Secret Crown

II. Two

Adrián

"Hey Adrián, we found them hiding out in an old factory on the South Side, just like he said," my brother Leo said as he walked up behind me. "Busy day?" He asked while looking down at our current captive. "Not too busy," I said, grinning down at our prisoner, Mauricio Romano, who took less than a day to flip on his people. Mauricio was a capo and direct blood relative to Luca Romano, the leader of the Romanos, who up until now had never dared set foot in our territory here in Chicago. The Romano family was part of the Italian mob that ran parts of New York until we stepped in and took over most of it. They weren't meant to rule New York; even before we took over, they were ants compared to our presence in that city, with only a measly 10% of it now that the Lombardi's had slowly been taking over their original 20%. Care to tell me what your boss is doing in Chicago, selling stolen cars and fentanyl? I asked Mauricio as I placed my knife right over his jugular, "In our territory."

"We don't want any problems with you all! We just want a piece of the city", he seethed. The word on the block is that you, the Serafin, and the Clarkes are all bound by blood, but what about us Italians?"

"The Lombardi have been here for many generations; do you think they'd give up their empire to make way for you?" I responded. Mauricio clearly didn't give a shit and was acting brazen with his words. He wouldn't be walking out of here alive, and he knew it.

"No, but with your help, you can help Luca." Mauricio seethed through his teeth as I pressed the blade in deeper, causing blood to seep out. "Luca is offering you an olive branch, Adrián. Take it before he comes after you and your family. Especially that sister of yours with the kids. Or how about that golden star athlete, Angel?"The laugh that followed his statement was knocked right out of him as I removed the knife from his throat and stabbed it right into his chest. Mauricio's brown eyes widened as he twisted and writhed in his chair from the pain. He began taking deep, shallow breaths as the knife was punctured into his left lung. He continued his little speech: "She'd make an easy target walking around with two kids and being heavily pregnant; she wouldn't be able to defend herself and those brats if we were to ambush her. What about Star Boy? He's far away from Daddy's protection. Luca wouldn't hurt them now, but he wouldn't mind their heads on a platter if you didn't comply."He sneered. My eyes widened as rage coursed through my body. He was talking about my sister, Natalia, and our youngest brother, Angel. Natalia was married to Callum Clarke, leader of the Irish Mafia; his threat might as well be considered an empty promise, but his being here, prepared to die, meant the Romanos must have something up their dirty, rotten sleeves.

Leo rose from his chair with his fists clenched tight and his dark black eyes focused on Mauricio. His dark hair fell to one side, covering his eye. "What the fuck did you just say, you son of a bitch? You dare threaten our family?" He stood over Mauricio, pulling out a switch blade of his own, and stabbed it right into Mauricio's thigh, the light blue denim soaking through in crimson red. "No one threatens us and gets away with it."I twisted the blade Leo stuck into his thigh, making Mauricio scream in pain. "We don't owe you rats anything. You've come into our territory uninvited. We don't break bread with lowlifes like you. I'll make sure to end you, Romanos." I glared at Mauricio. "Then we will take whatever breadcrumbs you call an empire and disperse them to our enemies, Mauricio. That's how insignificant you or anyone else below us really is."

Mauricio laughed, saying, "You can try, but you won't succeed, Adrián. The Romanos are here to stay." I didn't even pay attention to him anymore; we had gathered what we could from him and had no use for him. I pulled my gun out of my underarm holster and put it on his forehead. He stopped laughing all of a sudden, and a look of fear crossed his face. "Wait, wait!" He pleaded. I didn't give a fuck, though. There's no room for mercy. Quickly pulling the trigger back, the barrel released the bullet that shot through the center of his forehead between his eyes, causing his head to tilt back and his tanned body to go limp as blood dripped out of the exit wound from behind his head. The hole where the bullet had entered released a small, faint cloud of smoke as the air filled with the scent of pennies mixed with gun powder. "Tell one of the guys to toss the body on the south side where the Romanos are trying to set up. Stick a rat in his mouth and torch all the supply warehouses we discovered thanks to this fucker."

"Alright, but Adrián, we should probably go see Nat and Callum, and Mamá and papá (mom and dad) need to know about Angel.", Leo paused worriedly. "Nat is in no state to fight if she gets caught alone or worse with the kids, and Angel will be too far away."

"I know," I sighed, "I'll go talk to them after this. Follow up with Ian on the West Coast Beach project. Fernando wants an update on expenses."

"You got it," Leo said, pulling his switchblade out of Mauricio's corpse. He wiped off the blood on the corpse's red flannel shirt, the blood blending in with it, and stuck the blade back in his pocket. "Try not to piss Nat off, bro; she's been sensitive lately," he laughed. "Yeah, yeah." I chuckled, knowing our one and only sister wasn't going to take this well. "I'm going to be staying at my place tonight; I'll go get cleaned up before visiting Nat."

"Alright, I'll report to papá about all this." Leo walked towards the exit that led out of the interrogation room and paused. "Is it me, or do you think this was a bit too easy?"

"It was..." I sighed, "they're probably using it as a distraction for something else."

"Like what, though? Leo asks.

"Like a new, bigger player, they've got backing them up. Or a direct attack. In the meantime, step up security and let the Twins and Lombardi know."

"You got it," Leo smiled. Dominik and Tymon were our cousins who led the Polish. The twins, as we called them for short, had been flying back and forth recently between Chicago and Russia in search of their sister Nora. They still weren't too happy after Dmitry Novikov stole her away and hid her somewhere in Russia. Who would have thought two sworn enemies would run off together? My cousin left the safety of her family to move to a foreign land, but then again, my family and my brother-in-law were rivals too, forged by an arranged marriage that wasn't supposed to last but ended up lasting and giving our family a niece and a nephew, with another one on the way. As Leo opened the door, in walked two soldiers with a body bag. "We'll take it from here, boss," they said as they began untying the body from the metal chair. The body slumped out of the chair onto the floor with a heavy thump, where the men proceeded to roll it into the body bag. "Execute the plan as directed," I ordered before walking out, "and clean this mess up." Bodies were already falling like flies, and soon more would fall, and I had to make sure that it would be us Leons on top.

It's my job as the one in charge of my family's future, and I'd protect it and make sure of its survival by any means necessary.