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How could this be the same man who made love to me in his study? Who watched me masturbate? Who kissed my forehead so gently?
The man inside is gone. There is only the monster.
I need this to stop. I have my issues with my father but I can’t stand by while he’s tortured. What if he goes too far? What if Leo ends up killing him? I could never forgive him for that.
I walk down the corridor as Leo disappears through a door at the end. I push it open and find myself in a bathroom. He’s already undressing.
He stops dead when I enter, turning to look at me. I gasp. He’s got his top off and it isn’t just his stomach that covered in burns. It’s his arms, his back. Scars are mingled with the burns.
“Take a good look,” he says, seeing the shock on my face. “This is who I am, Anna. This is what your father did to me. You think I’m going to spare a minute’s sympathy for him while he stonewalls me and my men? Death would be too good for him after what he did to my family. My mother, dead. My brother dead. Me and Bea, looking like this. And did he face justice? Not even close. So, whatever you were about to say, save it and get out.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” I say, swallowing my fear and taking a step toward him. “I want to talk to you.”
“If you don’t leave, I’m going to spank you so hard, you won’t sleep tonight.”
“You can threaten me all you want. I’m going to talk to you.”
He tosses his shirt aside, marching up to me and grabbing me around the waist, pushing me toward the door. “Get out.”
“Not until you talk to me.”
“You think you want answers but you don’t. You don’t know your own mind but I do. You think your father deserves sympathy. You think you can talk me out of what I’m doing but you can’t. You’re not the person you think you are, Anna.”
“You don’t know me. You’ve made no effort to get to know me.”
“I know you wanted me all those years ago. I know you had a crush on me so bad it was like an obsession. Bea told me all about it. I know you like being spanked and you want to be dominated even though it scares you. And I know that the only reason you’re still standing there is because you think you have power over me. You don’t. No one does. I am in charge. Now you either leave or I’ll do something to make you regret disobeying me. You’ve got five seconds to choose what you want. Do you want me to prove I’m in charge, Anna? Or do you want to fuck off and leave me alone.”
“I’m going nowhere until you talk to me about this. Why do you want Amato dead? Why do you care what happens to me when you hate my father so much? Is this all about revenge? Is that it? Fuck up my life to get back at my father? Am I just a tool to you? A fucking doll for you to play with until you get tired of me? Is that it?”
His eyes flash anger. “You cursed yet again,” he says. “Get on your knees right now.”
14
Leonardo
She sinks to her knees. I know I’m going too far but I can’t stop myself. There’s something about her that makes it impossible to stop this.
I’m driving a car, but she hasn’t just fucked with the brakes, she’s also grabbing the wheel. I’m going too fast, swerving out of control.
I should be waiting by the phone for Michael to call. Right now he’s got Paolo tied to a chair and is doing everything in his power to get that asshole to talk. He’s not just my consigliere, he’s the best interrogator in the entire famiglia. Patience of a saint. He’ll do everything short of killing him but never step over the line.
I had to step away. I got too close to killing him. Do that and I’ll never find Amato.
The worst thing about Giorgio Amato is that no one seems to know what he looks like. The rumor is that he hides in plain sight under an assumed name.
No one knows who he really is or where he lives. Every dealing my father ever had with him before their falling out was over the phone or via intermediaries.
I’ve wanted him dead for years. Wherever a crime took place in the city, if it wasn’t because of our famiglia it was him. He was in the background, a constant shadow to everything taking place. A painting went missing in a gallery. When it was sold, Amato would get a cut. He had the alarm codes for the cat burglar. A man got shot, his wallet taken. You can guarantee that Amato sold the gun and the bullets. Took a cut of the proceeds of the wallet.
Everything went through him and yet we couldn’t get near. All because when he offered to do business with us, my father turned him down. Refused to work with a human trafficker with no moral standards at all.
Paolo doesn’t have standards. He’s a snake. A weasel. He’s worked with Amato for years, to the point where they trust each other. Amato made the offer for Anna in person. I know that much. That means Paolo knows what he looks like. Has an address. No matter how hard he pretends not to know anything. He’ll talk. We’ll get him to confess sooner or later.
Then I get Amato. That means the city is up for grabs. His businesses can be taken over. His cut is no more. The trafficking goes down. The Feds lose interest in the families. I get my revenge. As a helpful bonus, Anna is safe.
I want her to be safe. That’s the uncomfortable truth. I don’t want to destroy her anymore. The shift in my mind is happening right now as I unzip my pants and she kneels in front of me, staring with those big green eyes of hers, saying nothing.
Can I ruin this perfect woman?
