Chapter Three

The tension in the room was because of the presence of the man whose name was feared to be mentioned by men of his calibre. Commoners wouldn't dare utter the name, but they'd piss their pants when they hear it. 

He was feared, dreaded, obeyed to a fault, and worshipped. 

“What exactly are we looking for, Boss?” His right-hand man, Locke, asked as he flipped the pages of the ledger. 

Domenico Stone was standing close to the window, basking in the warm breeze of the summer. 

The dark shades on his eyes concealed the fact that those eyes were useless. He was blind; that was his only disadvantage in life. 

“Proof that Blaze is embezzling the L.A casino's funds.” Domenico replied with an edgy voice. His Italian accent gets thicker by the day. 

He was the only Italian amongst the Stone brothers. Half-Italian. But he loved leaning more into his Italian side than his American side. 

That was one of the reasons the Italian mafia was backing him up in his fight to become the official Don of the Stone Brotherhood since his Father died and the position was left vacant. 

He was the first son, but that didn't guarantee him the position. He needed to fight for it, just like everything else he's ever owned.

“What if he's not?” Locke asked. He was growing exhausted from ransacking the ledgers. “What if you're just being paranoid?”

“You're saying I'm suspicious of Blaze because I hate him and I need to ruin his chances of ever becoming Don?” Domenico spelled out Locke’s thoughts. 

Locke wouldn't dare openly admit it. But yeah, that was his thought. The rivalry between the two oldest Stone brothers was becoming legendary. And to God, he was on Domenico's side. He'd do anything for him. But he hated this delusion. 

Accusing Blaze of embezzlement was almost ridiculous. Blaze was a meticulous man. More than that, he was careful to a fault. He'd never do things that would give anyone an upper hand over him.

But somehow, Domenico was convinced that the proof was in these books. And Locke was having a hard time trying to convince him that Blaze knew better than leaving trails of his actions in a damn book. 

“I'm saying that we have a better chance of framing him for embezzlement than having actual proof of it. Your brother has never acted recklessly. We're not gonna find anything in these books.”

Domenico refused to reply anymore. It was growing into an argument and he wasn't one to argue. He was a laconic man.

“Keep looking.” Those were his final orders and an end to the conversation. 

He basked in the feeling of the wind on his face. It was healing the chaos in his head. Not having his sight left him to the mercy of a haunting darkness and a chaotic mind. 

Being born as a Stone wasn't all that bad. Until he lost his sight at 15. That incident changed his life forever. 

Whatever warmth he ever felt as a kid was gone, replaced by a corrosive bitterness, burning anger and an unquenchable hunger to wipe off his brothers.

It was one of them. It had to be. The thought that one of them had a hand in subjecting him to an eternal misery when all he'd ever done was love them made his heart burn so hard. 

He'd outrightly slash their throats but that would lead to an uproar in their world. At the end of the day, they were still Stones. 

So the only way to get rid of them was to find them guilty of something. And now he was onto Blaze and soon he'd find what he needed to get rid of him. 

Getting rid of Lars and Gabriel would be easy. Blaze was torn to his flesh. The damned bastard. 

“Gabriel brought the girl. Her Father was gone before he got there. So he had to take his daughter.” Locke informed him, still flipping through the pages. 

“I know. He called me.” Domenico replied, his firm hands wrapped around the head of his cane.

Catching debtors, taking girls hostage, and organizing auctions. It wasn't his cup of tea. He'd left those to Gabriel and Lars. He had more important things to do. 

“What are you gonna do with the girl? Sell her off or…”

“I don't know. I don't care.” Domenico shut down his attempt at a conversation. He wasn't one for long talks. He hated it. It was draining, distracting. 

He loved solitude, quietness. They helped him concentrate and read the room. Or sense the room. 

Half an hour later, Locke was exhausted. 

“Forgive me, boss but there's nothing here…” he went into an abrupt pause as his eyes caught something. 

“Found it?” Domenico asked. Losing his sight made him doubly sensitive. He could pick up anything, including the shift in breath, the slight stuttering, the hesitations. 

“It depends,” Locke said with slight giddiness. “If we were searching for a column where extra zeros were added to make the expenses believable then I guess we found it.” 

Domenico wasn't one to show excitement. But the devil in him was over the moon. Finally, something to pin Blaze down with. 

“There has to be another ledger. The one who holds the truth of what he did with these funds.”

“Sure. Wow. Can't believe you were right!” Locke was flabbergasted. 

“We need to find that ledger. Do it subtly. We can't let him suspect that we're onto him.”

“Of course, boss.” Locke nodded. His curious ass couldn't help it. So he asked. “What are you gonna do to Blaze when you find the proof?”

Domenico's jaw clenched. “Send him straight to hell.”

“You don't mean literally, right? Because that would arouse an intense war between us and his maternal Mafia family.”

Domenico knew that. How could he ever forget that Blaze's mother came from the Blair brotherhood, a family almost as influential as theirs?

It was the main reason Blaze was blatantly and aggressively clamoring for the Don position. As a second son, he had no rights. But as a man who came from wealth on both sides, he felt he had all the rights. 

Domenico would love to literally send him straight to hell. But he knew the chaos that would arouse. So no, he meant it metaphorically. 

“For now, I'll force him to give up his claims on the Don position. But someday, I'll have the pleasure of killing my arrogant brother…”