43. Games #2
“No. She said it was a family heirloom. I asked her why she kept it if she didn’t like her family, and she said that it reminded her that even something beautiful can come from a dark place.
” Aria lowered it back to her chest and looked at me.
“Callum looked at it as if he recognised it or something. Like it mattered.”
I rubbed my jaw, staring at the sapphire and trying to make a connection to the Leones or… anything that might shed some light on who her mother had been running from, but was coming up blank.
“Look at me,” I ordered. “I love you. You are safe here. We will figure this out, and I’ll deal with it.
There is only one man who has the answers we need, and I’m thoroughly looking forward to forcing them out of him,” I growled, too agitated to sit still any longer.
I lifted Aria off me, stood up, kissed her, then took her hand and led her out of my office. “Raya!”
My sister appeared, poking her mass of brown ringlets around her bedroom door.
“Girls night. You two stay here and watch a rom-com or some shit, yeah?” I said, giving my sister a look that conveyed more than words. Distract my wife and keep her calm while I brutally torture and murder someone. Raya nodded, understanding what was happening without me even voicing it.
Aria grabbed my arm, stopping me from going to the door. “I want to come. I want to hear what he has to say. He knows who I am, Sani.”
I stepped closer, holding her face in my hands.
I knew she thought she could handle seeing my darkness, but I didn’t want her to have to yet.
She’d already been through so much in such a short period.
She wasn’t Soraya or Elenora. She wasn’t raised in our merciless world of brutality and violence.
I had a feeling her mother had made damn sure she was protected from it for good reason, and I wanted to honour that as much as I could.
Quinn Brown, or whoever she really was, risked her life to give her daughter a better one.
I may have dragged her back into something she never realised she belonged to, but that couldn’t be helped. She was my person. The one meant for me. But she needed to be eased in gradually. And I didn’t want to have to go easy on Callum for her sake.
“Stay here with Raya.” I kissed her pouty lips and smirked at her feisty glare. “I’ll find out everything he knows.”
“And then what?” she whispered, her eyes darting between mine.
“And then I’ll kill him for touching my wife.”
“Master plan,” Raya said sarcastically, folding her arms across her chest. “He won’t talk because he knows he’s already dead.”
Mamma Mia, I hated how my sister always had to intervene with logic when all I wanted to do was live out my murderous fantasies.
“Then I’ll find something he cares about more than his life.”
Raya smirked. She’d seen me in action more times than most, so she knew I was no rookie, but she also knew I was driven by my emotions. And I’d never been good at hiding them, unlike her.
“You already have all the information you could find on him. There’s nothing you can use to make him talk. It’s pointless to try.”
I sighed, shaking my head. “Go on then, Sorellina. I know you’re dying to tell me how I should do it.”
“Easy.” She shrugged her shoulders. “Play the long game. You blast Cher on repeat to keep yourself calm enough that you can torture him horrifically for however long it takes until the only thing he really wants is death. Then… he’ll talk just so it will end.”
Aria’s face had paled, and that was my sign I was making the right decision. One day she’d be ready, but today was not that day.
“And there’s the real Soraya Buccini, ladies and gentlemen,” I chuckled as Raya rolled her eyes. “They think I’m the psycho, but really, it’s always the quiet baby of the family.”
“Says the man who’s about to prance around to Cher while plucking someone’s eyeballs out.” Raya opened her door wider for Aria to enter. “Horror, thriller or rom-com?”
“Er…” Aria hesitated. “Wine, first?”
Raya chuckled. “Sure.”
I swiftly grabbed Aria and stole another kiss before heading down to the garage for my bike. It was a quick ride to my sanctuary, but the fun had obviously already begun without me.
Two of Callum’s men from the port were strapped into chairs, barely hanging onto their lives. Gio and a few of my men had been beating them for information for hours, but apparently, they hadn’t said a bloody word.
“You’re wasting your time,” a voice grumbled from one of the back cells, and I exchanged a look with my blood-covered brother.
“Left him alone for you to deal with as promised,” Gio said as I covered the distance between the battered men and the cell door with my long strides.
Looking through the small, barred window, I saw Callum sitting against the far wall, his head tilted back as if only the stone could hold it up. The stab wound I’d made to his shoulder had been bandaged to prevent him from bleeding out, and one of his eyes was swollen shut.
