Chapter 29
CHAPTER 29
STEFANO
I drew my forty-five again and hesitated for a second with my left hand on the tarnished brass knob.
Pieces of peeling white paint dropped onto my shoes and the floor as I cracked open the basement door and listened.
Enzo stood behind me. His rapid little puffs of breath against my jacket warmed a small spot on my back.
“I’m going to open it and go down slowly, step by step. You stay close to me, boy,” I said.
I glanced over my shoulder, and he nodded his head.
The door creaked open, revealing a narrow staircase leading to pitch darkness. I could only make out three steps before me.
Enzo followed each of my steps with a lighter one of his own, staying on my heels as he’d been instructed. Then he shoved at my back in his desperation to get to his mother faster.
I spun my head and glared at him, raised a finger to my lips before he could complain, then pointed to my eyes and an ear.
We had to be alert and listen for every little sound. I couldn’t have him running blindly into the unknown danger waiting at the bottom for us.
When he gave me a second solemn nod, I knew he understood what I’d meant.
Other than my heart pounding against my ribcage, the pulse rushing into my ears, only dead silence came from the stairwell and the basement. The closer we got to the bottom, the easier it was to see a soft glow bending around the corner of the landing.
The last stair tread buckled in the center under my weight and squeaked.
I stopped, listened, held my gun in the low-ready position.
A light flicked on.
The instant glare from the lightbulb dangling from the ceiling blinded me for a second.
My eyes adjusted… and my heart stopped.
Enzo’s teacher stood at the far side of the basement, beaming with a manic smile. He gripped Val by the throat with one hand. With his other hand, he pressed a gun barrel against her temple.
Beside them, a section of broken concrete exposed the earth beneath it. There was a hand-shoveled hole large enough for two bodies.
“Well,” the dead fucking man walking said, “you surprised me. You got here faster than I anticipated. Still not fast enough to save her. I wanted her to bleed out, but shooting her in the head also works for me.”
I took one step forward.
Blood covered Val’s right side. She’d lost too much and struggled to keep her eyes open… she would pass out soon.
I. Will. Kill. That. Motherfucker.
But until I could get her away from this sociopathic son of a bitch, I had to keep her calm. I forced my rage back and kept my demeanor as low key as possible. For her sake.
“Val, baby, how are you holding up?”
She blinked and pulled against the chains holding her there.
The man shifted, placing Val between himself and me.
“Oh, no you don’t, Prince Charming. You stay right where you are. And tell this bitch not to fight me,” he said.
He pushed his pistol harder against her temple, making an indentation on the side of her face.
Val winced.
I clenched my jaw, gnashing my back teeth.
My father had often said to my brother and me that a man who was talking was a man who wasn’t taking any action. I had to keep this man talking.
“What the fuck do you want, Cozza?” I asked.
“Same as you. A warm home, loving family, obedient wife. But you took mine from me.”
“I don't even know you.”
His crazed eyes reflected the brightness of the lightbulb.
“You should. You know my name, it seems. I’m a fair man, so I’ll give you a hint. I'm the man your fiancée really loves.”
I jerked my chin toward Val.
“Doesn't look like she likes you at all.”
“Not this slut. She was my second choice. Until I realized her bastard was yours. God no, I mean my angel, Benedetta. She was perfect for me. She should have been my wife.”
“You’ll have to take that up with her father,” I said.
“I did. He doesn't care about what's best for his daughter. He doesn’t care that I’m the one to love her and give her children. He only cares about his empire. Then you came sniffing around with your disgraced family name, but yours was apparently still better than mine, honor be damned.”
He paused, looking me up and down while licking his lips, then he suddenly shrieked.
“You should’ve called off the wedding, Vignali! None of this had to happen. But you just couldn’t do what you were told.”
“I did call it off, you asshole. I’m marrying Valerie.”
Her eyes widened, and she nailed me with a hard stare.
My timing was shitty as always, but I couldn’t stop myself from flashing her a smirk.
Cozza shrieked at me again.
“You lie!”
Then Enzo made a move behind me.
God-fucking-damn it.
Now I had to split my attention between two threats.
