Bonus Content - Aurelio's Induction

Or why you shouldn't drink whisky when you want to make a good impression....

Hiya all,

I can’t remember which book it’s in but I mention in passing the fact that Aurelio and Leandro got drunk when they first became made men. And I loved the idea of visiting these powerful antiheroes before they became the men they are in the series.

So this bonus content tells the tale of Aurelio and Leandro, aged sixteen, about to take the oath to enter the Mafia and deciding to just have a quick glass of whisky first…

Looking forward to publishing book 8 in a couple of weeks. You’ll be glad to know book 11 is now finished and I’ve started on book 12 and I’m on track to finish writing the whole 14 book series by the end of the year!

Love you all.

Anna

The Induction

Leandro
Aged Sixteen

I glanced at my best friend nervously as we loitered outside the main bar of the hotel.

I agreed with him that we could both do with a drink but...

‘Aurelio, we’re underage. We’ll never get served.’

‘My father owns the hotel,’ Aurelio replied in that irritatingly self-assured manner he had. ‘They’ll serve me if I tell them to.’

We probably shouldn’t be drinking on what was definitely the most important day of our lives so far. Getting inducted into the Mafia at sixteen was a privilege. Eighteen had always been the usual age, but Aurelio’s father had agreed to waive the informal rule for his son, and he’d extended it to me too, as Aurelio and I had done all our training together. His father had been the mentor for both of us.

I didn’t want to let the Capo dei Capi down by not being responsible, but I didn’t want to look a pussy in front of Aurelio either. If he was having a drink, then so was I.

‘Whisky,’ Aurelio ordered the barman imperiously. ‘A bottle of it.’

‘What kind?’

I grinned at my best friend’s panic. He thought he was so sophisticated, but he couldn’t even name one brand of whisky. I’d tease the shit out of him about that later.

‘A strong one,’ he replied cautiously.

‘A cheap one,’ I interrupted, checking the contents of my wallet.

Becoming a made man couldn’t come soon enough for me. It was all right for Aurelio; his father gave him all the cash he wanted. I had to work for my money—and, given the choice of keeping my part time job at the wet fish stall in the supermarket or entering the high-reward world of organised crime, I knew which I’d rather be doing.

The barman shoved a bottle and two glasses at us and we moved to a table at the back of the room where we couldn’t be seen from the door.

Despite Aurelio’s bravado and constant banging on about how he’d be the Capo dei Capi himself one day, I guessed he didn’t want to be caught by his father in illicit drinking any more than I did.

‘So what did you do?’ he asked, pouring us both a full glass. ‘For your task? What was it?’

‘Some idiot who’d pissed your father off. I stabbed him.’

‘You stabbed him?’

‘Yeah, right in the guts. What about you?’

Aurelio scowled at me. ‘I shot mine.’

‘You shot him? Wasn’t that a bit pussy? I mean, shooting’s okay in a rush, but didn’t you want to make your induction task more memorable? You know that girls use guns?’

‘My father said it was an efficient execution.’

‘He would though, wouldn’t he? He’s your father, so he’s got to say that. He told me I’m a natural killer and that I don’t have any of the empathy which holds men back from rising in the Mafia.’

‘Did you puke?’

‘No. You?’

I grinned to myself as he went quiet. He so had. Aurelio reckoned he was so tough, but he’d puked that time I’d found the dead raccoon and investigated its guts with my knife. He’d also puked when we’d nicked a tape of his father torturing one of the Russians. He’d tried to claim it was seafood poisoning, but who gets fucking food poisoning from fish fingers?

‘I loved it,’ I said confidently. ‘There was blood everywhere. I wiped my knife on my shirt like I was some kind of maniac serial killer. They’ll probably have to burn his house down; there was so much blood. That’s the kind of guy I am. I make killing count.’

I knocked my glass of whisky back. ‘You reckon we ought to get names like all the really notorious ones do? You know, like Scarface or the Bull? I was thinking of calling myself Slasher.’

‘That sounds stupid. Like a shit superhero.’

‘Well, what would you be called then?’

Aurelio thought for a moment. ‘The Despatcher.’

