Chapter Nine
Romeo
“Again,” I ordered.
Massimo swung his fist, connecting with a bloody jaw.
The jaw belonged to a guy tied to a chair in one of our warehouses along the docks, where he’d been caught sniffing around one of a dozen identical shipping containers—one that just so happened to be the only one belonging to the Grassiano family.
“Your life is already forfeit, but if you want your family to live, you better spill.” Massimo’s dark nature could be absolutely terrifying and was why he was considered the most formidable enforcer our organization had.
At his threatening words, the guy in the chair pissed himself. He was a low life, but he knew something, and I was more than happy to keep torturing him for days to find out what it was.
“Give me the drill,” Massimo said casually. He reached out a monstrous hand, covered in rings, blood and gore slowly, making sure the man noticed how completely his hand engulfed the drill.
“Please,” he begged. “I don’t know anything.”
Unmoved, Massimo turned on the drill. “I can poke holes in you for days before you die.” Aiming the drill at the tied man’s hand, Massimo took his time lowering the drill, pressing the button to make acceleration sounds as he did.
The rest of our men watched Massimo work with a queasy sort of admiration.
Only I knew it for the performance it was.
Oh, he could follow through when he had to, but manipulating fear, not pain, was Massimo’s real talent.
He only tolerated the uglier parts of this life because, in his mind, it meant protecting me.
We’d talked a while back, after a particularly gruesome evening, and he’d shared that little nugget with me.
“You’re my family, Rom, my brother, and my boss. I would do anything to keep you safe.” And that in a nutshell was Simo, a terrifying enforcer on the one side and a big protective teddy bear on the other.
In the past, he’d had a few girlfriends…
they’d felt suffocated. He told me this and I chuckled at his surprise at this information.
He really had no idea how intense he could be, but for one lucky woman, someday.
He liked finding tiny broken things and mending them back to health, funny for a guy who also killed with those same hands, but that was the paradox of Massimo Di Mauro Vitale.
As the drill lowered, a hair’s breadth from touchdown, the guy finally broke. “Wait! I did see something.”
Massimo raised the drill, but kept it on.
“Oh?” he asked, casually brushing sweat-damp strands of hair away from the man’s left eye, then framing it with one hand meaningfully. “And what did you see?”
“The boss sent me to check on another shipment and there was a group of guys heading out to sea,” the man said in a breathless rush, staring at the drill as Massimo lifted it closer to his exposed, wide-open eye “They didn’t see me because I was behind them as they pulled out.
They headed in the direction of the boat bringing in your shipment.
When it didn’t arrive, I told my boss what I saw. ”
“And could you identify any of them?”
Any soldier worth anything could see the lie in the guy’s eyes when he said ‘yes’. He was just trying to prolong the inevitable.
Massimo straightened, passing off the drill to one of his subordinates.
“End it,” I ordered and left the warehouse.
The gunshot was barely heard above the horn of an incoming ship.
Done with the unsavory business, I wanted to lose myself in Vittoria’s soft pliant body until the day disappeared, but I wasn’t ready to cross that line yet and instead directed our driver to take us to Club Carnage for our regular Friday Night catch-up session even though I hadn’t attended the last few, not since getting married.
But I needed it tonight, time with them.
At our reserved table, I caught up with Gaetano whom I hadn’t seen since the wedding. Our resident surgeon had an apartment near the hospital for when he worked nights. His last shift ended at 6 am this morning, giving him plenty of time to sleep before joining us.
I wanted to discuss his protection detail, but Tano refused to accept that he needed any. Still, I had made sure the best security was installed at his condo, and that there were extra guards at the hospital when he worked.
“Would you look at the ass on that one,” Gio remarked.
One by one, we all looked down and were at once captivated by a group of young women, barely dressed for trouble, grinding against each other to the music.
“They are all pretty hot,” Vinny added. “Maybe I should go and talk with them.”
“Yeah, Vinny,” Fausto said dryly, “take one for the team.”
“What the hell is Little Red wearing? I swear I can see all the way to Albuquerque when she bends over like that. Holy shit, she works it like a pro. Who are those women, Gio?”
“Don’t look at me. I’ve never seen them before, but one seems kind of familiar.”
