” I breathed the word. “You dead, man?”

“He’s alive,” Leonardo declared.

I still crouched down beside my buddy and pressed my fingers to his neck to check his pulse, not believing the Italian. Only when I felt it for myself, did I stand back up and meet the gazes of all five Seratelli brothers. “You guys get enough?” I goaded.

Leo had both hands shoved into his pants pockets and the cigar tucked between his teeth. He leaned back on his heels and raised an eyebrow at me.

“Stop.” Marcos immediately held up a hand, motioning at me.

I ground my teeth as I shut my mouth.

A frown pulled at Leonardo’s lips as he slowly pulled the cigar from his mouth. “We went easy on him. Remember that.”

Marco helped me haul Nico up between the two of us. It was a struggle getting him up the stairs, but we managed. It was a good thing Nic was out cold, because this would hurt like a motherfucker.