Brothers in Arms, Brothers in Blood

Chapter 7: Brothers in Arms, Brothers in Blood

The air in the back room of *Il Giardino* hung thick with the scent of aged wine and cigar smoke, a familiar perfume to Vinnie, yet tonight it felt charged with something new, something potent. He watched Nicholas Narkakis, "the Greek," across the heavy oak table, the flickering candlelight catching the sharp planes of his face, the glint in his dark, intelligent eyes. The revelation had landed like a thunderclap, a seismic shift in the carefully constructed world Vinnie had been building. His half-brother. The leader of a rival faction, a man he’d considered a dangerous obstacle, now… family.

“So,” Vinnie began, his voice a low rumble, testing the weight of the word, “my father… he had another life, then.”