RETRIBUTION

Alejandro’s POV

“Find me the head of your sister’s killer and I’ll give you the keys to my kingdom.” My father’s voice bellowed harshly but his eyes were dead.

We’d both witnessed the death of my sister at her wedding. It was a one hit shot taken with a sniper on the roof.

There was an uproar and men and women fled the scene. My sister, Alia had died before we could get to her, her blood pooling everywhere.

That day, everything in me died. The only innocence I’d ever come across was soaked in her own blood.

Being in the most feared mafia in the country meant you hard to have balls of steel and an icy heart. However, watching your only daughter, my kid sister get shot in the head on her happiest day, that was a different ball game.

We searched and searched for the killer but we found none. Just a clue that it was our rivals, the Russos. The only thing we had in common was our hatred for the other. We, the Amatos, had stayed at the top of the mafia ladder for centuries, never succumbing to threats or wars.

No one ever messed with us. You didn’t steal from an Amato. Not even as little as a piece of bread. They had taken a life and we would take it back in thousands of folds.

“Capello!” I yelled for my most trusted man. He was beside me in seconds.

“Where are the Russos?”

“They are on a vacation in Venice.” A humorless chuckle fell from lips. Just a few weeks ago, they’d ordered the killing of my sister and now, they were on vacation in Venice.

The rivers of Venice would know that the Amatos were not to be messed with.

***

The blood on my face didn’t obstruct my sight. The taste however, filled me with a sick sense of pride as I twisted the knife in Armani Russo’s leg. He was second in command to Dario Russo, the leader of the Russo mafia family.

“Where’s Dario?” His screams filled the air. Pussy. First rule of torture, don’t be caught. That rule would be particularly difficult for a man whose dick never stayed in one place.

“Wait Wait! I’ll tell you, I’ll tell you! Please...”

Men like Armani were weak. They hid behind protection and the moment they got caught, a little torture and they spilled secrets like running taps.

I picked up my gun, looked at him like the scum of the earth he was and shot him in between the eyes just like they did my sister, and just like I would every other member of their family. Complete obliteration of everybody. If you didn’t pull out the roots, branches with venomous vendettas would sprout and make you regret not destroying them for good.

I called for Capello to take care of his body. He’d told me everything I needed to hear and then some.

I tutted and spat on his body.

“Absolute piece of shit.” A piece of shit really, giving up his family just like that. A smirk lit up my face. The Russos had turned too soft. This would be too easy.

I picked up my phone and dialed my father.

“Papa, I know where they are.”

“Lay waste to the lot of them just as they did my family.”

I wasn’t doing this for my father. I was doing it for my sister, stepsister really but I’d watched her grow up into someone so innocent and full of life. Someone who actually deserved protection from the horrors that surrounded being an Amato.

I hated my father with everything I had. He’d raised me up to be the killer I now was. He didn’t see me as his son, just a machine to order as he pleased. The one thing I ever wanted was to take over from him and best him at what he did. Show him that he wasn’t all that.

He had told me he couldn’t hand everything over to someone as ruthless as I was, someone who didn’t care about a single person or thing.

You’d think that would make the perfect leader but not according to my father.

“A great leader needs compassion to rule. You… you have none. Do you know what they call you?” My lips tilted up in a smirk as the room turned silent that day. The day he’d declared me unfit to rule in front of his most trusted men.

“figlio del diavolo. The son of the devil and I’m not one.” That was rich, coming from a man who hit me mercilessly when I was barely six for not being strong. What he never let people really know was the fact that I was his unplanned and unwanted son and he never hesitated to let me know when we were away from the public.

It was a known fact how much I was feared and hated across the land. Whispers of my name left men quaking in their boots. It wasn’t all for nothing.

I was the weapon that kept the Amato clan safe. I got my hands dirty even though I was the son of the leader, well unwanted son.

The one person I’d come to care for, my little sister, was ripped away from me. Her death had also claimed the life of my step mother, a woman who hated me just as much. One less Amato to deal with in my own opinion.

Even if I was alienated from the family because of my status, my father knew that the only person who could bring justice to his feet was me and that was why he made me the proposition of letting me take over.

“I’m done.” Capello stood in front of me and looked at me with questions in his eyes. We’d been friends for over ten years and he knew me just as much as I knew him.

“I know where they are.” I seethed with a clenched jaw. The only thing keeping a lid on my fury was the fact that I knew exactly what to do and where to go.

“Let’s go.”

***

It took us a couple of days but we found them on a cruise ship. It didn’t take long to have bullets between their eyes. Let everyone know you didn’t mess with an Amato, bastard or not.

There was something bitter about revenge. You could brandish a weapon all you wanted but the pain never went away. Not me though. The care didn’t run so deep.

I brandished a weapon because I could. I guess papa was right. I had no compassion.

I took a brief look at Capello and he knew what to do.

The boat reeked of gasoline and Capello drove as fast as he could in our own boat. The blast from the explosion hit our boat, pushing it and rocking it in different directions.

I looked back at the ruin and slid on my glasses, lighting up a cigar.

It was a sunny day in Venice and I wished to enjoy every of it.

“Who’s left?” Capello spared me a glance as I blew out a puff of air.

“The consigliere and his family.” His face pulled into a frown.

“Is that necessary though Ale?” My face hardened as I narrowed my eyes at him.

“Remind me what we do to our enemies again?” He sighed and approached me, taking the cigar from my hands.

“Complete obliteration.”

“But I heard it’s just a small family with one daughter.”

“Do I look like I care?” My anger was beginning to resurface at how annoying Capello was being.

I didn’t need a voice of reason in situations like these but weirdly enough, it was why he was my closest ally. Someone who didn’t just agree with everything I did out of fear.

“No but…” I cut him off.

“Pelly…” He shut his mouth, frowning like he’d just tasted a lemon. He hated when I called him Pelly but I did when he was pissing me off and wanted him to feel the same way. The matter was closed.

“Whatever. Where are we off to?”

“Florence. I heard their daughter is visiting.” I licked my lips in anticipation.

Three birds with one gun.