Chapter 55 Tommy
Tommy
Luminous & Co reeks of money. Polished marble floors, glass chandeliers dripping light like liquid, and music soft enough that you forget you’re standing in a mafia front where every dollar has been scrubbed clean.
I hate this place.
I haven’t been back here since I bought the ring for Giovanna and got jumped by Lorenzo’s men.
There are armed guards here again today, and again Berto Abbiati is one of them.
He smirks at me, but I don’t acknowledge him or anyone else.
Vin walks in behind me, Matti to my left, carrying an empty duffle bag.
Both of them are silent, watchful, while Lorenzo stands behind the display cases, bitter, grimacing, like a diplomat forced to receive emissaries from an enemy country.
His hair is slicked back, his jaw tight.
He doesn’t like this demonstration of the fact that he works for us.
For me.
Good.
I smile, polite, calm, smooth as ice.
“Lorenzo.”
His mouth twitches. Oddly, he seems to hate the courtesy most of all, which is the only thing I like about it.
Antonio joins Lorenzo behind the counter late, adjusting his cuffs.
His face catches the light, and I do a double take.
Thin red scratches curve down his cheek, a welt blooms along his neck, and there’s a healing cut just below his hairline.
I pause. Every nerve in my body stills. I know those marks.
She used to leave them on me all the time.
So that’s it. Giovanna’s finally letting him in.
Heat coils sharp in my chest, rage and grief and something worse.
But my smile stays in place as I drawl, “Looks like someone’s keeping you busy, Antonio.
Those scratches suit you.”
He scowls, but when he reads the jealousy that must be showing in my eyes, he smirks, smug and satisfied.
“What can I say? She’s… spirited.”
Berto snorts under his breath, but I don’t laugh.
My jaw tightens. Giovanna’s nails, Giovanna’s scars.
My lessons. Her bed. With him.
Lorenzo stiffens, and Matti shifts like he’s ready for me to explode, but I don’t.
This is the gift I gave her at the New Year’s Eve party when I taught him how to fuck her.
This is what I wanted, right?
Lorenzo pushes the cash toward us.
His voice is a hiss. “Here. Now go.”
I ignore the money.
My gaze stays on Antonio, burning holes into him.
I almost want him to say it outright, to brag about how he fucks her, to tell me she moans his name the way she used to moan mine.
Just so I’ll have reason enough to carve into him and spill his blood all over Lorenzo’s polished marble floor.
But he doesn’t. He just smiles that vague smile, content to let me guess the details.
My pulse gets slower, not faster. Cold creeps in like winter as I finger the knife in my pocket.
Maybe I’ll just gut him, anyway. If I can’t fuck her, making him bleed will do.
As weighing my options, Matti and Vin waiting to back me up if necessary.
Lorenzo breaks the silence with a dry scoff.
“Learn to recognize when you’ve lost, Demonio.
She is out of your bed, your number is blocked across her devices, and she is living with a better man.
Her last name will never be Demonio.”
My smile doesn’t falter, but my stomach churns.
He blocked my number from her devices? Every morning, I text her.
Every night, I call—for years. No wonder she thought I was lying.
She must think I abandoned her. If she’s moved on with Antonio, then killing him would only hurt her more.
When I don’t respond, Vin scoffs. “Antonio? Please. He’s just keeping my brother’s seat warm ‘til he comes to collect. And trust me, Lorenzo, Tommy always collects.”
Lorenzo presses his fists into the display counter and leans toward Vin.
“I’m protecting her from a life of pain and humiliation.
I’m protecting her from—”
Matti cuts him off.
“It’s not Giovanna you’re protecting—it’s yourself.
You’re afraid of what she will become when she is by Tommy’s side.
”
“And you should be,” I add, still smiling.
Lorenzo slams his fist down on the display case, causing the glass to rattle in its mahogany casing.
“Berto, take out the garbage,” he snarls with a wave of his hand.
I turn, slow as a tide, toward Berto. He’s the perfect outlet for my rage: Blood-related to the fucker I’d like to gut, and I haven’t forgiven him for attacking me.
On top of that, the dumbass is grinning like he’s enjoying the show.
Bad idea.
I move before he can blink. Fist to his gut, elbow to his jaw, dragging him across the display case in front of Lorenzo and Antonio in a rain of papers and cash.
He wheezes, tries to snarl something smart, but it’s cut off when I drive my knee into his ribs.
The crack of bones is sharp and satisfying.
When I stomp on his leg, I say, “That’s how you break a tibia, bitch.
”
I straddle him on the floor, my knife already in hand.
I don’t carve the orchid. Not for him. That’s mine and hers now, sacred.
No, instead he gets a smaller mark, a crude slash curling into a half-vine just below his collarbone.
Something to serve as a reminder to not cross me again.
Antonio lunges over the counter, but Vin halts him with a gun on him.
“That’s okay,” says Vin. “No need to help Tommy out. He’s got this.
”
Matti stacks the cash into the duffle bag, staring down the guards who look conflicted.
Berto screams under my blade. I backhand him across the face then press a hand over his mouth, polite as a priest conducting a ritual.
“Consider yourself fired, Berto. You are no longer a Demonio associate. You will never be a soldier. I’m sure you understand.
”
I wipe the blade clean on his shirt and rise.
Lorenzo is pale but furious. Antonio is sneering at me, held back only by Vin’s gun.
Both men know better than to cross us further, but Antonio brings a fingertip to his cheek and slowly traces the mark Giovanna left there like it’s a trophy.
As he should. She is a fucking trophy.
“Thank you for your cooperation,” I say smoothly.
“The Demonios are grateful for our profitable partnership.”
I give them a quick nod and turn on my heel, Matti and Vin right behind me.
As soon as we are in the elevator, Vin laughs, delighted.
His eyes shine as he claps a hand on my shoulder.
“There he fucking is! My ruthless little brother. Christ, I missed you! Let’s go get fucked up, get laid.
This is something to motherfucking celebrate!
”
Matti grins, nodding, but I shake my head.
My voice stays calm, but the smile is gone now that it’s just me and my brothers, and inside, my chest is burning.
“That’s not how I celebrate.”
Vin arches a brow.
“What do you want to do, then?”
“What’s next on the list?
Who needs to learn a lesson? Who owes us money?
”
Matti nods. “Meaning who can he hurt.”
Vin chortles with laughter and punches my shoulder.
“Oh my God, this is the fucking shit, I’m telling you!
Hell fucking yeah, let’s go find you some bitches to carve up, Tommy.
”
I can feel the darkness consuming me. Without Giovanna, there is no light.
Without light, violence and ruin are all I have left to sustain me.