Antonio swallows hard before glancing back at Levi. “Come on, man. It’s ancient history.”
“Ancient history?” Levi laughs. “Ancient history for who? For you? Maybe, but for us, it’s as fresh as though it happened yesterday. You’re here living in Roman’s home, sleeping in his bed, eating his food, while we are locked up like prisoners, and that weight is on your shoulders.”
“No,” Antonio breathes. “That was your father’s decision. If you need someone to blame, take it out on him.”
“We trusted you, Toni,” Levi says, his tone lethal and chilling. “We grew up as brothers. We would have given you everything if only you’d kept your mouth shut, but you couldn’t. You wanted it all to yourself. You wanted the keys to the kingdom, but they weren’t yours to take.”
My brows furrow, barely following along with the story. “What happened?”
Roman grins and walks toward his cousin, stepping behind him and making the guy freeze as his head does that weird tilting thing that tells me he’s slipping into his serial killer alter-ego. “Antonio here was like a brother to us,” he explains, glancing up at me with those manic eyes, making sure I’m hanging on his every word. “As Levi said, we grew up together, trained together, learned to survive together, but there was something different about him. Wasn’t there, Toni?” he questions, stabbing his gun hard into his back, making Antonio flinch as his life flashes before his eyes. “Toni was greedy. He wanted to rule the kingdom just like we did, and for a while, we loved that about him. He could have ruled by our sides, and we would have been unstoppable.”
“Please, Roman,” Antonio stutters, his eyes flashing back to Levi, pleading for all he’s worth. “I can make it right. I swear, I’ll get you out of there. You’ll be free men.”
Roman laughs and turns his attention back to me, his eyes darker than I’ve ever seen them. “Ten years ago, we set out to overthrow our fathers. I was barely nineteen, but I saw something in my brothers nobody else saw. We would have thrived with the world at our feet. We were going to take it all, but that wasn’t enough for Toni. He realized, just like the rest of us, that if we were out of the picture, he would have eventually inherited it all. So he put a target on our backs. He went to our father, only left himself out of it, and here we are, ten years later, locked up as our father’s toy soldiers.”
Tears sting my eyes as I look back at Roman and I find myself moving closer to Levi. Despite my feelings for them right now, it’s impossible not to see how Antonio’s betrayal tore them to pieces, and fuck, I might be losing myself here, but I want them to get what they’re owed. I want them to rule the DeAngelis family. I want them to thrive and overthrow their father, and damn it, I want them to make Antonio suffer. If it weren’t for him, their father would never have locked them up. Roman would be Giovanni’s second in command and living in this beautiful home he built while Marcus and Levi stood proud, free in the world living the life they’ve always dreamed for themselves.
Antonio robbed them blind, and for that, I’m going to enjoy watching him suffer.
Raising my chin, I walk toward Antonio and stand before him, not missing the way Roman holds onto him just a little bit tighter, making sure he doesn’t try anything. “Look at you,” I mutter, my gaze shifting up and down his body in disgust. His lack of muscle, poorly defined cheekbones, and the eyes that are so similar to the ones I know, only so much duller. Honestly, I’ve never been so disappointed. “You’re pathetic. You’re like a copy and paste version of your cousins, only something went wrong.”
Levi chuckles behind me and I take that as my cue to continue. “I don’t know you, nor do I want to, because from what I just heard, you’re nothing but a spineless, backstabbing piece of shit who doesn’t deserve to rule over a fucking sandwich let alone a goddamn kingdom. But who are you kidding? You don’t have what it takes. Sure, you might have had the drive to get you there, but what would you have done once you reached the top? You would have been overthrown in seconds.”
I laugh to myself, grinning up at the loser, seeing perfectly how his reign would have played out, especially with men like Roman, Marcus, and Levi to watch out for. “Do you really think someone who shit his pants at the first sign of a break-in has what it takes to remain in power when there are men like Roman, Marcus, and Levi gunning for your position? Your throat would have been slit in mere seconds, but you don’t need to worry about that now. Roman is going to kill you tonight, and fuck, you better not spill a drop of blood on his expensive floors.”