Chapter Twenty-Six
"If you dare poop in here, Anubis, I will let Everette do whatever he wants with you." I whisper to my dog who squats in the middle of the kitchen.
He looks at me like he doesn't give a fuck and I hurry to open the door that lets him go outside. Anubis disappears in the morning light and I return to my high chair at the kitchen countertop. I put my hands at my temple and let out a sigh.
The last couple of days did damage to both my body and brain. Threats, orgasms, fury, happiness. I've been balanced between these like a dice in the middle of a game. My anxiety is at full display because my father should arrive any moment now.
I don't doubt my husband’s skills. His anger grows minute by minute and I see it in his eyes, the way he tries to look the same at me, but fails.
Everette's green eyes are now looking at me with softness. He smiles at me every time he sees me and his touch is gentle.
And I hate it so much that it kills me.
I don't want him to see me as a weak person because I was cursed for a whole month. I've been
through hell and I fought for other people, but I survived. I learnt how to deal with the pain and how to ignore what happened. I never realized that I'm still affected by them until Everette's touch.
The memories are still haunting me but my husband listened to me.
Make me forget them. Make me feel what I haven't felt with them.
Make me truly yours.
And he did.
I've never felt such pleasure before. How his hands could make me feel desired. My body trembles when I feel his touch all over me, wanting more and more. I'm desperate for his dirty mouth, his hard thrusts, his wet kisses. I've become addicted and there's no turning back.
And while I feel on a cloud, things turn complicated from now on and if he reacted that bad at my past, I'm afraid he'll lose himself when he knows everything.
A wet bump touches my leg softly and I look down to see Scarface. His yellow eyes are calm, staring right into my soul. I let him smell my hand, feeling his body relax. It's unusual for Scarface to leave Vincent out of his sight, but I guess he got bored of the Marvel he's been watching with Emmeline all morning.
I pet his shiny fur, removing my hand from his sharp teeth when he wants to bite my rings.
"I know you're not fond of him, but I can't be a widow at twenty-four." I murmur and look at the rings that shows I'm his.
The black diamonds engagement ring is still the most beautiful piece of jewelry that I've ever put my eyes on. The dark aura around it always makes me lose myself when I'm staring at it.
My heart skips a beat at the thought that he didn't pick this ring thinking about me. Maybe he saw the ring like I am.
Cold. Dark. Vicious.
I let myself fall into his net more and more knowing that we aren't going to get our happy ending. We are too twisted to even think of a fairytale.
And he'll hate me at the end of it.
I feel a hand touching my shoulder and I turn to meet Emmeline's soft eyes. The same green that her brother has and my new favorite color. They look so much alike. The structure of their face, the little bump on their nose, the soft dark brown hair that looks like silk.
They can be twins while me and Keres are so different.
Are.
She's gone, Althea. Get used to it.
I shake my head and concentrate on the girl in front of me. Emmeline says she came to visit her brother, but I know the only reason she's here is Vincent. My little brother charms everyone with one look into his blue eyes.
"Are you feeling okay?" Her feminine voice sounds like a song. Her eyes move to the panther that's growling at her and the only reaction she has is to growl back.
I bite back a laugh at the similarities she has with Everette. Her face is hard, looking at Scarface with dominance. She knows the only weapon to intimidate a wild animal.
That's interesting.
Scarface hides his sharp teeth and looks content at her. His big eyes are full of curiosity, lowering his head until it lays on his paws.
Emmeline looks at me again with a smile and stares at my left hand. She sits on the chair next to me and shyly touches my rings.
"Yeah," I answer her quietly. I don't really know how to talk with her or even about what. It's the first time I'm alone with her and my anxiety these past few days has been on a limit.
"Today is your one-month wedding anniversary." She smiles but still eyes the rings.
It feels unreal that me and Everette survived a month together. A month in which we had more downs than ups, but somehow we managed. Everette got his mafia, I got Vincent and the rest is just memories.
I'm more afraid of the future.
"I remember when Everette called me four years ago, high as a kite because of the morphine, saying he met the woman who will tame his beast." Emmeline starts and my breath slows. "I was fifteen at that time but I never saw my brother in that kind of awe." She laughs and locks eyes with me.
I remember too, I want to say to her.
