Chapter 15 #2
“Do you believe he is leaving the area?” I asked.
“We are looking into that, as well as other possibilities and new opportunities,” Vincent said.
It was the last part of that comment that caught my attention. I set that aside to ask about later and ate my meal in silence. I knew that my own internal dilemma was because having Abel in my life had changed me to a certain extent. Everything I did affected him.
“Are you ready?” Vincent asked after some time. I looked around and saw that they were both finished, and I had been sitting there while staring off into space. A glance at my own plate showed that I’d absently eaten my food. I shook my head at myself.
“I am,” I said as I stood. I took my dirty dishes and placed them in the bin on the other sideboard, then followed the others to the door.
“Did we miss breakfast?” Dario asked as he and Carmelo came in.
“No. We were just here earlier,” Nicolo answered. “We have somewhere to be.”
“Do you need help?” Carmelo asked.
“No,” Vincent said. “The three of us will be dealing with this situation personally.”
Carmelo and Dario glanced at one another, and then Dario spoke up. “If you need my assistance later, I have nothing going on.”
I chuckled at that. Dario was one of our cleaners, and he’d not been overly busy as of late. I checked in with Abel, and although he wasn’t as deeply asleep any longer, he was still very much asleep, and I was going on the thought of taking care of business and asking for forgiveness later.
We left the villa, and as Nicolo slid behind the wheel of the car, Vincent and I both got into the back.
“If you decide you want me to deal with it, I won’t think less of you,” Vincent said.
I looked over at my longtime friend. “I appreciate that.” I thought about things for a moment and shook my head. “I’m leaning toward doing things myself. It’s personal for me, and I really want him to pay for the pain he put his son through.”
“Understood.”
We rode in silence until we arrived at the warehouse district. Nicolo weaved through the various warehouses, and when he stopped in front of one of ours, I was a bit surprised.
“He’s not here,” Vincent said.
I furrowed my brow before getting out and followed the others as they entered the building. I remained quiet while we walked through to the back and then out to the dock. Nicolo went down the ladder to the waiting boat first, followed by Vincent, and I followed last.
Having grown up here, being on the water was actually nothing new for me, and I simply held on to the railing as Nicolo drove the boat out into the Gulf of Naples. Twenty minutes later, he slowed the boat and pulled alongside the Fantasma Marino and tied off.
A familiar face appeared above us, and I smiled up at Luciano. So that was where he’d gone. We all climbed aboard, and when we reached the deck, there were greetings, and Elio came out of the cabin with a mug in his hand.
“I was wondering when you would decide to take care of business,” Elio said. “He’s a real piece of work, and I don’t think even his own mate would miss him.”
“That lovely?”
Elio shrugged. “He’s full of himself, making demands, thinking that somehow he has the right to do so.” Elio shook his head. “How is it that your beloved, that sweet little fox, came from him?”
I chuckled and shook my head. “I haven’t got a clue. I’ve not met his father, but I’ve seen him in Abel’s memories, and I often question things. I do feel for his mother a bit. She will suffer and die, but she didn’t exactly protect her only omega child from his father.”
“Eh, he will get what he deserves. He was hiding like the weak coward he is. Now he thinks he can make demands. It is comical.”
“They’re below in the storage room,” Luciano told Vincent.
“Good,” Nicolo said as he rubbed his hands together in excitement.
I followed the others into the cabin and then down to the storage room.
There were two men sitting in there on opposite sides of the room.
I was surprised to see both were in cages that hadn’t been there before.
Although both looked similar, it was easy enough to ascertain which one was Uriah, and I walked to the left and stopped in front of his little prison.
“Let me out. You have no right to hold me here.”
“Hello, Uriah,” I told him. I honestly could not see how my beloved was this man’s son. “You don’t know me, nor do you care, most likely, but my name is Marcello.”
Uriah stopped banging on the cage when there was a commotion behind me. I didn’t pay any attention to it because I knew there was no threat. One fox alpha was no match for four deadly vampires.
“Where are they going with Abraham?”
I glanced that way and grinned. “It is time for him to pay for his injustices against others,” I said. I looked back at my beloved’s father and let my eyes tint. “Same as you.”