‘That sounds like you work in a fucking mailroom!’

‘My father hasn’t got a nickname. Maybe we don’t need them?’

‘Be good to define ourselves though, start as we mean to go on. I mean, according to you, you’ll be the Capo one day and I’ll be your underboss, so we need to create some terror from the beginning. Maybe if we didn’t do the nickname thing, we should have a flourish instead...?’

‘A what?’

‘Like a trademark. Maybe we always carve a symbol into the corpses of our victims?’

‘Like what?’

‘A dragon?’

Aurelio scoffed in derision. ‘So we go on a deadly mission together, kill someone, and instead of getting the hell out of there we start cutting intricate images of mythological creatures into our victim? That doesn’t make us look hard, that makes us look like clowns.’

‘Well, we have to do something,’ I retorted. ‘You want to go down in Mafia history as much as I do. How do we separate ourselves from everyone else?’

‘We don’t have to. The top jobs are going to be ours for the taking. My father’s been training me to be Capo since I was five years old, and the reason he’s taken such an interest in you is because he knows you’ll be my underboss. We’ll learn everything we can, make a shitload of money, and then one day we’ll take the reins.’

‘You could change your mind,’ I said uncertainly, pouring us both another full glass.

That was always the problem with being Aurelio’s friend. We were never really very equal. My future depended on his goodwill and his friendship. Though I didn’t have much competition, I wasn’t just his best friend, I was his only friend. Everybody else thought he was a cunt.

‘I could,’ he said arrogantly. ‘I’ll be the most powerful man in the Mafia.’

‘Yeah, who pukes when he shoots people. You’ll need me around to do the stuff that makes you cry.’

‘I never cry.’

‘You cried when you got that B minus on your history essay.’

‘Yeah, and you cried when your fucking rabbit died.’

‘You fucking cried too. You loved Hoppetty as much as I did!’

We were silent for a moment as we drained our glasses.

Much as we bickered, the pair of us really were inseparable. Aurelio was right that we’d make a good team at the top of the Mafia one day. We both had that same driving ambition that propelled us forward. And we needed each other to achieve that ambition.

Without Aurelio I’d never be underboss. But without me, he’d never have a right-hand man he could trust with his life.

‘You nervous?’ he asked me uncertainly. ‘About today?’

‘A bit, yeah. You?’

‘Kind of. I asked my father what happens and he told me that people who haven’t taken the oath can’t know anything about the ceremony. But we’ve already proven ourselves, so it can’t be that bad?’

‘Fuck, you know how the Mafia’s into rituals. Suppose it’s something weird like... like getting naked?’ I didn’t know if I wanted to be a made man enough to take my pants down in public.

‘Why the hell would it involve taking our clothes off?’

‘Seeing as we don’t know, it could be anything, it was just a guess.’

‘A stupid guess.’ He filled our glasses again. ‘There’s some blood involved, I’ve heard.’

‘Our blood?’

‘Maybe...’

‘Well, don’t pass out,’ I told him with alarm. ‘You know what you’re like.’

Aurelio punched me. ‘You always make out like I’m less tough than you. But which of us couldn’t go in the garage when that big spider was in there?’

‘And which of us fainted when he had a blood test?’

‘That,’ he told me hotly, ‘was because I was ill.’

I sipped at my whisky thoughtfully. ‘I wish we knew more. Which of us goes first?’

‘Normally we wouldn’t go in together, but being the boss’s son I swung it for us to be inducted at the same time.’

That sounded better than I’d imagined. He could go first and then I’d know what I was doing when it was my turn. That way I wouldn’t embarrass myself.

‘I asked my father if you could go first,’ he added serenely.

‘Great.’

The little shit had obviously had the same idea I had, but unlike me he’d had the clout to get his own way. Now I was going to have to fumble through the whole fucking process like a dumbass while he got to sail through it after watching me make all the mistakes. Still, at least we’d be together. He was right, under any other circumstances we’d have been inducted separately.

‘I’ll get us more whisky.’ Aurelio announced. He stood up but immediately sat down again. ‘Shit, I’m dizzy.’

