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“I’m guessing that’s how you got past Sephie. If you believe a lie enough, it appears to everyone else that you’re telling the truth,” Ivan said. “You honestly believe everything you say because you’re too stupid to know better.”
Armando turned to look at Ivan, a slow smile creeping across his bruised face. “No, I got past her because I was overly nice to her. Damaged ones like her cling to nice. Like they’re trying to prove to themselves that the world isn’t all bad. I could tell she was damaged right away. As soon as Anthony and the other boss’s sons started to treat her like a whore, she took it and never said a word. She’d been conditioned.”
Ivan backhanded Armando. “When are you going to learn that she’s not damaged?” he said. His anger clearly visible.
“She’s damaged. But I bet she’s amazing in bed. Damaged ones always are,” Armando said. This time, it was my fist that connected to his stomach. He coughed but didn’t stop smiling. “I knew it. That’s my one regret. That I couldn’t fuck her before you got to her. Is it true that redheads are better in bed? I’ve never had a redhead. I always wondered if that was true.”
“You wouldn’t have been able to sleep with her regardless of whether I showed back up or not,” I said. I knew he was trying to provoke my anger. I wasn’t going to let him.
“Oh, that’s where you’re wrong. She would talk to me after the meetings. I knew plenty about her before you showed up,” he said.
“And you don’t think she was smart enough to lie to your face about everything she told you?” I asked. He stopped for a moment, clearly confused at that possibility. “You didn’t get as far past her as you think you did, Armando Rossi.” As soon as I said his real name, he flinched.
“Didn’t know we knew about that, did you?” Stephen said. Armando stayed quiet. What had clearly been bravado when we first came into the room was now turning into fear about what else we knew.
“Sephie asked you who had been pulling your strings. You never answered her, but you told her everything she needed to know,” I said. “Does Ricardo tell you when you can eat and sleep too? Or just everything about business?” I paused, to see if he was going to respond. When he stayed quiet, I continued. “I started to suspect something was off with you when we were in Italy. No one can be as oblivious as you were about simple observations. For someone who is as successful as you are, you really had no clue what was going on or how to solve problems. That’s when I started to suspect there was something more to you.”
“That’s when you went back on the funding from the Naples project,” Armando said, piecing things together in his own mind.
“Why would I want to help fund a project with someone as inept as you in charge?” I asked. “Now, however, I realize that you were just trying to get me on projects that would tie me to Ricardo and Lorenzo. You think you could’ve controlled me by tying me to them, the same way they’ve been controlling you for years? You clearly don’t remember who I am.”
“You’re not so different from me. You were just born into a better family than I was. We’ve both done things we’re not proud of, but we had to do them to survive. Why should I have to suffer because I was born into a poor family? I did what I had to do. You’re no different,” Armando said.
“You’d like to think we’re not different, but that’s where you’re wrong. It makes you feel better to think that you’re more like me. It probably helps you sleep at night to think you’re like me,” I said, rolling up my sleeves as I was talking. “Me? I have no trouble sleeping at night.” I looked down at Armando, who was beginning to look worried as he watched me and listened to my words. “Would you like to know how I have no trouble sleeping at night?” I asked. I stood in front of him, my hands now in my pockets. “Because every single person I’ve killed deserved it beyond a shadow of a doubt,” I said as my fist connected with his jaw. “You think I’m weak because I wait to act, unlike my father. I watch. I observe. I collect information. Then I pass judgment. And it’s devastating. More devastating than the chaos my father would unleash. History will not remember you. Not as Armando Petrucci and not as Armando Rossi. It will be like you never existed.” I punched him in his stomach once more. I couldn’t get the image of Sephie with her hands tied behind her back in that room, with Armando standing in front of her out of my head. I’d seen the chains bolted to the floor, even though she was free of them, I knew he’d had her chained while he beat her. It was the only way he would be able to deliver that much damage without her defending herself. I’d seen the bruises on her ankles.
Armando coughed a few times as I punched him again. I stopped to let him catch his breath. I wanted to see what he would tell us about Ricardo and Lorenzo before I killed him. “What does Ricardo have over you? Is it his money you’ve been using all these years?” I asked. Armando stayed quiet as I walked away from him. I needed to put distance between us or I wasn’t going to stop. I stood and watched him as he tried to think through his options. “They’re not coming to save you. They don’t care about you. They’ve been using you to get what they want your entire life. You’re just a pawn,” I said. As I said that, he looked up at me. Got you.
I stood in silence for a moment longer, giving him the chance to speak. When he remained quiet, I laughed. “You really think they’re coming to save you? Sephie was right. You really are that dumb.”
The mention of Sephie thinking Armando was stupid was enough to get a reaction from him. He tried to get free from the chair he was strapped to, but to no avail.
“Oh, somebody doesn’t like it when a girl thinks he’s stupid,” Stephen said, looking at Ivan. “What do you think, Ivan? Mommy issues?”
