Chapter37
Enzio
My mother’s funeral was royal. I linked arms with Bianca and joined the host of mourners. Dons of the five families and their capi and soldiers filled the church and the cemetery. Lanzas flew from Italy to attend and pay their respect.
Men and women gathered around us, giving their condolences. Then the Dons and I had a quick meeting in the mansion main lounge.
When I returned to my wife, the sun had gone down, and she was holding our baby, her eyes distant. “I haven’t seen Vincenzo all day. Do you know where he is?”
I’d been waiting for her to ask. “Leave the baby and come with me.”
She blinked, and then her eyes wandered warily around her. “What’s going on?”
I cocked a brow at Mario in warning, but she wouldn’t budge. I took him from her arms and gave him to the nanny. “Make sure he doesn’t miss his bedtime. We might be late.” Grabbing Bianca’s cold, shaking hand, I made a beeline to the basement.
“Where are you taking me? What the hell is going on?” she yelled.
“Quiet.” I dragged her down the stairs and across the basement to an old cellar room no one entered but me.
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” Her fist wrapped around my wrist in a feeble attempt of pushing me away. “Let me go!”
I took out my knife, the sound slicing the air. “Why are you so scared?”
Her eyes widened at the blade. “Because you’re scaring me. You take my baby. You drag me here. You pull a fucking knife on me.”
On any other day, I’d have savored that beautiful agitated fear in her eyes, and I’d have gotten so hard I wouldn’t have waited a second before my cock was fucking her into oblivion. “It’s not for you.” The back of my hand slid down her cheek. “Not yet.”
“What do you mean not yet?”
I unlocked the deadbolt and pushed the thick door open. “Get inside.”
“No.”
My grip left her wrist and squeezed the back of her neck. “I have no time for this shit,” I said, shoving her inside.
She stumbled in as I shut the door. “Enzio, whatever you think—”
“I call this room The Chopping Block. Nobody enters it and gets out alive but me.”
Even in the dark, I could see her face blanching, drained of blood. “I’m not gonna die here, Enzio. If you think I’m just gonna let you—”
“Look to your left.”
Her gulp reached my ears from here. Slowly, her head moved to the side. “Oh my God. What did you do?”
I moved away from the door and ambled to where I kept my prey. A piece of a tree trunk big enough to tie a man like Vincenzo to. A human chopping block. My workspace. “I want you to watch.”
“Watch what?” she asked under her breath.
I laid my knife flat on Vincenzo’s forehead. He mumbled through his gag, shaking his head, sweat drops flying off his face.
“Watch what, Enzio?” she repeated.
My gaze locked with hers. “Me.”
A speck of real fear dilated her pupils as she shuddered. Good. She should be afraid. But it wasn’t just fear that was tingling through her body and sculpting her expression. There was something more. Bigger. Something she liked. Craved.
Something that drew me into her web the moment it flickered in her eyes.