I glanced at the bottle. We’d drained the whole thing between us. A whole bottle of whisky and this idiot wanted more? I hadn’t realised we’d drunk that much. I thought I’d been steadying my nerves, but I’d been drinking like a fucking fish.

‘Dizzy?’ I asked incredulously. ‘We’re pissed, Aurelio. Twenty-five minutes before we stand up in front of the entire Mafia and take the oath. It’s bad enough for me, but everyone’s always going to remember the future Capo who got hammered the day he was sworn in.’

‘Shit, so what do we do?’

‘Water,’ I told him decisively. ‘We need to drink a fuck-ton of water. And… breathe on me.’ I smelt his breath. ‘You stink, and I probably do too. We need some mints.’

‘We can get water from the bar. Where do we get mints from?’

I looked across the bar into the adjoining restaurant.

‘They’ll have some in there. They keep them for handing out with the bill.’

I gave him a shove. ‘You’re the Capo’s son. Go and order them to give us a load of mints.’

‘What do I say?’

‘Say, “I’m Aurelio fucking Dinelli, and if I tell you to give me a shitload of mints, you do it.”’

‘Okay, but come with me.’

‘In case you puke?’

‘Yeah...’

He wasn’t wrong about feeling dizzy—the second I stood up the whole room started to sway. I should have stuck to beer. I was okay with beer. This stuff was stronger than anything I’d got my hands on before.

I grabbed Aurelio’s arm as he started to sway.

‘Look, just hold onto me. We’ll get the mints and the water and you’ll be okay.’

I dragged him into the restaurant and accosted the first waitress I saw.

‘Hi, can we have some mints?’

She took a step back, which I guessed was something to do with my breath.

‘This is the owner’s son,’ I persisted. ‘He wants some mints.’

‘Yeah... I do...’ Aurelio slurred.

‘Well... okay.’

She looked a bit unsure, but I doubted she gave a shit if someone took all the mints if it meant getting two drunks out of the restaurant.

She disappeared for a moment and came back with a box full, which she pushed into my hands. ‘I’d take him to the bathroom,’ she advised. ‘He doesn’t look well.’

It was good advice. Aurelio looked like he was going to be sick at any moment.

‘Can you give me a glass or a mug or something?’ I asked her.

She sighed and fetched me a water glass.

‘Seriously now, get out of here.’

I found the bathroom and pulled Aurelio into it. There was a man taking a piss, but I showed him my knife and told him to fuck off. He zipped up hurriedly and walked out.

‘Drink,’ I urged Aurelio, filling up the glass from the tap and pushing it at him. ‘Drink. Shitloads.’

It was just beginning to dawn on me that the Capo dei Capi, my future boss, wasn’t going to be incredibly happy with me if he found out I’d got his son drunk on our induction day.

I didn’t doubt at all that Aurelio would spin it to all be my fault—that was my best friend all over. He was cunning and sneaky. I needed to get both of us sobered up or my lucrative future in the Mafia just might all turn to shit.

‘More,’ I urged him, filling the glass again.

‘I’m going to be...’

‘Sick? Yeah, good. Go puke it all out of your system.’

I knocked a few glasses of water back myself while I listened to him retch in a cubicle.

The sound made me feel queasy myself, but I rested my head against the cool tiled wall and told myself firmly I wasn’t a lightweight like Aurelio.

He was still green when he came out, but he looked better than he had.

‘You get any sick on your shirt?’ I asked him. ‘Fuck, you did. Hang on.’

I unfastened my tie, drenched it in water and used the back of it to rub the marks off the front of his shirt.

‘Okay, better. Now you need to have some of these.’

He made a face at me. ‘Eat? No way.’

‘You want to breathe whisky fumes all over your father when you swear the oath to him?’ I demanded. ‘You want every elder in the Mafia to know you got drunk on what’s considered almost a sacred occasion? Eat the mints.’

He swallowed a handful, and so did I.

We stood back and looked at each other critically.

‘Maybe splash some water on our faces?’ I suggested.

I glanced at my watch ‘Actually, no fucking time. We’re due in the conference room.’

