Page 39 of Read This Before the Villain falls in Love with You

Something cold settles into his eyes. "He tried to sell your name to Bellini to get leverage on us. And I brought you here so you see what I really am. No charming facade. No boardroom manners. Just cold, cruel reality."

The man on the floor whimpers. "Please. Leave my kids."

Luca pulls a heavy combat knife from his boot instead of checking his watch, the steel glinting under the pale lights. My stomach lurches into my throat as my pulse hammers hard.

"Kids," I repeat, my throat tight, hating the raw vulnerability in my tone. "Jesus fucking Christ, Luca."

He steps forward and plants a heavy boot onto the informant's right hand, pinning his fingers against the rough floor. "Treason wipes out the whole bloodline."

With three swift, sickening hacks of the blade, Luca severs three fingers clean off the man's hand. Blood squirts across the stone, and the man lets out a high, shredded shriek that bounces off the steel rafters.

"You don't have to do this in front of her," Matteo mutters, suddenly less comic. "She's going green."

Luca doesn't blink, boots planted against the concrete. "She stays. She asked for the truth. This is it."

I dig my fingernails into my palms until the skin protests. "I asked for an itinerary. A heads-up. An email invite with an RSVP option so I could respectfully decline."

The kneeling man curls over his spurting hand, sobbing and choking on his own blood while his wife shrieks beside him. Luca wipes the red blade on his dark trousers, draws his pistol from under his jacket, and without a pause fires once into the man's forehead.

The gunshot cracks the air open. Blood and skull fragments spray backward across the concrete. The informant drops sideways, his body twitching once before going totally limp. Beside him, his wife and two young children scream in raw terror, thrashing frantically against their plastic ties as warm blood spatters their faces.

My ears ring violently. Before I can draw breath to yell, Luca steps right up to the weeping woman. She is screaming hysterically, begging for her babies in choked Italian. Luca doesn't hesitate for a second. He raises the pistol and fires straight into her chest, then puts a cold second bullet through her temple.

She collapses in a heap, blood pumping fast across the floor into a widening red slick. The two children shriek, crawling backward on their knees through their mother's blood, the little boy crying out in absolute agony as his pants soak in his own terrified urine.

I lunge forward, but Matteo catches my arm and holds me back with rigid force. "Luca, stop! They're just little kids!"

Luca steps forward and grabs the young boy by his hair, pulling his head back hard. He fires once into his forehead, dropping him instantly. Without even pausing to breathe, he turns the gun on the little girl cowering on the concrete and pulls the trigger. The blast shatters the quiet, leaving the entire family dead in a pool of dark blood.

"Fuck!" I choke out, my knees turning to jelly as the stench of copper, gunpowder, and voided bowels hits my throat. "Fuck! You just butchered a whole family! You killed babies! You're a fucking monster!"

Luca lowers the smoking gun. His face remains dead blank, though blood mist dots his cheek and cuffs. "Treason has no heirs. This is how we survive."

I take a wild step toward him. "Survive? That was a human being on his knees begging for his life. You didn't even let his kids go, you bastard."

Matteo whistles low. "She's taking it great. Super calm. Take notes mate."

I swing around to glare at him. "Shut the fuck up, Matteo. Or I will grab that gun myself, and I promise you my aim is highly emotional."

He holds up both hands, stepping back. "Noted. Emotional aim. Terrifying. I'm out."

Luca holsters the weapon and turns fully toward me. Blood mist dotted the cuff of his shirt. "You wanted to know what I am. Now you do."

"That was not on the company brochure," I whisper, the edges of my vision blurring before snapping back into harsh, sharp focus. "You left off the part where you execute people before morning coffee."

Luca wipes a smear of dark grime from his knuckles with the pad of his thumb. "The coffee comes after."

"I wanted to know the man who kissed me like the world was ending," I scream, heat rushing to my face as anger and sheer revulsion twist together. "Not the cold-blooded monster who turns a warehouse into a slaughterhouse."

His eyes go cold. "They're the same man. You don't get one without the other."

I swallow hard, shoving my shaking hands deep into my pockets so they don't see me unraveling. "Is this a regular occurrence, or did I just get the premium fucking package?"

Luca studies me for a long second. "You can hate me for it. Most people do."

"I don't hate you," I admit, the honesty coating my throat like bile. "I hate that a sick part of me already knew who you were and still got in the car. I hate that watching you pull that trigger felt like the cell door locking behind me for fucking real."

Matteo clears his throat from a safe distance, rocking back on his heels. "So... the cleanup crew is ten minutes out. Do we do the awkward silence now or the group hug? I am flexible."