“Definite mommy issues,” Ivan said. He took a step closer to Armando, bending down to look him in the eye. “What’s wrong, Armando? Did Mommy not breastfeed you?” Armando spat on Ivan but didn’t say a word. Ivan just laughed, wiped it off, and wiped it back on Armando. “Mommy definitely didn’t teach you manners,” he said, walking away from Armando.
“I bet Mommy was a drug addict, hmm? I bet she neglected you because she was too busy hooking for drug money and when she wasn’t fucking random dudes, she was probably so high she forgot she had a kid. How close am I?” Stephen said, a small smile on his face. The great thing about Stephen was his understanding of psychology. He only used it as a weapon when he got pushed past his point, which was incredibly rare, but he was well past his point when it came to what Armando did to Sephie. He knew how to mindfuck a person better than anyone else and he enjoyed doing it.
Armando started to struggle again, trying to get free, again to no avail. “That’s why you pick the women you pick. Sephie was only partially wrong when she said you had a savior complex. You do have a savior complex, but you’re also trying to recreate your mother in every girl you fuck. You get them hooked on drugs, so you can be their savior. But she was dead-on accurate about your superiority complex. When the initial high of fucking a new woman wears off, you either kill them or leave them as addicts, completely broken, because they disgust you. Just like mommy dearest. No wonder you need help sleeping at night,” Stephen said.
Armando was still struggling to get free, but now he began yelling in Italian incoherently as loud as he could. His face was a deep shade of red as his anger took over completely. Viktor didn’t say a word, he just took a bandana out, rolled it up, walked behind Armando, and gagged him with it. Because Armando’s arms were tied to the chair, he could do nothing but take it.
“Goddamn yelling. I can’t stand yelling. They were right. Your mother taught you zero manners while she was fucking the whole town,” Viktor said, walking back to the door of the room. Armando was still yelling, but now it was muffled by the wad of cloth shoved in his mouth, which admittedly was much nicer than having to listen to him screaming.
“Ricardo and Lorenzo probably knew all of this when they chose you,” I said. As soon as I said they had chosen him, he glared at me. “Oh, they definitely chose you, Mando. You see, you might still be under the impression that you were ‘choosing’ Sephie to be your next conquest, but it’s really been you all along. You’ve been a puppet your whole life. Sephie, on the other hand, well, not only has she survived every single horrid situation she’s been put in but she’s also made the perpetrator pay with his life. Don’t worry, you’re going to find this out firsthand soon enough,” I said. “You might think you’re above her, but it won’t feel like that when you’re dead and nobody remembers your name. And Sephie? She’s just getting started. The whole world will know her name.” I stood and watched as Armando struggled, still yelling, still angry beyond belief. I knew we’d found his weakness and I was planning on exploiting it even more. I wanted him to suffer as much as possible.
I turned to the guys, who were standing behind me. I said, in Russian, “I think we should leave him to his thoughts for the night.” They nodded in agreement. It had only been a little over an hour, but I was already missing Sephie. I needed to make sure she was okay. Viktor opened the door and walked out first, giving instructions to the guards.
On the elevator back to the penthouse, Stephen couldn’t help but laugh. “Well, that was way more informative than I thought it was going to be.” We all joined him in laughing because what else could we do in that situation. While there was a tiny part of me that might’ve felt bad for Armando under different circumstances, he sealed his fate when he took part in grabbing Sephie. He just made sure his death was going to be slow and painful when he decided to beat her.
We walked quietly back into the penthouse, assuming that Sephie would be asleep. The TV was on, which was a rare occurrence for us, and the three of them were somehow all lying on the couch together, with Sephie in the middle still wrapped up like a burrito in a blanket. She was sound asleep against Andrei, with his arm around her to keep her warm, and Misha laying in the opposite direction, holding onto her legs. I looked at them, clearly amused by the scene.
“She got really cold when you left. This was the only solution that kept her warm,” Andrei said. Misha slowly untangled himself from her legs. I watched him do it and still had no clue how he was lying the way he was and still able to watch the movie. Or how there was room on the couch for all three of them. Andrei and Misha were not small men.
“We offered to help her to bed when she started to get sleepy, but she didn’t want to be alone. She said she still didn’t trust that she wouldn’t start shaking,” Misha said.
“You don’t have to justify anything to me. That’s why I left you two with her,” I said, laughing quietly. I walked to the couch, looking down at her and Andrei, trying to weigh my options. It was not as easy to pick her up and carry her to bed now that she was hurt. Moving her was painful. I hated to wake her up, but I didn’t see a way around it given the way she’d fallen asleep against Andrei. I looked at him, saying, “Tighten your grip just a little, so she doesn’t move when she starts to wake up.” He nodded and I could see his arm flex around her. I knelt down in front of her, my hand against her cheek. “Sephie, I need you to wake up,” I said softly, my thumb rubbing her cheek lightly. She mumbled in her sleep and started to move, but Andrei stopped her. Her eyes opened, seeing me in front of her. I was immediately hit with her warmth, causing me to smile at her.
“You’re back,” she said, quietly, lazily blinking away the sleep.
