Page 63 of Brutal Devil

As I turn and walk away from Luna, I can only hope that my promise to her is true.

“You sure you want to go in there alone?”

Through the darkness of the night, I stare at the flickering neon sign outside the Diamond Club. It’s a run-down, rambling building on the outskirts of the city in an area that’s more known for the size of its rats and the quality of its sex workers and drugs—highly dubious, to be clear—than anything else.

Flexing my fingers, I look back at Scorpion. “He won’t touch me.”

“I don’t trust Amedeo Revello as far as I can throw the asshole. And with all the cannoli he eats, that isn’t too damn far.”

Fair point. I don’t trust Revello either. But we need to come to an understanding. Namely, that I’m don of the joined families or he’s a fucking dead man.

“Squeaky will be there,” I remind him.

Tomasso’s right-hand man is the one who arranged this meeting. Given the war we may be about to head into with the Bratva, we need a united presence. A solidified family without any revolting factions.

Scorpion makes a low sound that I think he may have learned from his dog. “I don’t trust fucking Squeaky either.”

“Squeaky knows we’ll clip him if he lifts so much as a pinkie to help Amedeo. His loyalty was to Tomasso.”

“Yeah, but Tomasso’s dead.”

“Tomasso’s daughter isn’t.”

And that’s why I’ve secreted Luna away at our safe house. Because I can’t trust Amedeo not to try to take her out. She’s the last impediment from the Revello family with Tomasso gone and her brother Leo long dead.

“You going to use the wifey as a bargaining chip?” Scorpion wants to know.

“Fuck no,” I bite out, irritated with my brother at the mere question. “Luna’s off the table. Off-limits. I don’t do deals that have anything to do with her. And what’s with thiswifeyshit? You and Saint trading notes?”

“He may have mentioned it pissed you off.”

My brothers are dicks. All of them. They’re lucky I love them.

“It’s stupid,” I grumble. “Just like this conversation. I’m going in now. If I don’t come out in half an hour, you and the boys know what to do.”

Scorpion’s on edge again, all the amusement fading from his face. “You know I don’t fucking like this, Priest. This could be an ambush.”

I’m more than aware of that.

I crack my knuckles. “Or it could be the beginning of our ability to assert dominance over the Bratva, the Irish, and the other families. Just think of what we’ll be able to do with the families unified again. How strong we’ll be.”

“Or fucking Revello takes the opportunity to do his biggest rival, and Squeaky sticks the knife in your back.”

I feel a pang deep inside at the thought of being wiped out. Gone. I wouldn’t be the first. The streets of this city are bathed in Mafia blood. They have been forever. But now that I have someone depending on me—now that I have Luna—it feels different. I feel like there’s so much more at stake.

“If they kill me, I want you to kill them,” I tell my brother. “I want you to mercilessly, ruthlessly torture them, and then I want you to put a bullet in their brains and dump what’s left of them in the Atlantic attached to a fucking cement block. You got me?”

Scorpion nods. “I got you.”

“I know you do, brother.”

We shake hands.

I strip off my cell, my burner, and my gun and leave them on the console.

I’m going in bareback. It’s what Amedeo agreed to, and I’m honoring it.

If someone isn’t upholding his end of the bargain, it’s not going to be me. Outside the G-Wagon, lightning flashes,followed by a crack of thunder. It’s about to start raining, and I hope that’s not an omen.