Chapter 32
DOMINIC
My men and I arrive at a warehouse. The white, unassuming building stands high, covering a lot of ground. There is not a single window present. Just one blue door.
One fucking door is what’s keeping me from tearing his fucking head off. I hope Miles is with him so I can kill them both.
If his brothers aren’t with him, I’ll find them next, and I’ll give them the same fate. After all, they stood and watched my father and brother die. That was the very last time I ran from the Bianchis. It’s ironic that now, they’re running from me.
Leading the team, I gesture for them to move in, all thirty of them, with more waiting in the van. All of us strapped with vests and more firepower than we could ever need.
One, I mouth, lifting a finger.
Two.
Three.
My other hand is on the door handle, turning it slow, before I swing it open into a barely lit room, weapon at the ready.
Pop.
A bullet whizzes past my head as soon as I march in, hitting the metal wall at the back of me.
My men all storm inside. Then all hell breaks loose.
Bullets fly from all around. I can no longer tell which one belongs to which person. His men are everywhere, on the first level and the second.
From the corner of my eye, I see Dante smashing the butt of his gun on the head of one man before firing shots above at some others.
Carnage spills onto the floor, body after body of Faro’s men fall like poorly orchestrated domino pieces.
Someone hits me on the back of my head, not strong enough to cause me to fall, but enough to piss me off. I veer, kicking the man on his kneecap.
A scream rips out of him, and I stomp on his ankle.
“You chose to work for the devil on earth. Now meet the one in Hell.”
Pop.
The fight in him is gone as blood oozes from the center of his chest.
Another one comes at me, hitting me right in my vest, but I brush it off. When he realizes he hasn’t hurt me, his eyes widen as I lift the gun, firing twice into the chest.
I find Enzo rolling on the ground, shooting bullets at two men as they fire back. They don’t even see me coming, my pulse pounding in my ears, not with fear, but with the need for vengeance filling my veins.
Pop. Pop.
One dead.
Pop. The other one hits the floor.
Enzo stands, shock riddling his face. “Shit, man. You’re on a fucking roll.”
The sound of bullets seems to have stopped, and I look around, finding over twenty of his men lying on the floor.
“How we doing?” I ask my guys.
“Good, boss,” Roger says, appearing beside me. “Considering.”
“Who’s hurt?”
“Dwayne has a wound on his arm, and Vinny has one on his calf. One of the guys brought them out to the van. They’ve been replaced by two others and are being taken to Ricky.”
“Good. That’s good.”
I’m glad Roger got them out of here. They’ve got kids.
I’m sure Ricky will patch them up nicely.
He’s a vet we use for shit like this, someone Tomás knew.
Ricky was once a surgeon resident who gave it up after his wife was killed.
Decided to be a vet instead. I’m sorry about his wife, but I’m not sorry he chose a different path.
His hands are gifted. He helps us as a favor to Tomás.
I gaze up at the second level railing. “Faro, you motherfucker, show your face. Let’s end this once and for all. Just you and me.”
There’s quiet at first…until a rattling sound jumps at the silence.
“I know you’re there, you piece of shit. What happened? Too scared of me now, old man?”
Deep, maddening laughter resonates through the space.
Beside me, my brothers point their weapons up, waiting for a man who destroyed our family. I hold out a hand, telling them to stand down.
“He’s mine.”
I know Faro won’t shoot right now. He likes to toy with people before he kills them.
I see a shadow approach above us, footsteps stomping across the bare floor.
“Dominic. So nice of you to come. Tea? Coffee? Blood?”
I see his face: older, yet still carrying the same cruelty it did then.
He scans our faces. “And you got your band of brothers beside you.” His brows rise. “It brings a tear to my eye to know Matteo will never join you.”
Dante sucks in a breath. Enzo grunts, his tone sinister.
I take a step forward.
“Don’t mention his name again!” I warn with a roar, my chest rising and falling from the weight of my immense fury.
“Still sensitive, I see.”
I take another step, wanting to run up there and throw him off the ledge and watch his neck crack in half.
“Where is she?” I demand.
“You know what your problem is?” he asks, lifting a hand with his own gun in his palm. “You care too much.”
