The Cardinal (The Holy Trinity Duet #2) - M.E. Clayton Page 0,2

The Church. She was the one person who connected all three men together and any one of them would obliterate the world for her. Francesca Fiore was as powerful as they came.

Even with Ciro and Luca being married and their wives being just as powerful as their husbands, Frankie was something else entirely and we all knew it.

Ciro’s wife, Robbie, was a sweet thing and she reminded me a lot of Leo. Robbie was in charge of our legitimate properties and she only got her hands dirty if she had to.

Leo’s wife, Sienna, was a nurse and the plan was to keep her out of the family business as much as possible. She wanted to continue to be a nurse, but Leo was working on changing her mind. It wouldn’t do to have a Benetti wife just running around like she was normal people because she wasn’t. Not anymore.

Luca’s wife, Remy, was a bit tougher, though she’d been just a regular girl, living a regular life, before Luca had gotten a hold of her. Now she worked with me in security for the family, but she did a lot of work with kids. She’d been a social worker before she had become the wife of the deadliest Mob Boss in the state.

Frankie handled a lot of the personal and legitimate finances for the guys, but really, she was involved with a lot of everything. Growing up with Phoenix, Ciro, and Luca, she’d been raised for this kind of life and the girl didn’t scare easily. One thing I was certain of; if anything ever happened to Phoenix, Ciro, or Luca, Francesca Fiore would rain hell down on this city. The same girl who stashed 7-Ups for Luca in her refrigerator for whenever he stopped by.

So, we all had our roles and part of mine was dealing with traitors within the family. I was the Benetti Family’s boogieman. I was the one Luca sent you to when you fucked up and there was no coming back from your mistakes. My kills were designed to set an example for all others who were dumb enough to entertain thoughts of fucking with us.

And I fucking loved my job.

Somewhere between playing with Leo on the floor of the living room, action figures littered all around us, along with crayons, coloring books, and the like, and me getting my first stiff dick, I had developed a taste for blood and torture. Not sure where the compulsion came from, but I had no problem skinning a man alive, then going home and sleeping like a baby afterward.

Did that make me a psychopath? Probably. Did I care? Not at all.

Staring down at a bloody, beaten Constantine Ribicci, I let out a deep sigh. “It didn’t have to go down like this Ribicci,” I said. “I just want to point out that you were offered help.”

Constantine had a problem with the cocaine, and because it was cocaine and not heroin, Luca had been feeling generous enough to offer some substance addiction counseling and help since Constantine had been with us for so long. Still, the lure of that white powder had rejected that little offer and so here we were.

“Just get it over with,” he snapped, spitting out a glob of blood onto the floor.

“That’s not how this works and you know it,” I reminded him. “We’re going to take a little trip to Wonderland where we’re going to spend the next two days together. Me, you, a pound of cocaine, and various torturing devices.”

While I was more than welcomed to use Ciro’s Funhouse, I only used it for serious betrayals or if I was dealing with more than one person. Ciro’s Funhouse was a morbid place filled with so much torture equipment that it was like going back in time to the deadliest eras in history. The Spanish Inquisition had nothing on what Ciro Mancini was capable of doing with his array of gadgets.

Now, my spots really didn’t have certified names like Ciro’s Funhouse, but with as much cocaine as I was going to shove up Constantine’s ass, Wonderland seemed like an appropriate description of where I was taking him. I also knew I was going to have a grand time at it, so it sounded like a good time for all.

“Maybe Luca-”

“Luca’s already written you off, Ribicci,” I said, breaking the news to him. “Do you really think he’s interested in listening to any of your pleas?” I shook my head. “We all know how much