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I lean forward and grab his neck tight enough that I know there are going to be bruises on his skin within minutes. “No, you’re not. You’re going to die right here in this chair, and you know why? Because I’m not my father, Abel. You might have double-crossed him all those years ago and thought you got away with it, but now you’re going to pay for not only that, but for touching what’s not yours.”
“I should have told them to kill you instead of your idiot father,” he jeers as if it’s supposed to hurt my feelings.
I long ago accepted that my father was dead, and even before that, I’d known he wasn’t going to live long. He acted on emotion, but that isn’t me. While hurting Abel is personal, I’m also making a point.
Cross my family and you won’t survive the consequences.
My fist smashes into his jaw, and bones audibly break as blood and at least one tooth gets spit from Abel’s mouth. I turn away from him and go to the table where a selection of knives sits, grabbing the smallest, yet possibly sharpest, one.
I move toward Abel again. His eyes are closed, but one kick to his shins has him regaining consciousness. “Were you working directly with Titan?”
“Fuck you,” he grumbles.
I grab the back of his head and jerk it backward. “Not the answer I’m looking for, Abel. Do you want to make this harder than it needs to be? I’ll enjoy that, but I don’t think you will.”
He remains tight-lipped, and the blade in my hand finds its way into his thigh. “What about now?” I ask over his screeching.
His head thrashes and still no words come out.
Out of frustration, I hit him again, and he passes out once more. I pace a few times in front of him, gaining control of my emotions before I act again.
Jaxon steps forward with another bucket of water, dropping the contents over Abel and waking the idiot back up.
“Let’s try this again,” I say with absolute calm. “Why were you working with Titan Moretti?”
His head shakes, and I raise the knife again, but he opens his mouth, giving me pause. He starts to talk, except the words are so quiet, I can’t hear him.
“Speak up,” I demand, but the moment I’m closer to him, he attempts to spit on me.
Narrowly missing the blood splatter, I punch him again, blackening his other eye and growling in frustration.
“He’s not going to fucking tell us anything,” I seethe.
Jaxon is still in the shadows as he speaks. “Do we really need him to? We know this was Titan.”
I do, but I prefer to have things cut and dry when I attack another mafia crew. I want solid proof that he crossed lines he had no business even being near. That way, if any fucker tries to accuse me of acting beyond my reach, I don’t have to go to war.
Not that I’m afraid of the fight, but war is wasteful to my men. I’ll get what I want in the end, but at a cost I’d rather not pay.
“Wake him up again,” I say, knowing I need to show Abel the torture is going to get worse if he doesn’t give me what I want.
Jaxon does as I say, and once Abel is coherent, I step closer while holding the knife to his neck. “Since you don’t seem to listen well, how about I take your ears next?”
As he shakes his head, I hear a gasp behind us.
“Luca,” Olivia says, voice filled with half surprise and half anger. “What the fuck are you doing?”
I could ask her the same damn question.
15
OLIVIA
Darkness envelops me like a steadfast companion. Inside Luca’s room, I’m left to my own thoughts, with Justine being my only visitor over the past three days. But even her presence fails to bring me solace, and any sort of joy seems distant.
Despite showering multiple times a day, the stench of my attacker lingers, a constant reminder of the nightmarish ordeal I endured. That along with the wrap around my wrist and red lines marring my skin where the knife cut just enough to taunt me.
The psychopath remains out there, not to mention his threat that he’ll return to torment me again. The fear of that weighs heavily on my soul, haunting every waking moment.
