My men surround the place. Twenty of them at the back, thirty at the front. There is no sign of Tommy or his fucking friends. As I raise my foot to kick in the door, I hear the rumble of the bikes. I don’t bother to look behind me as I walk into the house, guns raised.

It takes less than five minutes to clear the property. It’s fucking empty. No signs of anyone. So I turn and walk out, passing Tommy as I head back to the car. That’s when I notice something’s missing.

“Where the fuck did she go?” I ask Santo.

He looks across the road, over to where Mary is heading into a nearby house. Not too far from where we parked.

“What the fuck is she doing?” I run towards her, Santo and Marcel right behind me. Not stopping until I’m standing in the living room where Mary is huddled over an unconscious Esther.

A shot rings out. My gun raises, and I fire without even thinking. A bullet tears through Logan’s chest. I fire off another four rounds and watch as the gun in his hand drops.

“Fuck!” Santo shouts, lowering his voice when he adds, “Mary, it’s gonna be okay.”

I squat down and look at my little sister. It doesn’t happen often, but I was wrong. She’s not unconscious. She’s dead. Her throat has been slit. I look to Mary, down to where a hand is clutching her stomach, blood seeping from between her fingers.

Her body falls forward, and Santo catches her. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” Mary says to me.

“What the fuck? No!” The scream comes from Tommy as he scoops up Esther’s lifeless body. “No!”

I glance over at Santo. We both know it. Mary is dying. “I forgive you,” I whisper and watch as a tear runs down her face.

“We forgive you,” Santo says. “It wasn’t your fault.”

“I love…” Her eyes shut and her body goes limp.

I turn to Tommy. The end of my gun aimed at his head. “What the fuck did you do?” I ask him.

He looks up at me and says nothing. He doesn’t care if I shoot him right now. In fact, he wants it. Realising how easy that would be for him, I lower my arm.

“Let’s go,” I direct to my brothers and my men.

“I ripped him off. He did this to get back at me. I deserve it, Gio. Kill me. He did this to them because of me,” Tommy yells out.

Turning to him, I take one last look at my sister and mother. “I’ll make arrangements for their funerals, and I’ll see you in hell. But I’m not going to be the one to send you there. You did this. Now you have to live with it.”

Chapter Twenty-Two