Chapter 54
Six months have passed since Sera became a target, and I’ve finally been able to come out of hiding. As to be expected, my family was extremely hurt by what transpired, but my mother soon forgave me when I told her how we got Luisa back, and I’m now in a relationship with Sera. Albeit, it’s a slightly unconventional one, but we just left those details out.
Since Francesco was removed permanently, we’ve been working hard to locate the biggest family name on his list.
Alberto Falcone is the one we’re most wary of because he poses the biggest threat. He has the power and money to influence anyone, and that knowledge doesn’t sit lightly with any of us. Despite the fact he’s never stepped out of line to attempt to take Serafina down, he’s also on Nico’s hit list for being a main player in the flesh trade. He and Francesco worked closely to traffic women of all ages into California, so it stands to reason that he has to go.
The three other names on the list were small families, minor players in the grand scheme of things. Two have already been handled at the hands of myself and Nico. And we’ll watch the other family closely because we still have no idea who planted those bombs in Haze and on Sera’s father’s car. Whoever it was, they covered their tracks so well that not even Raf could trace him. We could only assume that it was one of the remaining names listed before we started eradicating them like vermin, which is why we’re taking action today.
“You ready?” I ask Sera as we pull up outside Nico’s mansion. He’s got the place decorated for the festive season, complete with Christmas lights and tinsel hanging in the bushes outside the door. I assume his wife had something to do with it since I can’t imagine Nico Rocco taking the initiative.
She rolls her shoulders, grimacing at her injury. Despite the doctor’s orders, she refuses to wear a sling. She says it makes her look weak, and that’s the last thing she can afford right now. She was recommended physiotherapy, but without a secondary operation to repair the ligament damage she inflicted, she won’t get her full range of motion back. Even though it’s clear she’s in pain, she uses it to fuel her revenge. We’re moving into a new era, one where the defective families are eliminated and Sera can work on building her new regime for La Cosa Nostra.
Without a word, she pushes open the car door, heading to where Nico greets her. In the last month, Nico has stepped up, providing the support Sera needed from the start. Though there’s a lot more for him to make up for, he’s been doing everything she asks and more. Even his younger brothers are on board, which makes her leadership a hell of a lot easier to solidify. Unsurprisingly, there were a lot more families willing to support Sera and the ideas she proposed—though that was to be expected once we started removing and punishing those who were found to be soliciting in human trafficking.
“You want to take this one?” Nico smirks at Sera, though he knows I’ll be handling this. There’s no need to ruin Sera’s clothes when we’re literally here to serve her every whim.
“Nice try,” she laughs, nodding to me as I approach. “LaRosa likes getting his hands dirty, don’t ya, big guy?” She winks mischievously before ambling up the stairs into the Rocco mansion like it’s her own home. I guess it really is when you think about it. The Rocco family are her family now, in all senses of the word.
Nico slaps my shoulder as he walks me into the house. “You left your gloves from last time,” he laughs.
Ah shit, I was wondering where those were. The last time we were here, I was dismembering a quivering Federico Conti. Despite his cries and pleas to offer us whatever information we wanted, it wasn’t what we were after. It was purely for my own entertainment. I could have made his death quick and almost painless, but where would be the fun in that? Especially after seeing the look on Sera’s face, full of awe, it spurred me to prolong the man’s pain.
Torture is what I’m good at, and I don’t need a reason to inflict it on someone other than the prospect of them being a threat. He begged for his life, reasoned for mercy, but ultimately his life ended with his blood on my blade and a slit in his throat.
The only reason I took my gloves off was because as soon as Conti’s gurgles silenced, Sera was pouncing on me. Turns out, she gets a real kick out of my torture methods. There was no disguising the look of unfiltered desire flaming those dark brown eyes. So I fucked her against the wall, smearing her back in the spray of blood that had traveled across the room. Obviously, my efforts to keep her clean from my bloody hands were in vain, because she still ended up with a hefty dry-cleaning bill.
By the time I finish reminiscing over last week’s post-torture fuck in Nico’s human freezer, Sera is standing outside the room, scrolling through her phone. Nico has already disappeared, veering in another direction so Sera and I can handle business with our next victim, Alberto Falcone.
“Let’s get started, shall we?” I grin at Sera, pushing the door open for her to step in first.
Bypassing the unconscious man bound to the steel chair, Sera folds her arms and rests her back against the wall. She’s silent, ever present yet watching with rapt fascination as I work. It only makes me want to impress her, try new things out just to get a reaction.
In the last six months, I’ve seen Sera grow—not just in strength but in confidence. She was never one to let someone best her, and it shows just how firm she is on that front by her compassion and mercy towards those who really deserve it. There’s power in her gracefulness, authority in her benevolence. This woman can move mountains, and I have no doubt she’ll go far. Especially with the men at her side.