I kept my gaze forward, not wanting to alert this fucking madman to my son’s presence. As unstable as Donnie Cozza had turned out to be, I didn’t know how he would react.
In my periphery, I tracked Enzo’s movement as he slipped through the shadows on my right before hiding behind a tall stack of magazines, likely calculating a path to take him closer.
If he’d been anyone else, if he was older and had training, I might have called this a brilliant move.
But this was my child, a nine-year-old boy who had never held a gun before I put one in his hands. He should’ve been in the car, not trying to flank some psycho to save his mother.
I had to keep Cozza talking.
The good news? Men like this one, who said dumb shit like wanting an obedient wife, all had the same problem. They always thought they were in control.
Whenever someone had to declare they were in charge, it meant they were not. This beta bitch teacher only played at what he thought an alpha male should be.
That made him stupid and easily manipulated.
Any sign of disrespect would drive him batshit crazy.
I remembered the video with Val yelling at him, saying something that had enraged him enough to make him snap. She’d been baiting him… but certainly hadn’t intended to get herself shot. Hell, I’d only taken one bullet this week. I could take another for her.
While staring the motherfucker up and down, I grinned, baiting him as she’d done.
“If Benedetta loved you so much, Cozza,” I called across the basement, “why didn't you just run away with her? She would’ve gone with you, right? Because she loved you? Wait. That’s right. You weren't man enough to take her like I did.”
His lip curled into a snarl.
“You don't know what you're talking about, Vignali.”
“Oh, but I do. Benedetta and I had many conversations before our engagement. We talked about what we did and didn't want in our marriage. She said she’d never been in love. That no one had ever made her heart beat faster than I did.”
I narrowed my eyes at the pathetic little shit.
“So what happened? She forgot about you? You don’t matter to her like she matters to you? Does she even know your name?”
The asshole’s face turned fifty shades of red. Sweat soaked his hair and dripped down the sides of his face. Spittle flew from his mouth as he shrieked again.
“You don't know what the fuck you're talking about!”
“I do, but you got what you wanted anyway. You told me to break off my engagement to Benedetta, and I did that. It's not my fault she doesn't know your name while you're waiting by the phone to hear from her. I mean, what makes you think you’re good enough for either of these women?”
“Because I'm a real man. I can provide for them. I can?—”
He stopped mid-sentence and looked around the space. He’d heard Enzo drawing closer through the shadows.
Fuck. I had to draw the psycho’s attention back to me.
“Provide for them?” I scoffed. “On a teacher's salary? What exactly are you going to provide… this rundown old house that should’ve been demolished years ago?”
His sneer trembled, and I hoped to hell I had him snagged.
“You've seen the way Benedetta dresses,” I continued. “You couldn't afford one of her handbags if you saved for a decade.”
Now his arms trembled. The pistol in his hand shook.
“You don't know what you're talking about,” he repeated. “I work at a prestigious academy.”
“You work in an overpriced shithole, where the principal is so underpaid, she took a bribe to hire you. Benedetta needs a king. She would never love a pauper like you.”
I shook my head and tsked .
“You are no king,” I added.
A sound like a shoe scuffing against the side of a box came from the stacks of junk in the corner. Cozza whipped his head in that direction.
Taking a couple of steps forward, I dragged my feet, making a similar noise as I moved.
“And what about Valerie? How are you going to support her and her child, Cozza? You said you wanted more children. So how will you get the money to feed them?
“Both women need a real man. Someone in charge who can take care of them in the way they deserve. You can't even take care of yourself. You don't deserve these women. They’re far beyond your means.”
“Nothing is beyond my means,” he snapped.
“Nothing is within your means,” I countered. “Look at this place. It's falling apart all around you. And I know for a fact you didn’t pay for this shithole. You inherited it.”
He blinked several times like he realized I knew his real identity, that I’d uncovered all his secrets.
But he still hadn’t lost it. I had to push him harder.
“And even still,” I said, “you're about to lose this house. I know you're behind on the taxes. And you have one month tops before this place goes into foreclosure. Pretty sure the only reason it’s been delayed is because the bank took one look at this dump and realized they couldn't even sell it.”
