Birthright

by Shay Savage

  “You got it,” Threes says.

  I nod back at Kate, and she runs through a bunch of numbers. Though I keep my eyes on her and try to absorb what she’s saying, I’m inside my head more than not.

  I really am the head of the family empire now. Even though I’m not the one who is supposed to be sitting in this chair, even though Dad doesn’t believe I can do this, everyone has accepted me as the guy in charge.

  Kate reports on legal complications, speaking partially in code about bribes to the police force and government officials to keep them from snooping around our businesses. She neglects to mention a crucial element.

  “You missed an important piece there, Kate,” I say.

  “What’s that?”

  “Our mole in D.C.”

  “Oh…yes.” She flips to another page in her notepad. “Antony has been keeping up with her.”

  “Well?” I tap my fingers on the arm of the chair, realize it’s something my father often does, and force myself to stop.

  “She says someone’s been snooping around the documentation business,” Antony says. “Looks like a formal investigation might happen if evidence is found.”

  “The feds have tried that before. Our local cops always take care of it.”

  “This time they have something.”

  “What?” I ask.

  “Not sure.”

  “Well, fucking find out then! In the meantime, move production to the warehouse behind the lodge. Close up the office in town for renovations or something. Better keep all that shit closer to the edge of town and the highway in case we need to move it to Cincinnati.”

  “You want to expand physical business to Cincinnati?” Antony asks tentatively.

  “Not expand, no. Not now anyway. Just a precautionary step. The property we bought down there can serve as a backup production site if we need it. I want to make sure what we have set up down there is profitable before we push it, but it’s a good countermeasure if some fed shows up here.”

  “You got it, boss.” Antony gives me a quick nod. “I’ll get that local fed to figure out what it is and bury it.”

  “Fine.” I breathe slowly and turn back to Kate. “You can go now.”

  Kate closes up her notepad, and Antony politely holds the door for her as she exits.

  “Antony, hang a minute.”

  Twos grabs Threes by the hand and leads him out, and Antony leans against the back of the couch.

  “We have to do something about Jack.”

  “I was wondering when you were going to mention it.”

  “I didn’t want anyone else talking to Nora. He needs to be dealt with and soon.”

  “Are we talking shakedown here or something more?”

  “He needs to go.” I give Antony a hard stare as his eyes widen.

  “They just got married,” Antony says. “Nora will flip.”

  “Nora needs better taste in men. Maybe this will be a good wake-up call for her. Get him and take him to the warehouse. Let me know when you’re ready.”

  “You got it, boss.”

  Antony gives me a nod before he closes the door behind him, leaving me alone with my father. I glance up, waiting to hear his opinion of my first official meeting. I’m going to get his feedback whether I want it or not, so best to get it out of the way.

  “You suck at this,” he says bluntly.

  “I thought it went well.” I grit my teeth as I try not to sound so blatantly defensive.

  “You don’t have a fucking clue about running this business.”

  “I know, I know.” I fold my arms over my chest, copying his pose, and glare at him. “If only Micha were still alive. He’d be sitting in this chair, and you’d be playing golf on some island instead of staring over my shoulder, waiting for me to fuck something up.”

  “Your brother should be in that chair,” Pops says slowly. “Whose fault is that?”

  “Are you blaming me?”

  “No one else in the room to blame.”

  “I didn’t take a hit out on him,” I mutter.

  “You haven’t done anything about the people who did, either.”

  “Neither did you.”

  He stands up straight, hands balled into fists. He takes a step forward, and I brace myself for the impact of his fist, but it doesn’t come. Pops takes a step back, scowling. He stomps over to the drinks cabinet, slowly glides his finger over a whiskey glass but never pours any for himself.

  I get up, pointedly grab a glass for myself and pour without offering to do the same for him. Stepping over to the windows, I stare at my own reflection instead of the view of the garden outside. My suit is neat. My black hair is slicked back without a stray hair in sight. My tie is straight. I look an absolute vision of calm and collected, which is nothing like how I feel inside. I walk back to my chair, barely glancing at my father.

