MATTEO
The basement didn't smell like damp concrete anymore; it smelled like a slaughterhouse.
Iron and bile clogged my throat the second I stepped off the stairs. My eyes went wide, scanning the carnage…bodies sprawled in unnatural positions, the floor slick with a dark, reflective pool of wasted information. My lashes fluttered as I tried to process the sheer scale of the stupidity. Then I looked up, and there they were: my brothers, looking like caught dogs.
"What?" I hissed, my voice cracking the heavy silence. "What the fuck happened here?"
I roared the question, the sound echoing off the blood-stained walls. Suddenly, the youngest, the most pathetic of the lot…Luca…stumbled out of the side room. He was drenched. His expensive shirt was ruined, clinging to his skin with the drying blood of the men I needed alive.
"Brother," he stammered, his feet rooting to the spot.
I looked at Alessandro and Marco. They wouldn't meet my gaze. The guards stood like statues, terrified that even breathing too loud would get them executed.
"Is no one going to fucking tell me why the men I left in your care are lying dead on the floor?" I shouted, my blood turning into liquid fire. My vision was tunneling, turning red at the edges.
Marco flicked a glance toward Luca. Slowly, I turned my head toward the boy. He ducked his chin, trembling.
"What the fuck are you doing here, Luca?" I asked, my voice dropping to a dangerous, vibrating whisper.
"I... I just wanted to..."
"Is this your work?" I pointed at the corpses, my finger shaking with the urge to wrap itself around a trigger. He looked at the bodies and looked away, guilt radiating off him in waves.
I turned my fury toward Alessandro. "Well?"
"We were just as surprised as you," Alessandro said, his tone defensive. "Me and Marco stepped out for a minute. When we came back, it was over. Apparently," he gestured dismissively toward the boy, "Luca killed them all."
The world seemed to stop. I squeezed my fist so hard my knuckles popped, my jaw tight enough to shatter teeth.
"The guards couldn't do anything," Marco added, his voice tight. "He's a Ricci. They don't have the right to put hands on him. Besides... he came in high as fuck."
I let out a jagged, hysterical chuckle, rubbing my brow as I stared at the ruin of my investigation. "I left them in your care. One simple job. One! And I come back to find them slaughtered like livestock." I rubbed my forehead, the urge to find a gun and blast my own brains out just to escape this family of idiots becoming a genuine temptation. "You left them unsupervised."
"Where were you?" Alessandro snapped, finally finding his ego. "Always trying to upstage us, but you expect us to play nanny while you're off doing god-knows-what? We get busy too, Matteo."
"What exactly do you do, brother?" I stepped into his space, my eyes bloodshot and wild. "I am the one doing every ounce of the fucking work in this family! I bleed so you can drink, I kill so you can sleep, and all you have to do is exist and enjoy the spoils! Don't I deserve a single hour of rest without you burning the world down?"
"No one told you to be the martyr," Alessandro sneered. "You do it all to get special points from Father. You want to be his golden boy."
"Special points?" I screamed, the sound tearing from my lungs. "You think I give a fuck about his approval? I don't! I don't give a fuck about Father, I don't give a fuck about Mama, and I sure as hell don't want to be the 'special child'! This isn't about points, you fucking morons—this is about survival! I carry this family on my back because if I don't, we all end up in a ditch! I am losing my mind trying to keep us afloat while you three play house in a goddamn war zone!"
I realized I was yelling at the wrong person. I pivoted, lunging toward Luca. He stumbled back, nearly tripping over a dead arm.
"What the fuck are you doing here?!" I roared in his face.
"She said I was worthless!" he blurted out. I froze.
"What?"
"She said you guys are out here doing all the work... that I'm only partying and fucking girls, doing drugs. She asked me if that didn't make me worthless."
"She?" I asked, my heart skipping a beat.
"What 'she'?" Marco asked from behind.
Luca swallowed hard, his eyes glassy. "Seris," he whispered. My brows furrowed. Seris. "I just wanted to help, Matteo. I didn't know we needed them alive. I was high, and I saw them strapped to the chairs, and I just... I shot them. All of them. I wanted to feel useful. I wanted to be like you guys. I wanted to be something..."
"So you decided to have a fucking awakening today, of all days?" I spat.
"It's not like that, brother, I…"
"You know," I interrupted, my voice cold as the grave, "I'll never get along with that bitch, but at least we agree on one thing. You are fucking worthless."
I saw his eyes flutter as the words hit him like a physical blow, his spirit shattering right there in the blood.
"By the time I get back, I want the three of you out of here," I commanded, turning my back on them.
"But we can help…" Marco started.
"I don't need your fucking help!" I screamed over my shoulder, my vision blurred with rage. "I never did, and I never will! Get out of my sight!"
I stormed out, the stench of blood and failure clinging to my skin like a shroud.