35. Galena
GALENA
T he warehouse sat at the edge of an unused dock—quiet, secluded, and far from any patrol that wasn’t bought and paid for. Ilias’s hand rested on the small of my back as we walked toward the heavy doors, which were currently guarded by men who stood up from their posts as we approached.
It had taken us a few hours to put ourselves to rights after we’d arrived home, and he had insisted on fucking me again in the shower, my hands against the tiles while he pounded into me again and again until my pussy was sore. Although I wasn’t complaining.
Now I missed the steam and warmth of the brownstone. The sky was spitting rain, and it was bitterly cold. Somewhere warm sounded like the perfect first stop— someplace with turquoise water and slushy alcoholic drinks they’d serve me on the beach.
The guards opened the doors for us, and neither of them bothered to say anything. I shivered again, Ilias’s arm tightening around me, but I didn’t tell him if I was shivering because of what waited for us inside or because I was cold. It was probably a little of both.
Maxim leaned against a stack of shipping crates, his dark coat immaculate despite the bloodied knuckles peeking out from the cuffs of his dress shirt.
Dimitri stood nearby, arms crossed and silent.
Kostas and Vaso stood on either side of the prisoner, what was left of him.
Dino Scarpato was on his knees, zip-tied and gagged, bruises already blooming down his temple like rotting fruit.
His eye was swollen shut, his lip split.
Angelo and Conall lounged as if they didn’t have a care in the world, but they were watchful and waiting, and it made me realize how much of a family this was. It was violent and sometimes dark, but they all loved each other. It was a wonderful thing.
Scarpato was barely recognizable, and still, it wasn’t enough for me. Even making him bleed wouldn’t be enough. I wanted him to suffer. I wanted him dead. Rotting .
Ilias stepped aside to let me go first. The air was thick with the smell of damp concrete, sweat, blood, and gasoline. No one said a word.
I met Dino’s eye—his good one, and smiled. “Did you think this was how it would all end?” I said, my voice even, almost gentle. “You know … that day you smiled as you held me down?” The tension in the room shifted. Not from discomfort. From attention. No one interrupted me.
My heels echoed as I walked a slow circle around him. I could see the place where Maxim’s ring had cracked his cheekbone. The others had probably gotten in their licks already, and I’d seen Ilias kick his ass at the crash site.
But this… this part was mine.
“You wanted me to remember you,” I whispered, crouching to his level. “Now I’ll make sure you remember me.” I tore the gag from his mouth. He spat blood at my feet, breathing hard, but didn’t speak. His teeth were red. “You’re not going to beg?” I asked. “Not even for your life?”
“You don’t have the stomach for this,” he rasped. “You’re just some chick from the burbs. You won’t be doing anything to me. ”
I smiled slowly. “That’s where you’re wrong.”
Ilias appeared beside me, holding out the shovel.
“We’ve cleared a nice spot. Everything is prepared.
” He looked down at Scarpato with an almost dark hunger in his face.
He’d told me about what he’d done to his father, and I guessed that it mimicked something close to a trauma that he’d endured as a child.
Maybe not the whole burying-alive torture, but close.
“I think Dino is going to like his new box.”
They all watched me. The men who ruled cities, moved empires, and burned kingdoms to the ground.
“You didn’t break me,” I said firmly. “You tried. You left me in blood and trash like I was an animal. Maybe you thought I wouldn’t come back to haunt you, but you were wrong.” I hissed the last words through my teeth. “It was a mistake to think I wouldn’t.”
“You’ll never leave this place,” I told him now. “No one will look for you. You’ll rot under the dirt and no one will even know you’re there.”
Vaso grabbed Dino by the collar. Kostas grabbed the other side. They hauled him up and dragged him, screaming now, toward the open loading dock .
The ground beyond had been freshly dug deep inside the dirt at least fourteen feet down.
A long, narrow rectangle in the earth with a space for a pine box down in the middle.
There was a long tube that fed into the box, which was presumably intended to be a controlled air source.
I had no idea how long it would last before it ran out or when Ilias would order his men to plug it.
It would be a gruesome way to go. Starvation, dehydration, or fear would get him.
Screaming had erupted from Dino now, true and panicked, as he took in what was going to happen. As they maneuvered him to the edge of the grave. He was shaking his head, his eyes rolling wildly.
“Put him in carefully,” Ilias ordered. “Let’s not have him taking a tumble.” Ilias inspected his bruised knuckles as they muscled him into the hole, kicking and hollering.
They forced him into the box, attaching him to the shackles that had been placed in the coffin.
Ilias had thought in advance. I almost laughed a little, but it was a somber sight, all of us lurking over the edge, and this man in a grave with his crazed eyes.
His voice was hoarse now with his screaming, but I ceased to hear him.
I didn’t care about his pleading, just like he hadn’t cared about mine.
Maxim stood over the edge, looking down at him. “This is what happens when you touch our family. Any last things you want to say to this fucker?”
“No. You can close it.” I didn’t have anything I wanted to say.
This, to me, was a satisfying end. He’d know true fear now.
It was what I wanted. For him to suffer.
The lid slammed shut with a finality that sent shivers down my spine.
I threw the first shovelful of dirt on the top of the box.
The sound of it, wet and final, was the most satisfying sound I’d ever heard.
The men stepped in silently beside me, one by one, not taking the task from me but sharing the weight.
One of Maxim’s men brought a piece of equipment over to speed things along.
The hole was pretty deep. After that, it didn’t take long.
The earth claimed him slowly, inch by inch, scream by scream.
By the time it was over, I was trembling.
The fresh ground mounded around the tube, and now I couldn’t even hear his muffled yells.
Ilias took the shovel from my hand and handed it to Kostas. “Okay, agápi mou , it’s done now.” His arms wrapped around me, tight and firm, his mouth against my temple .
I didn’t cry until we were in the car, pulling away from the warehouse, when a memory of my mother hit me again, of her face swollen and bleeding and her last heartbeat fluttering beneath my palm like a dying moth.
“She didn’t deserve to die like that,” I whispered.
“Beaten in an alley for no reason. It wasn’t fair. ”
That’s what affected me the most. It wasn’t fair.
More than ever, I understood that she had made a deliberate choice to leave Alexei Volkov and step away from the underworld.
She’d believed she was safe. That we were safe.
Dino had only come after us as a little jab at Maxim and Ilias.
There hadn’t even been a solid reason for it.
“It wasn’t fair, Galena,” Ilias agreed. “We know sometimes life doesn’t turn out that way, but you got justice for her. Dino is going to suffer for what he did.” His fingers rubbed against the back of my neck in soothing circles.
“I hope he does suffer.” I closed my eyes. And for the first time in almost a year, I felt like it was over.