“So you admit it? You sent those guys to the farmhouse to kill Flo?” Jace folded his arms over his chest, scowling down at our prisoner. “Why go after the rest of us? Why have Billie stabbed in the belly?”
Tom’s sneered. “In the fake belly, you mean? I wanted to offer my allies a gift by killing the Ricci heir, and it turned out the baby never fucking existed.”
“Your allies,” I murmured. “You mean the Altissimos.”
“I think we’ve already well established that’s who I was working with, yes.” Tom clearly wanted to kill us all, but bound to the chair as he was, he’d already accepted defeat.
Jace made a frustrated sound. “Why kill Flo? You already had a ton of debt against her name; she was worse than broke. What the fuck did you gain from killing her?”
Tom’s lips locked up tight, and I smiled. Thankfuck, I thought he was just going to sit there and spill his guts without letting me rough him up.
Gleeful, I grabbed a pair of pliers from my drawer. “Teeth or toes?”
“Teeth,” Grayson rumbled without hesitation. “I’ll hold him still.”
“Wait! No! No, no no, I’ll talk! You don’t need to do that!” the spineless fuck exclaimed, shaking his head frantically. “Inheritance! Flo had money, lots of it; she just didn’t know about it. Technically, we were married, so I got it all when she died!”
“What money?” Grayson demanded, grabbing his jaw like he was preparing Tom for an unpleasant trip to the dentist.
“Sh-she didn’t know,” he babbled again. “Her grandmother died the day you all went to the farmhouse. I was at her place and took the call. She was left millions in the family estate.”
Jesus. Poor girl. I’d barely known her, but shit… that was slimy.
“Hold him,” I told Grayson, then forcefully ripped out two of Tom’s teeth anyway. Because he fucking deserved it.
For several moments, the asshole just screamed and wailed, sobbing abouthispain like he hadn’t tried to murder my unborn baby—fake or not. To shut him up, I circled the chair and took three fingernails with my pliers, causing him to pass out.
“Good call,” Jace commented with a grimace, rubbing his ear. “Do we care about the rest of the information? How he conned Flo into marrying him? Any of that? Because I kind of think it doesn’t matter now. Not now that she’s dead.”
“Agreed.” Grayson nodded.
I shrugged. “Fine by me.” Then I pulled out my gun to finish the spineless prick.
“Wait!” Billie’s sweet voice exclaimed, freezing me in place. “You can’t kill him.”
I frowned, turning to glare at her. “Bella, baby, I love you. But this is why I didn’t want you here. I know that you have a good heart, but—”
“I didn’t meankeep him alive, you condescending ass. I meant you can’t kill himyet. He needs to sign over all of Flo’s royalties and shit to you guys before he dies, otherwise they’ll pass to whatever greedy bottom-feeder is Tom’s next of kin.” She propped her hands on her hips, giving me a fierce scowl.
That… made me pause.
“She’s got a good point,” Giana agreed, shooting me a hard look.
“Sorry, Bella,” I mumbled. “I jumped to conclusions. Thatisa good point. How quickly can we get legal paperwork drawn up and then notarized?”
Jace already had his phone in hand. “I’m getting Brenda now; I bet she already has something drawn up that will only need a few edits.”
“I can help on the notary,” Vee offered with a grin.
Grayson gave a rumbling laugh. “Of course you can. I’ll hang here with Angelo to keep our little friend company while you get that contract, Jace.”
Everyone jumped into motion, and Grayson and I spent the next few hours reminiscing about old times together. Old times of just a few months ago, torturing assholes until we had squeezed every last thing we wanted to hear, true or not, from their sorry sacks of skin.
After Jace returned, Tom barely remained conscious long enough to sign his name, let alone try to escape. Vee had called in her favor with a notary who “witnessed” the signature and rubber stamped the papers on the spot. Sometimes it paid to be a gorgeous, ruthless mafia queen.
I waited until we heard the car drive away, then brought my gun back to Tom’s forehead.
“No, not you,” Vee barked, gently moving my gun away and nudging me to step back. “Let Billie do it.”
