Alessio
Screams broke the cool damp air of the concrete walls of one of many storehouses and buildings I used. The dimly lit hallways were purpose built to be cold unlike the extravagant villa I lived in. My footsteps echoed as a sign of my brutality. I was twenty- eight and the youngest Don this family had ever had.
At six I had killed a man using my bare hands, at eleven I'd learned how to shoot a gun using just hearing, at fifteen I was a well respected Made Man and had a death count of fifty.
I'd lost count of how many I had killed now.
I was a Capo at seventeen, and Underboss at eighteen. My brutal present on my twenty-first was my father gunned down outside his favourite spaghetti shop. I was Don and Head of the Family and in that time since the Salvatorini Familia had expanded from Liguria to span across almost all of Italy's West Coast and up from the center of the Appennines and through Switzerland to the North Sea and through most of France, and the riviera region of Italy to Seville and down to the Mediterranean, along with all Spanish and Italian islands back to Sicily and around the Adriatic Sea to Greece. I was Capo Dei Capi; the Godfather, over most of Italy, and the western swathes of Europe.
There wasn't a place in my part of the continent where my word wasn't law, where the Familia's wouldn't easily lay heel to my actions. I had built my reputation over time, I had done the dirty grunt work of being a Made Man but not a Capo, the fact that I had outfits working for me while my father was Don told the enemies of the family that the Salvatorini family wasn't to be bothered by anyone.
Behind the scenes though my family was a fucking primal gladiator pit of power plays and back stabbings. That was how my father had become Boss of the Family at just twenty five, I was his first son out of four, and the first born of six. That had meant me and my brothers were constantly expected to compete with one another but none of us did we knew our places. I was first born and the heir to the seat as Don. It hadn't always been so clear though, and I could still remember the beatings trying to make me and my brothers strong.
The breaking point of our youths was when our father, Riccardo Salvatorini had struck Amara the older of the Salvatorini daughters. Matteo, Luca, Antonio, and I all had resented him with every cell of our prepubescent bodies until he had been unfortunately murdered. I had never confirmed the rumours about our father being found with five bullet holes in his body, one for every place he had struck our sister. I could still picture the blood pooling out of his body as I stood over him the scarlet liquid oozing from his body surrounding the polished black Louboutin oxfords I'd been wearing. I'd never said a word about it, but I had used it to purge the former ranks of my fathers court, hundreds had died as a result maybe a thousand people. But that was the way it was in this family, we swore on blood, our honour was dictated by it. My siblings and I had our own pact with each other something that was tattooed onto us, for me it was on my back. Sanguis Vinctus Donec Mors: Blood Bound Till Death.
My mother didn't know of course that I had been the one to shoot him, to take his cruel life away from him to prove that he was not invincible or untouchable, his own bodyguards had sworn their oath to the family not to him, and once I had provided valuable proof that he was a threat to what the Salvatorini Familia could achieve they had backed my decision.
It had taken me years to rid Italy of his influence but it had been done and now I strode through the hallways of what we called the Crimson Hall where almost all of our traitors or those deemed dishonorable to the family went. This specific occasions offense was pursuing a woman who wasn't of age, or even sworn to be his wife. Something that was often discussed month in advance at the minimum so that the two could be acquainted but their were exceptions.
None the less pedophilia wasn't something I supported. I had my boundaries and this was one of them. Even if I had killed tens of thousands.
Getting to the end of the hall the two burly men dressed in black pants and tucked in white shirts that hugged their well built frames moved to the side with one of them opening the steel door where the offender Romeo Vincenzo sat bagged and tied to a stripped chair one of my favourite ways to make someone give answers was to put them in this chair which forced them to press their backs against bars bruising their spines. My brother Matteo stood in the room his jacket hung on a nearby bar that had been fastened to the wall his white sleeves rolled up to his elbow while a table sat against the backwall behind Romeo with knives, leather straps with short spikes and other suck items that were used for torture. My brothers face was splattered with blood droplets along with his pressed and pristine shirt that now was wrinkled, his steely grey eyes flicked to me as I entered the room and he pulled off the leather gloves he wore tossing them across the dark concrete room onto the table where the only light source from a light above Romeos head gave a mostly clear picture of the room despite where shadows were cast.
Running a hand through his dark messy hair my brother looked over at me as he let out a frustrated sigh and smoothed out his stubbled face except for the longer portion above his lip which he kept in a sleek moustache that went well with his sharp angular features, something we both shared though I kept my face with a manicured stubble that I had often been told made me seem more angry when paired with my stoic expression, though god only knew what I'd done when my mask slipped and I became the monster that I was, the one that had given me my many nicknames.
"Has the bastard spoken yet?" I ask looking to my brother and Consigliere while I too removed my black satin jacket and hung it far enough away where blood splatter wouldn't stain it.
"Not a fucking word, the girl is still terrified, the Fianntino Family will want reparations for this. Not even my fun time with him had given anything," Matteo says as I roll up my sleeves without saying a word and walking over to Romeo before pulling off the rice bag that had been used to obscure his vision of the room.
"They can have his head once I'm done with him. I'd love to plainly put a fucking bullet through this pricks head but that can come once I get my answers," I say staring at Romeo who glared up at me.
He was either brave or a fool for giving me that look.
"Romeo do you know who I am?" I say my voice magmatic and deep as I stared back at this disgusting human being.
"Everyone does, you're fucking Azrael Salvatorini," Romeo says and I snort in feigned humour. Azrael, the Angel of Death the name I had been known for most of my life.
