Dario DeLuca: Savage Bloodline

31. Dario

THIRTY-ONE

The thick andsuffocating shadows swallow us whole as I draw Mia near. My hand clamping over her mouth smothers her startled gasp, and her widened eyes meet mine in an instant of pure terror. I drink in those fear-stained orbs, that delicate face contorted in panic.

”Don”t make a sound,” I growl in Mia”s ear, the tremor in her body fueling my protective urge. For a fleeting moment, I envision a life where she would never know this dread, this violation of her sacred space. But that”s a fool”s dream in my world.

Rafael hurls a canvas backdrop aside, clearing a space as I yank Mia along. Gabby whimpers, but her cry is instantly muffled by Rafael”s crushing grasp and a single finger over his lips to silence her. Both women clamp their mouths shut, but their fear remains evident in the tremors wracking their bodies.

Mia collapses against me, chest heaving, dark eyes searching mine. I caress her cheek, leaning in until our brows nearly touch.

”Stay quiet,” I mouth, the words hanging between us thick as smoke. ”And no matter what, don’t come out. I”ll get you both out of here.”

I feel her tense muscles relax ever so slightly against me as she heeds my command. As I peer down at her, consumed by the burning desire to keep her safe, I accept the truth I’ve yet to say out loud. I quickly realize just how much this woman means to me. It’s more than duty, more than lust. It’s love.

Mia nods. Then Gabby flings herself at Mia, the two clinging together in a trembling embrace as Rafael fortifies their hiding spot in the concealed alcove behind a makeshift wall of photography backdrops.

I turn to Rafael, a silent conversation passing between us, a language forged from years of brotherhood and bloodshed. The last thing I wanted to do was use Mia as bait, her safety is the only thing I care about, but it was the only way to draw him here so that we can finally rip off the mask and put an end to this shit.

We get into place on opposite sides of the studio, prowling behind backdrops and racks of clothing, waiting for the inevitable. The scrape of the outer door followed by footsteps echo down the vacant corridor, the rhythmic thumps reverberating through the floorboards like a ticking bomb.

Rafael melts into the shadows. I slide my gun free, and the metal is cold and heavy in my grasp.

The bastard rounds the corner, scanning the area. He pauses, tilting his head as if sensing our presence lurking in the gloom. For a beat, everything stills—even the air seems to hold its breath.

Then he”s moving again, stalking further into the room. My finger caresses the trigger of my gun, and I have to force myself not to react right away. This motherfucker has been one step ahead of us this whole time. If I’m going to end this, I can”t rush it.

He pushes one of the frames out of the way, and I watch Mia and Gabby fight to make themselves smaller. They crotch into the corner, holding their breaths as if it’ll make them invisible. He passes by without a second glance, and I try to get a good look at his face, but the hood he’s wearing blocks it.

Once the fucker has ventured far enough into the loft, Rafael emerges, his expression grim. I follow suit, and we fan out.

The man doesn”t even have time to cry out before I cinch my forearm across his windpipe, and Rafael wrenches his arms behind his back.

”Welcome to the party,” I snarl against his ear as he bucks and writhes, trying in vain to break free.

We crash to the floor in a tangle of limbs, his breath wheezing out in a startled grunt. I slam the heel of my palm into his sternum, driving the wind from his lungs as Rafael secures his thrashing legs.

”Who are you?” I demand as I put my gun with the silencer attached behind my back and circle him like a shark scenting blood. ”And why the fuck are you after my family?”

He remains stubbornly silent, chest heaving. A muscle twitches in his jaw as our gazes lock in a battle of wills.

“You’ve got two choices. Tell me what I need to know, and I’ll kill you quickly. Don’t, and I’ll drag this out until the pain is so unbearable you’ll beg me to end you.”

“F…fuck you,” he forces the words out in a thick, garbled slur.

”Have it your way.” Rafael hands me a curved hunting knife. ”Last chance to start talking.”

He responds by spitting a sticky wad that barely misses me and lands at my feet. ”Do your worst, you DeLuca scum.”

A harsh chuckle rattles free. “Now we have one answer. You’re aware of who we are. So you know we don’t take too well to being threatened.”

“I already shot the mayor, the next bullet was meant for your bitch, but you jumped in the way. I’ll make sure I have some fun with that sexy-ass body of hers after I blow your brains out.”

White-hot rage detonates in me.

I slam his head back, relishing the sharp crack of bone on Mia’s concrete floors. Then I grab a fistful of his hair, yank his head up again, and drive my fist into his face. Cartilage crunches, warmth spattering my knuckles as his nose explodes in a crimson geyser.

Again and again I strike, each blow fueled by a lifetime of rage—at the world, at these fucked up tangle of circumstances.

