Sinners Anonymous (Sinners Anonymous, #1)

by Somme Sketcher

Beside me, he shifts. “Shame.” I turn. “What is?” “I was looking forward to listening to your call. I never could stand uncle Alberto.”

That fucking wedding dress. I wanted to tear it off her body and stuff it down Big Al’s throat until he choked on it. The sight of her in it feels like reason enough to start a war, but of course, that’d be petty.

The people inside it are family, and I’m about to sever the tie with the sharpest pair of scissors.

Welcome back Vicious Visconti with open arms. But it’s not going to be like that. Instead, they are about to find out how vicious I can really be.

A storm is stirring just over the threshold, a buzz of panicked activity. Amelia grabs my arm as she passes. “Have you seen Aurora? We’ve lost her!” Our eyes clash, and she immediately recoils at my expression.

Next to him, Tor feigns indifference, but the way his Adam’s apple bobs in his throat betrays him. Bastard. I want to put a fucking bullet in his head, but surprisingly, the rage I feel toward toward him dwindles quickly. On the drive over, I’d realized why he’d told Rory I’d skipped town. He didn’t want to choose between me and his father, and thought Rory would just go through with the wedding if she thought I wasn’t coming back, and everything would return to normal. But the fact he gave her his car and told me so as soon as I turned up at the house means he’d had a change of heart. I’m still going to kick his ass, but I’m not going to kill him.

Christ, I can’t believe Rory was planning on pushing him off the Devil’s Dip cliff this whole time, but I can’t say I can blame her.

“I fucking knew it,” he hisses. “I saw how you looked at her. You’re really going to start a family war over a piece of pussy, Angelo?”

“Gesù Cristo. You’re my nephew. More like a son. You’d never do something like this.” “Always the ones you least expect, isn’t it?”

“We can do this the easy way or the hard way. I’m taking over Devil’s Dip. The Devil’s Preserve is my territory, and Aurora is now my girl. Accept that, and I’ll allow you to keep running shit through my port, and I’ll walk out of here.”

I lazily turn to face my cousin, but while his gun is pointing at me, his gaze isn’t. He’s too busy glaring at Tor, who sits quietly in the shadows. “Are you not going to get out your fucking gun, too?”

But Dante isn’t buying it. Not after his father’s drunken outburst at last Friday night’s dinner. Fury and humiliation flicker behind the windows of his eyes as they dart between me and Alberto.

I whip out my gun and fire one shot. Shit, after all this time, my aim is still as sharp as a razor, because the bullet goes straight through Alberto’s temple. He doesn’t see it coming, and I remember my father didn’t either. I guess you never expect a bullet in your head from a family member.

Indifference flecks my voice, but inside, I feel alive. My nerve endings buzz with satisfaction, because shit, I’ve been itching to do that ever since I saw the bruise lining under Rory’s eye. Now, Tor leaps out of the armchair and draws his gun. “What the fuck, Angelo?” Dante stares at me for a beat too long, frozen in shock. And it’s in this exact moment that I know Alberto was right: this cunt will never make a good capo. I could have put a bullet in his head by now, too.

“Yeah, think so.”

“I’ll put a fucking bullet in your head, and then I’ll find that stupid whore and put one in hers, too!”