Chapter 98
LUCA
Alex glared at me as if I’d just killed her dog. Her mouth twisted into an angry snarl, her top lip quivering.
“What the hell is your dad talking about?” Alex asked me under her breath.
“It’s nothing,” I assured her. “Just formalities.”
“Save the bullshit for someone who believes it,” she hissed. “You promised not to lie.”
“I didn’t lie. The dowry never even came up.”
Maybe I should have mentioned the Wellington dowry before the engagement dinner, but I’d never found the right way to tell Alex that marrying her made me an even richer man.
It wasn’t uncommon for people in our world to marry for money and power.
She understood the ways of our people. Despite that, I didn’t want her to think I had only asked her to marry me because of the money.
Not like I needed the bonus her grandfather would have to fork over on our wedding day.
It wasn’t about the shares in Wellington Pharmaceuticals or the cash and properties I would gain.
Alex’s brother would inherit Carl Wellington’s holdings upon his death. The dowry was Alex’s share of the pot. I never planned to keep it to myself. Whatever money I received from Carl Wellington would go into a trust for our children.
Her gaze shifted to her family, who sat across the table from us.
Carl chatted with my father while my adoptive brothers sat in complete silence.
Aiden talked to Marcello, the two of them speaking in hushed tones.
Marcello had taken a liking to Aiden over the past year.
He wasn’t as bad as we had initially thought and had become a decent soldier in our corrupt army.
None of us liked Scarlett or Blair. They were both fucking dead to me. In due time, Scarlett would pay for my mother’s death.
My cell phone dinged with a new message. Marcello, Bastian, and Damian’s phones blared throughout the dining room. I swiped the phone from my inside pocket and read the text message from Drake Battle.
We got Kurti. Safehouse on 5th.
I glanced at Bastian and Damian, who pushed their chairs out of the table and excused themselves. Marcello followed suit, dipped his head to whisper in Aiden’s ear, and then the four left the ballroom without a word.
I shot up from the table, and Alex tugged on my suit jacket sleeve.
“What’s going on?”
“Drake found Kurti.”
Alex pushed her palm to the table and rose to her full height. “I’m going.”
“Stay here,” I whispered against the shell of her ear. “You’re safer in the house.”
“No.” Alex gritted her teeth. “You promised me revenge.”
She was right. I shouldn’t have agreed to let her anywhere near Cal Kurti. She needed to get the anger out of her system, and if letting her take a few jabs at Cal would make her feel better, then I had to let her come with us, even if the trip could put her life in danger.
“You need to change. Grab Marcello and head upstairs.” I tapped her on the back. “I need to talk to my dad before we leave.”
Alex did as I instructed. She exited the dining room without a word. Carl didn’t bat an eyelash as half of the room cleared out. He knew we were still looking for the Albanians and wanted revenge for Alex as much as the rest of us.
I moved to the head of the table and whispered into my father’s ear.
He nodded as I told him about Kurti. “Bring me his head.”
We piled into the Escalade, and Marcello drove us to the safe house in Beacon Bay. No one spoke the entire ride. I stared out the window, watching the dark sky pass us by as I thought of all the ways I wanted to torture Cal Kurti before I cut off his fucking head.
He deserved the worst pain imaginable.
When Marcello parked in front of the loft apartment building, Alex turned her head to look at me.
“You promised to let me kill him,” she said with venom in her tone. “Don’t get in the way.”
“What’s mine is yours,” I shot back. “But you need to learn how to share, Drea.”
Her pretty blue eyes widened. “Share our kills? What’s next? His and her guns.”
“I was thinking of matching hunting knives.”
She laughed. “You know, most women want diamonds.”
“You’re not most women.”
A smile crossed her lips as she stared at the dark apartment building. “Does anyone live here?”
“No. We use it as a safe house.”
“How many of those do you have?”
“Enough.”
She narrowed her eyes at me.
“I don’t keep track,” I admitted. “We have safe houses in every country where we do business.”
“To kill people?”
I shrugged. “Depends on the situation. There have been times over the years when we had to move between safe houses to keep the drama out of Devil’s Creek.”
Drake emerged from the lobby of the building, moving toward us with speed.
Dressed in dark jeans and a black fitted tee, he approached us with a determined look on his tired face.
The Knights had been running on empty for days.
We wouldn’t get much sleep until we handled the threats against my family.
Drake looked like he was about to collapse on the ground. “I prepared the room for you. How do you want to handle him?”
