Page 4 of Killer Daddy (Fendi Mafia Daddies #2)

Michael

The apartment that Michael had called home for the last fifteen years wasn’t the biggest apartment in the building, and nor was it the most expensive or extravagant. It was however the perfect slice of anonymity that allowed Michael to let his guard down and relax.

The neighbor to Michael’s left was a retired heart surgeon called Dr. Lazarus.

He was in his seventies and lived with his second wife, Dr. Geri.

They were a nice couple, kept themselves to themselves, and yet would always bid Michael a good morning or good evening when their paths crossed in the elevator.

To Michael’s right was Mr. Lamn, a German businessman who had been living there for around four years. Like the two retired doctors, Mr. Lamn was a private person who appeared to work long hours and spend most of his free time away from the city.

In both cases, Michael was happy that his closest neighbors were quiet, respectable, and didn’t have an intrusive bone in their bodies.

The last thing that Michael wanted was people trying to befriend him or insert themselves in his life.

Michael was happily living a life where his time was his own and he could return home at night without fear of facing the Spanish Inquisition from a nosey neighbor.

That said, had there been a boy waiting for him at his apartment, that would be a whole other matter…

‘Damn, I could do with a female touch around here,’ Michael chuckled to himself as he stood in his apartment’s steel kitchen and felt very aware of just how minimal it all was.

Michael walked over toward the large panoramic window that looked out onto the city. The night was drawing in and Michael found himself captivated by the sight of the lit up skyscrapers and buildings in the distance.

Is anyone looking back at me…

Like I’m looking at them.

What would people say if they knew they were staring at a killer?

Michael shrugged his shoulders and broke himself out of his thoughts. He knew that he was expecting company in the shape of his brother Faustino shortly. The plan was for Faustino to come over and then for the two of them to meet Matteo later in one of their preferred bars.

The three men were as close as you could get. While they never intruded in one another’s personal lives, there was an unspoken rule that business – and by that, the family business – came before anything else.

It was rare that an alliance of men as close of them made it to their forties without at least one of them falling to a bullet, a knife, or even a pair of leather gloves wrapped around the neck.

But Michael, Faustino, and Matteo had so far navigated the treacherous waters of life in the Fendi clan with a combination of violence, smart thinking, and a good slice of luck too.

And speaking of luck, Michael was hoping that his favorite whisky would be in supply at the bar later that night.

Michael had developed a highly refined taste for booze over the years.

While some guys would happily chug away on any kind of liquor, Michael was far more discerning and would only settle for the absolute best. Some might have called him a snob, but as far as Michael was concerned, he was simply a man who knew what he wanted and wouldn’t settle for anything less.

‘Damn it, Faustino, where are you?’ Michael muttered as he walked away from the window and took a seat on his large, chocolate-brown L-shaped couch.

As Michael impatiently checked his watch, he rolled his eyes at the sound of Faustino’s customary triple-knock at the door.

‘Typical,’ Michael said, grumpily hauling himself up from the couch and walking over toward the apartment door. ‘You know, I just sat down…’

‘And it’s great to see you too,’ Faustino laughed, stepping inside the apartment and making a beeline toward the drink cabinet. ‘Allow me. Ice?’

‘Of course,’ Michael replied. ‘But don’t think making me a drink makes us all square. You’re late.’

‘Trust me, I could explain…’ Faustino answered, a knowing look in his eyes. ‘But I don’t think you’d want to hear.’

‘You’re probably right,’ Michael laughed, seeing the funny side and cutting his younger brother some slack. ‘There might only be eighteen months between us, but sometimes I think we’re decades apart.’

‘I’ll choose not to take that personally,’ Faustino said, handing Michael the drink and sitting down with his own drink in hand too. ‘So… we need to talk about how we’re going to go from soldiers to commanders. Or, put another way… how we’re going to take over the family.’

Michael paused before answering. He took a long sip of his drink and felt a sense of unease.

Together, him, Faustino and Matteo had long spoken about what their future would look like.

All they knew was that the three of them would work together, protect one another, and stay alive for as long as possible.

But Faustino was always keen on taking things further…

‘Am I more than a killer though?’ Michael asked. ‘I’m good at what I do. I know I am. But wasting people is one thing. Deciding who gets wasted is another. And you know, any move we made would see big fucking targets over our heads from that day onward.’

‘Come on, relax,’ Faustino said, leaning back on the couch.

‘You know full well that you’ve got what it takes.

I know I do. And I know that with Matteo by our side we’d be fucking untouchable.

This is our time. Two brothers and a cousin.

We could rule this family for the next thirty years. At least.’

Michael nodded.

