Page 76 of Niccolaio Andretti (The Five Syndicates)
tory rather than on enemy turf?
“He’s my little brother.”
My jaw drops, and I reel at the information, which is a lot to take in. If the head of the Andretti family is Niccolaio’s little brother, then Niccolaio isn’t just affiliated with the mafia. He’s the mafia royalty. And something tells me that if whatever went down didn’t happen, I would be living with the head of the Andretti family. Not a disgraced heir-in-hiding. I can’t even begin to wrap my head around that, so I push the thought aside and focus on the other ridiculous implication of his statement.
“Your little brother called a hit on you?!” I nearly shout. “Wait… If he’s your younger brother, shouldn’t you outrank him? Can’t you call off the hit yourself?”
He sighs and takes a seat beside me on the couch. “He called a hit on me, because he hasn’t forgiven me for killing my uncle.”
At his words, I’m speechless. I can’t even imagine hurting a hair on Mina’s head, but if push came to shove and I was threatened, I suppose I wouldn’t think twice about hurting either one of my “parents.”
He continues, “And because I killed my uncle, I was excommunicated, which means I forfeited my spot as the future capo bastone—the underboss—and, eventually, when my dad died, the capo famiglia—the boss.”
“And your brother took your place,” I finish and hesitate before adding, “Why did you kill your uncle?”
“Because Asher was going to do it, and it wouldn’t have been a merciful death.”
My heart weeps for Niccolaio. I couldn’t even imagine being put in a situation where I have to kill Mina to protect her from a horrible death. A part of me feels like I’d be too weak to do it.
“Why would Asher want to kill your uncle?” I ask.
“Retaliation. Four days before Asher came to Florida, my dad ordered a hit on Vincent Romano. It failed, and the Romano family sent Asher to retaliate.”
“Why did he order a hit on Vincent Romano?”
“Because the Romanos and Andrettis were—are—at war.”
“Why?”
He laughs loudly, startling me. “Honestly, I don’t know why we’re at war, but it’s always been that way. Been that way since before I was born, too. Sometimes anger is learned, and that’s all you know because it’s all you’ve been taught. That’s where Ranie, my brother, is at right now, and there’s no getting through to him in that state. That’s why I said that Ranie calling this off is impossible. There’s no way it’ll happen.”
“But you said there’s another way.” I hesitate when I see the somber expression on his face. “W-what is it?”
“The blood debt must be repaid.”
“What’s a blood debt?”
“Blood is currency in this world. If you take a certain amount of blood, you’ve gotta give it back. It was the only way that kept us from killing back then, when it was easy to get away with it with the law enforcement.”
“And how much blood did you take?”
“I killed some guy named Angelo. He wasn’t even an associate yet. They’re lowly ranked, ranked lower even than soldiers. And now, I guess, Naz.”
“That doesn’t sound too bad. You just have to give two lives worth of blood back? I’ve already seen you shoot two people.”
“It’s not so simple. Angelo was a recruit. Nobody big. Not even fully an Andretti yet. His life doesn’t matter to anyone high up. The situation with Naz is complicated, because he’s a nobody, but his father was a somebody to my Dad.” He sighs. “But my dad is dead, and unless Ranieri is suddenly getting close to old ass men, it won’t matter. Plus, Naz was in Romano territory when that happened. That’s enough to escalate into an all-out mob war if a blood debt is called for that. Nobody will win if that happens, so that will go unretaliated.”
“So that leaves your Uncle Luca.”
“Yeah.”
“But the Romanos were in Andretti territory when he was killed.”
“But a Romano didn’t kill him. I did.”
“So, how do you pay that blood debt?”
“He was a caporegime for the Andretti family. For the blood debt to be repaid, another caporegime has to sacrifice his life.”