“This is getting boring,” Dante cuts in. “Let’s kill him and be done with it.”
“Which one are you?” Faro asks with a sneer. “The dummy or the smaller dummy?”
“Dom, you gotta let me shoot him,” Enzo says behind me, loud enough for Faro to hear. “You can kill him. But I need to make that cocksucker scream before you end him.”
“You’ll get your turn. We all will.” I glare at Faro’s smug face. “We deserve that much.”
“You never deserved a goddamn thing! Filth, all of you, especially that father of yours.”
Dante growls, rushing for the stairs, but I run faster, gripping his body with an arm around his chest, keeping him restrained.
“You don’t talk about my father,” Dante snaps. “I’m going to fucking kill you!”
Faro snickers. “Keep your dog on a leash, would you?”
I gesture for Enzo and Roger to hold Dante back, and they take over for me. “You all stay here. No one goes upstairs until I tell you.”
“Okay,” Enzo says as I climb up the steps.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Faro asks.
“Talking is now over. Where is she?” Two more steps and then I’m in front of him.
Now that I’m taller, more powerful, he seems like a roach I can step on. Short, round, grays on both sides of his head.
He’s nothing.
“Come. She’s waiting eagerly for your attendance.”
I keep my gun pointed to the floor, not wanting to shoot until I see Chiara with my own eyes. If I take him out now and he’s hidden her somewhere, I may never find her.
Footsteps echoing, I stomp down a semi-dark narrow path, him leading the way. We keep moving until the space widens, opening into a larger, well-lit area. As my eyes adjust, that’s when I see her. Chiara.
But she isn’t alone. Miles is there too, with a gun pointing to the back of her head, her hands hidden behind a chair, blood trickling down her lip.
My heart urges me to run, to get to her—to kill them all—but my mind stabilizes my irrational thoughts. I have to be smart about this.
“Nice to see you, boss.” Miles smirks, planting the barrel against her head, and I catch the sight of the swelling around her temple.
It reminds me of when Cain hurt her. Anger fills my heart to capacity, battering from within my rib cage like an imprisoned animal finding its prey.
“I’m gonna get you out of this, baby,” I assure her. “I swear to you.”
Her chin trembles, fresh tears leaking down her cheeks, weaving with the blood on her mouth.
“Kill him.” She grits her teeth at Faro.
“Shut up, bitch,” Miles says from behind her, pushing the gun harder into her scalp, her head bending forward.
My breathing barrels through me with force.
“I’m gonna kill you nice and slow,” I warn Miles, but he only looks amused.
We’ll see how amused he is when I put a bullet in his face.
“You’re done, Faro.” I point the weapon at him. “Tonight, you die, and after I’m done with you and your puppet there…” I gesture toward Miles with my head. “I’m going to kill every last man in your family until there’s no one left.”
Faro sighs facetiously. “You Cavaleris think you can take everything from me. I made you an honest deal.” His feet plod loudly as he takes a step closer to me, a few feet between us.
“But instead of being an honest man, you took her without agreeing to our deal, like I figured you would. You’re exactly like your father. ”
His face turns hard, and as he looks at me with a dead look in his eyes, he points a gun at Chiara. “That day I killed that scumbag you called a father, I not only took his youngest son, but the woman he came to fall in love with. My woman.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” I ask, lifting my own weapon, pointing it at his chest.
“Your father and my wife, they were having an affair almost three years after your ma died. I guess you didn’t know. Why would you?” he scoffs. “You were just a stupid kid chasing after my daughter.”
I growl; if Chiara wasn’t in harm’s way, I’d use the knife at my ankle and slice both of their necks.
“She wasn’t even supposed to be there,” he continues.
“But she found out what I planned to do and thought she could beg for their life, but…” His mouth curls up at the corners, the deadpan laugh filling the room.
“She was too late. They were already dead. But I planned to kill her anyway, so she did me a favor showing up. I shot her in the back of the head as she cried looking at your dead brother and father.”
My body grows cold at the memory of what I saw that day.
I don’t believe anything he’s saying. My father was never the type of man to fall for a married woman, no matter how bad her marriage was. I never even saw him with anyone after Mom died. I mean, yeah, he was friends with Chiara’s mother, but that was all it was.
