Family Comes First

Chapter 41

- S a l v a t o r e  R u s s o -

I hated this. 

Sitting in my office, not being able to do anything because Ace fucking Romano ordered me to. 

Every single day of not being allowed to do anything was slowly killing me. Apparently, Ace had received some sort of message from Samantha, saying that she had a plan and that we were to not look for her.

Yes, we were supposed to try and make it look like we were looking for her, but we aren't supposed to actually search for her, and Samantha had somehow told that to Ace. How, I don't know, but I was given my orders, which meant that I had to follow them, whether I liked it or not.

It was absolutely suffocating. I had already lost the love of my life to the Irish, and the fact that I am not allowed to actively search for the last two female members of my family... It had me on edge.

"Are you in here again?" Salvestro raised an eyebrow at me as he entered my office, leaning onto the wall opposite of me. It was barely the crack of dawn. 

I ran a hand through my hair, letting out an impatient sigh.

"Yeah," I murmured, "I hate waiting."

He snorted. "You're not the only one."

Soon, my other three younger brothers came into my office, all of them with bloodshot eyes and huge, dark eye bags under them.

They blamed themselves for Amara's kidnapping, and with each passing day, their hope of her returning is going away. Although they never say it, I knew that all of us regretted some of our actions now that we don't have our younger sister with us anymore.

I especially had the most guilt in me.

How could I have been so stupid as to think that kids won't be dangerous? I should've ran a fucking background check on all of Amara's friends. I would never have thought that a fourteen year old could've helped the Irish kidnap Amara, and I would never make that mistake again.

"Any news from Ace?" Santino asked me.

"No." I said, shoving my own feelings to the side. Their health comes first. "You guys alright?"

"Yeah," Sandeo answered, giving me a weak smile. "Staying at home is just giving me 'homesickness'." He tried to joke, trying to look at the positive side of the situation, but not even he cracked a smile at his attempt at one.

We were all broken inside. One or another, we were all irrevocably broken in a way, and were still trying to heal and piece ourselves back together.

Santino and Salvino, abused emotionally by our father, and learning to push people out inside of letting them in.

Sandeo, hiding behind a fake smile to mask his pain after our father's mental abuse. He thinks that the more he smiles and laughs, the more he could believe that all of his happiness and laughs are true.

Salvestro, becoming a doctor so that he can help kids who were physically abused like him. Hoping that he can somehow prevent other kids from receiving the same type abuse he received. 

And me? I was the result of all three, and the fact that Alicia, the person who I loved with all my heart dying on-

The phone ringing cut me out of my thoughts.

I debated silencing it, but one look at the caller ID had me picking up.

"Any news?" I said in greeting.

"Yes," Ace answered from the other side of the phone.

My brothers leaned in, all of them wanting to know what is happening.