Chapter 241: Like mad men

Chapter Two Hundred and Forty-One

"I’m killing that son of a bitch."

The words had barely left Ahmet’s mouth when Settimo spoke.

"Marco wasn’t always our enemy."

Ahmet froze.

Asli’s eyes moved to Settimo. The older man remained standing near the center of the room, his expression still unreadable.

For several seconds, nobody said anything.

Then Ahmet gave a humorless laugh.

"What?" If he wasn’t an enemy then what was he?

Settimo looked at him.

"Marco was once part of our circle."

Ahmet’s face tightened.

"What circle?"

Settimo glanced toward Asli before looking back at him.

"Mine. Your biological father’s. Silvio’s."

Ahmet stared at him.

"Silvio?"

"Markus’ father."

The room went still. It had been so long since he heard the name that Ahmet forgot whose name that was.

Settimo walked slowly toward the window.

"There were four of us."

He rested one hand against the back of the chair.

"Me. Luis. Silvio. Marco. The unbeatable four."

Ahmet said nothing.

Settimo’s gaze drifted beyond the glass.

"We grew up together. Ate together. Fought together. Learned the business together. Our parents were also friends."

His mouth tightened.

"Back then, none of us imagined we’d end up standing where we are now."

Ahmet folded his arms.

"Then what happened?"

Settimo was quiet for a moment.

"Marco happened."

Asli’s eyes narrowed.

Settimo continued.

"Even when we were young, there was something different about him."

Ahmet’s expression hardened.

"Different how?"

"He was more brutal."

Settimo’s voice remained calm.

"At first, we didn’t think much of it. We were young. We were surrounded by violence. We thought it was simply his way of handling things."

He paused.

"Some people think twice before pulling a trigger. Marco never did."

Asli lowered her eyes.

That sounded like him. It sounded like her.

Settimo’s fingers tightened slightly around the chair.

"But there is a difference between being ruthless and being consumed by ambition."

Ahmet’s jaw flexed.

"What did he do?"

Settimo looked at him.

"He killed his own father."

Ahmet’s face changed.

Settimo continued before he could speak.

"And his brother."

Asli’s breath caught. "For what?"

Settimo’s eyes hardened.

"What else? The Villa."

Ahmet stared at him. "He killed his own family for power?"

"He believed the position belonged to him."

Settimo’s voice was colder now.

"His father stood in his way. His brother stood in his way. So he removed both of them."

Ahmet shook his head slowly.

"And you three just... walked away?"

"We didn’t just walk away."

Settimo’s gaze met his.

"We cut him off. Because there are lines."

His voice was quiet.

"Even in our world."

Ahmet looked away. For some reason, that answer made his stomach twist.

Settimo continued.

"Marco didn’t understand that."

"He didn’t care," Asli said.

Settimo looked at her.

"No." Something flickered in his eyes. "He didn’t."

Asli’s fingers curled at her sides.

She knew that much already.

But hearing that Marco had been like this long before he ever found her somehow made something inside her shift.

She had spent years believing he was a role model to thinking he was a monster. He actually was. All for what?

There had never been anything to turn him into one.

Perhaps he’d simply always been capable of it.

Ahmet’s voice pulled her back.

"And Luis?" He still couldn’t bring himself to call him Dad yet.

Settimo’s expression changed. That name carried something heavier.

"After we cut Marco off, Luis wanted nothing to do with him."

"Because of what he did?"

"Because of what he became."

Settimo looked down.

"But Marco accepted losing us. He mentioned we weren’t worthy of his vision. We were strangers to him and he to us... until"

Ahmet’s eyes narrowed.

"What?"

Settimo didn’t answer immediately.

Then he said,

"Georgia."

Ahmet went still.

Settimo’s gaze shifted toward him.

"Marco and Luis both fell in love with your mother."

Ahmet’s lips parted slightly.

Asli watched him carefully.

"They were both drawn to her," Settimo continued. "But they were nothing alike in the way they loved her."

Ahmet’s brow furrowed.

"What does that mean?"

"Luis loved her."

Settimo’s eyes hardened.

"Marco wanted her."

The distinction hung heavily in the room.

Ahmet swallowed.

Settimo continued.

"Your mother chose Luis. She never even paid Marco a glance."

