Bloody City: Temptations

Chapter Two

Arianna

My parents hadn't told us where we were going, or why. All of a sudden my sister and two brothers were told to make ourselves look good and put into cars with our drivers to go into Salvatorini territory. An agreement had been made years ago about the peace between the three Familias. There had been more historically but over time Salvatorini, Valentino, and Tommaso had gained the most prominence. Others existed within the jurisdiction of our three families, and it had led to a no occupation zone in the south central section of Italy where no one touched as a way to stop competition.

However Valentino and Salvatorini were neighbors divided by the Appennine Mountain Range which the Salvatorini Familia controlled and though it was agreed on, both Familias were cautious of one another because of that treaty and I had a fear that because of the death of Riccardo Salvatorini and the ascension of Alessio Salvatorini, my family would be at risk of the man who all feared. Even my parents wouldn't say much about him, as if they knew more about him and what he had done then they ever told any of us.

There were other Don's, and Bosses of the Familias twenty-one total across Italy, and about five times as many Underbosses. Alessio was different he was the Capo Dei Capi, the Godfather as media would call him but here in the circle of the Mafia Familias he wasn't to be questioned, and no one had reason to. He had been a fair Capo to all of us. But the borders were unclear. My parents had unified the Tommaso and Valentino Familias. Salvatorini had remained separate as Alessio had expanded his reign over almost all of Western Europe, along with purging them of anyone who would resist him, would speak against him.

No one lived if they crossed him and everyone knew that, every person who hadn't swore loyalty to Alessio lived in respectful terror of the man. Which was also why I had been so surprised when my parents had approved the lack of security on our trip to the Salvatorini Don's home.

Arlo had been my bodyguard and driver since just after my eleventh birthday, a safety precaution from an incident that I'd chosen to try to forget. There were also the Mafioso rules, I was barely two years past being of age and though tradition dictated that all women were to be married before their twenty-fifth birthday and though I could tell my family had been more lenient regarding that tradition they wouldn't let it go. I was the eldest daughter after all and that would mean my parents would try to find the most powerful man they could pair me with which was why I was worried about this meeting between Alessio and my parents.

Could this be about more then just peace?

It wouldn't be the first time that marriage had been used to create peace among the families.

As a way to distract myself I looked out the back window of the BMW to the dense pine and fur tree forests and that covered the northern regions in Italy for as far as one could look. There were crystalline lakes, and the beautiful cities that I'd never gotten used to even if I had lived here my whole life.

I could see the thick charcoal cloud bank hovering ominously over the mountains to the north, and I hoped that it wasn't a thunderstorm.

I was terrified of thunderstorms. A childhood memory of being kidnapped to try and leverage my family. It had been one of the few times all of the families had joined together to honour the treaty to protect one another even if our relationships were always on the edge of a knife blade.

Hours later our short convoy of vehicles had entered Salvatorini Territory and my gorgeous butterscotch brown haired sister Gabriella tapped me on my shoulder to gain my attention before she pointed to the city to our left. She was a year and a half younger then me and it shone clear on the nineteen year old's face that she found the mountains of Liguria as stunning as I did. The colourful villas, and quaint riviera towns stood out to me and I was waiting for the eventual turn into one of them though I hadn't expected us to leave the largest city in Liguria along the coast, and enter the countryside, leaving the main city of Alessio's reign over the country. There were dozens of mansions and homes until I spotted a building in the distance standing regally in the hills compared to all other homes, and I wouldn't have been surprised if it belonged to nobility.