Page 64 of Wrong Pawn. Right Capo.

Francesco opens the door, stepping inside after me.

Enzo’s skin is pale, but he doesn’t look half as bad as I imagined. Though his lips are cracked, and his eyes are a bit sunken, there seems to be some strength in him as he sits upright with his bandaged shoulder and swollen foot.

I briefly wonder if he’s been told about his missing millions of dollars. Something pinches at my heart at the thought, but I quickly nudge it away.

“I need intel on Victor Caughn,” I deadpan, my arms crossed tightly over my chest. There’s no time for pleasantries.

“You treacherous bastard, you think I don’t know what you’ve done!? All you sabotaged just to get to the mafia? As if crippling us wasn’t enough…” He breaks into a violent fit of coughing.

“Easy. I don’t need you back in the ICU just yet.”

“…You’ve now crippled our finances. You bastard.”

I smirk, enjoying the look of despair on his face. “In fifty… maybe sixty years you can make back a quarter of what I took. But my family—my whole family—will never come back.”

He grinds his jaw, and I continue, but this time with a frown. “Justice has only partially been served. The scale is not even remotely balanced. Don’t fucking tempt me to balance it, Enzo.”

He stares at me for the longest moment, wheels turning in his head, before his shoulders slump.

“I said I’d help you find Valente, and you have. We have no further business with each other,” he grits.

A smile curls on my lips. If he’d started by giving me exactly what I wanted to hear, I’d have known he was lying.

“You’re right, but I have something you want, so it’s only right you give me something I need.”

Realization flickers across his face, immediately replaced by a ferocious snarl. If he could leap and tear at me, he’d have done so without hesitation.

“Don’t you dare hurt her.”

“Your next words determine that,” I snap impatiently. He shuts his eyes, breathing in deeply.

“I know nothing about the man,” he croaks. My fingers curl into fists, rage building in my chest. If he weren’t already hospitalized, I would have beaten the truth out of him myself.

Instead, I play the card I know he’ll always succumb to. Jerking my chin in a sharp signal, Francesco and I turn toward the door, but his frantic voice stops us.

“Wait!”

Of course, he thinks of Elena first. A strange, suffocating feeling rises in my chest at the realization that I’m using her as a pawn to get what I want, but it’s gone in a flash. She’s still leverage. And fuck, I’ll use every ounce of it.

“I heard something,” he says, his eyes heavy with a defeated look.

My brows knit together with anticipation.

“I heard some rumors from Valente. The ex-police commissioner had him holed up with his family in Utah for a while. If you speak to his family… they should be able to help.”

Finally, something worthwhile. I nod, turning around with Francesco on my heels.

Enzo rises after a few minutes of struggle. “Don’t hurt her, Bellandini.”

I don’t spare him a second glance. I’m already way past the door. But I do hear my own voice in my head. Rest assured, old man, I have no intention whatsoever to harm that pretty little flower.

And with that thought, my damn dick twitches as her image flashes in my mind. Seeing her bound to my bed, locked in my collar, snapped something feral within me. An irrational urge to possess her… to force her to submit until she understands exactly who owns her. And that makes me so fucking furious!

What the fuck’s gotten into you, Bellandini?!

“Francesco, what do you have on the ex-commissioner’s family?” I ask, in an attempt to distract myself from those pink nipples and the way her back arched for more when I teased her dripping sweet cunt with the vibrator.

“He had a wife and three daughters. Two of the girls are toddlers and one is fifteen.” That’s more than enough leverage. “But their location remains unknown.”