Chapter 20 Stan
TWENTY
STAN
“When he dies, take him to the pig farm, Luigi,” I ordered four hours later.
“Se, Capo,” he mumbled, but I could tell he didn’t really know what he’d agreed to.
The rest of my Stidda hovered in place, watching a man who’d been one of their own last week roll and writhe in his shit and vomit.
C-L-O had performed like a charm.
Everything I’d said, he’d seen with his own eyes.
Fucking up his nervous system, making him lose faith in his senses.
Once upon a time, Luc had accused me of being distinctly uncerebral. I’d taken the criticism to heart and created something that turned a man’s brain against him.
Every scream Dante released had made even my hardened foot soldiers grimace.
As I made a mental note to do ‘show and tell’ with my concoctions every couple months, just a little reminder of what I was capable of, I barked, “Luigi!”
His head whipped to the side to find me. “Yes, Stan?”
“You heard me?”
“About the pig farm? Se, Capo.” He gulped, and I saw the fear in his eyes. “Sure thing.”
I stepped toward the exit but, on the threshold, paused. Didn’t turn back. Just called out, “Remember, we reward loyalty. If, however, you betray the house of Valentini, this’ll be your fate.”
I left the warehouse as Dante punctuated my declaration by dry-heaving.
Unable to do much more than turn his head, suffocation would occur soon enough.
Wholly satisfied with the day’s work, I stepped into the open, relieved to be smelling the less-than-fresh Brooklyn air rather than Dante’s stench as I checked my cell.
“What the fuck?”
Chad’s muttered hiss caught my attention. But not before I noticed Taube leaning against my town car, arms crossed, but her hands were tucked practically under her armpits. The posture came off more like self-soothing than smug.
My brow furrowed as I cast a look between Chad and her, but her interest rested with me and I didn’t trust the smile playing on her lips.
“What are you doing here, Taube?”
She didn’t reply until I was a few feet away from her. “I’m here because men suck.”
“For fuck’s sake, Lucinda!”
She dismissed Chad by talking over him: “And I had to do my due diligence seeing as I already let Kitty Frasier down once.” She punctuated that with a sniff. “You’re welcome, Custanzu.”
“What did you do?”
I stiffened. “Taube?”
“Just showing her the kind of guy you are,” she purred, ignoring the other man entirely.
“Where the hell is this coming from? This isn’t our first collab. You know what kind of guy I am.”
Her eyes narrowed. “That doesn’t reflect on the here and now.”
“I saved her,” I pointed out.
Chad cleared his throat. “Saved whom?”
This time, we both ignored him, but neither of us referenced the private job I’d hired her for.
One that had saved the life of a supposed enemy…
One that had saved the life of my friend.
She’d been leaning against my fender, but my words flipped a switch. She withdrew a baton from only the fuck knew where and pressed the tip of it to my temple. “A single strike, Custanzu, and that’s you—as gaga as that poor fucker in there.”
The control I’d maintained over my temper fizzled into dust.
“Tell me what you did,” I spat.
She gently patted my head with the tip of her weapon before rumbling, “Every woman should look out for her fellow sisters. Especially against you treacherous cocks.”
On the brink of grabbing the baton, my hesitation came from not wanting to alienate this batshit cunt. “What the fuck is happening here?!”
Chad rasped, “Cin, stop this.”
“Too late. It’s already done,” she declared in a singsong voice. “Don’t think I didn’t hear you too.”
Cutting a look to the side, I saw Chad blanch.
Rather than running from my methods like a little bitch, I straightened my shoulders. “You’re a soldier, Taube. You’ve interrogated people before. Hell, everyone knows what went down in GITMO. Not sure you’re someone who has the right to judge—”
“Oh, I don’t judge. But Kitty will.”
My temper fractured. “If you’ve done anything to hurt her—”
“What, more than you have, you mean?”
I gritted my teeth. “You have sixty seconds to leave before I forget that you’re an ally.”
“My only ally is myself,” she spat.
“Cin,” Chad beseeched. “That’s not true.”
“Sure it is.” She barked out a laugh. “Didn’t see you calling my phone when you heard I was presumed dead, Chad. Didn’t see you flying to Cancún to go through the rubble for me. Didn’t find you outside my door, waiting for me once you knew I was alive…
“No. I’m on my own. You can fuck off.”
With that, she snapped the baton back into place and sauntered over to the gates like she had all the time in the world.
It spoke of my trust in her ingenuity that I let her go at all.
While furious and well aware that I had yet more shit to fix with Kitty, I had no doubt that Taube had ensured her exit.
And frankly, I didn’t feel like picking my limbs up off the asphalt.
So, I turned to the man I could raze with my fury. “You’re in a relationship with her?”
His Adam’s apple bobbed. “Sometimes.”
I didn’t ask him if he was insane. He had to be. Yet, the level of anguish in his eyes spoke louder than words.
“The other night, where were you?”
“With a friend. We held a private wake.” He scrubbed his hands over his face. “I love her, Stan.”
I stared at him. Blankly. Unsure if there could be much worse a punishment than loving a creature like Taube…
“Go to her,” I grumbled eventually, releasing a put-upon sigh as I watched Taube stride from the warehouse courtyard like she owned the place.
I was no Cupid, but I couldn’t deny Taube had helped bring Kitty back to me faster.
“No. She wouldn’t welcome me.” He ran a hand over his head. “Aren’t you going to go after her?”
“No.” I could literally hear my death knell. “She did me a solid.”
“What?!” Chad sputtered.
But he wouldn’t, couldn’t understand.
Anyone else, I’d have strung them up by their tongues for daring to get between me and my woman.
But Taube’s words had hit a nerve.
Because she was right.
Again.
Kitty deserved to know what kind of monster she was getting into bed with.
“Does Rory know you’re close to Taube?”
“The relationship is a new development. The friendship isn’t,” was his wooden reply, but I sensed my actions perplexed him.
If she’d pulled this stunt in front of anyone else, she’d have given me no choice but to retaliate. Chad, on the other hand, I trusted. Implicitly. Only fuck knew why when he was friendly with the Irish and boinked our unfriendly neighborhood assassin as a hobby, but there you had it.
With Dante’s stench polluting my nostrils, I hoped my instincts were right about Chad.
“Why didn’t you go to Cancún?”
“Because I thought she was dead and I spiraled so I got shit-faced instead of…” Shame crossed his expression. “Doesn’t matter.”
I pursed my lips. “You let her go now then you might not get her back.”
“You’re trying to help when she’s gone out of her way to make things hard for you?”
“Kitty should know what I’m capable of.”
At those ominous words, Chad cleared his throat. “You sure, boss?”
“Go.” I flicked a hand at nothing. “You’re no use to me if your head’s not in it.”
“I won’t forget this.”
I flicked the alarm on my car and got behind the wheel myself. “Be sure you don’t.”
As I watched him follow the psycho formerly known as Dead To Me, I hit Kitty’s number on my cell.
No answer.
Closing my eyes, I rested my forehead on the steering wheel.
“Miedda.”