Chapter 28
Regan
I lifted my right thumb into the air. “One.”
Devlin leaned over, and Giovanni tried and failed to headbutt him as he squirmed, wiggled, and jostled himself in a failed attempt to stop Devlin from enacting his revenge.
The knife was placed against the side of Giovanni’s hand, and with downward pressure, Devlin sliced through the flesh and bone in one movement.
Giovanni screamed, but Lucian shoved a rag into his open mouth to silence the sound. The last thing we wanted was to draw attention to what was happening inside the house. His head lulled from side to side as Devlin looked up at me.
“Take both big toes so he’ll never be able to hunt down women again. I want him hobbled,” I rationalized.
Giovanni had enjoyed chasing me through the house, and he’d leave items around that dug into the tender flesh of my feet, making movement difficult.
That’s when he would rape me on the floor of the garbage, or he’d drag me by the hair and throw me into the tub, holding my head underwater until I thought I was going to die.
Giovanni tried to yell from behind the gag as he shook his head, and I stepped closer, snatching the rag from between his teeth. “What? Do you have something to add?”
“I . . . I should’ve killed you when I had the chance, you fucking whore.
You loved . . .” He coughed before continuing.
“You loved every time when I fucked you in the ass until you bled. And my favorite was when I let the guards take turns with you. You came so much, I thought you were falling in love.”
He laughed, and when I joined him, he stopped and looked up at me like I was insane.
Maybe I was, but he was the one who made me the way I was in that moment.
Insanity was buffering the images of what he’d put me through, not only for the three months I was alone with him, but the eight months prior when he would show up unannounced, demanding answers he had no right to.
Reaching my hand out, I silently asked Devlin for something, and he held up the gun in one hand and the bloody knife in the other. I pointed to the gun, and he handed it over with a smile before stepping to the side.
“What I found funny was the fact that no matter what you did to me, no matter how many times you raped me, no matter how much I bled,” I chuckled before instantly stopping to lean in and add, “I never gave you or that dead cunt anything you wanted. She’s dead, Sergey and his demented son are dead, and before I walk out of this house,” I whispered, “you’ll be dead too. ”
“You . . . you need me. I have information,” he tried to barter, and I shook my head.
“Anything you know, we’ll find out when we catch Ricardo and Waylon. You’re . . . insignificant.” I turned to look at Devlin and Lucian. “I need him naked and spread eagle over the edge of the table.”
“Stop,” Giovanni demanded as the brothers yanked him out of the chair and wrestled him closer to the table.
James placed a knife on Giovanni’s neck and nicked the skin, causing a small rivulet of blood to trickle down as Lucian and Devlin unbuckled his pants and ripped them down his legs along with his boxers.
His pathetic dick hung like a cocktail smokie between his pasty legs as Lucian snatched the front of his button-down shirt open, sending buttons flying around the room.
Glancing over my shoulder, I looked at Seth and Booker, who both had looks of pride beaming back at me. “This may get a little messy. I hope you understand.”
Seth walked up, and I took a step away as James, Devlin, and Lucian fought to get Giovanni turned over the table.
Looking up into his dreamy eyes, I waited for him to speak.
But no words were spoken as Seth leaned over, placed a hand behind my head, and kissed me breathless.
There was no tongue, only connected lips, and it was the hottest, most passionate kiss of my life.
He whispered so only I could hear when he said, “I know it’s soon, but I have to say it. I love you and I’m so proud of you.”
I stepped back and smiled at him, feeling for the first time in my life that I had something real. And he’s seeing the craziest part of me, he’s heard my confessed shame, and he didn’t flinch. If he could handle this, he could handle anything.
Booker winked at me before I turned back to the table.
Lucian and Devlin had Giovanni exactly like I asked him to be, and he continued to struggle as they used rope from somewhere to secure him.
James watched, ready to make a move, as I shrugged and stepped up to Giovanni.
I ran the tip of the gun down his spine as he flinched and tried to push into the table.
“What’s wrong? Are you scared of something?” I asked, and he shook his head.
I wanted his words. I wanted his pleas for mercy. I wanted his screams of pain. And I was going to get all three even if I had to spend hours making him suffer.
