Chapter 67 MICELI

As a capo, it is not often my cousin Salvatore's job to interrogate our enemies. But this is a special circumstance.

Lorenzo Ricci didn't just steal from our mafia, he put Salvatore's woman at risk. He also betrayed his don. My brother.

I am still underboss, so his punishment is my responsibility for the embezzlement and the treason. I let Salvatore get his anger out in the interrogation though.

His specially designed cattle prod is impressive. I might need to get me one of those. Flipping my knife over in my hand I shake my head.

It hasn't let me down yet.

I use it to cut the straps on the ball gag in Lorenzo's mouth before I yank it out and throw it away.

I slap the traitorous capo. "Start singing cuckoo before I feel the need to get involved because I'll cut your balls out of your nut sac and feed them to you."

It's a messy way to get information, but it works.

"Her dad was my bookkeeper," Lorenzo sputters out fast. "He stole from me," he whines. "I didn't want her around la famiglia ."

"Wrong answer." My cousin shocks the other capo in the thigh.

Lorenzo screams like a stuck pig, begging Salvatore to stop. What follows is the typical back and forth with a man who hasn't figured out he's dead yet.

The only thing left to determine is how much he's going to hurt before it happens.

When Lorenzo starts whining again about his former bookkeeper stealing from him, I'm too disgusted to stay silent. "You stole from la famiglia . From your don and the men in your crew. "

I don't like his reply so I punch him in the kidney.

"What were Lucchese hit men doing in Manhattan and why did they attack Bianca?" my cousin asks, showing he suspects the same thing I do.

The fuck that attack was random. It was a hit. Which Henry Caruso agreed to execute in another Family's territory.

Lorenzo confirms the hit seconds later.

"Did you tell Caruso you had our don's approval for the hit?" Salvatore asks with some more not so gentle persuasion.

"Yes. He wouldn't send his men otherwise."

I shake my head. That doesn't track. "He would have checked."

Henry Caruso is an idiot, but he doesn't have a death wish.

"He wanted to be godfather. I gave him a way."

Lorenzo is behind the attempt to buy the bars out from under us? That I didn't see coming.

Salvatore isn't happy either and he looks ready to zap the guy with enough juice to bring on a heart attack.

I grab him to stop him. "Information first then retribution."

That information fills me with rage. Two of our former consigliere's men are rats for Lorenzo. One is already out of commission. Uncle Sal cut out his tongue for blabbing to a woman he was dating about the Cosa Nostra.

But the other? Is a man we all thought we could trust. Uncle Sal even kept him on his crew. Turns out he's Lorenzo's half-brother. How did we not know that?

"I actually liked that asshole," I complain. "Now I have to torture and kill him."

Salvatore's face twists with disbelief. "You did not like that blabbermouth."

Miceli shrugs. "Okay, like is too strong a word, but I didn't object when Uncle Sal brought him onto his crew when he became consigliere."

"None of us did." Salvatore sounds as pissed as I am.

Do we have other spies in our ranks? Is Róise safe? Are my family?

"You sold out your don and tried to have an innocent woman killed for what, you traitorous prick?" My fury and disdain drip from every word. "Our don had you under investigation already."

Lorenzo is back to looking wild eyed. Maybe he's finally figuring out that he won't be breathing when he leaves here. "No."

"His guy found your duplicate books and your hidden accounts." Salvatore sounds about as impressed with Lorenzo's stealth as I am.

I give the man who betrayed his made man vow a look of contempt. "All of them."

Lorenzo's moan is music to my ears.

The money will go to the soldiers and their families that weren't complicit to make up for working under such a huge, steaming pile of shit all this time.

After we've extracted all the information necessary, Salvatore leaves.

"Now, it's just you and me, Lorenzo. You betrayed my brother. You betrayed my father. You betrayed your vow as a made man!" I shout the last.

And then I begin meting out the punishment that level of betrayal deserves.