“If I had a wife, she would?—”
“If you had a wife, she would kill herself,” I said.
That one hit a nerve.
“You don't deserve them either,” Cozza shouted. “Why don't I just take care of this one for us both right now, huh? Then we'll go find Benedetta and make sure she knows a real man will marry her if you won’t.”
“And who the fuck would that be?”
“Me,” he screamed. “I'm the real man! I deserve her!”
I let out a bitter laugh.
“You have no idea. You think taking sniper shots at a child makes you a man? You think stalking women, hitting them, shooting one because you can't control her makes you a man? No, Cozza. That makes you a sick little bitch.”
His hand gripping the gun seemed even more unsteady. It would take only one little jerk, and that would be it.
His grip around Val’s throat tightened, his fingers digging into her flesh, bruising her. Her lips had shifted in hue from their naturally pretty pink to gray. Soon they would be blue.
“Why don't you let the girl go?” I asked calmly. “Then we'll settle this man to man. Come on, just you and me. Right here, right now. We'll find out who deserves what. Winner takes all.”
“You don't deserve anything,” he spat.
“That might be true. I haven't always been a good man. But I know what you deserve.”
“And what's that, Vignali?”
I tilted my head, grinned at him again.
“A shallow grave.”
He shook his head and screwed up his face.
Good. Another tantrum.
“Think you can talk to me like that and get your slut back in one go? No! You know what? I think I’ll kill her now. Get her out of the way. Then we can settle the rest man to man.”
He twisted the barrel into Val's temple, drawing back the hammer this time with a final click.
She let out a low whine.
I reached out with my left hand, like I could stop him from pulling the trigger. I couldn’t. Then Enzo emerged from the darkness behind his teacher, with the blade I’d given him open.
In one swift move, the boy crouched and brought the switchblade slashing across the backs of Cozza’s legs.
With a scream, the man’s knees buckled. His pistol clattered to the ground, and he lost his grip on Val.
Then Donnie Cozza tripped on his own feet in his attempt to spin toward his attacker, which sent him toppling sideways over the broken concrete, into the hole he’d dug himself.
Val fell to her knees, wheezing as she snatched up the gun into her trembling hands. She crawled to the hole, dragging the length of the chains with her, and stared into it.
The raging scream bursting from her lips coursed through her entire body, making her tremble even more. Before I could react, she fired Cozza’s weapon, slapping the hammer back after every shot as she screamed.
Even after the rounds had been emptied from the cylinder, she kept pulling the trigger. The basement filled with empty, hollow clicks one after the other.
Only when she ran out of breath did she stop.
“Mama,” Enzo cried.
The revolver fell from her hands.
Stunned, she turned to see her boy, staring at him as if she couldn’t believe what her dimming eyes were showing her.
He ran to her.
I ran to her.
We got her up on her feet.
She reached down and brushed her fingers over our son’s cheek. Then she whirled on me.
“You brought him here?” she croaked.
Fire flashed in her eyes, and I didn’t have a chance to say anything before she shouted at me.
“You brought my son into this hell? With this madman? You gave him a weapon? He’s a child!”
Val raised her hand as if she meant to strike me, but then her eyes rolled back, and she collapsed.
I caught her in my arms before her body slumped against the chains.
My men rushed down into the basement, shouting questions, asking for orders.
“Get these fucking chains off her now,” I said.
“Is Mama alive?” Enzo whispered, his eyes wide and glossy.
My boy. My heart. Thoughts of my own mother’s death.
Goddamn it, I could only give him a reassuring nod.
“She’s alive, son,” I said. “Let’s get her to the doctor.”
While Tony removed the second iron cuff, I craned my neck around to see into the hole.
Cozza’s shallow grave.
A pile of bloody flesh.
I rushed up the stairs with Val in my arms, shouldering past the men as they pressed themselves against the staircase wall.
Enzo stayed close on my heels.
I shouted at Tony.
“Tell the doctor she needs blood.”
A lot of blood.
Then I ran to the car, her body dangling over my arms.
Praying it wasn’t too late.