“Have something you want to say instead?” I asked, leaning one arm against the steel door.
He looked at me with no expression. “You might as well kill them. They won’t talk. None of them will.”
I peered over my shoulder at Gio, who delivered another punch to a soldier’s ribs just for good measure. The man spat blood onto the floor, groaning but still refusing to utter a word.
“We can spare them. You can come out here and take their place. Be a hero among your men.”
He scoffed. “You think I care about them? They aren’t my men. Kill them. You’re going to anyway and I couldn’t give a shit.”
A muscle in my jaw pulsed. I glanced back at Gio and saw he had the same look on his face as I did. Was Callum bluffing? These men were working for him at the port, obeying his orders when he told them to kill me.
“Let’s see about that, shall we?” I nodded towards two of my men to open the cell and haul him out as I ripped my shirt off and walked over to the sound system.
My playlist of Cher’s classics blasted through the underground bunker, and I closed my eyes, allowing twenty seconds for the beats and her raspy voice to settle my bloodthirst before turning to face him.
Callum’s head lolled forward, resting his chin on his chest as he stared at the floor while my men finished tying his ankles to the chair legs and his hands behind his back.
Gio took a step back, leaning his ass against the table of torture toys and folding his arms so I could take over.
“Let’s start with something simple.” I crouched in front of Callum, balancing on the balls of my feet while I pushed my spiked knuckle rings into place, twisting them one by one. “What’s your motherfucking name?”
“Don’t insult me, Buccini,” Callum sneered. “We’ve walked in the same circles for years, and you’re telling me you’ve forgotten it.”
Showing him I wasn’t in the mood for jokes, I sent my fist flying into his left cheek.
Three spikes lodged into his flesh on impact, and I twisted my wrist, ripping a pained grunt from him before I yanked my fist away.
Scraps of his skin tore away, and within seconds, blood ran down his neck and the left side of his chest.
“Let’s try that again. Santino Buccini, son of Vincenzo Buccini, underboss of Northern Italy, Capo of Rome. Born and raised in Verona. And the man who decides how much of you is still in one piece before you draw your final breath. And you are?”
He worked his jaw, his face wincing in pain against the broken flesh, and turned back to look at me.
“Callum… D’Arden–”
This time, it was my left hook that sliced into his right cheek. I felt a spike pierce his flesh and embed in his gum. He howled, spluttering on the blood that filled his mouth as I ripped it out. He spat a molar onto the floor.
“Santino Buccini,” I repeated calmly. “Son of Vincenzo Buccini. Underboss of Northern Italy. Capo of Rome. And I can do this all night. And you are?”
He dropped his head to his chest, panting hard. This time, he didn’t respond. Admission that his name was a lie. But he wasn’t ready to give up his true identity.
“Okay,” I said, nodding and removing the spikes from my knuckles before dropping them onto the concrete floor. “You like games. So do I. And it seems like you want to drag this out, so we might as well have some fun with it, right?”
I stood up and ordered my men to hang Callum from the cuffs on the ceiling, making sure all his weight was supported by his wrists, but only his toes touched the floor. I grabbed a pair of pliers and made my way to the first of Callum’s men.
“Here’s how the game works. I’m the charming host, naturally, and you are the contestants.
You can choose whether to play as a team or by yourselves.
I’ll ask the questions and give each of you a chance to answer.
If I’m satisfied with your answer, I’ll move on to the next player.
If not, there’ll be a painful forfeit.” I smirked at the hatred on their faces.
“But here’s the catch. You all get two lives.
At any time, a player can jump in and answer for another contestant to steal a life from them, giving them a free pass from that round. ”
I cupped my ear, pretending to acknowledge their non-existent enthusiasm.
“How do you win the game? I’m glad you asked.
” Gio scoffed at my theatrics from behind me.
“The winner is the first one to steal all the lives from another player. They’ll be rewarded with a quick death.
And the other two… will suffer horrendously slow deaths.
” I stared at each of their battered faces. “Any questions before we start?”
When no one responded, I clasped my hands together. “Bravo. Crank that theme tune up, Boss!” Gio shook his head, failing to hide his amusement as he turned up the volume of Cher’s Oh No Not My Baby.
“Round one,” I shouted over the music. “Contestant A! Who do you work for?”
Gio paused the music for added effect, filling the bunker with only their laboured breaths.