Almost as if hearing us talk about her, the one in the almost see-through mini-dress looked up. I froze in my chair as her eyes scanned the group until they landed on me.
What the fuck was my wife doing here, and dressed like that!
As if she’d read my thought, she turned around and wiggled her ass at me, then the little minx gazed over her shoulder and blew me a kiss.
The little…!
I closed my hand around my glass to keep from making a fist, but I couldn’t drink. I couldn’t even think clearly. I wanted to vault the low wall and rip the eyes out of every man staring at my wife—but I didn’t do that either. I was as captive as any other man there, entranced by her movements.
I had no idea how long I just sat there, locked in place by rage and desire, but then the waitress walked by and saw Gaetano watching the floor show my wife and her friends were giving the entire club.
Glancing away from the waitress. I noticed a group of men at the bar. One, the closest to the floor, watching Vittoria with a kind of fascinated disgust. I didn’t like it one bit.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” Tano sprang to his feet, now drenched in his drink and yelling at the waitress who gave him the middle finger. She hustled away from our table with Tano hot on her heels.
My eyes flew to Simo. “What the fuck?”
He shrugged. “Apparently, he knows her.”
“Of course he does.”
Gio sighed and pushed his chair back. “Come on, boys. Let’s divide and conquer. I’ll take the high road, you take the low road.”
I was barely aware of going downstairs. It seemed I took just a few steps and arrived at Vittoria’s table, where she and her friends were arguing with Carlo about another round of shots.
As my wife reached defiantly for a drink, I caught her wrist and pulled her away, trapping her under my arm where I could keep her drinking under wraps.
Her girlfriends openly stared at me, their drunken surprise quickly shifted into appreciation as they looked me over.
One that looked familiar, made a point of licking her lips, while the other three stood with their mouths in a perfect O.
Their interest was the perfect opportunity to give my wife a taste of her own medicine.
As Gia introduced herself, I remembered she was from a mafia family loyal to me, and made a spectacle for my wife by lingering over the kiss I placed on the back of Gia’s hand.
I loved the jealous heat in Vittoria’s eyes…
let her feel an ounce of the same betrayal I’d just experienced while she was shaking her ass for every man in this club to see.
But seeing her hurt sucked the fun out of my revenge, although not the rage I felt. It was time to leave.
My brothers whisked the girls off to the dance floor, leaving me and Vittoria alone with Massimo and Carlo. I had no idea what the little fucker was thinking bringing her here, but I planned on showing him just how much I didn’t appreciate what he’d done.
“Make sure they make it home safely, Massimo.” I said, keeping my eyes on Carlo.
“Yes, boss. Anything else?”
“Get the camera footage from Gio and find out who that guy at the bar was, and report back in the morning. I’ll need some time to punish my errant wife and don’t want to be disturbed.”
Vittoria’s cheeks bloomed bright red with indignation and embarrassment. She had no idea how lucky she was that I didn’t rip that dress off her and spank her right there. But I had no interest in making a scene at the moment.
“You,” I snapped at Carlo, “will be dealt with later.”
Keeping a firm grip on Vittoria, I hustled us out of the club.
At the exit, her bodyguard joined me in escorting us to my vehicle, but he didn’t get in the car.
Julius was old school, part of my father’s guard.
He knew his place, unlike that little shit who stood off to the side watching my wife with hungry eyes.
I secured Vittoria’s seat belt and climbed in beside her. She was perfectly capable of doing up her own belt, but it was important she understood the power dynamic–she no longer had any, and I was in control.
“I hate you!” she pouted and slammed her arms across her chest.
“So you keep saying, but I think you’ll change your tune.
” I allowed my intentions to come through in my tone, letting her see the danger waiting beneath my control.
Her body responded as I knew it would. The scent of her arousal hung in the air between us.
If I reached down and slid my finger between her folds, I knew she’d be soaked.
Her pupils dilated and her pulse picked up.
My girl liked danger almost as much as she liked paying the price for provoking me.
“Don’t worry, Principessa, you won’t be getting the attention of other men again.”
She had the temerity to look confused by that, and my temper got the better of me. The little brat had gone out of her way to get attention, well now she had it. Hope she liked the consequences of baiting me.
“But Rom —“
“Quiet!” I snapped in a tone I usually reserved for men already on their knees to beg my forgiveness.