Uriah moved to the back of the cage, hitting the back side of it. “What do you mean? I’ve done nothing.”
I shook my head. “Let me show you something,” I said as I reached into my pocket.
“Only because I want you to know that all of your greed was for nothing.” I woke up my phone and smiled at the image that greeted me.
There was my beautiful angel, cradling his obvious baby bump.
I turned the phone around and held it out so Uriah could see.
“He is my world. My everything. I cherish every single moment I get with him.”
Uriah glanced at the phone, and then his eyes widened when he recognized what he was looking at. “We can come to some agreement.”
I shook my head. “No. You sold your own son to sex traffickers.”
Uriah looked over my shoulder before looking back at me. I knew Vincent was still in the room with me. “You aren’t with the council, are you?”
“No. We are so much worse. You would have had a much less painful death if you had turned yourself in to the council. How unfortunate for you that my family found you, and now you will pay for what you did to my beloved.”
“No,” Uriah said. “It’s all a misunderstanding. Obviously, Abel is fine. He’s here with you. He’s pregnant in the picture. You have a family.”
I grinned as I nodded slowly.
“That we do,” I said. “One that believes the mistreatment of others in our family must face the consequences of their actions. And you…you will pay for the pain and suffering you caused your own child.”
“Marcello? Are you here in the villa?”
I didn’t let the grin falter from my face.
“No, mio angelo. I am with Vincent, taking care of some things.” I took a step back and then another.
Vincent stepped up beside me, and I held up a hand, indicating a moment was needed.
Vincent grinned and nodded subtly, and that was all I needed to move to the doorway and step just outside of the room into the narrow pathway.
“Mio angelo, I know certain things upset you about my past, and I cannot change them. But sometimes our pasts affect us in the present, and we must deal with it. I need to take care of something, and it means I need to do what you would consider bad things. But I cannot stomach the thought of you being disgusted with me. I have thought about this for weeks now. I’ve put it off, but it needs to be dealt with. ”
“What kind of bad things? You’re meaning that you’re out there going to kill someone again, right?”
I leaned against the wall and dropped my head against it for a moment before I stood back up. Any reservations I’d had up until now about what to do going forward with Abel, the children, and the family had been decided here and now.
“I need to deal with a rotten soul,” I told my beloved.
“So they hurt people?” Abel asked quietly.
I could feel the pain through our bond already. My little fox had come such a long way from what he’d been put through, but sometimes the mention of certain things seemed to throw him right back in there.
“Really bad. He hurt children. His children. He sold one of them, even.”
I heard Abel gasp, which was followed by a long silence. Maybe I should have just mentioned all of this to him after I’d already dealt with Uriah.
“Do it,” Abel said finally. “Show no mercy. But don’t ever talk to me about what you do to my father.
I don’t want to know, just that he won’t ever be able to hurt anyone ever again.
I wouldn’t put it past him to have sold more than just me.
” Abel was quiet for a moment. “Then come home to me. We can get lost in one another and forget about everything. I’m going to go have breakfast with Mazzi, so that’s where I’ll be.
I think cuddling little Tulio will be what I need.
” Abel sighed. “He’s hurt people,” he said quietly.
“He needs to not be able to hurt others.”
I glanced into the room where Uriah was pacing in the small space of his cage. Vincent looked bored, standing outside of it while leaning against the wall.
“He won’t,” I told my beloved. “I love you. More than anything or anyone else.”
I felt a surge of happiness through our bond. “I love you too. Come home to me.”
“I will.”
I reentered the room and walked over to stand in front of Uriah again. “Abel sends his regards,” I said. “But he also hopes you pay for your actions, and you can never hurt another again.” I reached for the lock on the door of the cage.
“Wait. I have money.”
I laughed. “As if I need your money.” I opened the door and let my claws extend on my right hand. I reached in and grabbed Uriah around the neck and pulled. He screamed and grabbed my arm as my hand tightened on his neck.
“No!”
“Yes,” I said calmly. “For the crimes committed against your own son, I seek restitution. As he is my fated mate, my beloved, I am entitled to it, and I will get justice for my beloved.”
I pulled Uriah out of the cage, and when he tried to kick my legs out from under me, I used my free hand to punch him in the side, breaking several of his ribs. He screamed out in pain, and his weight felt heavy in my grasp.
