Guns n' Boys Book 1 Part 1 by K.A. Merikan

his
suit jacket and the tight ponytail of pitch-black hair, but Domenico wasn’t
alone. Holding onto his arm was a slim woman in a black veil so thick, Seth
couldn’t recognize her face.
    Thanks to his dark
sunglasses, Seth could actually stare. Looking at Domenico in that black suit
and knowing what he’d done at the airport, Seth began to think that he should
have been named Demonico . As destructively attractive as Domenico was,
Seth had to remember to keep his distance, or he would reveal himself. If
Domenico knew Seth was gay, that he’d smelled his hair when he was drunk
yesterday, he’d go mental. Men killed for these things in the Family. He had goosebumps
at the memory of little Mimmo trying to gut him with a kitchen knife. He
vaguely remembered crying himself to sleep and his mother coming over several
times a night to check on him.
    The adult Domenico stood
in place like an incredibly shapely statue, solid and dark even as the light
became paler. Seth blinked and looked up at the gray edges of a thick cloud
that blocked the sun and now loomed over the church like a bad omen.
    The lady in the black
veil leaned over to Domenico and they whispered to each other. Everyone seemed
to have some business here, to know exactly what they were doing. Only Seth was
lost in a sea of vultures in black, all circling around him and watching closely.
Just as the coffin appeared at the door of the church, the first droplets of
water fell on Seth’s sunglasses. There was discontented whispering in the
background, but he only had eyes for the wooden box that would be Mother’s
final resting place. The lady in black started slowly walking toward the grave,
her veil floating with the wind as Domenico watched over her in silence.
    The vultures opened
their umbrellas, and the massive one Domenico opened for the lady beside him
reminded Seth of a protective wing. It was strange to see the demon being nice
to someone for a change. Domenico was so calm and collected as well, nothing
like the little bratty, screaming Mimmo, who would always burst out in anger,
as if afraid he would burn up if he didn’t let it out. The knife attack hadn’t
come out of the blue. Okay, maybe Seth wasn’t the nicest kid around and had
teased Mimmo for his long hair, but they were kids, kids did that kind of shit.
Domenico’s hair had been even longer back then, dark and thick, like a girl’s.
He used to be thin, gangly, and so much weaker and smaller than Seth. An easy
target. But Seth would have never even considered the option of the other boy
actually fighting back with so much violence. God, had he been wrong.
    The funeral rites seemed
to happen beyond Seth’s attention as he looked at the endless spray of water
first dotting, then dripping down the coffin as it was lowered into the soil.
He snapped out of it when a pile of wet dirt landed right on the cross on the
casket lid. Father slowly got up and cleaned his hand with a linen
handkerchief, safe and dry under an umbrella held by one of his men.
    That was it for Seth. “I
need to spend some time in the church,” he whispered to Father, who nodded and
for a moment, the heavy weight of his hand on Seth’s shoulder was almost
comforting.
    “Prayer helps.” Father
slowly looked toward the sea. “Your car will be waiting outside, take as long
as you need,” he said as the stream of mourners made their way toward the
parking lot.
    Seth nodded and went to
the church. The only reason he chose to take an umbrella was so the gun his
father gave him wouldn’t get wet. The church was quiet and empty. Even the
priest wasn’t there, which was usual for Villani funerals, and there were many
of those. Seth sighed and sat down in the back, praying for the first time in
years. For his mother’s soul, for a safe future, for Peter’s forgiveness. Seth
couldn’t even call the poor guy for security reasons, and now that he knew they
would probably never see each other again, guilt was weighing on his