Page 148 of Vicious Behaviors

“You tell me,” Matteo replies with a shrug.

Before we even know what’s happening, Niccolò breaks away from his spot, grabs his father by the shoulders, and shoves Don Carlo to his knees in front of Matteo, while still facing us. Then, Matteo draws a knife in one fluid motion, seizes Carlo by the hair, and slits his throat from behind. The wet sound echoes through the warehouse as Don Carlo gurgles his last breath and then collapses forward, blood pooling and spreading fast across the cracked cement floor.

“Blood will be met with blood,” Matteo says coldly. “Let this be the first drop.”

And with that parting remark, he turns his back on us, utterly unafraid, and strides away. Niccolò falls in behind him, as do their bodyguards, leaving us standing in silence, the warehouse thick with the metallic stench of Don Carlo’s blood.

I glance at my father, but his eyes stay fixed on a retreating Matteo. Only when every last Donato man is no longer within hearing distance does my father utter a word.

“Gentlemen,” he says at last, his voice low, lethal. “It appears Matteo Donato is the newCapo dei Capiof theCosa Nostra.”

“No shit,” Gio mutters in disbelief. “So what the fuck are we going to do now?”

“What we must,” Dom answers grimly.

“He has Anna, Dad. Anna.” My voice cracks with fury. “And we just let that lunatic walk out of here on his own two legs!”

My father doesn’t respond. Instead, he takes one further step forward until the tips of his shoes meet Carlo’s blood. He hovers over the body, glancing first at Gio, then at Dom, and finally at me, his hazel eyes burning with pure malice and cruelty.

“If Matteo Donato wants a war,” my father says, voice like iron, “then he’ll get one.”

The End