Page 68 of Mafia Scars

“Can’t you skip whores tonight?” Pa slammed his glass down on the table.

Yep, he was pissed and probably drunk. He hated that word, and I doubted I’d ever heard him call a woman that before. Even if she deserved it.

Claudius tucked a lock of hair behind his ear and set the phone down beside him.

“Skipped. But can we talk if we’re talking? I’m not the sit-around-and-glare type.”

Pa gave Claudius a long, hard stare, then turned to me. “Luc, what’s the situation?”

“Pa, can we drop the outside world for a few minutes and stop being Raphael’s servants?” We’d been that ever since we got to Chicago. Felt like all we did was run to Raphael’s every need, didn’t matter what he wanted. He called, we answered. No personal time taken. Sure Raphael got us to where we were today, but it didn’t mean he owned us. “I want you to talk about what you’re feeling.”

“I feel betrayed, son. That’s the best way I can put it.”

“So, are we in or not?” Claudius asked.

If Amelia weren’t involved, I would have asked the same.

“You two, you’re in. I’m… still on the fence,” Pa huffed.

“Pa, Raphael aside, Amelia is who I care about.” I actually hadn’t spoken to him yet about her.

He raised his brows and took a good look at me. “Well, hell, you went and fell for the girl?”

Claudius laughed again. “You’re so late, Pa.”

“How can I know these things if I’m not told?”

“I’m telling you now. And I need you in.” I nodded.

“What Raphael did was so wrong. Luc, you know what I went through with your mother.”

“I know. We both do, and it’s a time we’ll never forget.”

“Pa, I know you’ll hate me for saying this, but if I catch some guy fucking around with my woman, he’s dead,” Claudius jumped in, much to Pa’s dismay.

God, my brother had the worst timing.

“So, you think what he did was right? Tag should have lost his sons and nearly his life?”

“I’m not saying that. That was unfortunate, but I don’t think that’s what Raphael intended.” Claudius straightened. Something in his demeanor changed. “It sounded to me like he just wanted the feds to have them, as in take them to prison, and then it all went wrong. No way did he want his wife to get killed. Think about it. It was a plan that went completely wrong. At least, though, the man showed he had some balls. It was more than what you did when you found out Mom left us. You did nothing but continue to live that shitty normal life and we stayed and suffered with you.”

Claudius rose, hair swishing over his shoulder. The blue of the blue eye darker as his cheeks reddened.

He’d never quite said it before, but I knew he’d always resented Pa for our bad experience in LA. While I understood on some level that Pa was just trying to live the normal, hoping Mom would come back to us, Claudius thought he should have taken more of a stand and at least try to get her back. He thought Pa was a coward who’d put up and shut up then ran away with his tail between his legs when he ran out of steam.

Maybe a part of me thought that too. We stayed with him because we loved him. We were in our twenties when we came back to Chicago. Either of us could have left well before that time. Especially Claudius.

Now wasn’t the time to bring this up. Although I could see the similarities in the situation. Our Mom and Raphael’s wife weren’t that much different. They did the same thing.

“Ease off, man,” I tried, but Claudius shot me a hard look, showing me he was pulling rank in seniority.

“This is the problem. We don’t talk about anything. We just do. Sure, let’s forget about us and what happened with Mom like we normally do and—”

“She was pregnant,” Pa suddenly said.

We both snapped our heads to him in an instant.

“What?”I asked.