27. Dante
Chapter 27
Dante
A fter dodging my requests for a week, Tommaso Martinelli finally agrees to meet me. However, he refuses to return to my home.
Instead, he secures a room at Nico’s Italian restaurant and fills it with his goons. As we make our way through the front door, a concerned waitress approaches me, her eyes darting toward the back of the restaurant where a burly man stands guard. She warns us about what we’re walking into, and I thank her. I can feel the steely gaze of Tommaso’s security guard watching us as we make our way to the back room.
I send my brother, Salvatore, a text before we enter. He won’t bust in and cause a scene, but he’ll ensure men are waiting outside for us when this is over.
Enzo follows with Adalina dutifully trailing behind him. Her appearance is a stark contrast to his, dressed in a demure sundress that hugs her curves and the provocative collar adorned with the word “CUMSLUT” in bold letters. She walks with her chin tilted towards the ground, eyes downcast in what appears to be shame and submission, and I can’t help but wonder if she’s doing it to hide the label branded on her neck.
Since we are not the first to arrive, Tommaso has already made himself at home in the private room. There are no additional chairs for the three of us, only eleven seats taken by ten smug bodyguards and Tommaso. “And here I was thinking it was the new generation who had bad manners,” I smile.
“They ran out of chairs,” he replies with a shrug. “You don’t mind standing, do you? I have bad knees.”
“Not as bad as they’re going to be if I don’t get the first installment of the money you owe me, Martinelli.” I stand my ground, refusing to be cowed by the likes of Tommaso. He may be a powerful man in his own right, with connections and influence that have kept him safe, but he doesn’t phase me.
Tommaso’s lips curl up in a mocking smile, his cronies snickering and sneering as they join him. The sound is harsh and grating, like nails on a chalkboard. “You can’t possibly think I’m going to pay you a dime until you hand over my daughter.”
It’s my turn to laugh—acerbic and unfeeling. “And you can’t possibly think I’m going to hand over my only leverage in hopes that you come to your senses and finally pay off your quarter of a million dollar debt.”
“It’s cute that you call my daughter leverage. Some people might call her by her name instead of stripping her of her identity, but you do you.”
I have come face-to-face with men far worse than Tommaso Martinelli. I’ve stared at myself in the mirror, covered in blood, after flaying the skin from a man’s back. I have met and become the stuff of nightmares. And still, no one has disgusted me the way Tommaso does. “Better than stripping her in front of my men so they could jack off as they beat her.”
The calm and composed expression on Martinelli’s face abruptly changes. His brows furrow, and his lips tighten into a scowl. “Is that what she told you? You can’t trust her.” His face tightens with anger, and a thin sheen of sweat beads on his brow. “She’s a liar.”
“Perhaps,” I shrug. “But I doubt she was putting out cigars on her back. Who did, if you don’t mind me asking?”
Tommaso’s face contorts into a fiery shade of crimson, his anger evident in the pulsing veins and flushed skin. “You cannot possibly understand what that bitch is capable of.”
“I’ll only say this once, so pay attention. If I ever hear you call Adalina a bitch again, you’ll regret it for the rest of your short, miserable life.”
He changes his strategy. Despite the lingering flush on his cheeks, his lips curve into a small smile, betraying his amusement. “You like her,” Tommaso laughs. “I didn’t think it was possible because she’s not a very attractive thing, nor is she very smart.” His nose wrinkles in disgust as he looks at Adalina; in that one look, I see the depths of his twisted desire. He despises his daughter, and he’s in love with her.
“But I suppose if you want a dumb cunt around to keep your dick wet, she’s that, at least. Because you are fucking her, aren’t you, Terlizzi?.” His smile is dangerous when he turns to me to say, “I might have to speak to Saverio about this. You’re engaged to his sister and halfway to knocking up my daughter. Imagine what he’d say.”
I’ve envisioned what Saverio would say countless times, and each time, the outcome is the same—I wind up dead. “I can imagine that he’d give me the go-ahead to kill you if he knew how much money you borrowed from my father and then refused to pay back. He’s a man of honor; he believes in paying his debts.”
“I didn’t refuse to pay it back,” Tommaso grits his teeth. “I gave you an amenable schedule.”
“You gave me an amortization schedule for a mortgage loan with a measly 3% interest. I’m not waiting 30 years to get my money back, Martinelli. And my father did not loan you a quarter of a mil at 3%.”
Tommaso waves me off with a bored flick of his wrist. “Your father is a loanshark. As far as I’m concerned, my arrangement with him isn’t valid due to predatory terms and conditions.”
I’ll show him predatory terms and conditions. If he says one more thing about my father, if he insinuates that he didn’t know exactly what he was getting into, I’ll tear his arms from their sockets and use them to beat him to death. “I don’t care what you’re concerned about. I want my money, Tommaso, and I want it paid in full in the next five years. Including the $100,000 in interest you agreed to when you signed the deal with my father. You’re lucky I’m not charging extra for you being a piece of shit.”
Tommaso’s total debt is $350,000. It’s a significant amount, the kind of money that would get a man killed. And instead of doing anything in his power to keep himself alive, he makes vague threats and sets himself up to look more menacing than he actually is.
“I want my daughter back first.”
“This isn’t a negotiation, Martinelli. I expect a year of payments before I consider returning her to you. And who knows? By then, she might be knocked up or dead. And will you really want her back if that’s the case?”
Adalina’s silence is a boiling cauldron of suppressed fury.
“I jest about you getting my daughter pregnant, but God help you if you do.” Tommaso’s head tilts to the side, his dark eyes slowly roaming over Adalina’s form. His gaze lingers on the delicate collar around her neck, like a predator assessing its prey. “I’m going to issue you one last warning, Terlizzi.” But he doesn’t look at me while he says it. “If you don’t return my daughter to me by sunset, I will wipe out your family and everyone you love. I’ll kill your brothers and sister, your parents, your friends, your bodyguard, her ,” he juts his chin toward Adalina. “I will kill everyone you love. You will be an orphan at thirty-one, and I will ensure that no one ever dares to follow your leadership again. Do not test me.”