At least I thought so.
“After I shot them all, we dumped them together into the dirty harbor where they belong. If you look, you might still find their bones.” His weapon remains aimed at a tearful Chiara.
I squeeze my hand around the gun in my hand, pain stretching over my fingers. “Your death will be the best thing I’ll do as a man. I only wish I’d done it as a boy.”
From the corner of my eye, I see Miles’s gun lift up toward me. Before I can think, I point at my target and pull the trigger.
Miles falls to the floor with a loud thud just as Faro’s lips curl upward and a bullet from his weapon bursts through the air, straight for Chiara.
“No!” I scream, my pulse pummeling in my ears, my feet taking over.
Everything moves in slow motion, yet too quickly at the same time.
Running forward, I go as fast as I can to shield her as she falls—her body rocking sideways before the chair hits the ground hard. But as I make it to her, I find no traces of blood.
She glares past me, her body curved to the side, the chair missing one of its legs, and picks up the gun Miles left behind. She must’ve found a way to free one of her hands.
“Nice try, Daddy,” she coughs on a laugh.
And this time, she’s the one pulling the trigger.
Faro screams, holding out his hand, a bullet hole right through his palm.
The crunching of multiple footsteps is behind me as I turn, finding my brothers and my men there surrounding Faro with their weapons drawn.
Once I know we’re safe, I undo the rope he used on her, freeing her other arm from the chair.
My hands are on her, checking for wounds, but she brushes me away, her eyes still on her father.
Crawling away at first, she gets up with the gun in her hand, a look of seeping rage on her face as she moves toward him.
Her hand slowly crawls up, the barrel pointing at Faro.
“No, Chiara!” I yell. “Don’t do it!”
I know she wants to kill him—I get that more than anyone—but taking a life…it changes a person. I don’t want that for her. That burden is mine. Finding out someone they love was murdered can make someone irrational enough to do something before they’ve had a chance to consider the consequences.
Her gaze flickers to mine, a flash of anger filling the emptiness in her eyes.
“You’re not the only one who lost someone at his hand.” Her exhales pulse with frantic indignation, and all I want is to hold her and tell her everything will be okay.
“All this time…I knew he killed her.” Brushing away the errant tears filling her eyes, her lower lip trembles.
“But a small part of me hoped I was wrong That she really did run away. And though that would’ve hurt, I’d have understood.
I’d have found her and forgiven her. But…
” Silent whimpers flow steadily from the heartbreak residing inside her heart.
“He killed her. She’s really gone, Dom.”
My heart fills with agonizing grief, her pain and my own blended together into one. I wish I could take hers away and make them mine.
Testing the waters, I tread lightly, until I’m close enough to cup her cheek. My palm lands with a light touch over her damp skin, attempting to pull her away from the darkness I’ve been at peace with for so long.
“I know you’re hurting, Chiara. But killing him might change you. Think about this before you do what you think is right at the moment.”
The narrowed slits of her eyes crinkle with a new slice of ire.
“You, of all people, have no right to tell me what to do. After all the things you’ve done in the name of revenge, you’re what now?!” she roars, the words emphasized with a sharp bite of truth. “My friend again? No. You’re nothing, just like he is.”
“Chiara…” I warn as she levels the gun at her father’s chest, her eyes glued to mine. “Let’s talk about all of that and forget him. I know I fucked up. Plea—”
“Do it!” Faro hisses like a cornered serpent.
Her gaze zaps to his as she makes her way to her father, her long hair now tattered and caked with blood on the ends. My men let her pass, refusing to stand in her way.
“Goodbye, Daddy,” she grits out, her hand aiming at his head from a few feet away, her tone even. “You’ll never hurt another innocent child again.”
“You fucking who—”
A bullet splits the air, drowning out all else as it hits him right in between his eyes. She doesn’t even flinch as his body falls, unblinkingly staring down at him.
Then suddenly her hand trembles, and the rest of her body follows. I rush over as a sob breaks from the chained wounds of her heart, and I’m there, doing what I can to hold her together, never wanting to let go.