“Be ready,” I murmured. “It gets worse.”
He believed me. I saw it, saw his mouth open, ready to beg. Instead, blood trickled pathetically down his chin.
“Were your sons in on it?” I asked. “Did you teach them to be Moretti traitors, just like you?”
His lips trembled.
“Don’t hurt me, please-” he gasped.
I leaned closer. Close enough for him to feel my calmness. The control was in my hands. The certainty of his death loomed before Salvatore Caruso, and I could tell he knew it was too late as blood pooled on the floor beneath him. His wife and daughter were screaming and sobbing, but his sons remained silent.Complicit.
“You’re already dead, Caruso,” I said softly. “What you decide now just determines which bodies I’ll transport out of here tonight. If your sons are innocent, I’ll take your wife and daughter. If they aren’t… I’ll take them, and spare the women.”
A tear slipped from the corner of Caruso’s eye. Pathetic. Every man was when the moment of death finally came knocking, and I fucking loved delivering it.
Caruso broke quickly after that.
They usually did when you threatened them with their family dying.
“My s-sons,” he choked out. “My sons worked with me. I’m sorry, Leo-”
“What makes you think,” I said calmly. “That we’re still on a first name basis?”
“Mi scusi,” he sobbed. “My sons are guilty, but, please… Please spare my wife… my daughter…”
“Papa, no!” one of his sons screamed, but Sergio quickly put a hand over his mouth.
When the poison started shutting things down, I adjusted my grip on the soon-to-be corpse of Salvatore Caruso.
A little pressure on his chest, to delay the inevitable. Just enough to keep him conscious. Just enough to make it last, so I couldreallywatch him suffer.
His nails scraped weakly against the floor, leaving faint marks in the polished hardwood. His voice dissolved into broken sounds, no longer words, just nonsense.
“Please,” he managed coherently, only once.
I almost smiled. “Too late for sorries, Caruso. Thank you for your service to the Moretti Famiglia. May you rot in hell. Say fuck you to my father for me, would you?”
AfterSalvatore,hissonsdied. We didn’t make the mother and sister watch. I still had some compassion left, despite the rumors that I was a monster.
Once the restaurant was cleaned up and the bodies disposed of, I sat in the car driving back home to Chiara. My mind was still on the news that dreadful lawyer had delivered. How would Chiara take it?
On one hand, I couldn’t wait to rub it in her face. I relished the thought of her shock and resistance. And yet, I worried what it meant for my captive. I wanted her to come to me willingly, and this unwelcome complication would make that harder.
I could have had a woman spreading her legs for me in minutes. But I chose the hard route, with Chiara. Because I couldn’t deny the spell she’d put me under the first time we met. I still remembered the sight of her in her family’s estate gardens. So scared, so needy for me to rescue her.
At first, I thought she’d be more willing. If nothing else, because of her fear of the infamous Serpent. But I enjoyed her fight. I just knew her defiance was now a ticking time bomb.
A year. That was all my father gave me, before I lost the empire I built, and he took credit for. Twelve months to produce an heir before the vultures started circling what was rightfully mine.
Once I got back home, I slammed the office door harder than necessary, the sound echoing down the empty hallway.
The old man knew exactly what he was doing.
He didn’t give me enough time to be patient. Not enough time to make a family happen the way I wanted.
My jaw tightened as I crossed the penthouse in long strides, the city lights bleeding through the glass like something distant and irrelevant.
Chiara had been a distraction. An indulgence. Something to break slowly, with care.
