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He blinks a drop of blood from his eye, his face a mask of confusion. He isn’t stupid. He knows something isn’t adding up.
“Stefano has been waiting for your return, Liliana. Isn’t that right?” Carmine turns to his second-in-command.
Stefano winks at me. “Sure have.”
“You remember why we call him the surgeon, don’t you?” Carmine picks up a scalpel and holds it to the light. “You know he can peel all the skin off a person’s body while they’re still alive.”
Stefano grabs the blade from him. Not taking his eyes off me, he stalks across the room. I step back and bump into my brother’s knees.
The unmistakable click of heels on marble echoes from the hallway outside, and Carmine turns toward the open doorway. “Who the fuck?”
I suppress a smile as Stefano reaches me. With Carmine’s back turned and his attention focused on the noise outside, his most trusted soldier leans close to my ear. “Okay, Marshmallow?”
I nod, and then he winks at Nico and Dean, who I turn to see are both staring at the two of us with pure shock on their faces. But it’s nothing compared to the look on Carmine’s face when my mother strides into the room.
“Ludovica.” The obvious tremor in his voice makes me want to fist pump the air.
“Carmine,” she says, her voice dripping with disdain.
Carmine’s mouth opens and closes. “What—how did you get past my guards?”
“Oh, I used that secret entrance. The one you use for your whores.” She holds up a shiny silver key and he sputters. Then he turns and looks at Stefano, the only person other than him with access to the key for that door.
“What do you want me to do, Boss?” Stefano asks.
Carmine curls his hands into fists. “I want you to—”
“He wasn’t talking to you,” my mom says, breezing past him. “I think we should keep it as clean as possible. Perhaps a fight between father and son that escalated? Carmine pulled a knife, and Nico tried to defend himself and… oops.” She shrugs. “It was all a nasty accident. You and Dean witnessed the whole thing.”
Carmine gapes, his eyes ping-ponging between my mother and Stefano.
“Did you really think I would allow you to take my daughter and not afford her some protection, Carmine? I should have had you killed a long time ago for what you did to me, to my Angelo, and to our beautiful Liliana.” Her cool facade slips for a fraction of a second before she slots it firmly back in place.
Carmine spits at her feet. She laughs, but it’s not a pleasant sound. It’s cruel and mocking. “Did you not think it even a little strange that Stefano turned up on your doorstep looking for employment just a few days after you and my uncle took Liliana from me?”
“But he was sent by—”
“By a friend of my family, yes. But Stefano’s family has been loyal to the Santangelos for almost a century.”
“But he…” Carmine blinks and redirects his attention to Stefano. “You’ve saved my life.”
My mom scoffs. “How else would he have earned your trust for all these years, Carmine? Are you really as stupid as you look?”
Foaming at the mouth, Carmine lunges for her but doesn’t get close. Stefano blocks his path and sinks the scalpel into Carmine’s stomach, slicing upward. My childhood abuser slumps to the floor, clutching at the guts spilling out between his fingers.
I stand over him and watch the life drain from his body. “You should have just let me go, Carmine.” He opens his lips to say something but chokes on the blood pouring from his mouth.
“I wantednothingfrom you, but you couldn’t just leave me to live my life in peace.”
With a final sputter, the last flicker of light in his eyes is extinguished. I take satisfaction in knowing that mine was the last face he saw before the devil dragged him to hell.
ChapterSeventy-One
LILY
Stefano makes quick work of freeing Nico and Dean from their bonds. Running straight to me, Nico wraps me in a hug.
“Lily Pad. What the fuck?” He squeezes me tight as Dean comes up behind me and does the same.