“You see, your son, your omega son, who is at least half the weight of you, had to endure beatings such as this,” I told him.
“I’m not going to rape you like they did him, because the thought of that disgusts me.
But I’m going to make you suffer every single hit that he did.
Every broken bone.” I snapped his arm before he could even move.
He screamed again until Vincent came over and shoved something in his mouth.
The almost immediate muffling of noise was music to the ears.
“I don’t know about you, but the screaming hurts my ears,” Vincent said.
I shrugged. “I don’t normally drag things out, and I know your style is to just kill them without a thought, but he caused Abel so much pain. For years, he hit him. He kept food from him; he forced him to be no more than a servant in his own house. Then he sold him.”
Vincent grabbed some tape and put a strip over Uriah’s mouth as the fox shifter tried to pull the fabric out. His ribs had already started healing, as had his arm. But what I had in mind next, yeah, that wasn’t going to heal.
“You see,” I said, “this is my coven master. He’s also the head of one of the most ruthless families here in Italy.
” I held up my hand and showed Uriah my claws.
“I’m going to let him kill you. Not because I don’t want to, but because I don’t want to go back to my sweet angel and touch him with hands that killed his sperm donor.
Because you don’t deserve the title of father.
” I grinned, and Uriah’s eyes widened. “But I am going to make you suffer just a bit before I let Vincent finish you.”
I reached down and slid my razor-sharp claws into Uriah’s groin. His eyes became impossibly wide, and he screamed out frantically. I snapped my hand back toward me, pulling my claws from the skin and letting go of Uriah’s neck at the same time. Instantly, he fell to the floor and to his side.
“You, uh, have a piece of…” Vincent tilted his head to the side. “I think that’s a testicle.”
I held up my hand and nodded. “Looks like it.” I glanced back at Uriah.
“You won’t be needing it anymore.” I tossed the orb to the floor and took a step back.
“I’m going to go to the bathroom and wash my hands,” I told Vincent.
“I don’t care if you kill him quick or make him suffer.
He knows why his life is ending and that Abel will live on in a very long, happy, and fulfilling life filled with love. ”
“Honestly, I think that he’s going to bleed out with the amount of blood that is spilling onto the floor.”
I looked back down and nodded. “Possibly. I’ll be back.”
I left the storage room and went two doors down to the small bathroom. I looked at myself in the mirror as I washed my hands. I would need to take Abel and the twins away from here—away from this lifestyle. They were too sweet and pure for this to touch them.
“Mio angelo? I will be home soon,” I told him through our bond and immediately felt happiness.
“That’s good. I miss not having you around when I wake up.”
“I apologize, my love. I will be there for you in the mornings from now on.”
“You should come and see Tulio. He’s so adorable.”
I grinned. “I’ll do that when I get back. Then I think some time in the gardens before we retire to the room for the day.” Abel loved the gardens, and I couldn’t wait for his fox to run through them.
“I can’t wait,” Abel told me.
“Soon,” I said in response and then muted our bond again. He didn’t want to know this side of things, and I understood that. I dried my hands, and when I opened the door, I found Vincent leaning against the wall.
“The others will dispose of the body,” he said. “He bled out on the floor.”
I shrugged. “Not the most painful way, but a fair one, in my opinion, for what he did.”
“Are you ready?”
I nodded. I went up the steep stairs first, finding Nicolo looking bored while sitting on one of the plush bench seats. He had his hands folded on his stomach and his legs crossed at the ankle.
“I don’t know where Abel got his feistiness, but it certainly didn’t come from his father, and it seemed to not be passed on to his older brother either.”
Vincent and I both chuckled. I noticed that Nicolo looked pristinely clean and would have to ask him about that later.
“We’re ready,” Vincent said.
“Good. I want to get back to the villa and find something to eat.”
I shook my head, and Vincent sighed. We both knew he wasn’t talking about actual food.
I couldn’t say anything because most likely my fangs would end up in Abel at some point today, and we would both enjoy it immensely.
I waved to Luciano and Elio as we made our way to the ladder to return to the boat below.
I needed to get back to the villa and hold Abel.
With him in my arms, everything seemed more settled.