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“This way,” The one that had fondled me said, walking to the right and down the hallway. I followed after him, daring one glance under my lashes at Molly as she cleared the foyer and rounded the corner to the kitchen.
Yes! I cheered in my head as step two checked itself off my list perfectly.
My heels clicked across the marble floor behind the guard with two more flanking me as we reached a double set of doors. As the man grabbed the door handle a muffled scream pierced the air from behind the hardwood and the hair on my neck stood up.
Please just let him be alive.
I prayed on repeat in my head as the doors opened and revealed a large ballroom, littered with men and chaos.
I quickly scanned the room for my husband and found him on his knees chained to the floor by a metal collar around his neck and his arms pulled out to his sides, chained to a wooden contraption. He was shirtless and bleeding from what looked like a gunshot wound to his shoulder and multiple slices across his abdomen and chest. His face was bloodied, and one eye was swollen but he tracked me with the other. I shivered from the volatile anger burning me through that one green iris. “Ari,” he growled, angry with me for defying all of his orders and showing up tonight.
“Ah, the diamond of the Rosetti line.” My father’s sniveling voice drew my attention across the space to where he sat on what looked like a throne on a raised dais.
Go time. “A throne for the court jester?” I questioned, tsking my teeth snidely at him. I needed to goad him, without sending him so far over the edge that he killed me prematurely. I turned my attention to Matthew Rizzio, a man I’d met a handful of times before and instantly disliked. He stood on the floor in front of the dais like a commoner in a royal court. It was pathetic really. “And here I thought this was your home. Good to know you’re just a little bitch in the game too.”
“Shut up, girl,” My father sneered.
I found my brothers knelt by the wall, bound by chains similar to Nico’s with their mouths gagged. They wore battle wounds but didn’t look too bad off. The angry glare in their eyes matched my husband’s though.
Matteo on the other hand, was a different story.
The man lay on his side on the ground, bleeding heavily from a wound in his head, and judging by the size of the pool of blood underneath him, he hadn’t moved in a while.
I wasn’t even sure he was alive, but I forced myself not to react.
I glanced around the room again and found the other man I’d been searching for when I walked in, finding him standing behind one of the posts holding Nico’s wrists wide. “And you.” I shook my head disappointedly. “You’re probably the most pathetic one out of every man here, Diego.” Nicolas’s half-brother’s eyes darkened as he realized I recognized him and talked down on him. “How on earth have you gone from attacking twelve-year-old me in the woods and failing to kill me,miserablymight I add, to being the pathetic babysitter of my twelve-year-old sister?” I rolled my eyes. “Oh how the mighty have fallen, wouldn’t you say,brother?” He took a step towards me as his anger hit a boiling point but my father snapped his fingers, gaining his attention, and waved for him to stand down. I laughed mockingly before walking to the center of the room and facing my father, tossing my hands out at my sides and quirking a brow at him. “Well, well, well, Papa. You’ve orchestrated quite the little show here this evening.”
My father smirked and stood up from the chair, slowly walking down the steps toward me. “And you’ve done me such a great honor by joining me for the festivities, Daughter.” He cocked his head. “We have almost the entire family here. Like one big reunion to see the end of the Capasso rule.”
“Is that what this is all about?” I rolled my eyes. “But you’re missing two very vital parts of your little family tonight, Papa. Or have you forgotten thatIhave your other two daughters?” I paused and watched his eyes darken fractionally. “Who will you use for bargaining chips if not for your virginal child bride daughters after you kill the rest of us off?” I tsked.
“I will not need to make deals once I am Don.” He snapped, letting his short temper show as his face reddened.
“Oh!” I nodded dramatically, “So, that’s the plan. You kill Nicolas, and then you just suddenly do what? Take the crown? Stand upon the throne and stomp your foot and demand that everyone does as you say?” I chuckled, “You really are as dumb as you look.” I turned back towards Diego before he could react, “I take back what I said.” I hooked my finger over my shoulder towards my father. “He’s the most pathetic.” I waved at him, “You’re off the hook.”
My father took a menacing step forward as his jaw clenched and I fought my body’s fight-or-flight reaction to him. I’d suffered so much over the years because of the man, and it was hard to just turn off that fear.
But I refused to show it.
“Money can buy you a lot of things in life, Papa. Obviously.” I spun around with my hands out, showcasing the room we stood in surrounded by men he paid for. “But you know what it can’t buy?” I questioned, facing him again. His lip twitched but he remained silent. “Respect,” I whispered. “You see, no one on this entire planet has ever respected Emilio Rosetti, no matter how much ass-kissing they’ve done for your money. And they never will, even if you manage to take the entire Cosa Nostra over. Which let us be honest, there’d be no good men left by the time that happened because they’d all rather kill themselves than answer to a sniveling, weak, cowardly, little man like you,” I hissed.
I watched his hand move in a high arc across the space, anticipating it and bracing for the crack of it against my cheek. It didn’t help alleviate the pain of his hit, but it did give me time to process it and overcome it before I lifted my head from the side where it was thrown.
“You listen here you little whore!” my father screamed in anger, “You don’t know a fucking thing about how business is run. All you’ve ever been worth was by what lay between your legs. And now that this animal has had you, you’ll never be worth anything again!”
When I stood up straight and stared at my father, I ran my tongue over my teeth and tasted the blood from a cut on the inside of my lip and then smiled, showcasing the gnarly grin. “Oh, come on, Papa. You’re getting weak in your old age, even Mama can hit harder than that.”
He lunged, falling right into the trap I set forth for him, and grabbed me by the hair, hauling me across the room to his throne.
Part Three of the plan.
Get physically close to my father and separate him from all of his guards.
I heard Nico and my brothers all fighting their bindings as I was heaved down onto the steps, only catching myself an inch from bashing my face off the marble before my father dragged me up them with his fist still in my hair. My scalp burned and tears filled my eyes but I stayed on track.
I looked over at Nico and ached to heal the pain in his eyes as he tried tearing his body limb from limb to free himself to aid me.
When we were at the top of the steps my father shoved me down into the seat he had vacated and stood over me, with one hand wrapped around my hair and the other on my shoulder, holding me down in the chair. “Now, if you think I’m so weak, you’ve just convinced me to show you how powerful I can be. And you know who’s going to suffer for that?” He sneered, “The wolf.”