While his younger brother might have been the craziest and wildest of the three of them, there was never any doubt that Faustino always meant what he said.

And Michael could tell from the look in Faustino’s eyes that he was being deadly serious.

There was an ambition inside Michael that he couldn’t deny either.

The thought of the three of them making a play to become the leaders of the family was undeniably appealing and would finally go some way to putting the hurt of his and Faustino’s father’s death to bed.

‘If we did it, it would be for father,’ Michael finally answered. ‘We might not have avenged him. Not yet anyhow. But if we took control of the Fendi clan, I know he’d be looking down on us with the proudest damn smile on his face.’

‘Looking down or looking up?’ Lucca laughed, reaching over and toasting Michael. ‘Hell, I think when we finally kick the bucket we might just all be having one big family reunion down below. The kind where we’ll need an unlimited supply of sunscreen!’

With that, the two brothers burst into laughter.

The pain of their father’s death would never go away, that was for sure. But that didn’t mean that the two of them couldn’t share a joke once in a while, no matter how dark the subject matter. And the truth was that Michael was comfortable with whatever fate met him in the afterlife.

All that was left now was to convince Matteo that the time was right to strike…

The lights in Emperor Bar were at their customary low, seductive level. With its strict door policy, it was the kind of late night place where anyone from a high ranked politician, sports star, or even mafia hitman could get a drink and know that they would be in discreet, relaxed company.

Michael, Faustino, and now Matteo were sitting in their favorite corner booth. With a good view out onto the rest of the bar, the three of them were able to talk quietly and not have to worry too much about being approached by boys or anyone looking to make a name for themselves.

After discussing the prospect of making a move on the family hierarchy, Michael was satisfied that Matteo was on board and ready to get to work.

As it turned out, Matteo had been doing some serious thinking of his own recently and was now very much of the mindset that the three of them were the ideal trio to take the family into the future…

‘We’ll have to make some tough choices,’ Matteo said. ‘No one gives up power. It has to be taken. And we all know what that means. These men are family. Okay, maybe not our brothers or cousins. But family is family.’

‘You think a single one of them would give a flying fuck about executing us if they had to?’ Faustino quipped.

‘No, I don’t,’ Matteo replied, laughing.

‘But as long as we’re all aware that we might need to remove someone we once thought of as a friend.

That’s all I’m saying. It’s no guarantee that everyone we want to fall onto our side will do.

In fact, we might have to work with some people we don’t currently like if it means getting the deal done. ’

‘You’re right,’ Michael said, nodding his head in agreement.

‘And I can handle that. But that doesn’t mean we work with anyone.

There is a rotten core at this family. I’ve always known it.

Ever since our father’s murder. You know as well as I do that someone in the family knows what really happened.

And there’s a good chance that this person is still alive. ’

‘Agreed,’ Matteo said. ‘So we’ll be open minded, but cautious. It’s the smart thing to do.’

‘Okay, okay, I get it,’ Faustino said, evidently getting bored with all the fine details. ‘We’ll work with the right people, and we’ll kill the right people. As long as it ends up with us running this family, then I’m good.’

‘I think that’s my delightfully direct brother’s way of saying that this meeting is over,’ Michael laughed. ‘Now, let’s sit back and enjoy this whisky.’

With that, Michael and the two other Fendi men duly enjoyed the rest of their night.

As the drinks began to flow, Michael began to feel like he was entering a new, pivotal era of his life.

Once they started their move to run the family, the relatively carefree days of being a hitman, killer, or whatever else anyone wanted to call it would be over for good for Michael, and he knew it.

In this future, it would be harder to go out without a cavalcade of security. There would be late nights spent agonizing over strategy, handling warring factions both inside and outside the family, and dealing with the threat of assassination on a daily basis.

But it felt like the right time.

Michael was ready to take his place at the top of the tree.

All that was left however was deciding whether he wanted a boy to sit at the top next to him.

It was perhaps a harder choice than Michael might have imagined.

Sure, he would be living a life of luxury, at the top of his game, and with more power than he’d ever imagined.

But on the other hand Michael knew that it would be his responsibility to keep the boy safe from danger – and he would also become a target himself simply by being associated with him.

As Michael finished his whisky and motioned to the barman for another, he knew that he had a lot to consider. But that could wait. Now it was about enjoying what might be one of the final nights of carefree fun and relaxation with his brother and cousin.

‘To us,’ Michael said, raising his new glass of finely aged whisky. ‘And to whatever may be in our future…’

As the men toasted, Michael smiled.

Darkness was on the horizon, a darkness even blacker than the night’s sky outside Emperor Bar.

But Michael was ready for anything or anyone.

Or so he thought…