Chapter 17
Vin
Ipull up to the Edge, our underground warehouse where we handle the messy shit, and my brothers are already there. The way Tommy and Matti are both silently watching me approach, stone-faced and tense, tells me this conversation is going to ruin my fucking day.
“We got a name,” Matti says without preamble, his jaw locked tight.
I light a cigarette, taking a long drag. “Yeah? Who set us up?”
“Bellamorte.”
My cigarette freezes halfway to my mouth.
“All the Bellamortes are dead,” I say slowly, my brain already racing ahead, connecting the dots. “Except Siena, who’s not a Bellamorte once she marries you. Unless you’re telling me my soon-to-be sister-in-law is making moves against us?”
Matti’s expression darkens. “Not Siena. Her uncle, Salvatore Bellamorte.”
The ground shifts beneath my feet. Salvatore. Sophie’s father.
“Remember Silk Alessi, one of the fake cops at the party?” Tommy asks, watching my face. “Took him apart piece by piece until he gave us a name. Salvatore Bellamorte made the call, leaked the location, coordinated with Aurelio’s crew, the works.”
My mind is spinning, a tornado of rage and something that feels way too close to panic.
Sophie’s face flashes through my mind. Those big brown eyes looking up at me while she took my cock in her mouth and fell asleep, trusting and soft. The breakfast she made this morning, the lunch she packed, the dinner she promised tonight.
La mia regina.
“Why?” The word comes out rough. “Why the fuck would he work with Aurelio?”
Matti runs a hand through his hair, looking uncomfortable. “Salvatore’s been dormant since Aurelio killed his brother, Siena’s father, more than 20 years ago. They had a truce. He stayed out of the life, Aurelio left him and his family alone. But now…” He trails off, glancing at Tommy.
“Now Siena’s with you,” I finish, my voice flat. “And Sophie—”
“Sophie spends time with Siena,” Tommy says quietly. “A lot of time. Salvatore’s protective of his daughter. Word is, he’s terrified that being around us puts her in danger from Aurelio.”
The irony would be funny if it wasn’t so fucked. “So he calls Aurelio? That’s the worst fucking thing he could do. Aurelio lives to do the exact opposite of what people want. Now he’s put a target on her back.”
Matti nods in agreement. “But Salvatore’s been out of the game too long. He might think he can appease Aurelio by helping him to neutralize you. He doesn’t realize that we’re only one crucial step away from winning this war, which puts him in even deeper shit with us.”
“But you’re not even in the Demonio family anymore,” I snap, my anger flaring hot and sharp. “Not in its current state. You won’t be until I take over officially and it’s the Brotherhood.”
“He doesn’t know that,” Matti says evenly. “Not many people do. To the outside world, we’re still Demonios. We’re still Aurelio’s sons. And Aurelio killed his brother, and both of Siena’s siblings are dead because of us. It’s not crazy that Salvatore is concerned that Sophie could be next.”
“A) All that shit went down because Aurelio is a fuck nut. B) Siena killed Franco herself,” I snarl. “Because he killed her sister, Emily. It’s settled.”
“Not to Salvatore.” Tommy points out. “He sees his brother dead, his niece and nephew dead, and his surviving niece married into the family that destroyed them all. Then his daughter starts hanging around that same family. Can you blame him?”
Yes. Yes, I can fucking blame him. Because he tried to have me killed. Because he put Sophie in danger at the party. Because he might have just handed his daughter to Aurelio on a silver fucking platter.
But from their silence, I can tell there’s more.
Fuck.
“Where is Sophie in all this?” The question scrapes out of me.
Matti and Tommy exchange a look.
“What?” I demand.
“Not sure.” Matti’s voice is careful. “Her father orchestrates a hit on you at a party she’s attending. You escape, and where do you end up? Hiding out at her place. At least you’re not fucking her.”
When I don’t answer, Tommy and Matti exchange a look.
“Right, Vin?” Tommy reiterates.
The world tilts.
“That’s convenient,” Tommy says softly. “Really fucking convenient.”
“She offered her place,” I hear myself say, my voice sounding distant. “She volunteered.”
“After Siena told her not to,” Matti points out. “Siena was screaming at her not to let you stay there, remember? But Sophie insisted.”
The memories replay in my head like a nightmare: Sophie’s sweet smile, her soft touch, the way she looks at me, feeds me, fucks me. Multiple nights, something I haven’t done since—
Since Valentina. My stomach drops through the concrete. “Fuck.” The word is barely a whisper.
This is Valentina all over again. My father’s cock in her mouth while she pretended to love me. The public humiliation. The lesson I learned the hard way about trusting women, about letting anyone close enough to destroy you from the inside out.
I haven’t let a woman spend the night since, haven’t fucked the same pussy twice, haven’t let anyone in. Until Sophie. Sweet, soft, safe Sophie with her big brown eyes and her perfect food and her wet pussy that I’ve been drowning in like a fucking addict.
“It’s unlikely,” Matti says quickly, reading the expression on my face. “Sophie’s not like that. She’s genuinely good—”
“That’s what I thought about Valentina too.” My voice is steel. “Everyone loved Valentina. Everyone thought she was perfect for me.”
“This is different—”
“Is it?” I crush my cigarette under my heel. “Her father tries to kill me, I end up at her house, in her bed, eating her food, fucking her every night like some domesticated piece of shit while she plays the perfect little hostess. You don’t think that’s a setup?”
