“Remo,” Lorenzo began, visibly torn between stopping me and easing Rayden’s anger.
“Don’t worry, brother, I got this.” I winked and walked away before he could stop me. Outside, I paused on the stone steps leading up to the mansion, raised my face to the sky and took a deep breath.
Someone would die tonight. How, remained to be seen. As that thought crested, I moved toward the parked vehicles.
“Where to, boss?” Gian appeared from behind the car and opened the door for me.
“When did you get here?”
He shrugged. “I never left.”
When he arrived in New York, Dario’s mother made him promise that his younger brother wouldn’t be left alone in city and why he’d moved into Dario’s cottage on the estate.
I studied his way too innocent face for a silent moment, half inclined to tell him he should find another job.
“The chicken broth worked didn’t it, you healed much faster drinking it almost every day,” he said before I could open my mouth.
I dipped my head. As a fucker of note, saying thank you didn’t come easy to me. “Yeah, thanks.”
“Don’t bench me, boss,” his plea pulled my gaze. “I need to learn shit, and I prefer doing it with you.”
I scraped a hand along my jaw. “Fine.”
“Home?” he asked, referring to then city penthouse and I could’ve sworn the fucker was trying hard not to smile.
I nodded. A shower would relax me, because Lord fucking knew, I needed calm before I tortured those fuckers. Otherwise, it would end before it began.
seventeen
. . .
Remo– 36 years old
The spray pounded my back, scalding, intense and exactly what I needed to rationalize, not like that would help those fuckers in any way or form because my hunger for blood was never-ending.
Done, I dressed in a black button down, white sports suit and loaded my stomach with a green smoothie. Outside, the city hummed, blissfully unaware of the devil in the dark SUV. Above us, light clouds turned grey, a portent of death itself.
After walking out on Lorenzo and Rayden, I was expecting my brother’s call. “Let me handle this,” he suggested, his voice tight with restraint whenever he tried to control my temper.
“No.”
“Fuck, Remo, you’re just being stubborn as usual.”
I never claimed to be a saint so exterminating someone for harming my family was non-negotiable. “What you don’t understand, brother is that killing over personal grudges is rivalry, killing for others is rebellion yet both quench the thirst for justice. Don’t you think?”
He muttered something I couldn’t hear then sighed out loudly. “Just get them to talk and don’t do anything irrational.”
“I never do.” I grinned, cutting the call as the SUV drew to a stop outside the solid wall of a tall black gate. “Hmm, no guards. Not very clever, Helena.” That meant she wasn’t expecting more company other than who she invited.
Gian glanced at me over his shoulder. “Should I ram it?”
“No. If I know her well, the cameras will be off, and no one will be watching the security monitors. She always keeps minimal guards during her infamous socials.” The odds were in my favor. “Perfect.” I gave him a code to enter into the little black box on the driver’s side. When the gate slowly rolled back, I grinned. “Dumb bitch should’ve changed the code.”
Outside the double-story building, I climbed out the SUV, buttoned my jacket and stared up at the dark sky. Lorenzo’s instructions to get the fuckers to talk, lost its resonance two seconds after his order.
“Seems like a good night to spill blood.” I muttered as Gian came around the vehicle to my side.
“Should I stay here.”
