Conception Of Truth E-Book

Shan R.K

• Herausgeber: BookRix
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Beschreibung

We were never supposed to come this far.

Marco Catelli married me, but like any marriage, we had our issues, namely our hate for each other and our need to save the ones we love. Then like all marriages ours grew until tragedy struck us again and an old ghost came knocking.

When my friend is killed the truth is shown. My husband thinks I am the biggest monster in his closet but what he can't see is I am the only one who can't pull the trigger.
 
4th book in The Secrets Of The Famiglia series.

Leseprobe

Copyright © 2022 Shan R.K

All rights reserved.

This is a work of fiction from the Author’s imagination.

No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any manner without written permission from the author except in the case of brief quotations for reviews or fan-made articles.

Any names resembling any living person are purely coincidental.

First Edition.

April, 19th 2022

Written by Shan R.K

www.shanrk.com

Also by Shan R.K

Catch Me, If You Can

Shock Me Twice

Love Hate and Billions

Kylie Bray

Secrets Of The Famiglia

Capo Dei Capi

Union of Death

Queen Of Killers

Conception Of Truth

The Angel Descendants

House Of Legions

The Satan Sniper's Motorcycle Club

Beggar

River's Keeper

Zero

Beauty's Breath

Killer

Sienna (Coming Soon)

The Satan Sniper's Motorcycle Club Book Bundles

The Satan Sniper's Motorcycle Club Book 1 - 4

Standalone

Faces Of You

Watch for more at Shan R.K’s site.

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright Page

Also By Shan R.K

Dedication

Aliyana

Aliyana

The Stone Brothers | Michael Stone

Aliyana

Aliyana

Aliyana

Aliyana

Marco

Kylie Bray

Marco

Aliyana

Marco

Aliyana

Marco

Aliyana

Marco

Aliyana

Aliyana

Marco

Aliyana

Aliyana

Aliyana

Marco

Aliyana

Aliyana

Marco

Aliyana

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Further Reading: Kylie Bray

Dedication

I dedicate this book to you the reader. Please enjoy it and look out for the anthology on my website coming soon for free.

Conception Of Truth

By

Shan R.K

Secrets Of The Famiglia

Book 4

Aliyana

Present Day

2022

Somewhere in Vermont

We are all but nothing, apart from our perception of truth.

I stare at him, watching his chest expand.

How is it that someone so strong, so powerful, so dangerous to find become so small when faced with an adversary? The adversary being me.

I see him, knees on the cold tiled floor, his eyes fixated on me in equal parts disbelief. I disconnect my vision from his small form, looking briefly at what I’m wearing.

This morning when I woke up, the sun was shining, snow melting on my front lawn. My kids were sleeping, my husband gone, as usual, working, making money.

Everything was normal except when I woke up this morning, I received a message. This message contained a lot of things I’ve been waiting to hear but one part, in particular, stood out and made today different. This person on his knees in front of me was the big difference in my day. So when I woke up this morning and decided what I was going to wear I decided I would not wear black because black represented the sign of mourning. I wasn’t going to wear white. After all, white represented a sign of new beginnings and not blue.

Blue, well blue was a sign of trust and green with a side of healing so when I woke up this morning I decided I would wear beige, it was an indifferent color something that matched any mood any desire any belief it doesn’t necessarily represent anything but nor did it negate anything.

“You know what is so satisfying about killing you?”

“What?” He inquires with that tilt of his mouth and thin lips I have seen a time or two. Many women found this man handsome. sexy even. I was not different, but I knew more than many of them what made him, his colors, the layers that fell away leaving only the middle left and when you looked at it with naked eyes you’d see it was rotten.

I laugh.

“I became a player in this cat and rat game much later. I find it comical that I am the one who gets to catch you, considering there are many people who started in the beginning. What is even funnier is I am the one who would get to kill you.”

“You didn’t catch me Mrs. Catelli.”He says my surname with a pinched face as though he can’t bear the sound of it coming from his lips.

“Then what do you oppose I did?”

He smiles, but it is not a nice one. It is filled with the ugliness which has corrupted him over the years.

“You stole me. That blonde crazy pregnant bitch caught me.”

“True, Trade, and trade.”

“You should kill me now and not be like all the other people who talk too much and then it all turns to shit. I am sure your father taught you that. After all, you are a queen.”

“Why would I do that? There is no one looking for you, everyone already believes you are dead.”

“How long did it take you to plot my death?”

“It was when Mero died. You shouldn’t have taken Kylie that day, you set everything in motion. You put yourself on my radar.”