  Pops laughs hollowly as he shakes his head.

  “You blather on about that Ramsay bitch violating the treaty,” he says, “but not a fucking word about her murdering your brother.”

  “She denied it, Pops. The whole family did. We’ve got zero evidence that they took out the hit. We can’t even identify the hitman, and it’s not like we haven’t tried. We have every cop in town trying to figure it out, and they have nothing. We can’t start a full-fledged mob war over presumptions. You said that yourself.”

  “It was her,” he says, grumbling. “We all know it was.”

  “Tearing the city apart without proof won’t get us anywhere.”

  “Need to spill some fucking Ramsay blood. Get yourself a hitman—someone we haven’t used before. Maybe that Chicago guy. Take one of them out, but don’t leave a trace.”

  “This isn’t Chicago, Pops. It’s Cascade Falls. We aren’t the Capones or the Morettis. This is the middle of nowhere Ohio, and we’re a small-time crime outfit. We do really well for where we are, and unless we want to risk getting involved with the cartels, this is where we’re staying.”

  “I had bigger dreams than this,” he mutters.

  “You tried moving into the drug trade,” I say, and he flinches at the reminder. “Ramsays already owned it, and you tried anyway. It got ugly, and we had to back off. I’m not going to run the business like that, Dad. We need to strengthen what we got, not try to expand again.”

  “Then you’re gonna run our family business into the fucking ground!” he yells. “Micha understood blood for blood! You were always a fucking pussy about it!”

  “I will do what has to be done!” I yell back, standing up and facing him. I slam my glass down on the desk, sloshing bourbon onto the fine wood.

  A quick knock at the door is followed by Antony peeking his head inside.

  “Everything all right, boss?”

  “Everything is fucking glorious,” I say through gritted teeth. “Why?”

  “Just want to make sure.” Antony takes a step in, licks his lips and stares at the floor for a second before looking back to me. “I know it’s all…different.”

  “Everything is fine.” I’m getting tired of uttering that phrase. “You’re supposed to be hunting down Jack.”

  “Already on it. Just a few things to take care of before I go, and wondering if you’ll be at the club tonight. Reynolds is asking about the security detail.”

  I glance at Pops, but he just shrugs and stares out the window.

  “I’ll be there.”

  “Cool.”

  I roll my eyes as Antony closes the door. With another sigh, I grab the glass, down the rest of the whiskey, and stalk out of the office, leaving my father behind.

  I’m perfectly capable of running this enterprise without my brother or my father. Maybe I wasn’t born to the task, but I am going to do it. I’m going to keep the businesses together—all of them—and I’m going to find the person who killed my brother. I don’t need my father, and he’s going to have to come to terms with that.

  As easily as the thoughts flow into my mind, they flow right back out aga
in as the lies I know them to be. I have no idea how to determine who killed Micha, and I’m starting my first day by killing my own brother-in-law.

  Antony had a really good point—Nora is going to blow a gasket when she finds out.

  Pops might be right. I might fuck all this up.

  Chapter 5—Loyalty

  “I’m not prepared for this.” A shudder runs through me as I turn the car onto the rural highway and head out of town.

  “You can do this, son,” Pops replies from the seat next to me. “You have all the evidence. By the time you get there, Threes will have a confession out of him. You have to do what you have to do.”

  “No mercy.” I take a deep breath, trying to center myself.

  “No mercy.”

  Pops is in a surprisingly good mood, and I wonder—not for the first time—if the anticipation of spilled blood gets him excited. I can’t share his glee at the prospect. This isn’t just anyone’s blood. Jack is family.

  “Nora is going to hate me.”

  “Probably.” My father laughs. “Your sister will get over it.”

  “I want to understand why he did it. If I can explain it to her…” My voice trails off. No words I spout at Nora regarding family loyalty or protection will mean anything with her husband’s blood on my hands.