Aurelio straightened his tie with painful concentration before nodding decisively.

‘Right,’ he announced. ‘Nobody can tell.’

‘You’re walking into walls.’

‘I’m walking confidently.’

‘You’re fucked.’

‘So are you.’

He wasn’t wrong. I was going to have the mother of all hangovers tomorrow.

I took one last mouthful of water and spat it into the sink as I stared at my reflection. My cheeks were flushed, but I didn’t look as drunk as I felt.

It would just have to do.

‘Come on then,’ I muttered.

We left the bathroom shoulder to shoulder and headed for the conference suite. The hotel suddenly seemed strangely quiet. The closer we came to the double oak doors, the more the laughter and chatter faded until all I could hear was the pounding of my own heart.

Two soldiers stood outside the entrance to the conference room and they both nodded respectfully to Aurelio as they opened the door for us.

There must have been over a hundred men in the room. Bosses from every Family— capos, soldiers and associates, all dressed in dark suits. Cigarette smoke hung beneath the chandeliers, and every pair of eyes turned towards us.

It was the first time I’d ever truly appreciated what the Mafia was. An entire fucking empire that one day would be headed by my best friend. Today marked our first step into a world that the two of us would eventually claim for our own. I wished I’d had the brains to stay sober. I wanted to remember this moment for the rest of my life.

‘Keep walking,’ Aurelio murmured without moving his lips. ‘You’ve got this Leandro.’

‘I’m trying.’

We crossed the room together until we reached the raised platform at the far end.

Carmine Dinelli stood waiting for us, flanked by his underboss and consigliere. These were the most powerful men in the Mafia. Induction was a big deal. One day it would be Aurelio and I deciding who joined the most powerful underworld organisation in America.

I looked nervously at a silver knife laid next to a small holy card with a picture of some saint on it and my stomach tightened.

Blood... Shit. Aurelio had been right. But who cut who?

I hoped to hell there wasn’t a lot of blood because no way could either of us handle the sight of it in the state we were in.

Carmine looked from his son to me and his mouth lifted slightly at the corner.

‘Leandro Barone.’

My mouth had gone so dry I almost couldn’t answer.

‘Yes, sir.’

‘Step forward.’

I shot Aurelio a filthy look and the little bastard actually smirked. He’d definitely got his father to induct me first so he could be perfect on his go. Pretentious little shit.

I walked the final few steps alone and watched Carmine pick up the silver knife.

‘Leandro. Do you come here of your own free will, knowing that from this day until your death the Mafia comes before every other loyalty?’

‘Yes.’

‘Hold out your hand.’

I cautiously held my hand out toward him and winced as he sliced the blade across the tip of my index finger. I wanted to suck it as it started to bleed, but Carmine took my finger and pressed it against the card before folding it into my palm.

I glanced briefly towards Aurelio. The solemnity had sobered him up. He looked almost reverent. This mattered to him in the same way it did to me. We weren’t just two new made men, the two of us were the future of the Mafia. The men who would lead it into the twenty-first century.

I tightened my grip around the blood-stained card and raised my eyes to the man who ruled our world.

‘Do you enter freely of your own will?’ he asked me. ‘Do you pledge your life to myself and the Mafia?’

I took a deep breath.

‘I pledge my life.’

And that was it.

I was a made man.

Aurelio was fucking word perfect when it was his turn, of course. He didn’t even flinch when his father cut into him. He took the oath with a dignity that made him look like the ruthless Capo he would become and not the drunken schoolboy I knew him to be.

I did hold my breath when his father set light to the card and I prayed to all the Gods in the heavens that my best friend wouldn’t be sick at the smell of the smoke and fuck up his induction.

But he didn’t.

He carried himself with grace as we exited the room to the applause of the men who knew we would one day be their leaders.

Then I rushed him to the bathroom where he was violently sick over his shirt, his new suit, his freshly shined shoes and his expensive watch.

After watching him puke his guts up, I vomited all over the floor too.

One day Aurelio Dinelli and I would run the Mafia.

But for now, despite our new status as made men, we were still just two sixteen-year-olds who couldn’t hold our liquor.