I can’t help myself. I grab him by the shoulders and pin him up against the wall. Glass smashes as his legs wildly kick a table over.
“Lemme…lemme fuckin’ go!”
“You know why I’m here, Lazzaro?” I hiss in his ear.
“No.”
My first pounds into the wall, mere inches from his head. The plaster cracks, and blood trickles from my knuckles, but I don’t care.
“Think very fucking hard.”
To my surprise, Lazzaro’s hot breath hits me as he utters a low laugh. “Your daddy isn’t going to be very happy about this, you know.”
I let out a warning growl, but Lazzaro only laughs harder.
“It’s all right, ladies,” he calls over his shoulder. “He’s not going to hurt me. He’s not allowed to.”
“You think my father will go back on five years of work over your pathetic ass? You’re fucking delusional.”
Lazzaro squirms so he can look me in the eye. “But you’re too proud to be the first one to break that little treaty of yours.”
Maintaining my grasp on rational thought takes every ounce of my concentration. Because the truth is somehow even more infuriating than this entire situation.
This cowardly piece of shit is right. My father would do anything to get himself back into power.
I let Lazzaro go, and his body slumps to the floor with a satisfying crash. By the door, Martino looks over his shoulder, shooting me an expression that can only mean,If you don’t fuck him up, I will.
With a shake of my head, he stands down. There has to be a better solution here. I just need to think clearly for one goddamn minute.
“This is about Danny, isn’t it?” Lazzaro grumbles. “She wanted to be here.”
“That’s not true!”
Surprisingly, it’s Teresa who holds her chin up defiantly as she shouts the words. Behind her, Danny seems to have entered some kind of shocked fugue state.
“He said if we wanted to keep our spots on the show, we had to…”
“SHUT UP YOU LITTLE BITCH!”
Claudio launches himself at her, crawling across the floor with surprising speed.
I take no small amount of pleasure in stepping on his outstretched hand. The custom metal heel of my Italian leather shoes breaks bone at an agonizingly slow pace.
Claudio’s screams soothe something in my very soul.
“You know that I can’t remember the day you swore your loyalties to my family,” I muse. “Mustn’t have been particularly important to me.”
Sweat and tears pour from Claudio’s face. “I’m loyal to your father, you bastard!”
“But you must know the bylaws you swore to uphold? About protecting our own? Ringing any bells?”
“Fuck you.”
“Perhaps I give you too much credit. From where I’m standing,” I press my foot down harder for emphasis, “you don’t seem like a particularly literate fellow, so I’ll spell it out for you.”
Something snaps under my foot again, and Claudio’s eyes roll back into his head. I sigh in frustration as I step away to grab a glass from the side and chuck the dark liquid in his face.
He wakes up again with a start. “W-what?!”