By the time I refocus, the bastard is a broken, wheezing mess. His eyes are swollen slits, every breath a desperate, gurgling rasp as he chokes on his blood.

Rafael rushes to the tufted futon against the wall and drags it to us. At the same time, I see Renzo’s looming frame as he quietly finds the girls and sneaks them to safety.

Good. Mia doesn’t need to witness this.

We jerk the man up, removing his weapons before tossing him against the seat. The futon scrapes backward from the impact, and the man groans in pain.

I yank off the hood to get a clear look at him.

Just like Marquel said, he has scars from third-degree burns over half his face and neck. I search my memory, trying to remember if I’d seen him back then, but come up blank.

Pushing the thought from my mind, I refocus on the present. It doesn’t matter if we’ve crossed paths in the past. He’s threatened my woman, and wreaked havoc in my life. He has to go. But not before I get the answers that I want.

”Who…are you?”

When he doesn’t answer, I jerk his wrist and force his hand palm down on the futon.

I slam the knife down, shearing off the trigger finger before doing the same to the other. He used one of them to take the shot at the mayor, and since he isn’t too cooperative, I’ll serve them both.

A guttural scream tears from his throat, echoing off the bare brick walls. With the fingertip gone, blood pours from the stump, puddling on the concrete.

From behind me, Mia”s muffled whimpers slice through. With one quick glance over my shoulder, I see her pulling away from Renzo’s grasp.

“I’m not leaving him,” she says, through shaky breaths..

I lock my jaw, mentally shoving the sound of her voice away. I can”t think about her seeing the brutality of the man I truly am—a cold-blooded savage killer who survives on instilling fear. Trusting that Renzo can handle getting her to comply, I grip the dismembered digit and hold it up before him, letting the blood trail down my hand.

”You wanna try talking now, motherfucker?”

His only response is a crimson-tinged glare, mouth twisting into a sneer. Fine, I”ll pry the answers out.

I rake the blade across his forearms in two wide arcs, catching and peeling back the cotton of his hoodie to expose the skin beneath. Then, I brace the flat side against his arm and give it a brutal overhead swing. Bone crunches like a gunshot in the eerie silence.

His cries shake the walls and plaster themselves forever in my psyche—sweat beads along his brow, the coppery tang of blood and suffering hanging thick in the air.

Still, his resolve doesn’t budge, even as Rafael hands me the pliers from the toolkit he carries with him. I reach for his hand again and latch the metal nose onto his fingertips, wrenching them out one by one with crude efficiency.

Another agonized howl echoes through the dimly lit room, and it’s like sickening music to my ears. I rip off the last nail with a twist of my wrist, watching in sick satisfaction as he crumples forward.

The girls let out a strangled scream before one of them shushes the other, and I realize Renzo is no more capable of controlling Mia than I am. I hate that she is witnessing this, that this image of me will be with her forever. She once called me a monster, and now she knows how true that is.

“Had enough yet?” I ask, snatching up a set of brass knuckles. I let their weight fill my palm as I stalk toward the crumpled figure.

Even beaten to a bloody pulp, with his eyes damn near shut, he smiles. He’s tough. I’ll give him that.

”Kiss my ass, DeLuca.”

With that, I make a fist and swing, the knuckles connecting with jaw in a bone-splitting crack, whipping his whole body to the side.

I don”t stop, throwing wild, berserk strikes against his ribs, gut, kidneys—every vulnerable place I can reach. By the time I regain enough sense to pause, he”s a trembling mess in a spreading pool of his fluids.

But those dark, hate-filled eyes are still locked on me, daring me to keep going.

”I can do this all day, asshole.” Leaning over him, I grab a fistful of his shirt and yank him close, our faces inches apart. ”But I”ve got more important things to handle. So why don”t you cut the shit and start talking?”

A coughing, gurgling chuckle bubbles up from his mangled throat. ”Pietro…Martin Pesci’s son.”

And there’s our answer…the last remnant of the Pesci bloodline that cursed me to walk this path of violence and sin.

He coughs again, trying to hold himself upright. Pietro stares at me through the one eye that hasn’t closed. “Your father killed my family but didn’t make sure he successfully ended us all.”

Questions batter my brain—how did he survive the fire? How did he go unnoticed all this time? Surely, someone would have reported that there was a survivor.

My eyes narrow to slits as I study the ruined visage beneath me. ”Keep talking.”

He hawks up a thick wad of phlegm and blood, spitting it onto the concrete between us. ”That night…” Another wheezing gasp as he struggles to draw breath. ”I was just a kid, trapped under a bookcase as the flames closed in.”