I cross the room to where a plastic bucket lays beside the sink. It’s always handy to have one for a number of reasons, but since I don’t have any magic drugs to perk our prisoner awake, I settle for a good old fashioned soaking.
Filling the bucket, I turn around and dump the contents over Falcone’s slumped body. Like clockwork, he coughs and splutters, shaking his head free of the water with a look of dumbfound confusion and icy fear. His eyes snap to me in an instant as I circle his chair, turning the bucket upside so I can perch on it. It puts me at a slight height disadvantage—there’s no way I can intimidate a man of his stature from where I am—but I’m not here to intimidate. He doesn’t hold any information I need because Nico uncovered enough to wage a war between every single family. This moment between Falcone and I is purely violent, and he must sense it because his eyes widen with panic and his chest heaves with fearful breaths.
“You should be dead,” he mutters, teeth gritting together.
I roll my eyes at that statement, knowing just how much Francesco was involved in trying and failing to take me out. It was completely unrelated to Alfredo’s intentions to keep Serafina safe, but ironically, both were unsuccessful in what they wanted to achieve. “Should be,” I comment. “But as you can see, I’m very much alive.”
I don’t miss the look of irritation that flashes across his face. That brief change of expression tells me so much, and I can already tell I’m going to enjoy torturing this asshole.
“What do you want?” Falcone finally asks, his voice starting to tremble under the realization that he might not be able to talk his way out of this. Not so big now you’re the one tied to a chair, huh?
Smirking, I lean forward and rest my elbows on my knees. He still hasn’t noticed the most prominent player in the room; the one who could end all this with a snap of her finger. Falcone is so concentrated on me and what my presence symbolizes that Sera is merely a shadow.
“At this point, the only thing I want is your death.” The words fall seamlessly, unemotionally. I say them so boredly that Falcone’s responsive expression is unreadable. He can’t work out what my angle is, but truthfully, there isn’t one.
“You… you can’t!” he cries. “The Elders—”
“Don’t exist,” I laugh, and this time Sera, who has been standing silently watching, laughs with me. The sound is beautiful, liberating in only the way I would understand, and it causes Falcone to snap his gaze to her.
“You underestimate me,” Sera accuses gently. “You really thought that we wouldn’t find out?”
Her words must sound so surreal to him because he really has nowhere to hide now. Whilst hacking into that calling card, Raf also found correspondence pertaining to the non-existence of the Elders, a higher organization that we all historically relied heavily on to maintain some order in the ranks. It’s no wonder all of this shit with Sera has been happening. The Elders are merely fiction, something cooked up generations ago by three families who temporarily agreed to a truce. The agreement didn’t last long, but the rumors of the Elders had already spread. It seems Francesco Bianchi was aware of such, because it was his great grandfather who “founded” the Elders.
It’s dizzying just thinking about it, but at least it finally makes sense. The remaining families only encouraged the rumor to spread. It’s why nobody blinked when Sera became a target. There was no order to the chaos, no one to bang the gavel and say enough is enough.
Thankfully, the uncovering of the non-existence of the Elders has allowed us Sera to set out a game plan, one where her rule is final, her word in La Cosa Nostra is law. Anyone who disobeys will have their fates sealed, just like Falcone. It’s another reason we’re taking out the families on this list. Let it be a lesson to anyone who tries to go against Serafina.
As much as I want to tease Falcone more with his life, there are much more pressing things to get done and I don’t want to waste any more time. So, I head towards the tool table Nico so kindly laid out for us. Selecting the nail clippers, I inspect them playfully in the light. The silver glistens and as I look at Sera, her face filled with intrigue.
I turn, moving towards Falcone, not waiting for his screams because they’ll come soon enough. I pinch the skin on his knuckle and clip it. It’s the smallest incision that leaves the deepest cut, the harshest pain. It’s amazing how creative you can get when you set your mind to it. I get to work, completely in my element as I repeat the action on each finger until blood pools beneath Falcone’s chair and his whimpers fill the room.
But I’m only just getting started. My skin is itching for more twisted shit, but I refrain because I don’t know how far to push Sera right now. Instead, I reach for the sharpest knife, testing the blade with my finger. A small bead of blood rises to the surface, and Sera grabs my wrist, pulling my finger to her mouth. She’s playing a dangerous game right here in the freezer, but I won’t deny her. Her tongue slides over my finger, her eyes darkening with something dangerous and sexy. I have to readjust myself when I pull away, eager to finish Falcone so I can indulge in the inevitable.
“Please, LaRosa. Stop!” Falcone pants in agony.
His pleas only make me smile, though. “Now why would I do that?” I question, but it’s rhetorical because I’m already slamming the knife into his thigh.
He screams out as I bury it to the hilt, adding a twist to really do some damage. I wish this torture had a point, something this man could walk away with to rethink his life choices over. If Sera told me to back off, I would. But she hasn’t, so this man’s fate is sealed. I’m allowed to enjoy myself while using his death as a warning to others.