I remember seeing Keres lean over his cold body, pleading me to call an ambulance. I remember Everette coming into our house a week later asking for Keres's hand in marriage.
I remember.
"Before coming to your house, he showed me the ring he made for his future fiancé." I raise my eyebrows in confusion. He made Keres's ring?
Seeing my confused reaction, she softly laughs and cups my left hand in hers. "When Everette woke up from the drugs, he stood a week to make this beauty. He sanded the gold to the perfect shape and I had to help him set the black diamonds into the gold holes because
his hands were too big."
My heart beats fast and painfully against my rib cage, feeling a lump form in my throat. What is she saying?
"But he didn't propose to Keres with this ring." I whisper and I look at my engagement ring that feels heavy on my finger.
Emmeline caresses my hand gently, her eyes giving me the answer that I don't want to believe.
"No, he didn't."
Everette
I look at the black cars that park in front of my house and my body starts boiling.
The snake has arrived.
I turn my neck slightly and I look at Harper who waits for my direct order. This morning, I did what I was born for.
I became the Boss of Chicago Outfit.
The perfect day to become the most powerful man in America. My one-month wedding anniversary with my wife needs to wait.
"Make sure Vincent and Emmeline are safe." I say roughly and I turn again to see the blond head coming out of the car. My fingers twitch at the need of his blood on me.
With my laptop opened on the desk, I dial the only number I need. I wait for a couple of seconds and the silver mask with fleur-de-lis appears on the backroad.
The Empress's stone figure can intimidate gods. The black oversized hoodie hides her body and the gloves are covered in cigar ash. She looks at me waiting for me to speak, but she knows why I called her. She knows
everything because her loyal soldier tells her everything.
"I didn't call for permission." I say flat. She starts tapping her finger against the table she's sitting at, still waiting. "I'm going to tear Hanibal Luciano's body limb by limb and then I'm going to dismember Enrique, Pablo and Teddy's bodies until even the animals won't crave them anymore." I swear to the woman in front of me.
Because they messed with my wife and it's only fair for me to mess back with them.
The only difference is that I will gladly kill them at the end of my show.
"Make sure it's going to hurt." The robotic voice awakes my beast.
I close the laptop and move to the door, slamming it to the wall. I walk with big steps until I reach the ground floor and I see my men with their guns raise at the Italian Capo who is too close to Althea. His face is red and he looks down at my wife with hatred.
My body is not mine anymore. I feel my legs move until I am in the middle of the two of them, with my hand wrapped around Hanibal's neck. I squeeze hard and I bring his face close to mine. He's two or three inches smaller than me and it's the perfect opportunity to look down at him like the snake he is.
"Call your men off." I spit in his face, looking at the soldiers with their Italian Beretta AR70/90 raise in our way. Hanibal tries to catch my neck but my hold on his body is too powerful.
With a cough, he slaps his hands on my left arm that is squeezing the air out of him and says as loud as he can, "Drop your guns."
The men look at each other with uncertain eyes but listen to their Capo. My guards immediately jump over them, pinning them to the ground and checking them
for other guns.
I look again at my father-in-law and my vision blurs. My brain is stuck on what he did to his daughter and without realizing, I slam my fist into his jaw and I feel it crack. I grab Hanibal's blond hair and with his face covered in blood, I drag him toward the basement.
I hear someone calling my name but my thirst for blood is much powerful. The dirty stairs that show the way to the lowest part of my mansion makes me throw Hanibal down on them. His body falls hard until he reaches the ground, remaining completely still.
I walk down the stairs until I'm standing next to him and I grab his body, throwing it on the chair next to my table full of toys.
"Keaton," When Althea's voice echoes in the empty room my muscles relax quickly. I turn to face her and my heart beats faster at the sight of her.
God, she is beautiful.
Her long black hair stays flat on her back and she wears one of my black shirts that reaches the middle of her thighs. Her brown eyes are eyeing her father and another urge to punch him takes ahold of me.
Althea goes to the table and takes a bottle of cold water, pouring it down her unconscious father.
Hanibal wakes up with a groan, barely holding his own head. My men are tying him to the chair so that he can't escape while he looks over at me and his younger daughter.
