Rodrigo raised his gun, the barrel aimed directly at Vincenzo's forehead.
"Wait." The word left Giana's mouth before he could squeeze the trigger. Rodrigo's dark eyes flicked to her, questioning. "I want to talk to him first,amore mio."
A muscle ticked in Rodrigo's jaw. She could see the desire in his eyes to end the man who hurt her, fighting with the need to give her whatever she asked.
He lowered his weapon. "Anything for you."
"How sweet," Vincenzo crooned. "She must have an amazing pussy to have leashedIl Mostroso effectively."
Rodrigo's fist lashed out, and Vincenzo's nose broke with a crunch of bone and blood. Giana tsked, but Rodrigo just gave her a look that said,He's lucky I love you.
Giana stepped forward, her boots silent on the old carpet. She stopped three feet from Vincenzo's chair, close enough to see the burst blood vessels in his eyes and the ring on his right hand, a band of black iron set with a fire opal that seemed to pulse with an inner light. The fingers beneath it were blackened and blistered, the skin cracked and weeping.
"The djinn ring," she said, gesturing to it. "Serapis taught you to use it, or did he only use you as a vessel during the attack?"
Vincenzo laughed, a wet, broken sound. "Used me. Burned through me. Left me to cook from the inside out while he played his games with you." He held up his ruined hand, the movement making him wince. "Can't get it off. The fucking thing is fused tome, and every time I try to remove it, the djinn screams. I can hear its voice in my head now, even in my dreams."
Giana felt no pity or satisfaction at his suffering. Just a cold hatred. "Do you know what I've been doing for the past twenty-seven hours, Vincenzo?"
He squinted at her with bloodshot eyes. "Fucking Rodrigo and his brothers, I assume. One big Colleoni gang bang."
Behind her, Dario made a disgusted sound. "I swear it's like he wants us to flay him at the gates. Do you still have Mama's filleting knife, Rodrigo?"
"I got one in the car if you need it," Athena said cheerfully.
Giana grinned and turned back to Vincenzo. "I've been dismantling everything you have and what you thought you would become."
She began to pace, circling his chair in measured steps.
"Your accounts, including the ones in the Caymans you thought no one knew about, have been emptied. The funds have been redistributed to your victims. The families of the men you had killed and the businesses you extorted. The women you…" She paused, let the silence fill with implication. "Well, they've been compensated and then some."
Vincenzo's face went pale beneath the flush of alcohol. "You were the one who did this to me…"
"As for your allies," Giana continued, "they have received detailed documentation of every time you betrayed them. Every deal you broke. Every promise you made and discarded when it suited you. The Calabrians know about the shipment you intercepted. The Neapolitans know about the informant you planted. The Sicilian families know everything."
"You're lying." His voice cracked.
"Am I? Check your phone. Oh, wait, you can't. I bricked it. But I'm sure you've noticed how quiet it's been. How none of your 'friends' have returned your calls?"
She stopped in front of him, looking down at the wreck of a man who had once made her feel so powerless.
"The Falcone family's legacy, your grandfather's work, your father's sacrifices, everything they built, I've sent the documentation to Interpol, the Guardia di Finanza, and three rival families who have been waiting for an excuse to move on your territory. By this time tomorrow, the Falcone name will be synonymous with failure."
Vincenzo lurched forward in his chair, whiskey sloshing. "You bitch…"
"I'm not finished." The ice in Giana's voice had him pulling back. "The recordings of every conversation you've had on a compromised line for the past three months. Your tantrums. Your threats. That charming little speech you gave about how you were going to 'break' me… I've distributed them across every underworld network I could access. By now, half of Europe has heard you crying to your mother about how Rodrigo Colleoni stole me away and that he was going to try and kill you."
Vincenzo's face contorted with rage and humiliation. He tried to rise, but his legs gave out, dumping him back into the chair.
Giana straightened, looking down at him with nothing but contempt.
"You wanted to own me and to reduce me to a bargaining chip, a trophy, athing. Instead, all you gave me was the motivation to destroy everything you are. I'm not going to kill you, Vincenzo. That would be too quick. Too merciful."
She walked toward Rodrigo, toward the door, toward the life waiting for her outside this rotting mausoleum.
"Your debtors know where you are, and your enemies know you're defenseless. The people you've wronged know you're all alone." She paused at the threshold, not bothering to look back. "I'm leaving you to them."
Rodrigo stepped forward before she could exit, his gun still in hand. "One more thing before we leave you to the wolves. Where is Serapis?"
