Leonardo Agostini's POV:

"Drinking again?"

Adrian laughed and patted on the barstool beside him, motioning me to join him.

"No, brother. You know that I haven't had a sip in years."

I took a seat on the barstool and motioned the bartender for my usual. "There's no harm in one sip."

He twirled his finger around the rim of his full glass. "No, I rather not. The last sip had cost enough damage."

A frown etched on my face. "It's not your fault, you know?"

"It is." He sighed deeply and dumped the alcoholic contents on the nearby plant. "I killed an innocent woman that night. How can you say that it is not my fault?"

"We still don't know about that." I assured him and patted his back. "You said it yourself, you woke up with blood on your hands but there was no body."

He shook his head in resentment. "But I do remember screams. A woman's screams. I can never get that out of my head, fratello."

The bartender handed over my drink to me and I took a sip then closed my eyes, feeling the hard liquor creating a slight dizziness in my head.

"Does that explain your returning sleepless nights? I can see those bags under your eyes. That mask shit you apply doesn't work." I said.

He chuckled. "You should try that someday with me. It will be our elder brother-little brother bonding session."

A mental image of Adrian and I roaming around the mansion in the middle of the night, wearing face masks appeared but I shook it off quickly.

"I rather not. I value my sleep and you should too."

Adrian's shoulders slumped down and the smile vanished from his face. "Padre taught you to kill, not me. You might not feel any guilt, but I do. You do not understand how I felt when I woke up alone in my bed, blood on my hands along with a bloody knife. You might have forgotten that fear, Leo, but I haven't."

Fear? I don't even know what that is. Maybe I used to feel fear a long time ago after certain events when I was a little kid, but now I don't. Padre taught me to be strong and merciless unlike Adrian—who is four years older than me, but acts like a four year old—who only learnt the law and to fight and shoot.

I gulped down the hard liquor in one go and grimaced. "Try to take your meds and get some sleep at night. I'm pretty sure that you don't want padre to worry about you."

His lips slightly curved upwards. "Don't remind me. The last time padre got worried about me, he made me sleep on the same bed with him so that he could make sure that I was not going to ride a bicycle and scratch my knee again in the middle of the night!"

I burst out laughing as I remembered those times and felt slightly light headed. "I remember that. How old were you? Eight years? Nine?"

"I was fucking nineteen." He grumbled, "Can you imagine the embarrassment? A nineteen year old adult living in a four storey mansion is sleeping beside his loud snoring father because he scratched his knee while riding a bicycle."

"Padre always worries about you and he does not worry about me." I muttered the last part to myself and scoffed.

He shook his head. "It's not like that. He is strict with both of us, you especially because you do happen to be his favourite son, his only blood, by biological means."

I scoffed. "The only reason padre keeps me near him is because I am taking over. I'm not his favourite. Besides, if you simply go tell padre that you want to take over this famiglia, he'll give that to you with his eyes closed."

Adrian laughed again. "Let me assure you brother, I have no interest in this business. I'm fine handling our legal affairs."

I patted his shoulders. "Of course, we can't do anything without your legal advise, but we also don't want our legal advisor to sleep in his meetings. Try to get some rest at night, fratello, it would really mean a lot."

"No, thanks. I'm fine." He said blatantly. "In fact, my nights are getting very enjoyable with the company of a certain young woman. Calling her a housekeeper would be a shame now because I do know that she is far more than that."

My lips twisted downwards and a scowl formed on my face. "Can we not talk about this?"

"Doesn't she remind you of her?" Adrian asked, ignoring my previous question. "You know that I have never met her, but I have heard a lot."

My jaw clenched in anger. "She is nothing like her."

He sighed irritably and smacked my head. "If you remove your certain feelings of hatred and anger for my lovely Amy and try to look at her purpose and attitude here, don't you find a few similarities between them?"

I rubbed my head and shot him a glare. "I don't. And since when did that girl became lovely and Amy? Because she is neither of those. She is a pain in my ass, scratch that, she is a pain on my back."

"Jealous by our growing friendship, capo?"

I scoffed again. "Never. The only thing I'm jealous of is the fun time my gun is having by not getting into action and not shooting that little jumper named Amelia."

"Agreed, but why didn't you do it yet?" He asked and raised a skeptical eyebrow. "From what I know, padre taught you to give no mercy then why are you giving her mercy and challenging her in our family name?"

I laughed heartily. "Who...who said that I'm giving her mercy?"

He frowned. "What do you mean?"

"I'm not giving her any mercy, fratello. That girl is just too proud to see that." I revealed. "She still has her head high up in the clouds. I am just going to bring her down and make her realise that nobody can cross the heir of the most powerful famiglia in all of Italia!" I declared proudly.

Adrian gave me a stink eye and straightened his tie. "Whatever. Just make sure that you know what you are doing and try to think what I just said."

"I assure you brother, she is nothing like her. That little girl is going to have three bullets in her body very soon. One in her leg and two in her head." I declared arrogantly.

"And what about challenging her in our family name?" Adrian asked sternly, crossing his arms. "If padre finds out about this, he'll go batshit crazy and probably give you three bullets too."

I smirked and got off the barstool. "Have no worries, Adrian. Your so-called lovely Amy will never win. I know that and you should get that inside your head too."

"Why? I think that she is a total replica of you—"

I groaned in frustration and prevented him from speaking further by covering his mouth with my hand. Adrian continued speaking, his voice muffled and his eyes narrowed at me then suddenly, he licked my palm.

I cringed and removed my hand from his mouth then wiped it on his shirt.

"Let's never speak of this action you just did, fratello, because that is disgusting." I said flatly.

"Sure." He hummed as he looked at the mess I had done on his shirt. "Only if you buy me a new shirt and try to see that girl in my perspective then you will realise that I am right or else I'll keep licking your hand while I'm shirtless, keep comparing both the women in front of you and I'll call you 'little Leo' in front of everyone just like I used to when you were a kid."

Oh mio Dio, I was only five years old at that time. He can't bring that up after twenty years.

This time, I gave him a stink eye. "Little Leo? Are you serious?" He nodded in response. "And why would I follow your orders? I give orders to the people of this house. You happen to be one of them."

"I happen to be your legal advisor, so I am advising you to do this or else you will suffer from that." He said monotonously and walked towards the door then looked at me over his shoulder. "And I also happen to be your elder brother." He added at last.

I sighed in exhaustion. "Fine, just this once on your persuasion. I'll try to see something comune, but if I don't, you will not ever, ever bring her up and talk about her again."

"Okay, I guess you better go find that girl." He smiled.

My face fell. "Now?"

"Si, now." He confirmed.

"Where the fuck am I supposed to find her?" I snapped.

As if on cue, our phones chimed and we took it out to see the message. I gritted my teeth in annoyance when I read it.

"Wow." Adrian laughed as he read the message. "I think you don't need to find Amelia anymore. She's already waiting for you...again."

"Who the hell does that?" I asked in disbelief.

Adrian shook his head. "Believe it or not, she has done this before. You were just busy getting screwed in your office."

Author's note:

I give you the first little Leo's point of view!

No need to guess about what Amelia did again.

Need to guess who this 'HER' is.

And we are going at hundred reads per day!!

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