Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 94720 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 474(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 316(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94720 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 474(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 316(@300wpm)
Giuseppe’s eyes widened on him, then me.
I nodded. “It’s true. You’re the only one left alive.”
“My. . .” His chest heaved.
“Your what? Your legacy? Your empire? Your plans to expand?” I asked. “You should have probably thought about that before you killed your sons’ mother, sold Lenora’s horse, and used her mother as a bargaining chip.”
“No.” His eyes widened like he was just now realizing that his death wasn’t just about his physical self being extinguished.
“Yes,” I said. “Of course, we won’t know what the future brings. Maybe Lenora will want to keep your estate in the old country. Maybe we’ll take our kids there one day.”
His eyes, already wide, seemed to double in size. Tears swam in them. He didn’t speak, so I continued on. Emotional warfare was the worst kind of torture. To Giuseppe, that meant using his possessions against him.
“That’s right. Someday, maybe someday soon, I’m going to marry your daughter,” I said. “We’ll have little blue-eyed or brown-eyed babies running around, and you’ll never get a chance to meet them. How sad for you.”
He opened his mouth, his lip wobbling. “She’ll hate you. After tonight, when you go to her, she’ll turn you away.”
“Maybe, maybe not. Maybe I won’t give her a choice.” I got in his face again. Now I was just talking shit, but he didn’t know that. If he thought I was a monster, if he thought we were similar, I’d use that. “Maybe I’ll force her to marry me. She already gave me her virginity, after all, it won’t be so difficult.”
He spit in my face and started swearing in Italian. I had no fucking idea what he was saying. I caught one or two stronzos in there, but that was about it. I wiped my face with the back of my arm and smiled at him.
“You’re lying.”
“Am I?” I laughed. “Do you want me to call your precious Principessa? Do you want to ask her how many times I fucked her?”
He shook violently against the chains, a wet squeal coming from his throat.
“It’s okay, Giuseppe,” I said. “I’m not a monster like you, and because of that, I’ll give you this one thing before I kill you: Your sons will be fine. Rosie will be fine. And I don’t care what it takes, but I’ll make sure that your daughter will be fine, because I love her. I mean that.”
I paused for a moment. His gaze grew clearer and his rage began to fade away. With the blade in my hand, I struck him on the right side of his chest, pushing the knife in until I knew it had reached his liver. Withdrawing the blade, I jabbed it into his leg, piercing the femoral artery. I took a few steps backward and watched as the red liquid seeped from his body. No amount of blood he shed would ever make up for all of the pain he’d caused. I let the knife fall from my hand as I walked away, still watching the life drain out of him. The chains rattled as he shook uncontrollably. When his head fell forward and the shaking stopped, I pulled the lever, watching as the water and blood flowed down the drains underneath him. I switched it off, walked over, picked up my newly cleaned knife, and tossed it into the bucket of disinfectant. While I washed my hands and arms, Dean set the phone to his ear and said a few words before putting it away. Calling the cleaners, no doubt. They’d take Giuseppe’s body to the crematorium and clean up this mess.
“Why do you do that?” Gio asked, the first words that had come out of any of them since Loren responded to Giuseppe earlier.
“Do what?” I threw my gloves and the paper towel I’d dried my hands with in the trash — more things that would be burned tonight.
“Disinfect the knife every time.” He nodded at the bucket. “You’re killing them anyway. What’s the point?”
“I don’t know, Giovanni, maybe because I’m not a dirty fuck.” I picked up my jacket and walked over to where they stood.
“Well I, for one, give this performance an eight out of ten,” Loren said.
“Seven out of ten,” Dean said.
“Nine out of ten, Gio said. “And half a point for the disinfectant.”
I shook my head but couldn’t fight my smile. They were fucking morons, but I loved them. Outside, we rolled down the door and Dean took out his pack of cigarettes. I took one from him. I never smoked cigarettes. It was either cigars or joints for me, but tonight called for a cigarette. Gio and Loren also took one. The four of us leaned against the wall as we smoked. Mikey took Gabe and Lenora to my house, but I wasn’t sure if they were still there. For all I knew, they’d be at Dom’s house by now.