My voice goes low as I end in a whisper, “Now I have to kill you.”

He smiles, as he comes up from his knees. Matteo places his fingers on his shoulder and pinches his muscles until his shoulder drops and he grunts dropping to his knees again.

“Be careful there Bosman, wouldn’t want to get your blood on my shoes,” Matteo warns him. It is a subtle warning but one that should be taken seriously.

“Fair enough. Tell me Aliyana, were you always this fucked up? Or did Marco add the evil inside? Because your mother never had the monster in her eyes, she was just a queen trying to fight for what is right. Can you say the same?”

“I can say that I am not like my mother, and Marco never influenced the events of today. It was you who obliged my idea, and you who made me turn to this.”

“I did what I did for love, my kid is mine, born from my bloodline. Marco and my wife took her from me. She was going to be what I needed to seek redemption. Do you know how difficult it is to just live my life for one hour?”

“You made that choice, you could've been part of the famiglia, not our enemy. Now you are a rapist, a killer, a trafficker. I always wanted to know something from you.”

“There it comes.”He smiles as he makes that comment.

“What happened with Katrina? Did you sell her? Kill her?”

“I gave her the ending many of us wished to have.”

I frown, that doesn't resolve my suspicion but I leave it. I learned not to be too suspicious and pay more heed to what I did know. Because too much of anything got you killed. And while curiosity was something that made you a bit wiser, too much of it became dangerous.

“I have a question, consider it my final request.”

“What?”

“I left everything to my child and did everything Marco ordered, including kill the last men who raped Ms. Bray. Lucca Sanati was meant to die for all of this, what did I do wrong to tip you off? I was careful, every action precise. How did a Mezzosangue like you catch me?”

I laugh.

“I'll tell you, but to understand I would need to remind you, we are all not villains, some of us are just hard people stuck in a group of really bad company, and it is those who we must pay the most attention to because those peoples perception of what is and what was told by the villains and their concept of truth is a wicked fabricated tale to make themselves come out a tad bit better. Their actions justified to the listener and everyone else is everything but nothing. So I would need to start from the day Lucca blew up my house or so I thought.”

“Why then was that the day you turned evil?”

“Because, It was the day shit got real and I had to grow the fuck up, join the game or die.”

He laughs, “No one grows up overnight.”

I shrug, “Maybe, but it was the day I changed, I saw things differently.”

“I guess if your sister dies, and her unborn child it changes everyone.”

“It does, but it wasn’t the only thing that happened. It was the day I befriended a Stone, one on one.

Aliyana

9 years ago

Death has a way of creeping up when you least expect it, there was no longer a thing of natural causes, or dying in childbirth, it was all just a quick end from pain, suffering, and murder. It is what it is. 3 hours ago I was a queen with an army of shadows, a girl in university, a best friend with a secret, a lady in love with a man, and a mezzosangue half-breed Italian girl.

“Surely there must be some fucking footage, somewhere, how did they get into the wolves' den? When did Lucca even have a chance to get in the house? Call the ambulance again and ask them if the baby is going to make it.”

I am seated on the patio. Sirens, lights, mafia, and shadows all surround my house. Some are here for a reason but for others, I am not sure why they are here. I hear the man talking, Leonardo, my sister's husband, or should I say my sister's widower.

He is all over the place.

He is my Shadow, my guard, now fully immersed in something he had nothing to do with. He wasn't part of the famiglia like his brother Dante, and his wife though born into the world we know as the 5th state the underground, was also innocent in all of this. She wanted babies, a home, and a present sister.

Unfortunately, my sister didn't get either of those. She ended up in an early grave, horrible death and although I want to believe differently, the same fate was set for her kid.

“Aliyana, per favored ordinami di fare qualcosa? None posso starevseduto Centre tutti glib altri?” Aliyana, please order me to do something? I can’t sit while everyone is in mourning, Xander's Italian words have me breaking my trance to stare at him. His hair is disheveled, his shirt rolled up onto his forearms.

“Sí, impara meglio I'italiano!”Learn better Italian.

He rolls his eyes and in another setting, I would laugh. But all I feel inside is emptiness.

How can Lucca do that? How dare he come into my life and attempt to assassinate me? I was under the impression that I was safe. I had an army of shadows, a pack of wolves, how did someone infiltrate everything with no clue, no sign,? It didn’t make sense. What the fuck just happened? Is my sister really dead? Is she gone for good?

I want to scream and wreak havoc on everyone and everything. I want to find Lucca and kill him slowly, make him suffer for what he did, what he is doing because I didn’t believe he was done yet. He was just getting started.

