Angelo's
POV
Lorenzo paced near the bookshelves, his hands
behind his back. "You're really going to go through with it?" he asked for the
umpteenth time that day, a look of worry on his face. Lorenzo was my childhood
best friend and the closest thing to a brother that I had. His father and my
father had been best friends since childhood. Their relationship had birthed
ours. He always was the voice of reason, always worried about me, and today was
no exception.
I didn't answer right away. I stared at the
parchment paper in front of me, the yellowy page and the pretty penmanship. All
that was needed was my fingerprint on the paper, and it would be sealed.
He stopped pacing. "I mean, all of this is so
surreal. Everything is happening so fast. If I had asked you a few weeks ago
what you wanted to do with your life, I'd bet you wouldn't have chosen this
path. You had plans…"
"Oh, stop spiraling, Lorenzo," Nico chided
him. He was sitting on one of the shelves, chugging down a glass of whiskey. He
was a lot different from Lorenzo. For one, while Lorenzo was smartly dressed in
a suit without a hair out of place, Nico had bright blonde hair that was
slightly overgrown. He had on a white tank top and was sitting on my
state-of-the-art bookshelf instead of the empty chairs like a normal person. He
jumped to his feet and tossed a coin in the air. "What do you want him to tell
the old man? Oh, I'm so sorry, I can't take you up on your offer, I want to
stay a prince?"
Lorenzo rolled his eyes. "Oh, stay out of it,
Nico. You wouldn't understand…"
"What's there not to understand? Let me guess,
Lorenzo, this is one of those times where you know better because you've known
Angelo since he was three?"
There was always this rivalry between them. It
was l amusing to watch them bicker, but today was not one of those days. Today
I was in a dilemma myself.
"He was studying to be a doctor, Nico,"
Lorenzo replied sharply. "Only a couple of weeks ago you were teasing him about
it. Now he's going to be Don. Do you even realize what that means?"
Nico belched aloud. "Now he's going to have to
pick his underboss between the both of us?" he asked with a smirk.
I let out a big exhale. My grip on the paper
tightened.
Lorenzo sighed and shook his head.
"Although, I must add, with how you're acting
right now, you're not going to be that much of a competition." Nico continued.
"You don't get it, do you?" Lorenzo asked.
"I do get it. I get that you're a pussy, and
you want Angelo to chicken out of his birthright…"
"A birthright he didn't want to be a part of
only weeks a—"
"Only weeks ago, Dante was alive!" I yelled.
They turned to look at me.
My grip on the glass had tightened. My other
hand held on tightly to the edge of the paper, crumpling it. "Weeks ago, Dante
was well and alive, and so was my father. I could afford to be a doctor, a
fucking dancer at the club, anything else, because my father had an heir…" My
voice cracked.
"Angelo…" Lorenzo began, but I cut him off.
"What happened to Dante was sudden. It was
cruel. It took a toll on my father. It left us vulnerable. All the other
families of Sicily are watching—heck, every single dickhead and their gang
think they can make a pass for our family. The Armani family needs a
representative, so to hell with my dreams and my goals. None of that matters
now. Only the family," I looked between the both of them, "our family…"
Lorenzo and Nico exchanged glances.
"Are you scared?" Lorenzo asked. Eager brown
eyes bored into mine.
No. I could have said so. After all, I had
shown remarkable strength in the last week. I had lost my only brother. My
father's turned ill. I got handed the paper to become Don. I killed a man and I
kidnapped a girl. I had done all of this without batting an eyelid.
"Yes," I said and looked him dead in the eye.
"Good," he responded, his shoulders relaxing
just a little bit. "I'd be worried if you weren't."
"So it's a done deal then?" Nico asked.
I looked at the paper again. "Yes. Yes, it
is." I picked up a dagger without a second thought, cut my thumb slightly, and
stamped my blood print on the paper. "It is done."
"Don Angelo Armani," Nico declared with a big
grin on his face. "It has a nice ring to it, wouldn't you agree?" He tossed the
coin to me.
I caught it without looking. "Yes…"
"We should toast to that," Nico grabbed the
bottle of whiskey.
Lorenzo looked between the both of us. "So,
have you decided what you're going to do with the girl?"
Nico rolled his eyes. "Always the party
pooper, Lorenzo."
"I'm sorry to shit on your parade, Nico. I
like to focus on the serious things, you know? Of course you don't."
Nico clicked his tongue. "If you ask me, she
should have been dead by now."
Their eyes were fixated on me again. I had
taken one problem out of the way, but there was another one. A bigger one, if I
was being honest. I had sworn I was going to make her life miserable and give
her a fate worse than death.
"What are you going to do with her?" Lorenzo
pressed. He seemed worried about her more than usual.
"I don't know," I answered truthfully. Maybe
today was the day of truth, because I was on a roll.
"So why did you spare her life?" Nico asked.
"I don't know," I lied. Okay, maybe today
wasn't the day of truth after all. I know why I saved her. It was simple. I
didn't want her dead.
Lorenzo straightened up. "I think you should
have let her go."
"Oh my God, this is why you can't be
underboss. How do you think it looks on Angelo, who is now Don, by the way, to
let the girl who killed his brother go?"
"She didn't kill—"
"Same thing," Nico cut in.
"Well, he doesn't know what to do with her
right now. She's lost her father. I think it would be better to let her go…"
Nico walked up to him. "Nice one, genius. We
are just going to send the girl on her merry way after we killed her father and
showed her where we live. Isn't that so fucking smart?"
"Okay, enough, you two. I need ideas," I
interrupted their bickering. If I didn't, they would be at it non-stop. "I
can't let her go."
Lorenzo met my gaze. My words had come off
stronger than I intended.
Nico's lip curled into a small smirk. "I may
have a few ideas."