"Finally told your husband what happened?" Before I can slam my fist again to his bruised face, Althea stops me. I look at her, trying to read her face but it's stone cold.
"All I want to know is why," She steps further. "Why did you let them do that to me?" Althea asks her father
and for the first time since I met Hanibal, he's quiet. He looks at Althea trying to find his words.
I move toward the table and grab the brass knuckles, putting my fingers through it. I wait for Hanibal to say his thoughts because after that, the show starts.
"I made that bet because I was sure I would win." He says breathlessly. Althea shakes her head and goes near him.
"You threw me at them like I was a piece of meat." She angrily slaps him. "You left me with them for twenty-nine days." Althea's voice cracks and my body trembles.
Hanibal stares at her and his palms turn into fists too. I flicker of pain takes ahold of his eyes and his body trembles also.
"You let them rape me for twenty-nine days. On and on until my body hurt to even stand up. My sheets were always bloody, my body was full with bruises and my mind kept begging for you to save me. Why didn't you save me, Papa?" My heart stops. I can't fucking listen to her. The pain explodes in my body and I want to kill myself because I didn't help her.
I could've.
You didn't know.
It's not good enough.
"Althea-" Hanibal's voice is unrecognizable.
"You taught me how to ride a bike and how to play poker. You were the first one who put a brush in my little fingers because my talent was like no other. What happened?" But Hanibal doesn't answer her. Althea looks at him with hatred in her eyes and she starts laughing.
"Every time they came back, I had to listen to your
screams and pleads. They brought guards, it was impossible for me to stop them. I tried to, believe me or not. I can't stand you, Althea, but I raised you. I tried and I failed." Hanibal groans and Althea freezes.
I go next to her, but she doesn't see me. Her gaze is glued to her father who is breathing harder and harder.
"How can I believe you when your nickname for me is 'whore'? How can I trust you when you killed my mother?" I frown at her words. Gianna Luciano died because she was sick.
Was she?
My head starts hurting from all the information that is thrown.
"The night of my eighteenth birthday is the night I lost my mother. You fucking killed her and took her away from me." Althea's body tremble and I try to take her out of here, but she needs this.
"Your mother died when she fell in love with someone else while still married to me." Hanibal roars and now I see it. The love he still has for his late wife. His eyes are red and his face is full of angry veins.
He looks murderous.
My, my... the snake has a heart.
"My mother died from all the love she had for you!" Althea spats and I hold her back when she lunged at Hanibal.
"Your mother was a cheating whore, uccellino. She fell in love with the enemy but her luck was that you and your sister needed her. You have Gianna's face." Hanibal grows angrier and angrier. "You look just like her and in the same time as him." I see Hanibal ripping the ropes that kept him tied to the chair and his body lunging at Althea.
I move quickly and I slam my fist covered in the
brass knuckles in his face and he falls flat on the floor.
I turn to Althea and see her hard eyes on her father. Her body is tight and she looks ready to kill.
Fuck me.
I cup her face and force her eyes to meet mine.
"My little fox," I say and I kiss her soft lips. She responds instantly and my tongue disappears in her mouth.
"My mother isn't a whore." Althea separates from me and I control my cock from hardening. The angry she gets, the sexier she turns.
"I know." I never met her mother, but she sounds like she was an amazing woman.
Althea takes my lower lip in her teeth and sucks it like a temptress. My hand goes to her ass and I slap it hard until my palm stings.
"Use sulphuric acid. Boil it and let roam over them, eating their skin up." She whispers in a moan and she leaves the room.
I shake my head with a smirk and I go next to the table, preparing the acid.
What my beautiful wife wants, she gets.
I hear footsteps coming downstairs and I see Makhim caring on each shoulder two silhouettes. He throws them over Hanibal and looks at me with anger.
One of the bodies groans and I feel the hunger for his blood run through my veins. Pablo’s confused eyes roam around the room and when his gaze settles on me, he starts to whimper. I go with two big steps next to him and slam my foot in his face, flying him on his back.
When the acid almost spills out of the container I go and admire the beauty.
"I couldn't find Enrique." Makhim almost roars. He looks at the boiling acid and says roughly, "You let me
handle Hanibal."
I nod and take the chemical acid with me, letting my beast possess over the last human part of me as I take Pablo's face and shove it in the burning liquid.