Mafia's Arranged Princess Bride Book1 King of New York

Chapter 61

Nico

We stare at each other for what seems an eternity. His eyes are blazing, the anger showing all over his face as his face goes red. Dario clenches his fists by his side. "So, help me God I want to smash your face in right now, Nico. I am your fucking brother. What the fuck do you take me for?"

I am raging internally too; everything is coming to a head. I need to know who is behind the shooting, I want to protect my family and now I have no idea if I can even trust my own flesh and blood. "You are jealous of me, Dario that's why and we already know you had something to do with the three million leaving my casino. What do you have to say about that?"

I take a seat at the table in the room, not daring myself to stand. My own legs feel weak at the mere thought of Dario having stolen from me, from us our own family. The money isn't just for me, it feeds our family, it reinvests. The casino is clean money.

"Okay, I hold my hands up to that. I had debts," he lowers his head and bites his lower lip. Something he usually does when he is scorned and caught out. It's a trait from his childhood. "I needed to pay them back, otherwise they were going to do bad things to me." He shrugs his shoulders.

"And you didn't think you could talk to me? We could have done something about it. They are fucking scumbags, Dario. Why you even got caught up with them is beyond me."

"I'm a fucking addict, what do you want me to say?" he yells at me, spit leaving his mouth. "Give me the drugs, I need them."

"No, you don't and stop behaving like a brat. You are better and stronger than this, Dario. They are out of your system it's in your head. You need help but you keep rejecting it, you won't speak to any of the people we have brought in to help you."

"Maybe I don't want to get better, maybe I want to end it."

That hits me like a punch to the stomach, my guts churn. My own brother speaking like this. "You have a lot to live for Dario. You will get clean and sober; you will be part of this business like I always intended. We will sort out the money, I have ways to get it back. They won't get away with it. Every single last fucking one of them will be handled."

He looks at me, his eyes red on the verge of tears, I can see them welling up in his eyes. "Did you organize a shooting, Dario to have me put down or worse still Lucky?"

He shakes his head and falls to his knees sobbing. "No, I didn't do that, I'd never kill you, Nico. I'm jealous, I'm hurt, I wanted to be the leader of the family. Father let everyone down when he chose you."

"Why? Do you want the responsibility of being head of a mafia family, come on, Dario. It's a fucking ball ache. There are days I wish I'd been born into a normal family with a father who was a boring accountant and a mother who worked in a hospital or library. Constantly watching my back, ensuring our family is safe is not all it's cracked out to be."

Dario clutches his stomach. "I can't do this, Nico. I can't do it anymore." He is openly crying; it breaks my heart to see him like this.

I get up and go over to my kid brother and crouch down to be at his height so I can wrap my arms around him, he lays his head on my shoulder and hugs me back as if his life depends on it. It does.

"I've got you, Dario. I've always got you, but you need to take the help we are offering you. Have the counselling sessions, you don't have to leave the house, for now we are safe here." I lie because I have no true idea if we are safe or not. Especially with Yelena being amongst us now, who knows what team she has and resources available. She could be anywhere and using any number of highly trained people to carry out her mission.