“Go home Xander tomorrow will be the day for violence. Tonight we mourn the losses, and feed our urges because come tomorrow morning we join the war.” I look at Xander as his eye twitches and his face grave in anguish for my pain transforms to a slight sparkle at the idea of vengeance.

“I can’t go home, I need to stay here, Salvatore was called away by Marco, Killer is only landing in another hour or so. Michael Stone and his brother, David are arriving now. The rest of the Shadows are surrounding the place. Leonardo is in no state to leave with but I take it his brothers would fetch him since his father just died.”

I frown, “When was that?”I wanted to kill him, but I didn't give the order to end him just yet, I wanted him caught. We were kidnapping him, not killing him. Killer was going to see it through himself. What changed? I knew things were a bit crazy with Killer.

“It was the same time your house was blown up,” He confirms my suspicion.

Beggar, aka Amariya, was linked to him somehow because of his biker gang, the Satan snipers motorcycle club. He was around to visit her. Deno was the one who told me. I didn’t question my shadows about their personal life unless I had a reason to. With Marco, I had reason to and still didn’t do it.

I didn’t want to have to face him with crushing questions I wanted to know but didn’t want to hear from his mouth. Xander told me a bit but nothing too revealing. He was part of Marco, or whatever it is he did. Because he wasn’t Capo, that title belonged to Deno. He was part of something which afforded him a large part in the famiglia by birthright, but no part in their illegal dealings now that I was queen. Leonardo fell in the same group, and so did I. But I felt over the last year that a lot of it all blurred into one. Because we all belonged to the 5th state and that meant we came with bad blood painted on our hands. Xander and Salvatore didn’t form part of the shadows, they protected me as Marcos men, which I found off since Marco was supposed to just be a normal guy but I know there was nothing normal about him.

But my suspicions, curiosity, and desire to understand the bigger picture that hid behind the Catelli siblings was a raging fire I could not quench. The hunger to know grew to a maddening addiction I needed to satisfy. Because if tonight was anything to go by the Catellis’ had made an enemy of someone who had zero qualms when it came to taking an innocent’s life.

Maybe my sister was not that innocent but the baby in her stomach was. It was my job to see vengeance be given. I had to make an example of Lucca Sanati.

But first I needed to find out how the hell did he get into my house without alleging the men because surely the shadows knew if someone was going to make a play at their Queen? A group of elite men, soldiers trained their entire life? Smart educated men, including a genius who made sure to add every kind of security feed to my house ever imaginable.

“Get Michael Stone to see me as soon as he arrives.”

I dial Kylie Bray after seeing the missed call on my now broken screen.

The call rings before going to voicemail. I have known Kylie for a while, we were close, and she never left her phone to ring, especially if she was expecting someone.

I dial it again. It rings and does the same thing. Strange

I call Killer.

“I’m on my way,” he says in answer. I hear the distant cars in the background.

“Kylie isn't picking up her phone.”

“I know, Michael lost signal to her phone, car, and your house at the same time. He traced her to a warehouse but didn’t see anything. We are on our way to you, we think it’s Lucca. She had something he wanted.”

Shit, that meant he hits all of us in the same night. Was it planned? Surely someone must’ve suspected something.

“Diamond?”

“Funny you mention it, She's on her way with Michael. I suggest you keep her on a need to know, she's different.”

“Go it.”

“I want the order.”Killers’ words have a deep weighted meaning behind them and I knew exactly what he was asking and what the consequences were but I first needed to hear everything before I decided what our priority would be.

I put the phone down, catching Leonardo staring at me with anguish painted on his face. They say the extent of love is only weighed in the middle of conflict, disaster, and death. He wasn’t going to like it, but our time for mourning was going to be short-lived. The shadows had a job to do. Two innocent women needed saving, four funerals that needed attending, and more dead bodies to add in the next weeks.

Vincent Stone's name flashes on my phone and I frown, he never calls me.

“Vincent?”His name comes out as a question.

“Aliyana, have you heard from Marco? I have an issue, he isn’t answering.”

I frown for a second because I wasn’t dating Marco, surely he should call Camilla but the thought filters through, and reasoning kicks in.

“No, I saw him earlier, he fled. Can I help with anything?”

“Kylie and Be...ah, a friend of hers is missing, I need his help.”

“You mean Amariya,”

“You know?”

“Yes, the Shadows take care of its own,” I put the phone down after accepting my answer.

I look at Leonardo who is still watching me, and I want to smile and tell him it will be alright. But how can I, when my sister just died? His wife seized to exist. His child never got to have his first cry. How do I find the courage to smile at someone giving them a false hope that everything was going to be easier in time? Let’s face it, I couldn't because Lucca Sanati wasn’t done with us, this was just the beginning, the only difference now was that I was the new player in the game.