  “Do you think there is justification for what he did?” Pops’ voice reminds me of a junkyard dog’s snarl. “He betrayed us, Nataniele. The whys are irrelevant.”

  “I missed something, didn’t I? I mean, you vetted him before they were married, and he was clean. Was only interested in the legit side of the business. Good with numbers, too. We thought he might even replace Kate in the accounting area, but now? Now he betrays us? I need to know why.”

  “If you want to waste your time, go ahead.” Pops shakes his finger at me. “When you find out he did it for the one reason anyone ever dares betray us, you’ll only be disappointed.”

  “Money.” I clench my teeth together and flex my foot against the accelerator.

  “Always. Jack grew up poor and hungry, and all of a sudden, he’s living in a fancy house with maids and cooks. People who come from nothing and are suddenly given everything always want more. Greedy fuckers.”

  I turn off the road and head up a long, gravel drive and past the dilapidated farmhouse. When I crest the hill, I see the barn looming in the distance and park near the other vehicles.

  “It’s about family integrity,” Pops says. “It has always been about family integrity. If we can’t trust those in our own family to be loyal, we can’t trust anyone.”

  “When you find a rat, you kill it.”

  “No mercy.”

  I step out of the car and head to the run-down barn, painted black and sporting a faded old chewing tobacco advertisement on the side. Long ago, the area was filled with tobacco farms, and all the barns were painted black to help speed the process of drying. The slat-board door is ajar, and I maneuver through it.

  The dry, dusty air tickles my nose with the smell of old manure and rotted hay. Sunlight peeks through the cracks in the wooden walls, spreading patches of bright light in some places and dark shadows in others. A few, unused livestock stalls line one side of the barn, and a rusted tractor sits against the back wall. For a long, drawn-out moment, it’s the only sound in the large, open space. The next moment, the building is filled with screams.

  “No! No! Please!”

  I glance at Pops, but he stays next to the barn door, leaning against the rotting wood wall with his arms crossed in front of him. It’s clear he expects me to do this myself. I need to be the one who ends my brother-in-law, not Antony and not Threes. It has to be me.

  I casually walk to the figure tied to a chair in the middle of the open space. Threes stands in front of him with his fist raised. The figure in the chair cringes, but the blows come anyway.

  “I thought I told you to take him to the warehouse,” I say to Antony as I approach.

  “The barn was closer,” he says with a shrug. “I wasn’t sure how long we’d be here, and the warehouse is getting a shipment later tonight. I didn’t want any interruptions.”

  I smile and raise an eyebrow at Antony before pulling him aside and whispering low.

  “Next time, you discuss changes with me before you do it, not after. This is your one and only warning, cousin. If it happens again, you’ll be in that chair. Am I clear?”

  “Yeah, boss.” Antony swallows hard. “You’re clear.”

  “Glorious.”

  Threes stops punching and takes a step back. Beside him is a folding table with a variety of nasty-looking metal objects displayed on top. Antony moves around to the back of the chair, and Jack stares at me in panic as I approach the table.

  “You’ve kinda fucked thing up here, haven’t you, Jack?”

  “I didn’t plan on it,” Jack says, his voice cracking. “They said they wanted me for negotiations—changes to the treaty—and that the family would benefit! I didn’t go in there planning to betray you!”

  “But you did, didn’t you?” I reach out and grasp his bloodied face in my hands. “You did betray me. You took their money and gave them information.”

  “It was for your sister, Nate. I just wanted to make sure I could give her everything she—”

  I rear back and punch him in the temple.

  “Don’t you even consider putting this on my sister.” I keep my voice soft and calm as I step back from him, circling the chair. “If she knew what you were doing, she’d rip your balls off herself.”

  “Nate! Nate, please!” Jack twists his head around, trying to get a better look at me as I come around the front and click my tongue.

