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I force a smile, taking one last look at my son and grabbing the monitor. As three we make our way down to the kitchen in heavy silence. The smell of fresh basil, garlic and oregano hit my nostrils, making my mouth water. I wasn’t particularly hungry, what with everything going on, but nonetheless my stomach growls in protest, begging me to feed it something.
And that is what I do.
Dinner is peaceful. We all stare at nothing, our worry tangible and thick enough to choke on. But we ignore it because Valentina made lasagna, so we sit and eat, trapped in our own nightmares, while we wait for news from Nico that never comes.
Chapter44
Nico
“I’m sorry, Nico. I thought Dante was following me to safety. It was only when I got outside that I realized he wasn’t with me. The building went up like a damn firework before I could get back inside. I…” Leo trails off, pain flickering in his eyes as he swallows. “I tried to save him. But it was too late.”
I stare at what used to be my club and is now a pile of ash in disbelief. How the hell am I going to tell my sister that Dante perished in the fire? My throat tightens with so much emotion it almost chokes me. I pull at the collar of my shirt as if that will ease it, but of course it doesn’t. Nothing will. Not now. Not ever.
Police and the fire department surround us, but all I can focus on is that my best friend is gone.
Dante Vitale, the man who has been by my side since we were children, is dead.
Pain explodes in my chest, flowing to every part of my body and making it feel heavy. Tears prick the backs of my eyes, but I don’t let them fall. No matter how much I want to scream and lose my shit, I hold them in. On the outside, I look as I always do. A picture of calm and collected. On the inside, I’m dying.
Clearing my throat, I turn to face Leo. “Deal with the Feds. I have somewhere I need to be.” I run a hand down my tie and without saying another word to him or anyone else, I stride to where Christopher is waiting in my SUV. My legs are sluggish, every step weighted down by the grief that is consuming my body. My heart pounds in my chest. Sweat drips down my spine. Fuck. I feel like I can’t breathe.
Sucking in some air, I move faster, just wanting to be in the car where I can hide away from the world. My papà always taught me that crying was for the weak, therefore it was beaten out of me when I was a little boy. Every time I fell, or hurt myself, I would have to hold in the tears that threatened for fear of being hit. But right here, right now, with Papà gone, I have no one to tell me that it’s wrong to show emotion. To cry for your best friend. Being who I am, it’s a hard thing to admit to having so much emotion, but at this point, with the death of my best friend, I am past caring.
Finally reaching the SUV, I grab the handle, pulling the door open. Once inside, I instruct Christopher to take me straight to the warehouse where Vadim and Samuel Caldwell are being held. If I was going to make their deaths painful and slow before, now that I know they are responsible for the death of Dante, I am going to make it a million times worse for them. For every second my right-hand man suffered, I am going to make them suffer tenfold.
Sucking in a breath, my head falls back onto the buttery leather headrest. My eyes close and I allow the pain of loss to seep into every inch of my body. The need for revenge takes over, adrenaline sparking in my body with the need to kill the men responsible for making me feel like this. I need this. Need to release the ticking time bomb that is about to explode inside of me, before I head home to my family and break the news about Dante.
I squeeze my eyes closed, letting the grief rip through me. My mamma is going to be devastated but Allegra… she is going to be… I shake my head. I can’t even think about my sister and how this is going to affect her. She loves Dante. He loved her. My breathing comes in thick and fast, and I feel like I’m drowning. I scrub a palm down my face. They were supposed to get their happily ever after once I had dealt with the Romano shit. And now, for reasons that don’t make sense, it’s been taken away from them in the cruelest way possible.
I exhale a weary breath, knowing with everything inside me that I will never recover from Dante’s death.
And even worse than that.
Neither will my sister.
***
The sound of flesh hitting flesh is the only noise in the cold warehouse.
I pound my fists into Vadim’s bruised and bloodied face, trying to relieve this empty feeling inside me. It’s not working and, at this point, I doubt anything will. But I won’t stop until he is praying for death. This man is responsible for Dante’s demise, and he will pay for it.
Stepping back, I halt my assault and let him believe he is getting a reprieve from the brutality I am bestowing upon him. Vadim slumps back in his seat, sucking in much needed breaths. I chuckle sadistically, lifting my foot and kicking him in the leg. A whimper sounds from the left. I smirk when my gaze meets my wife’s sperm donor’s fearful blue eyes. The fear he is not even trying to conceal fuels the monster inside me. He knows his time on this earth is almost over. It’s just a case of when he will meet his maker.
The sound of liquid hitting the concrete floor has my eyes shifting to his pants. My nose scrunches up in disdain when I see the blatant wet patches. Asshole pissed himself. I sigh. It’s always the way. The begging. Pleading. The resignation crossing their features when they realize it’s no use, that I will show them no mercy. Then comes the stone-cold fear. The pissing and shitting themselves. No matter how many times I’ve been through the same process, I can’t help the contempt that fills me. He got himself into this mess when he got into bed with Vadim and tried to take my wife. Now he has to face the consequences. Both him and Vadim.
They should face it like a fucking man and own their shit. They knew what they were getting themselves into when they decided to cross me, so when it’s time to pay the fucking piper – me in this case – they could at least look me in the eye. Be the men they believed they were when they decided it would be a good idea to go against me. Not the whimpering, soiling messes they have become.
The door opening, followed by heavy footsteps, has me twisting my head. A dark smile curves my lips when I see two of my men dragging a sobbing Giuseppe toward me. I thought the coward managed to get away from Vadim’s warehouse during the gunfight. I should have known better, really. There is no escaping the Marchettifamiglia.
“We found the rat trying to escape, boss. Thought you would want us to bring him to you,” Maximo grunts.
I tsk. “Did you really think you could get away, Giuseppe?” It’s a question, but I don’t expect an answer, so I continue. “You will pay for your sins against me and my organization, like the rat bastard you are.” I reach out, cupping his chin as my lips go to his ear. Lowering my voice, I whisper. “You will die today. You will join my disgusting piece of shit papà in hell just like you deserve.” Pulling back, I glance at my soldiers. “String him up.”
“Nico, please. I beg of you. Think of Giulia. My family.”
I chuckle, but it’s humorless. “You should have thought of them before you decided to betray me. Don’t worry though, I will make sure they know exactly what you are. A deceitful, greedy, traitorous, asshole.”
He screams, shouts, begs, pleads. I tune him out, my gaze shifting back to Vadim, who looks at me with a manic gleam in his swollen eyes. Spitting blood to the floor, he grins. “You think by killing me, this will be over? You are wrong, Nico,” he hisses, the venom in his voice clear. “I have a successor and he will come for you. Mark my words, he will come for you all. He will kill your whole family, make your wife his whore, and you won’t even see it coming.” His chilling laugh fills the warehouse, echoing off the walls like a haunting whisper.