He wanted a war, then he'd get it. I wasn’t opposed to winning in every way I could. There comes a point where one needs to taste the iron of victory to establish their level of hierarchy.

And I was on top, I was done hiding behind my Shadows and finally ready to come front.

Not just for my sister and her innocent child but for all those who would die in the future. The 5th State needed to understand there was a bigger player on the table and I was Queen, here to stay and rule all, except for one, The Capo Dei Capi, but that depended on who took reign now that the old one was gone.

It was the only way to form some sort of barrier, a part that couldn’t be crossed because today Lucca and whoever helped him crossed a very dangerous line went too far. They came for the Shadows, a direct hit. And even though I wanted to wring his neck Marco was part of the shadows, and loyal to the course. Which meant he was under my protection. Which made my next move slightly complicated.

The Stone Brothers

Michael Stone

9 years ago

There are many ways to explain how reacting to a circumstance out of your control is considered an emotional response to a serious problem hence why we have Law enforcement to enforce rules made for a reason if only those laws blurred into the 5th state. My father was a man of many talents but freedom was never a luxury.

Well, at least not for my family. We were born into a knight's tale, to serve a queen. None of us wanted it, I denied my position at first to pay more attention to the matters of the world. I wanted to create a livable environment using technological means.

But over the years more than a few times the Shadows' names, the unity amongst them drew me in.

They had the influence and skills I needed to accomplish a daunting task. I took the credit as one man but behind me, they always stood. It was a silent code, to protect our own.

We weren’t all built to do the dirty work, my brother, and a few others handle the fighting, the hurting, and they enforced the law. I was the tech guy, the one with the smarts and fancy equipment, but over the last few years, I was also the one playing bodyguard to a girl named Dakota Larken, aka Diamond.

She was presumed crazy but she and I knew that it was just a bullshit hoax, a ploy to get people to leave her alone while she worked. In the space of nearly 2 years, she had managed to get everyone including her best friend my sister Kylie to distance herself.

She consumed herself in creating a drug that enhanced human capabilities. She was able to create a DNA altering serum and with my help and technological warfare, we perfected it. We created one sample, only one, and somehow people found out about it. They came after her with no luck. You can't find what isn’t on the surface. Her boyfriend, now dead, stole what he thought was the sample. A dummy drug with similar capabilities, but its effects were still not known. We both knew that people were going to die. SO when we heard what happened at the Capello household we decided to both join, and see if we hear anything whispered out of the ordinary.

But when my sister's security on her car and phone went dead and my signals were jammed, including Aliyana’s house, I knew the drug wasn’t what these people wanted. They wanted something else. Someone. I knew who and I also knew why they wanted her. But what I couldn’t understand is why Lucca would want to kill Aliyana, he only did things for gain. They wanted

I turn left onto Aliyana’s street. It isn’t difficult to find her house. The smoke still lingered in the air. I am not sure what kind of bomb was detonated tonight. But there were casualties.

“I wonder what bomb it was, I’m thinking I should get some samples and have it analyzed in the lab, it might help to pinpoint who it is we looking for.”

They wanted the girl my sister took in.

I wasn’t sure what part I was gonna play in all of it but what I knew was that I needed to be here looking for her. Kylie was always different from the rest of us, a bit harder on the inside, too normal on the outside. A softer inner core but one of her biggest downfalls was her need to protect everyone.

“Diamond, take my phone and dial the last number I called,” I tell my ward since my family decided that her safest place was with me. It was.

We stop outside the Capello house, the gate is a breeze to get through since the police, fire brigades, Mafia, Shadows, forensic team, and who I presumed were the detectives were all still at the scene of the crime. I could imagine what these men are thinking just touching their feet on this part of the fence, and they didn’t need a warrant.

Only I knew for a fact Aliyana’s father kept his houses clean from anything that could harm his family. I see Aliyana standing with my brother David just as I jump out of the car, Leonardo Catelli faces me. I didn’t like the man because he always seemed to have an ulterior motive. I smell the smoke, mixed with the distinctive scent of burning flesh. I didn’t hear the whole story, but I knew that Aliyana lost her sister which was inconveniently Leonardo’s wife.

Diamond is quiet as she follows behind me, but I can feel her excitement. It is contagious on a nuclear wavelength.

“Do you think they would let me gather some evidence?” she inquires breaking the silence as I look at the four guards posted around Aliyana.