I looked at Alex. “Pick your poison, sweetheart.” She shot me a confused look, and I added, “You get to choose how we torture and kill him.”
She grinned. “What are my options?”
Drake raised his hand and said, “Follow me.”
I pressed my palm to Alex’s back and led her into the three-story building with my brothers following us. My father had acquired the property twenty years ago from a man who owed him a lot of money. Most of our wealth came from favors and debts.
At one time, the Salvatores served as bankers for the criminal underworld—we were like the Medicis of organized crime. Then, my great-great-grandfather founded The Devil’s Knights to join forces with the wealthiest families in the country.
Drake guided us through the dimly lit hallways and walked up two flights.
We stopped in front of the last room on the right.
He pushed open the door to reveal Cal Kurti tied to a chair at the center of the living room.
There was a small kitchen to our right and bedrooms to our left.
We stood in a sizable living room of the vacant apartment.
Drake had lined up an array of torture devices on the kitchen island.
Alex froze when she saw Cal. I tapped Alex on the back, forcing her into the room. I wasn’t sure if she could even do this, but I wanted to give her the chance to get her revenge. I wanted nothing more than to cut Cal into tiny pieces, but I made a promise.
He was Alex’s kill.
Drake moved toward the island and lifted a diamond and sapphire necklace.
Alex rushed over to him. “You found it.”
He nodded. “Turn around.”
Alex turned toward me, her back facing Drake as he lowered my mother’s necklace over her head. She smiled as our eyes met. I loved when she fucking smiled. It was the only thing that kept me sane some days.
Alex’s eyes swept over the weapons on the kitchen island. Drake had gathered a collection of guns, knives, ropes, chains, and surgical tools. She gripped the edge of the counter, studying each weapon carefully.
I moved behind her, slid my hands to her hips, and breathed against the shell of her ear. “Are you happy, my queen?”
She glanced over her shoulder at me and smiled. “Very.”
“You’re the judge, jury, and executioner, baby. How do you want to kill him?”
Alex lifted a scalpel from the table. “After what he did to me, I was thinking death by a thousand cuts.”
“Brutal,” I commented, though I was proud of my girl for having the guts to go through with this form of slow, painful torture.
Cal deserved much worse.
“This could take all night,” I told her.
Alex tapped the blade against her palm with a wicked look on her beautiful face. “I have time.”
She spun around to look at Cal, then stormed over to him with the blade in her hand.
I gave Drake a look, and he nodded. “Sonny tied the knots. He won’t get out of them.”
Sonny was a master sailor. From all the years he’d spent on his yacht, Sonny could bind and restrain prisoners better than the ex-Navy SEAL members of our team at Salvatore Global.
Alex stood in front of Cal. “Remember me, you fucking bastard?”
“My father will come for you, whore.” Cal tried to spit at her, but the mucus landed on the floor by his foot. “He’ll slaughter every one of you.”
Cal struggled with his restraints, and Alex raised her leg to slam the heel of her shoe into his chest. “Don’t fucking move,” she growled. “I haven’t even started with your sorry ass.”
“He’s not going anywhere, baby.” I stroked my fingers down her bruised arm. “Sonny’s an expert with knots.”
“Alex,” Aiden said from behind us.
She glanced at her twin.
“Are you sure you wanted to do this? You can’t go back once you cross this line.”
She nodded. “You can’t even imagine what he put me through.”
“This will change you forever,” he shot back.
“I’m already changed because of him.”
Aiden attempted to reach her, and I threw my hand out. “Leave her be.”
“I knew you would fuck her up, Salvatore.”
“Shut your mouth,” I snapped. “Stop disrespecting our queen.”
Alex released a deep breath. “This is my choice, Aiden. You’ve made yours. Now let me make mine.”
She moved with speed toward Cal and made the first cut down his arm.
He howled, rocking back and forth in the chair. “You bitch, you will pay for this,” he yelled in broken English.
“I studied Chinese culture to understand the meaning of their art. I learned about torture called death by a thousand cuts. It was a punishment used on criminals.” Alex made another long incision in his arm, and he screamed. “They tortured men in public so they felt the shame for their crimes.”
Alex looked over her shoulder at the Knights and pointed, blood dripping from the blade in her hand.
“We have an audience to witness your humiliation before you leave this world.”
“Fuck you, bitch.”
She raised her hand and slapped him across the face. Spit flew from his mouth and onto his sweat-slick chest.
“You like beating up women, you piece of shit?”