Ahmet looked down.

A strange mixture of emotions crossed his face.

Settimo’s voice lowered.

"That was when everything became worse."

Asli watched his expression.

"Marco had already lost his place among us," Settimo said. "Then he lost Georgia."

He looked toward Ahmet.

"And he never forgave Luis for either. The funny thing was Georgia didn’t even know he existed. She never knew him. It had always been Luis. Before he could call her, Luis was already there with her. Before he could do anything, Luis was already there and before he realized it, he had proposed to her. He threatened to kill her if she didn’t choose him. Mind you, it was the first time she had even or probably seen him up close. There and then, she knew her life was in danger. However she didn’t care, she loved your father and still married him."

Ahmet’s fists tightened.

"So Marco killed him."

Settimo didn’t answer.

He didn’t need to.

Ahmet looked away, breathing heavily through his nose.

Asli could see the anger returning to his face.

But this time, there was something else underneath it.

Understanding.

He finally knew why the hatred between the two men had existed. It hadn’t even started with Georgia.

When four boys had grown up together...

And one of them decided that power was worth becoming a monster.

Settimo’s voice broke the silence again.

"That is the man you’re talking about killing."

Ahmet looked at him. His chest was rising and falling too quickly now. His hands had curled into fists so tightly that his knuckles had gone pale.

"I know." His voice was low, but there was nothing calm about it. "How the hell is a man as powerful as you scared to face him?"

"No. This isn’t fear. Maybe when you hear the whole story, you’ll understand." Settimo’s eyes held his.

"There is more?" Ahmet could only whisper. His jaw loosened. For a moment, he simply stood there, trying to absorb the fact that there could be more. It sure could because if his father didn’t want to face him, then there should be something.

Settimo stepped closer.

"You recently got to know what he did to you. Now you know what he did to Asli. You know what happened to your biological mother."

His voice dropped.

"But Marco has been doing this for decades."

Ahmet stared at him.

Settimo looked toward Asli.

"He didn’t become dangerous when he came after our families."

His eyes returned to Ahmet.

"He was dangerous long before that. The idiot killed his own flesh and blood."

Ahmet’s face went still and it wasn’t because he was surprised anymore but because somehow, after everything he’d heard tonight, that revelation still managed to disgust him.

Asli immediately spoke, "That’s where you might be forgetting something. He raised and trained me. I was able to get close enough to him as the Midnight Reaper. I can..."

"What? You are what?" Settimo immediately asked.

Asli blinked. She had almost forgotten that part of her life was still a secret in this house.

"That’s my other identity. Aside from being the Lisa your wife so much loves." She responded lightly but her father didn’t.

"Midnight Reaper... you lived more dangerously than I thought. Was the Midnight Reaper not saving the innocent women and children Marco wanted to kill? How could you be ruthless and caring at the same time" he asked and for once, Asli was reminded of why she created that Persona in the first place.

"I’m not caring."

"That’s the closest any Mafia could ever be to being called caring."

"Whatever. If I could live under his roof and still have a different persona without him realizing then he surely has a weak point. Not forgetting how your son and I have been seeing each other and yet still he never found out, I believe there’s a weak point."

"There is. Power. It has consumed him. And he would do anything to keep it."

Settimo’s eyes hardened.

"So you weaken him. And that is exactly what my son, I trained you and Markus to do."

For a fleeting moment, Ahmet remembered.

This had been Settimo’s idea from the beginning.

The old man had drawn the plans, studied Marco’s network, though he couldn’t identify the warehouses and the points where his power could be crippled, he had given them clues. Then he had handed the mission to Ahmet and Markus before stepping back.

And they had done it.

Warehouse after warehouse had gone down.

They had cut into Marco’s operations, destroyed some of his resources, and taken away pieces of the empire he had spent years building.

Yet somehow, the bastard was still standing.

Still powerful.

Still dangerous.

Ahmet’s jaw tightened.

Maybe they had been approaching it too carefully.

Maybe they had been thinking like men who wanted to weaken Marco.

He wasn’t interested in weakening him anymore.

He wanted to destroy everything the man had built.

If this was where they had to start, then so be it.

They would finish what he and Markus had started.

And this time, they wouldn’t do it carefully.

They would do it like madmen.