The Vatican - M.E. Clayton Page 0,3

Uncle Leo was a good guy, so it was a given his wife would be treated well. But all Benetti men, from the associates to my dad, were expected to treat their women well. If not, Dad would pay you a visit, and no one wanted Dad paying them a visit.

And that was another reason I hadn’t smothered my sister with a pillow. She was a girl, and we just didn’t smother them in their sleep. It wasn’t the thing to do.

Cira was convinced she should be the next Benetti Underboss because we spoiled the shit out of her when she was younger, and she didn’t like being put in her place. We were also only eleven months apart, so she ignored the whole firstborn thing, claiming we were practically the same age.

We weren’t, though.

Luckily, for us guys, we outnumbered the girls or else Cira probably could lead a revolt. I wasn’t worried about Cira, per se, but Uncle Ciro’s girls really were vicious little heathens. They were stunning chaos you never saw coming. They had all inherited their Dad’s and Aunt Frankie’s yellow eyes and if you lined them up, they could render you stupid with their gazes. It was almost like a superpower. Massimo, their baby brother, ended up with their mother’s brown eyes, but they weren’t any less dangerous. The kid was a smart motherfucker, and I was glad he was on our side.

Uncle Phoenix and Aunt Frankie’s boys, Vincent and Dante, were also super smart. And while Vincent was the oldest of us all, Dante had a touch of psychopath to him that, again, was another strike in the plus column for us if the girls ever really did band together to take over.

Uncle Sal’s and Uncle Leo’s boys were also tough motherfuckers, so that worked in our favor, too. Uncle Sal had three sons, and Uncle Leo had two sons and one daughter. We clearly had the numbers, but I wouldn’t put anything past my sister.

Of course, if they ever did cry mutiny, it wouldn’t be Cira at the helm of their little rebellion.

No.

It’d be Saveria Fiore leading the troops.

Luca Saveria Fiore, better known to her friends and family as Ria.

Luca Saveria Fiore who, if her mom was the Church, Ria was the motherfucking Vatican in my father’s eyes. My dad absolutely adored that girl, and if anyone could push me out to take over, it’d be her. Ria was immersed in the Benetti Organization just as deeply as I was. Her in-depth knowledge of all things Benetti was probably the only reason she kept refusing to join forces with Cira. Ria knew it couldn’t be done.

But even as capable as Ria was, she wasn’t a threat. She’d never be a threat. She was, however, constantly underestimated by the masses.

See, Ria was beyond stunning. She was only about five-foot-two-inches, but she packed more curves than a roller coaster. Her hair was a dark brown that fell to her shoulders, but instead of inheriting her mom and uncle’s yellow eyes, Ria ended up with an odd combination of Aunt Frankie’s yellow eyes and Uncle Phoenix’s hazel ones. The dark, thick lashes that encased them made them pop like a hypnotizing prism of color.

Ria’s facial features were that of her mother’s, but she had snatched her father’s dimples in combination with her mother’s pretty face. When she smiled, her face would light up and you just. Couldn’t. Help. But. Stare.

Luca Saveria Fiore was so fucking beautiful, people automatically labeled her as stupid, vain, or vapid, but she was none of those things. Ria was intelligent, cunning, ambitious, and hard-working. She was tough as shit, and I was the only other person besides our fathers, Uncle Sal, and Uncle Leo who knew that she’s killed a man before.

We were only twenty-one at the time, but a guy had raped one of her college friends. And I don’t mean raped her, I mean he fucking annihilated the poor girl. He had been asking her out for months, but she kept turning him down because she had a boyfriend. One night, she had been walking home from the library, and he attacked her. Brutalized her so badly, she was hospitalized with physical, emotional, and mental damage for over a month. And, thank God, her boyfriend had turned out to be a decent human being. He had stuck with her through it all and was still with her to this day.

Saveria had been so enraged, she had begged my dad not