Searing images flicker through my mind—the hellish roar of the inferno, the scorching waves of heat that blistered flesh from bone. I wasn’t there that night, but I remember hearing about how bad the flames were. No one was meant to survive, but he did.

”By the time I crawled free, the whole place was an oven.” His words emerge in a pained rasp, but his swollen eyes have a glint of sick satisfaction. ”I watched your boss, your father…Carmine…flick his cigar at the kindling before leaving. He didn’t know I’d gotten out, didn’t even bother double-checking.”

“You want vengeance. Why go after the mayor and his family?”

“You really think a piece of shit like Carmine covered that up alone?” Another wet cough sprays crimson droplets onto my shirt. ”The mayor was in his pocket. Of course, he was only a DA then; he and the detective…Harris…they made it look like no one survived. Painted it out as if there was a tragic electrical fire that unfortunately killed everyone inside.”

“Why haven’t you come forward before now? Where have you been?”

“After your father left everything I love to burn in the ashes, I put myself out and crawled for help until I eventually passed out feet away from the rubble. Detective Harris found me and got me to safety.”

“What?” I yell, not believing what I’m hearing.

All this time, the police chief knew there was a survivor and said nothing. He knew this man was after Mia and kept it to himself. Anger flashes behind my eyes, and I have to will myself to think straight.

“He made sure I got medical treatment and arranged for me to be sent off to a distant relative. At the time, I thought he was doing the right thing to keep an innocent kid safe just in case Carmine realized I survived and came back to finish the job. “

He pauses for a moment, trying to catch his breath.

“Imagine my surprise when I saw the news coverage of the now-mayor and his beloved daughter working with the very family that killed mine to rebuild my home into that bullshit community center. From that moment on, I dug up everything that I could, and that’s when I learned about the mayor”s involvement as well as that cop. They all covered their asses after ruining the lives of so many.”

The room goes silent as I let what he’s said sink in. Much of this, I’d figured out. The mayor and the chief”s involvement isn’t news to me. We pieced those details together from the records on my father’s drive. But he did put the final piece of the puzzle together for us.

And as angry as I am, I understand why Harris said nothing. My father, indeed, would have hunted the kid down and ended him. But now, his actions have led to our most recent events. That child he worked so hard to save grew up with hate in his heart and a mission to end the bloodline of those who took his—including Mia and Gabby.

After a beat, I continue. “Who else are you working with?”

He chokes and shifts in his seat. “No one. You killed my guy when he tried to take the mayor’s daughter at the gas station.”

I straighten, pulling the Beretta from my waistband, and check the chamber. As always, it”s loaded and ready for use.

”You should”ve stayed in hiding, Pietro,” I say, taking a measured step toward him. ”Maybe then you could”ve lived out the rest of your miserable life pretending the past never happened.”

His remaining eye widens a fraction as I level the muzzle between his eyes.

”But now that you”ve come gunning for the woman I love? This is where your story ends.”

The confession of my feelings for Mia comes tumbling out without thought. I love her. She came into my life and turned it upside down, and I’ll be damned if I let him or anyone else interfere with that.

A mocking, blood-speckled laugh bubbles up from his lipless mouth. ”Go ahead and kill me, you piece of shit. Just know…I”ll be waiting for you in Hell.”

”Dario, no!” Mia rushes into view, eyes wild as she pleads in a futile attempt to save this man’s life. ”Please…don’t do this. No more killing.”

I freeze, muscles coiled tight as I drink in the sight of her—disheveled curls framing that heart-shaped face. Despite the chaos swirling around us, she”s a vision that calms the storm.

“Let the system handle him.” A delicate hand rises to caress my cheek, the warmth of her touch in stark contrast to the cold fury pulsing through my veins. ”Be better than him.”

She’s so good. Too good for this world. She sees the best in people and will always go out of her way to protect the innocent. It’s who she is at her very core, and she shows it every day in the work she does for the people of the city—the true innocent.

In her mind, he was just a child who was supposed to be protected. Someone let down by the system she believes will bring him to justice. But that’s where we differ. There’s no retribution, no justice. Only blood and chaos. He won’t stop until he gets what he set out for.

Her life and everyone we care about.

The space between us dwindles to a breath as cup her jaw with my free hand cups her jaw, tracing the delicate curve with my thumb.

“You’re so perfect,” I say to her while lowering my gun. “So pure.”

The tension in her body relaxes, and she lets out a sigh of relief. I want to be the man she wants, to be good for her, because she deserves nothing less. She’s my everything, and I’ll go to my grave trying to give her the world. But we’ve lived different lives, and where I’m from, there is only one way to handle situations like this.

“But it”s him or you, and I choose you.”

I raise my gun and fire a round between his eyes.