And I did it until he awoke screaming from the pain.
Then, I kicked him over until I saw his face and I felt white-hot rage fill me.
“TRAITOR,” I hurled at Dante Graziola.
His betrayal required more than a bullet.
I had tofeelhim die.
When I wrapped my hands around his throat, I lifted him using that hold and shoved him against the nearest wall so I could choke the life out of him.
“See you in hell, traitor.”
“Didn’t think you’d come after aputtana,” he barbed.
My hands tightened around his neck.
Spittle landed on me as he sought air, but I focused on the exploding capillaries in his sclera as he expired in front of me.
Then, cold reason set in.
And I hated myself for it.
I let him drop to the floor.
I kicked him in the gut, satisfied that I’d taken him to the brink when he didn’t stir.
“He’s dead?” Luc questioned, tone as sharp as the knives he’d used on our enemies tonight.
“Soon.” When he shot me a confused look, I cracked my knuckles and apologized, “We need to question him, Kitty. I have to know how he got you out of the house so that it can never happen again,bedda mia. Can you forgive me for not killing him yet?”
“He used chloroform,” she answered dully.
“But he, and whoever he’s working for, wiped out my security. That’s why it took us so long to mobilize. We didn’t even know you’d left the house involuntarily until I received a text from your number. I can’t think about returning there without knowing?—”
“Are you serious?”
“You don’t ever have to go back?—”
“Not that.” She shifted, and I knew she’d given more of her weight to Luc to bear. “Why did you think I’d disappear like that?”
“I saw that you’d… My knife. I thought you might have run away from me.”
“I was going to bite your head off,” she sniped, and the relief I felt at the resurgence of her temper almost made me lightheaded. “I?—”
“Is that a ‘V’?”
I blinked at the interruption. “Now’s not the time, Luc!”
He pointed at Dante. “Did you do that, Kitty?”
“What?” Frowning at the almost-corpse, I saw what he meant.Cristu, I’d barely noticed until he mentioned it. Then, I risked a look at Kitty, whose energy levels had flatlined again. “You cut a ‘V’ into his cheek,duci?”
If I’d been proud before, that was nothing to now.
“Stan, I want to go,” she warbled, eyes darting around the room, looking at anything but the wound she’d inflicted on her attacker. “I-I don’t feel so good.”
Luc automatically dragged her into his side and propped her up, but I didn’t want his hands on her. I practically leaped across the room to snag her from his grasp then lifted her against my chest so that she was safe in my embrace.
