Chapter 40 #2
The thought of Rayne sharpens something inside me, reminding me of my purpose.
I drag Carmine’s other arm back and cinch the zip tie tight around both wrists.
Plastic bites into his skin. He snarls and bucks against me, but pain has made him sloppy, and age has made him slow.
A few seconds later, his hands are locked behind him, his shoulder pumping blood onto the floor.
He’s still cursing when I step back and pull out my phone. I ignore his ramblings because he can rage all he wants. It’s not going to help him.
I call Luca. “It’s safe. Bring her in.”
Carmine eyes me with pure hatred, his breathing fast and labored as he tries to manage the pain. “Bring who in?”
“Oh, I think you know who I’m talking about, don’t you? She’s the real reason you had the Bertellis killed, right? The reason you decided to try and take me down before I figured out what you and my father did to her? To me? You treacherous fucks!”
His lip curls in a sneer. “You have no fucking idea.”
“No idea? I know all of it, old man. How you paid Ethan Fiorelli to rape her. Then blackmailed him to keep his mouth shut.”
“Puttana!” he mutters.
I lose it, smashing my fist into his face so hard that his head snaps backward and hits the chair. Fist poised, ready to strike again, I remember that she’s coming and that she wants to look him in the eye. Best leave him some eyes to look into, if only for her sake.
He spits blood onto the floor. “That was your father’s doing, not mine.”
“That’s not what Ethan says.”
“And you trust him over me?”
“Do I believe the confession of a dying man who was in so much pain he couldn’t have come up with a lie even he had a reason to? Over you? A man who’s been trying to feed me to the fucking wolves for the past two weeks? Yeah, I fucking do.”
He snarls, spits again, running his tongue over his teeth.
The fact that they’re veneers held in by cement is the only reason they’re still in his face.
“Your father was ready to betray me. That is why we did what we did. He traded you to save his own ass. He was a coward, and his arrogance and greed got your buddy Tommy killed and your girl fucked.”
I punch him again, and this time smash two of his perfect porcelain teeth.
“Fucked? She was raped, you piece of shit. And you sick fucks recorded it. You let me believe…” My voice is loud enough to shake the walls, rage so close to spilling out all over me, all over him.
I will beat him to death with my bare hands if I don’t get a handle on it.
And I can’t yet. Not when I promised her.
I take a deep breath, pace the room, wonder how much longer until she gets here. At least two minutes, I think.
I pull up a chair. “Okay, I’ll bite. Tell me what happened. What my father did.” I always knew my father wasn’t perfect. I understand now that he was a piece of shit actually, but it’s convenient for Carmine to be able to pin all of this on a dead man.
Carmine’s nostrils flare, but then he speaks.
“Your father was always grooming you for the top.” He speaks with a distinct lisp now, thanks to his missing teeth.
“He could never make it on his own. But with you… You were always something special. Could always read a room before anyone else even had time to take a breath.”
“If you’re trying to flatter me it’s not going to work.”
He laughs, a maniacal sound. “Not flattery. The truth. You were my capo bastone, supposed to remain loyal to me. Like he was. But then I found out he was plotting, little weasel of a man. Wanted to overthrow me and take my place. With you at his side, he might have succeeded. I had to nip it in the bud.”
“So, how does that lead to you framing Rayne and Tommy?”
He spits again, blood pooling in his mouth.
“For someone so smart, you’re a dumb fuck when it comes to the heart.
” I don’t bite, wanting him to go on. “I caught your father, was ready to kill him, and instead he offered me his undying loyalty. When I told him that meant fuck all to me, he offered me yours in return for his life and a place as my consigliere for as long as he wanted. I reminded him that you, unlike him, weren’t for sale.
Too many principles. So he told me about your little plan with Tommy, to open your own hotel and become legitimate.
He already had the video recorder set up.
He’d been watching you for months. I think he probably jerked off to your girl.
” He makes a disgusted face. At least we agree on that.
My skin itches. I had no idea my father knew about my and Tommy’s business idea.
It was a pipe dream really. At least, it started out very much like that.
But Tommy had met with architects and investors, and…
who knows, maybe we could have made it. Micah runs our family hotel, but it’s a front to launder all the dirty money we make.
This would have been wholly legit—the kind of lifestyle my girl and our kids deserved.
I understand why my father would have been angry about that.
If I’d walked, then it’s likely my brothers would have followed.
Maybe not Raf, but definitely the rest of them.
I can almost forgive him for being pissed about that, but the fact he was recording me and Rayne makes me want to dig him up and gouge out his fucking eyes. Piece of shit!
“So you threatened Rayne’s life to make me stay. It wasn’t because of this disgracing the Medici name bullshit my father cooked up.”
He smirks and, fuck, but I want to smash out all of his veneers now. “That was his idea. He really was one of the most selfish men I’ve ever known,” he says proudly, like being selfish is an attribute.
“You’re both selfish pricks. You were so scared I’d walk away that you ruined three people’s lives, just so I’d stay loyal to you both?”
He nods, a wide, proud, bloody smile spreading across his face. “Worked though, didn’t it? All of it. You didn’t even ask the girl what happened. Just believed she was a whore.”
The rage I’ve been holding onto explodes out of me in a violent outburst. I leap over the desk, jump on him like an animal, fists raining down blows on him.