“If it were a setup, you’d already be dead,” Tommy argues. “If she wanted you gone, she could have slit your throat or called Daddy to come finish the job.”
“Unless she’s playing the long game,” I counter. “Building trust. Getting me comfortable so she can feed intel back to her father. And Aurelio.”
Every conversation we’ve had replays in my head: me talking about my brothers, about the war, about Lucia and the house I grew up in, about my plans for the future. I told her things I shouldn’t have. Fuck.
FUCK.
“You’re overthinking this,” Matti says, but there’s doubt creeping into his voice now too. “I know Sophie. Siena knows her. She’s not capable of—”
“You didn’t know Valentina was fucking my father until we walked in on it,” I remind him coldly. “Women are good at hiding shit, especially when someone like Aurelio is pulling the strings.”
My phone buzzes. A text from Sophie:
Can’t wait to see
you tonight. I’m
making something
special.
She follows up the text with a heart emoji. A fucking heart emoji. I stare at it until the screen blurs.
“What are you going to do?” Tommy asks quietly.
Good question.
Option one: I walk away. Cut her off, find a real safe house, never see her again. Safest play. Smartest play.
But if she is working with her father, with Aurelio, she’s a liability that needs to be handled. You don’t just walk away from a threat.
Option two: I confront her, demand the truth. But if I do that, she could alert Salvatore and Aurelio and take away my advantage, plus I wouldn’t be able to reverse engineer this situation, feed her some false intel, and see what I can get out of her.
Option three…
A slow smile spreads across my face.
“Oh shit,” Tommy mutters. He turns to Matti. “What did I say?”
“I don’t like that look, Vin,” Matti growls, stepping closer.
I meet his glare with one of my own. “Finding Aurelio is the priority. And he just fucking handed us the key.”
Matti narrows his eyes. “Don’t do anything to piss off my wife, Vin. She loves Sophie. You fuck with her girl, and I can’t guarantee your safety.”
But I’m barely listening. My mind is spinning with possibilities and pure mother fucking rage.
Salvatore Bellamorte wants to protect his precious daughter from the big bad Demonios?
Fine. I’ll show him exactly what happens to his daughter when she’s left alone with the monster he’s so afraid of.
Salvatore is going to learn a very important lesson about what happens when you come for a Demonio.
I’m going to fucking destroy his daughter.
I’m going to use every hole she has until she’s ruined for anyone else.
I’m going to make her scream my name, choke on my cock, humiliate and degrade her, and then I’m going to make her beg for more.
By the time I’m done with her, she’ll be nothing but my fucktoy, my cumslut, my willing little whore.
And when she’s so fucked up that she’s calling Daddy crying for help because she’s in over her head with the monster in her bed? That’s when I’ll take my revenge.
“I’m supposed to see her tonight,” I say calmly, my rage crystallizing into something cold and purposeful.
“Are you fucking serious right now?” Matti’s voice cuts through my thoughts. “You’re going to see her again? After everything we just told you?”
Tommy shakes his head. “That’s insane—”
“Actually,” I cut him off, “it’s perfect.”
For a moment, Matti and Tommy are quiet, weighing how to proceed. They may be my underboss and consigliere but at the end of the day, I’m the fucking boss and it’s my decision.
“Be careful,” Tommy finally says.
“What else do we know?” I ask, changing the subject. “About Salvatore’s movements, his connections?”
“He’s been quiet for two decades,” Tommy says, pulling out his phone. “After the truce with Aurelio, he went completely civilian. Owns a small import business, lives in Staten Island, model fucking citizen. But we’ve got surveillance on him now. If he makes contact with Aurelio again, we’ll know.”
“Good. What about—”
The world erupts in a giant ball of orange fire and thunder. My car parked 50 feet away detonates in a ball of flame and black smoke, the shockwave slamming into us like a tsunami.
I hit the ground hard, concrete scraping my palms, ears ringing, debris raining down around us. Tommy’s on his stomach next to me, Matti is crawling toward cover, gun drawn.
For 10 seconds, there’s nothing but chaos and the ringing in my ears.
Then the sound fades and I hear Matti yelling, “Everyone okay?!”
“All good!” Tommy shouts back.
I push myself up, tasting blood and ash, staring at the burning skeleton of what used to be my car. Flames lick 30 feet in the air, black smoke billowing, the heat so intense I can feel it from here.
“Fuck,” I breathe.
“They’re escalating,” Matti says grimly, appearing at my elbow. “That was meant for you.”
“No shit.” We’re silent watching the flames dance. “It’s a message.”
Tommy frowns. “You think they missed on purpose.”
“He’s telling me he knows where I am, that he can reach me anytime, but for some reason, he’s not.”
But why? Why make a show of force here and not at Sophie’s? If it’s Aurelio, why not take me out and get it over with?
This just confirms that Sophie must be a part of it, that her goal is to extract information. Maybe Aurelio wants more than just me and my brothers out of the picture. He wants to make sure he gets my information and access to the ports first.
“I need another car,” I say flatly.
Matti stares at me. “You’re still going to her place.”
“Fuck yes, I’m still going.”
Matti’s jaw works. Finally, he shakes his head. “Just… don’t hurt her. Please. For Siena’s sake.”
I don’t answer. Because I intend to do the exact opposite.