“It’s time.” I can almost see the stress leaving my wife’s body as she utters those words. With a soft smile, she leaves my side, walking to the area in the middle of the room that has been set up for Saverio. A large plastic sheet covers the stained asphalt, and a hard wooden chair with slats awaits his reckless ass.
The warehouse doors open, and Catarina’s men escort a hooded Saverio into the space. Six of them surround him, shoving and pushing him forward. His hands are cuffed behind his back as he stumbles into the warehouse. He attempts to shout, but his words are muffled behind whatever they have stuffed in his mouth. Venom burns brightly in my wife’s eyes as she watches her men thrust Salerno into the chair and cuff his wrists and ankles to it.
Catarina whips the black covering off his head, and the Vegas don squints as his eyes adjust to the dim lighting. I haven’t seen him in years, and he has really let himself go. His beer gut protrudes noticeably over the waistband of his pants. Fleshy arms and meaty legs attest to an unhealthy diet and steady intake of beer. His puffy face makes the scar running along one side seem less noticeable. The poor dye job can’t conceal his thin graying hair, leathery pockmarked skin, and yellowed teeth.
He looks old. Worn out. Strung out. Way past his prime.
It's no wonder he has been begging Alessandro to take the helm in Vegas. Even if my wife wasn’t planning to snuff out his life today, it’s clear Saverio Salerno’s days as a don are truly numbered.
Hard bloodshot eyes narrow on my wife as his vision focuses. “You set the Russians on me, you little bitch! You let them take my territory and steal your sister’s inheritance! This is what you were planning all along!” he accuses.
I hold up a hand before Catarina speaks. “Everyone out except the inner circle,” I holler. We don’t need witnesses to exactly what is said or what goes down today. Our men are loyal, but everyone can be bought. The Commission would expect Catarina to hand Salerno over to them to deal with. Killing a don is not a simple matter in our world. Having justification is not always reason enough to warrant any other don or donna taking matters into their own hands. Which is why we need to stage this as the handiwork of the Bratva. The fewer who know exactly how this goes down, the better.
Rina says something to Nicolina before calling Ricardo over. Nicolina raises zero protest, allowing Ric to escort her from the premises. We wait as thesoldatiand capos in the room filter outside to patrol the grounds.
Rina stuffs the gag back in Saverio’s mouth when he starts shouting shit, only removing it when the warehouse is empty of everyone except for us and Rina’s inner circle. I don’t like that Renzo is here, but we can’t kick him out without igniting his rage. He’s a pressure cooker ready to explode, and I won’t force him into making an unwise move. Until we know exactly what the guy is up to, keeping him close is the smartest play.
“You can’t kill me.” Saverio puffs out his chest. “The Commission will have your head for it, and Anais will never forgive you.”
He’s such a moron. It’s kill or be killed, and he overestimates his perceived value. His coming for Catarina left my wife with no choice. Salerno knows this. He also knows he would be severely outnumbered coming here. Maybe he thought he’d be handed over to The Commission and his past with Don Mazzone would buy him his life. Or maybe he wants to die. Looking at his tired, useless, old body, it’s not that hard to believe.
“No one will know it was me.” She walks around him, her gaze raking over him with evident disgust. “The blame will land squarely on the Russians’ door.”
“You always were an ungrateful cunt. After everything I did for you!”
Rina punches him in the face, and his head snaps back at an awkward angle. “You did shit for me, and you know it. You used me as a nanny for Anais until jealousy meant you gave me away. You served me up to that pig Conti knowing what he would do to me.” She punches him in the gut this time, leveling a succession of precise blows to his solar plexus and his ribs.
Saverio pins her with an ugly grin as air oozes from his mouth and he struggles to breathe. “Does your new husband know who you are?” A malevolent glint appears in his eyes as he stares at me. “Does he know you—”
Catarina shoves the gag back in his mouth, silencing him. She turns around and walks over to me. “I need to be the one to tell you. He will only twist the truth and try to cause trouble between us.” Her eyes are shielding nothing from me, and I know she’s sincere.
“It’s okay.” I kiss her quick. “I trust you. I only want to hear it from your mouth.”
Relieved, she squeezes my arm before returning to her stepfather. “I wish I had more time to torture you, but you’re insignificant,” she says, cutting the shirt off his bulging belly with her knife. Buttons pop all over the ground, and the plastic squelches as she walks around him, making quick successive shallow lacerations across his body. “You mean nothing to me, and the only person who will miss you is Anais, but I plan to rectify that. She needs to know everything, and I will tell her. In time, she’ll hate you too. She will join me in dancing on your grave and celebrating your death.”
My wife is delusional if she truly believes that will come to pass. I don’t need to know Anais well to know she will never be swayed. I can’t fault Rina her loyalty to her sister even if Anais in no way deserves it. I worry about the fallout, but that’s a worry to set aside for another day. There are more pressing demands, like making sure the Russians go down for this and The Commission buys it without any suspicion. Nothing can come back on Rina. I will ensure it—even if I have to sacrifice my integrity or my life to make it happen.
No one dares to speak as we let her expunge these particular demons. Every expression contains relief as she cuts away at him while tears leak from his eyes and muffled shouts resound behind the gag. He pisses himself through his pants, and Fiero and I share a look. It’s a pitiful way for a don to bow out of this life, but Saverio’s poor choices have led to this moment, and he is entirely to blame.
Rina cuts away his urine-soaked pants, leaving him completely exposed. His withered dick flops between fleshy thighs, and he’s a hideous sight. Trapped anguish struggles to find an outlet when Rina slides her knife into his ass through the slats of the chair, fucking him with the sharp blade. “This isn’t even close to the pain I felt when Paulo and his men repeatedly violated me.” Blood pools on the plastic sheet behind him, and more spills from his front when Rina carves a deep hole in his stomach.
“Wow, she’s not holding back,” Fiero murmurs under his breath as Rina twists the knife in deep, rotating it around his stomach, tearing his flesh to shreds. “She is level-headed and focused under pressure. How she dealt with things when we were ambushed seriously impressed me. She is one hell of a woman.”
“My wife is a queen. The one true mafia queen. And she’smine.” I drill him with a deadly look, warning him to keep his thoughts strictly limited to professional respect.
He smirks, leaning in to whisper in my ear. “I’m still down for sharing.”
“In your fucking dreams, asshole.” I shove him away as he chuckles and refocus on the scene in front of us.
Catarina’s hand is steady as she stabs Saverio in the thighs, purposely avoiding the arteries. “My mother was a selfish bitch, but she was still my mother,” she says, withdrawing the knife only to shove it back in again. Blood oozes from several places, and he won’t have much longer left to live. “This is for killing her when she dared to criticize you for moving your whores into her home.” She goes to town on him then, stabbing him all over until the light dies in his eyes and his head lolls forward.
“You have done enough, my donna.” Renzo squeezes her shoulder, and I instantly want to rip his arm from his body so he can’t touch her ever again. “Let me handle the rest.”
I storm across the space. “Get your hand off my wife,” I snarl as I approach.
Renzo withdraws his hand and glowers at me.
“Touch her again, and you’re dead.”