Spinning around, I get to work stripping the man of his clothes, all the while Sera watches me, captivated by my seamless moves. Once Falcone’s clothes are nothing but shredded material, I start slicing and stabbing until Falcone’s body is one big punctured mess. There’s no method to my madness. Like I said before, this is purely for my own entertainment. I don’t need anything from this asshole, just his cries for mercy before the lights go out.
By the time I’ve finished peeling his skin from his body, the room looks like a massacre. Blood swirls around the drain at my feet, his flesh peeled away. I tried to get it in one piece, just so I could say I’d done it. But some parts proved difficult. The man is far from alive now; just a lump of muscle slumped in a chair. It was the blood loss that did it. I never got to really pull him apart like I did to Conti, but I still can’t ignore the masterpiece I’ve created. Yeah, I’m fucked. I blame my upbringing.
When I’ve eventually finished and the light has long gone from his eyes, I move away from his body. I catch Sera’s gaze, totally unreadable, and it feels like I’ve been gut punched. I wonder if I took it too far, exposed too much of my depraved nature too soon. I’ve been careful with my techniques so as not to scare her, not because I don’t think she can handle it, but because she’s not used to it.
“Sera–”
Sera rushes at me before I can get a full word out, knocking the knife out of my hand. It clangs to the floor as her legs wrap around my waist, and then her mouth is on mine, kissing me like her life depends on it. Her lips are like a drug, holding me captive as I spin around and pin her to the wall, hungrily kissing her back. We kiss until we’re breathing the same air, until our lips are swollen and used.
I pull away as relief forces the words out of my mouth. “I thought I’d scared you,” I impart in a whisper.
Clutching my face between her palms, she peers up at me with pure adoration. “Nothing you do would ever scare me, mi amore,” she confesses with lustful conviction.
Within seconds, our lips are crashing together again, the full force of our attraction and desire fuelling our kiss. Moments later, we’re a mess of fumbling hands and muffled moans as Sera hikes her skirt up and I pull my throbbing cock out.
I pick her up by the backs of her thighs, pinning her against the wall, already lining up at her delicious cunt. In one thrust, I bury myself in her intense heat, her walls swallowing my dick greedily. There’s no foreplay, no teasing. I fuck her against the wall with sheer determination, losing myself in her soaked pussy. Our hips slap together as she meets every thrust, hooking her arms over my shoulders to get a better grip.
She rides my cock like an expert, desperately chasing her own release. I catch her lips in a rough kiss that I feel in the depths of my soul. It’s all consuming, soul destroying. Utterly perfect. And I don’t want it to end.
But Sera makes it damn hard when her moans grow louder and louder and her cunt squeezes so hard I see stars.
“Enzo!” she cries out, her body starting to shake as her climax barrels down on her. “Harder, fuck! Harder!”
I obey her demands with ease, slamming her into the wall over and over again with my hips. She’s so fucking wet it’s a challenge to hit the spot. My cock slides in and out of her so easily, my piercing hitting that spot deep inside her to the point Sera is screaming out in ecstasy. My name falls from her lips, the sweetest sound that has me punching my hips harder, faster, untiI I careen over the edge with her, my own release hitting me like a freight train as I fill her up with my cum.
My vision goes spotty, my lungs struggling to draw breaths as I rest my head on Sera’s shoulder. “Fuck!” I groan, starting to pull out.
Sera shudders, a moan slipping free as my cock leaves her pussy. “I’m going to be sad when the list is finished,” she pouts playfully, pulling her skirt down.
I lean down and kiss her, because even in heels, I still tower over her. It makes things like throwing her about the bedroom a hell of a lot easier, though. She hums against my lips, making my dick twitch.
“I’m sure I can find some more people to kill,” I tease, dropping a chaste kiss to her lips again.
“Don’t tempt me with a good time, LaRosa,” she giggles and damn, my heart leaps at the sound. How can something so simple sound so beautiful?
“Come on,” I say once I’ve tucked my dick back in my pants. “We’ve got to be somewhere.”
She frowns at me, because yeah, I never told her what the guys have planned for her. This trip out was just a distraction, a way to kill two birds with one stone. It was a pretty good distraction and not one I’m ready to part with so soon, but I promised the guys I’d keep her out of the house so they could prepare our little Christmas present for her.
“We don’t have anywhere to be,” Sera comments once we’re settled in the car.
As always, Nico will deal with the clean up for us. It’s a shitty job, but the guy has ties with some people who don’t ask questions when needing to dispose of bodies.
“What aren’t you telling me?” she frets, glaring at me from the passenger seat as we pull away from Nico’s property.
“It’s a surprise,” I smile innocently.
“I don’t like surprises.”
“You’re going to like this one,” I wink.