  “It’s a bit late for that, don’t you think?” Taking a step forward, I grab the top of Jack’s head and dig my fingers into his curly black hair. I yank hard, forcing his head backward and exposing his throat. My voice is slow and calm. “You wouldn’t need to beg for your life if you had just made better choices. It’s not like you didn’t realize what you were doing. No one tricked you. No one blackmailed you. They just played on your own greed, and you gave into it.”

  “Against the family.” Antony leans over Jack, looking down at his wide eyes from behind the chair where Jack is bound.

  “Against the family that took you in,” Threes says, “the family that accepted you like their own blood.”

  I hear a sharp crack just before Jack screams again. Antony smiles as he breaks another finger.

  “I sure hope he ain’t a piano player, boss,” Threes says with a snicker.

  “He isn’t one anymore, that’s for sure.”

  “Please…please stop.” Tears stream down Jack’s face. “I’ll do anything you want, Orso! Anything!”

  “You should have thought about that before.”

  Another crack. Another scream followed by the sharp, distinct smell of urine.

  “Gross,” Threes mutters. “Seriously, dude, have some dignity.”

  “Please!” Jack cries again.

  “Aw, does that hurt?” I ask as I slowly slide a set of brass knuckles up my fingers. “Let me take the pain away.”

  I pull my arm back and slam my weaponized knuckles into the back of his head. Jack screams and cringes as he pulls at the bonds around his wrists and ankles. He cries out again.

  “Oh, sorry.” I shake my head. “That didn’t work so well.”

  “Was that supposed to knock him out?” Antony chuckles.

  “Yeah.” I shrug.

  “You suck at this.”

  I glare at Antony. I know it’s a friendly dig, but he sounds a little too much like my father though Pops is still leaning against the door to the barn, not participating in what he would normally consider fun. He wants me to do it on my own. I huff out a breath, mentally forgiving my cousin. I’m being too sensitive.

  “It was never my strong point,” I mutter. I crouch in front of Jack and look him in the eyes. “You know you fucked up. You also know how we deal with fuc
kups.”

  “It was a mistake.” His eyes plead along with his words. “I swear. It will never happen again!”

  “Well, he’s got that right.” Antony grins.

  “A mistake is fiddling with the radio controls and then hitting the car in front of you,” I tell him. “Going to my enemies with information isn’t a mistake—it’s a betrayal.”

  “I never would…I swear!”

  “You did.”

  “I wouldn’t have told them anything important. All they wanted to know was simple stuff. They didn’t give me a choice!”

  “Your choice was to keep your fucking mouth shut. Now they know the name of our supplier.”

  “I knew they’d never be able to use it!” he says. “Your business partners are loyal, and they’d never work with the Ramsays! That’s why I gave them the name.”

  “That sounds a lot like a confession to me,” I say softly.

  “I have to agree.” Antony takes a step back and then circles the chair until he’s standing next to me.

  “I had my doubts,” I say. I nod at Antony, and he reaches down to snap yet another finger on Jack’s right hand. I slowly shake my head as Jack screams and cries. “When you wanted to marry my sister, I knew there was greed in your heart. If I had known you’d take that greed and use it against us, I would have ripped your heart out right there on the altar.”

  “Fucking prick deserves to have it cut out of his chest right now.” My father’s voice comes from over my left shoulder. I can feel his hot, demanding presence close behind me.

  “Yes. Yes, he does.”

  “He does what?” Antony asks, eyes narrowed.

  My shoulders tense as I stare at the man we’d welcomed into my sister’s life. We should have been more careful. Yes, we needed a wedding, but it didn’t have to be Jack. It didn’t have to be Nora’s wedding. I’m in charge now, and I have to do what’s best for my family.

  I ignore Antony, release Jack’s head with a rough jerk, and turn to Threes.

  “Give me that knife over there. The big one.”

  Threes hands me a large hunting knife with a jagged edge. I look it over carefully, run my thumb over the tip, and toss it from one hand to the other.