Looking at Devlin, I requested, “Trade?”
He chuckled as he handed me the knife and I passed the gun to him.
Crossing his arms with my gun dangling from his fingers, he stepped to the side with Lucian and James while I walked around to the other side of the table.
Giovanni had his head resting on the surface, and it looked like the fight had gone out of him.
That wasn’t going to do, so I leaned over and slapped the table with my hand, making him pull his head up to see what was happening.
“Do you think I’m not going to make you pay for everything you did to me?
” He didn’t answer, and I looked over his naked, spread-eagle body to see Seth watching with rapt attention.
Glancing back to Giovanni, I realized how sad and pathetic he really was.
“I just realized something,” I remarked and looked over at the brothers.
“He’s unwanted. His daddy didn’t claim him, and the only way he could become significant was to wait until everyone else was dead so he could sneak out and plant his flag on top the mountain. ”
“Fuck you, bitch. At least I know who my father was. Kelly told me all about your whore of a mother. I guess that’s where you got your love of cock from,” he sneered, and I looked at everyone with a smile and an expression that said how ridiculous he was being.
Stepping back around the table, I dragged the tip of the blade across the wood, and his eyes tracked the movement as I rounded the end and stepped up beside him.
“Do you want to know what Sergey said about you? He said you were an easily manipulated boy who would serve him well like an obedient little dog. He said that since he rescued you, you wouldn’t question anything, and since you weren’t a true heir to a family, you were easily replaced if you didn’t behave. ”
“Sergey wouldn’t say that about me. He raised me to be the ruler of the empire he built.”
That drew a laugh from Devlin and Lucian as James stood stone-faced, watching Giovanni for any movement. I had no doubt he would kill him instantly if he tried to get to me, but for now, he was secured. I shook my head with a snicker.
Devlin asked, “And what about Sergey Junior? Or Titus and his crew? Or those other two fuckers we killed after Kelly? Huh? How can all of you be the rulers of the Syndicate? Answer, our father lied to all of you so you would do his bidding. And in the end, if he had lived, he would’ve double crossed all of you, just like he did everyone else in his life. ”
Giovanni looked right at me as he stated, “Not her. He told his whore everything, and she’s gonna tell me what I want to know.”
I raised my eyebrows and gave a nod as I admitted, “That’s true.
He did tell me everything, and no matter what you did to me, you never got that information.
And I was never his whore. I was his friend, as crazy as that sounds.
” He started to say something, but I was tired of listening to his reasonings and his vile threats.
Looking at Seth, I said, “I’m tired and ready to go home. ”
With that, I lifted the knife and drew the blade down from the base of his neck to the crack of his ass.
His bloodcurdling screams were definitely going to draw attention, and instantly, Booker walked to the other side of the table and shoved the dirty rag back into his mouth.
Giovanni’s whole body shook, and I knew shock was setting in.
Before that happened, I wanted him in more pain.
Tapping the blade against his shoulder, I felt for a bone, and when I was over it, I pressed the knife through his skin and into the shoulder blade underneath, ripping outward, filleting his shoulder and upper arm open.
Bone was visible, and I was enthralled by it as he stopped moving.
“Is he dead?” I asked, and Booker reached over the table and felt his neck.
“Passed out, not dead.”
I looked at Devlin and asked, “Do you have a silencer?”
“In the truck. I’ll be back.”
He turned and walked out of the room as I thought about every time Giovanni punched me, kicked me, cut me, raped me, or otherwise caused me pain, and I suddenly realized I didn’t want to be like him.
He was a monster, and I refused to become one just to push mine away.
Devlin reappeared, and I took a step away from the table, allowing the bloody knife to fall from my fingers onto the floor.
The men looked at me with worry as I explained in front of a naked, bleeding monster. “I don’t need this anymore. I’m better than him, and I won’t have another death on my hands.”
They seemed to understand, but when I went to step away, I heard a faint sound coming from behind me. Turning, I stepped back and leaned over as Giovanni whispered, “I knew you didn’t have it in you. Whores are only good for one thing.”
Standing up, I looked down at his pathetic, broken body then to James. “Can you shoot him, please? I’m tired of listening to him.”