"Good, then you know you're leaving this room missing your fucking head," I mutter seething at the man in front of me.
"If you're going to kill me do it, get it over with!" he states his voice sounding angry but I could see it in his eyes, he was afraid, like a trapped predator.
"Not before I break every miserable bone in your pathetic body," I growl and his face flashed in horror.
Good.
Crossing the room I picked up a small hammer and a punch before slowly walking over to him and kneeling. I then pulled my knife and cut open his trousers from the knee down, and placed the punch directly where the ligaments connected his petulla to his femur and tibia.
"What was the name of the girl you assaulted?" I ask intending to get a full confession from him, and whether that had to come from the prick screaming in agony or not I didn't really care but I was going to enjoy making him feel an inkling of the pain that the girl's family must feel.
"Julia Fianntino," he rasps his eyes like a deer in headlights.
"And how old was she?" I ask moving my hand down to the bottom of the hammer so that regardless of if I hit the punch or not when I swung he'd feel the pain immediately.
"Old enough," Romeo says and Matteo scoffs at the same time I felt anger flush through me when I swung the hammer causing the punch to dig at least half an inch past his skin allowing blood to pour down his shin all while he screamed in pain.
"Try again," I demanded my voice lowering an octave.
"Sixteen," he groaned as tears ran down his face.
"Matteo punch him please, preferably break his nose," I request and my brother smirked before doing just that. The blood that followed the snapping sound that would have made most queasy splattered across the floor with some of it landing on my hands.
"Fucking sixteen years old, and you're ten years her senior. You sick motherfucker, what made you think it was alright to touch a teenage girl?" I could hear my voice getting more and more angry as I imagined what I'd do if someone had ever touched either of my sisters in the way that Romeo had touched the Fianntino's daughter. I'd have chopped off the offending hand digit by digit along with cut off the fuckers dick with a hydrogen peroxide dipped filet knife so it fucking stung before likely beating him to death. However Pietro Fianntino wanted us to deal with this in a civil manner which was also likely why Matteo had been asked to do it because he would prolong every word and Romeo would likely not be dead. If I did it, the result was always more bloody and broken bones were always involved.
"She was hot," Romeo replied with a twisted smirk, like the bastard didn't regret it. My hand twitched and before I'd really considered anything deeper then those three words for an irrational response I slammed the hammer down on the back of his hand likely shattering a few of the thirty two bones in his left hand.
"There's enough of a confession," I mutter taking my knife and cutting three small lines along Romeo's Achilles tendon which I watched snap under strain which made Romeo begin sobbing from the pain.
"Dispose of him," I say and my brother pulls out his handgun to put three bullets in Romeo's chest. Traditionally each lung and the liver so he bled to death, and drowned in it at the same time. Pietro wanted his head too but I'd promised the man that he could remove his head himself if he wished to touch the man who had damaged his daughters purity.
Crossing the room as Romeo's screams were silenced I grabbed one of the wash cloths and began washing off the blood on my hands and face all while Romeo's own blood ran along the floor and into a drain beneath the chair.
"What now?" Matteo asks as I move over for him to do the same as what I was doing.
"Now his body can be put in a rug and taken to Fianntino, as proof that he's dead and Pietro can decide what to do with the corpse. I just don't want it in this building, and get the clean up crew in here I don't want the smell of iron sticking to the walls," I respond wiping the blood splatter from my face.
"I'll contact Giovanni about it," Matteo says and I nodded.
It was at that moment that a knock sounded from the door and just as quickly as the door opened Matteo and I had our guns in our hands. A tick we both learned after living under our father's roof for so long.
The door then opened and one of our Capo's who managed security for us stepped into the room.
"Don Salvatorini, Consigliere. The Boss of the Valentino family wants to meet with you Don," he informs me.
"Lino you don't have to use titles, also get the car ready I'll meet with him at the villa, he can come to me for what he wishes to speak to me about," I say.
"Maybe it's about how much he wants to suckle up to you," Matteo teases with his signature smirk. He had always had the more teasing and joking humour between us, which made me wonder some days how we worked so well together as brothers but I suppose at the end of the day it was that family bound us and we had always had one another's backs.
"Fuck off Matteo," I mutter before grabbing my jacket and leaving the room through the halls of the basement back up towards the rest of the house which was in the center of Genoa, that I held control over, rather far from where my own home just outside of Varazze. The whole family had originally been apart of the Sicilian Familia's, and the Familia in control over Liguria, but over time my ambition had allowed the vast expansion of my territory. Though none of us had really left the original capital of our family's power except for Antonio, and both of our sisters.
Walking out of the small building I was met by blue sky and the sound of birds squawking above Matteo and I paired with the noise of distant car horns, and lapping waves on the rocks, before my eyes settled to where my Mercedes S-class sat against the curb along side Matteo's Huracan. The Familia was supposed to be subtle about what we drove but our family had been here for so long and had connections to so many legal things that all of our illegal income didn't even get questioned. It also probably helped that the police were also in our pockets and we ran almost every service in our territories.
Rounding the car one of my bodyguards opened the back door and I slid into the seat before he walked over to Matteo's car whilst Lino got into the driver seat of the car.
"Back to the villa, we can find out what Lorenzo Valentino wants from me," I mutter as the car moved away from the curb followed by my brother as we returned to the villa.
I'm going to leave this here because I already have two books that need to be finished so I will be planning the rest of the chapters for them so I can get to this series which it will be a series. A few of you have reached out about a Mafia book so I'm writing you all a series. I've also always had an interest in trying it so here we all go. Comment, vote, and share. Anyways
Peace✌