I knew she liked to solve mysteries, and, at another time, I would be glad for it. but today was just not the day for that, I had an idea who did it, but one thing was for sure I didn’t think it was Lucca Sanati there were just too many things pointing his way. It was too obvious and nothing this terrible would be so obvious. No sane man would want to kill a woman and an unborn child. No man would wanna kill someone as powerful as Aliyana Capello.

From what I did know about Lucca is that he was friends with Marco and whatever happened between Marco, Vincent, and Lucca of course. There was still something between them, but I don’t think it was to the extent that he would kill someone they loved. One reason why I didn’t believe he killed Marcus's brother either. 

But he did kidnap my sister and I do think he was capable of killing her? Yes. Very capable of raping? Yes. But I knew there was another player in town and I was here to find out who.

I walked toward Aliyana and stopped in front of her.

“David, so the politician has arrived,” I say to my brother it was very surprising to see him here.

“Well brother, sorry to disappoint your idea of me, but you are not the only one loyal to the course.”I snort at his choice of words as he sneers at Diamond.

“What are you ALL doing here? How are a tech guy and crazy woman going to help?” he questions as he shoves his hands in his corduroy jacket, who wore corduroy these days?

“We were called just like you, so we came.” I choose my words carefully.

“Y’all?” he clarifies.

“Yes,” I say to him

“Do you have a problem with Diamond, David?”I query. My brother didn’t need to answer that question of course he had a problem with Diamond. She didn’t take his shit.

She didn’t believe his lies and not for one second did she tolerate anything that came out of his mouth. The girl was young but she was not stupid. David couldn’t handle that she saw right through his facade and all the stories he conjured up to get people to believe a story. He was a politician after all and with politicians came a bag of worms.

“Now is not the time for brother bickering,” Aliyana warns and I can see her try hard not to look at the man across from us standing by the open door.

“You guys are here because somebody tried to kill me tonight and somebody kidnapped Kylie and Amariya. Time is ticking, so we have to find them fast. Vincent is on his way and so is Killer.  I will wait for the others. Unfortunately, Leonardo and Marco will not be joining us tonight. It seemed like they had suffered not one death, but three. My sister, her baby, and their father.”Aliyana’s voice is devoid of emotion.

A part of me wants to blame it on the fact that her sister just got blown up, but I knew that wasn’t it. From what I gathered, she was ordering it used to kill Marcello Catelli because they were helping somebody else. They didn’t know who they were helping but the person rumored to become Capo Dei Capi was seemingly going to be better and help solve the issues in the 5th state. But before that occurred, they needed a better Capo in the Catelli Famiglia, which meant Deno had to take his father’s place.

And Deno wouldn’t kill his father.

So Aliyana decided that she would do it for him unfortunately for her she wanted to take the long way of doing things kidnapping first and then eventually figure out how she was gonna kill him but she needed Marcello to confess to killing his son. Trickery NEVER faired well. I don’t know if he did do it but a lot of the signs were there.

“Let's get some seats, I want to know all the details. If I am going to be helping, tell me what happened to the wolves?”

“They were poisoned.”

“I thought you were the only one who fed them?”

“I wasn’t always here so I made the guards put the food out before opening the den.”

“Did you smell anything after the bomb went off, maybe sour almonds?”

“I have no idea what sour almonds smell like.”

“Like a graveyard!”

“No.”

Dexter walks toward us, he is still the same boy, minus the limp, I still can’t understand what happened between Kylie and him apart from the fact my sister certainly had no taste in the male species. But in the past when I mentioned it, she always reminded me of my singular status.

Aliyana is rather comfortable when he wraps her in his arms. I take the moment to look at Leonardo who has since moved. He looked like he was ready to leave and so was the police and fire department.

“What did I miss?”

“We were discussing chemical bombs and sour almonds.”David chips.

“It wasn’t a chemical bomb, the explosive was loud, short and its impact short-ranged. So I am taking it as gunpowder. Home-made. Maybe a bit of skill to set the detonator, but nothing that pinpoints a professional.”

Dexter Kent's observation is spot on, if he weren’t with my father tonight, I would have considered him a suspect but then again, he had nothing to gain by the death of Aliyana and everything to gain from her survival.

She was the one person who could conceivably get his family out of a treaty they signed centuries ago. The Kent family was in a service debt with the Delroy family. Both were powerful in their own right, but none willing to do what needed to be done and let the past stay lost in the past.

I didn't fault him for his choices.

“How is it touching her so much about bombs?” I ask him. His knowledge about the dark is out of this world and has always boggled my mind, considering he was a fraction of my age.