Chapter 58

**Matteo**

I was sitting in the meeting room, waiting for the others to join me for a status update. I had a strange, but excited feeling. There was a good chance that today would be the day. The day that I could finally call the war on the Brunos for everything that they did to me, my family, and the organization. We had worked so hard to get everything in place, so I crossed my fingers that everyone would be ready for it now.

Slowly, but surely, everyone I expected entered the room and took their seats around the table. Luciano and Ennio were looking tired because they spent the entire night out on the streets. Vita and Valeria looked refreshed.

“Guilia not here?”, Vita asked me when I indicated we could start. I shook my head.

“She is with Lily.”, I explained shortly. Renzo looked up when he heard me say that.

“You could have sent me, or even Adriano and Luca.”, he said, almost offended that I hadn’t asked him.

“Lily wouldn’t have let you in her house. She wouldn’t even let me in her space yesterday.”, I said, trying to not sound too disappointed myself. “I figured Guilia would be better than no one.”

Renzo scoffed, I knew he didn’t think too highly of Guilia’s fighting skills. I agreed on that with him, she wasn’t ruthless enough to fight and kill. She knew what to do, but she was too empathic. I guess that was a good characteristic in a normal life, not so much in the life that we were living. It was no wonder why she was working for the legal part of the organization.

“I know, Renzo. I know.”, I sighed. “Anyway, updates?”, I asked everyone around the table.

“The Brunos are panicking. Their territories are falling apart, and they are resorting to any measure they can think of. I think it will be the right time to attack and pull it apart completely.”, Luciano stated. He had to smile a little as he spoke.

“Is the family falling apart?”, I asked.

“Not yet, though sources are saying that there are continuous fights between Nero, Mario, and Tommaso.”, Luciano shared.

“Next?”, I asked.

“Dealers on the streets are ready to expand. All supplies are in and ready to be distributed. We have recruited enough dealers to take over areas from the Brunos.”, Ennio shared proudly. The streets were his domain, so everything he managed there was his doing. Together we worked on the suppliers, and making sure things got delivered on time. But getting everything distributed was all his.

“Good. Next?”, I asked, nodding to Ennio smiling.

“I think you know most already.”, Vico started, “but Lily’s mom was laundering money for the Brunos. She didn’t start too long ago, max a year. Strange thing is that she was also embezzling their money and hiding it for her own use. You wouldn’t do that if you were on their side, so we believe there must be some blackmailing involved. Still haven’t been able to figure that out.”, Vico shared.

“To add to that, we found the lady that could give more information. You and Lily visited her. The other name Salvatore Russo, he used to be a bodyguard of the Brunos. He disappeared about 25 years ago, never to be seen or heard from again. I don’t know why he went away.”, Valeria mentioned.

“Lily and I went to Jelena. She wouldn’t allow me in, and I only know what Lily shared, which is very little. She only mentioned that her granddad was a Serbian mafia boss, and that her mother met her love in Italy, and they got married eventually. There must be more, because she was inside for almost three hours.”, I recalled.

“Petrovic.”, Nino said. I looked at him confused as hell. “Serena said she recognized Lily. Her dad showed her a picture of his first love, or something. Said his love married someone else and her dad married the sister.”, Nino explained. I looked surprised.

“Petrovic? Are you for real?”, I asked him. We didn’t deal much with the Serbs, but the Petrovic were well known and well feared around the world. They had been on top of the ranks for a long time already. Clearly, they must have profited from the weapons Juan got his hands on.

Nino nodded. “That’s what Serena said. I’m guessing she must have heard the story many times.”

“So, Lily is a Petrovic. Does that allow her to take up a place in their organization?”, Renzo asked.

“No, women are not considered actual members by the Serbs.”, Nino said. I had heard that too somewhere.

“Renzo, update?”, I asked, ready to move on.

“All is in place. Extra men are recruited and fully trained. We are ready for war.”, he stated.

“Vita?”, I asked.

“Guilia mentioned that everything is in place to launder fast, so that is ready. Gossip is on the street that Tommaso is absolutely livid because Lily wouldn’t do what he wanted, and she was a whistleblower to auditors and government. He is being watched now by the feds. He will lash out for sure.”, Vita shared with everyone.

I smiled. “Let him, we are ready.”

“So, are we ready to start this war?”, I asked everyone around the table one by one. I only saw smiling and nodding.

“We start now! Let’s get back what was taken from us!”, I said smiling. This was it! Four years of hard work leading up to this moment. It is on!

The rest of the meeting we spent working on the tactics. The plans had been ready for a long time already, so really all we had to do was divide our men over the teams and do a double check.

“Listen up! I want Nero, Mario, and Tommaso alive if possible. In case it is your life or theirs, pick yours.”, I smirked. “I want them to pay for what they did, so I would love to torture them. As would Ennio and Vita, I believe.”, I smiled to my siblings, who were nodding enthusiastically.

Last check was being done, all men were in gear, weapons were handed out, and everything was ready. It wasn’t time to strike yet, but we were going to drive to the Bruno mansion and stake out. Then by nightfall, we would strike. I was hoping it would be a short attack, but we were ready for the long fight as well.

I was standing next to Ennio and clapped him on his shoulder.

“You ready, man?”, I asked him, smirking. There was no possible way that Ennio would not be ready for this. He had been training for 4 years to be ready for this day. Even better, he had been drilling all of us for 4 years to be ready for this day. There was no chance that he would let a chance to get back at the Brunos slip through his hands.

“Born ready.”, he answered. “Vita is coming?”, he asked me when he saw our sister in her gear.

“Yeah, no chance she was going to back down.”, I chuckled. I knew that Vita was going to be okay. She trained with us all the time, and I knew how good she was. It was just this mental thing kicking in that a man should be protecting a woman. Vita needed no protection at all.

“Boss!”, I heard Vico yell, running up to me and Ennio. He was running fast and out of breath when he reached us.

“What is it?”, I asked him concerned. Vico was in shape, but I knew he hated exercise. For him to be running this fast meant that there needed to be something wrong. Vico was catching his breath still.

“It’s Lily.”, he said in between pants. I got anxious immediately. This was not going to be good.

“Lily was taken by the Bruno famiglia. Guilia tried to protect her, but there were too many men. They beat her up badly. Adriano and Luca are bringing her in.”, he said, still panting.

“Where were Adriano and Luca?”, I asked angrily. It was their job to watch over her.

“Guilia asked them to wait outside, while she was inside waiting for Lily to come back from her job interview. They didn’t have good visuals, but Guilia had her panic button with her. They didn’t know something was happening until they saw a van racing away. Luca tried to follow while Adriano went to check on Guilia, but they got away.”, he told us.

Fuck, fuck, fuck! Why did I let her go home? I should have kept Lily here, then this wouldn’t have happened at all! I was feeling many things at the same time. Anger was the main one, but there was worry about what they would do to her, and I felt powerless, because I couldn’t do much.

“We will get her back.”, Ennio said while he squeezed my shoulder. I knew we would, but would she be okay until we did?