Chapter 8

The thunder continued to boom overhead long after the sky had opened up. Thankfully, I had been inside, but it didn’t matter. From any spot in this massive house, I could see the lightning streaking across the dark canvas. I’d always been scared of storms since I had been little, and that fear had only grown when I took up with those Sicilian mafia men who’d trained me over the years to get me into the position that I was in right now. I’d been made to endure so many different things over that time, but I had done it for the opportunity now presenting itself. Those men I had trusted inexplicably, and I was forever indebted to them. After all, they were the ones to show me the inner strength that I possessed, and trying my best to channel it, I left the empty bedroom and went downstairs.

I could try to push past the fear, but deep inside, I was still the same scared child I had once been when it came to storms. I’d been in Napoli during the last one, and I just prayed to any God out there that he would let me survive long enough to see this through. After all, I would have no life once I took out Stefano, so these were essentially my last days anyway. I no longer had any hopes of a future, but I would’ve accomplished what I set out to do before my death. Donna’s murder would be avenged, and the one solely responsible would burn in Hell right alongside me. She’d be able to finally rest in peace while I would be in a nightmare of my own making.

Another loud crack of thunder and burst of light interrupted my thoughts. I pulled my robe together, then knew where I needed to go. If anything, it was the safest place in the house. I was alone, and knew I would be for some time. Nazario had left an hour ago, and his father was at the club. Neither would venture out on these streets in the midst of a monster storm, so I was alone with the estate staff which seemed commonplace these days. Hurrying to the wine cellar, I closed the door behind me before fumbling for the light switch.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” I cursed aloud as the dank space filled with light only to be plunged back into darkness mere seconds later when the bulb had blown.

I had forgotten my cellphone in my haste and not wanting to go back upstairs for it, I decided to just grab the first bottle of wine I could get my hands on, the hell with the kind. That task wasn’t hard, and I had even located an opener for it. Once the cork was released, I brought the bottle to my mouth and took a large swallow.

“Red. Thank the heavens,” I murmured before taking another swig.

The darkness didn’t bother me because for several years, I’d been entranced in it literally as I trained to become the cold blooded killer I would soon be. Those days and nights were some of the hardest of my life, but I would think about Donna and her lifeless body on that cold ground and it’d remind me of why I was here and what I would soon become.

“Revenge will be mine.” I had come so far and did far worse than allow others to torture me all so I could miss the anticlimactic moment that would be forthcoming soon. Nazario wanted me to leave, but I couldn’t. I wouldn’t.

A sound jolted me out of my thoughts, and I looked up to see the door open. Not sure if maybe Stefano had come home after all, I was about to rise until the shadow appeared in the center of the light. It was the very man I had just been thinking about. How predictable.

I glanced up and watched him look around. His eyes eventually made their way to me and I smirked when his gaze locked in on mine. “Here for the party?”

His brow furrowed, but he stepped inside anyway. The door closed behind him with a resounding click and a shiver of apprehension passed over me. We were cloaked in darkness once again, only this time it was with a man I couldn’t decide from one minute to the next if I wanted to kill or fuck. Sometimes, I wanted to do both.

I continued to tremble as I remembered what we had done the night before. I’d baited him only to be taken so roughly that I could still feel his possession a day later. And my traitorous body reminded me of it. Seconds later, his scent enveloped me, and I couldn’t help but breathe him in. It was a mixture of soap and musk, with some exotic notes of cedarwood mixed in. The way he had fucked me with such force and anger was more of a turn on than it should’ve been. I needed to forget all of that, however, because he was right about one thing.

“What’s that,” he told me as he took a seat beside me.

I hadn’t even realized I had spoken aloud. “You were right about us. We mustn’t ever do what we did last night.”

There. I had said it, even though I didn’t even believe the words coming out of my mouth. I then flinched when his hand traveled up my bare leg. There was an electricity in his touch that his father lacked, and I briefly wondered if it was only present due to our combined hate for Stefano. I’d always heard like father, like son, and while there were some similarities between the men, there were also too many differences which overshadowed those other things completely.

“It’s not all that I’m right about,” he finally said.

Somehow, the gravelly tone of his voice in the pitch black made every word spoken more ominous. All those years that I’d researched Stefano, I had also done the same for his only heir. I’d also remember his expression and demeanor on that New York City street that night and I couldn’t help but convince myself that he hadn’t been the one to end Donna’s life. If anything, he was trying to treat her lifeless corpse with dignity, which I could respect.

“Are we back to that again?” I asked.

I picked up the bottle and took another swig. The wine was amazing, and I knew Stefano had a vineyard in the countryside. It was one of the places he took me during the early parts of our courtship. It’d been so hard to not castrate him where he stood as he wrapped his arm around me and pointed out the grapes that would one day make wine like the bottle I was drinking. It’d also been the first time that he had kissed me. I’d prepared for the moment, but it didn’t make it easier. Only remembering my end goal allowed me to lay in bed with him night after night ever since, and only thoughts of the man beside me made me come while doing so. It was such a tangled web that I weaved, but I was doing what needed to be done.

“It wasn’t supposed to have been this way, you know.” I don’t know why I even voiced that aloud, but his hand stopped midway up my thigh.

“What were you supposed to be doing?” he finally asked.

I let out a small sigh, then decided I might as well tell him. It wasn’t as if anything would change by doing so. “I was supposed to be a doctor. I wanted to heal people.”

“Yet now, you want to take them out instead?” His question was followed up by a chuckle, and even that had goosebumps raising on my arm.

“Shit happens,” I said, then decided I’d had enough of this conversation. After setting the wine down, I scrambled to my feet and placed my hands out in front of me as feelers until I reached the door. I grabbed the handle, but it wouldn’t budge. “What the hell?”

“We must’ve lost power in the house and—”

“What are you saying?” I had an idea, but I was hoping that I was wrong.

“I’m saying that the door is controlled with a pin pad outside that requires electricity. It looks like we’re stuck in here together.”

This couldn’t be fucking happening. I pressed my forehead against the door, then lightly began to hit it against the hard wood. I stayed like that for several seconds before spinning around. I couldn’t see anything in front of me. I tried my best to get back to where I had been, but I couldn’t find my way. I’d only been down here a few times, but there’d always been light.

I assumed that all my bumbling around had caught Nazario’s attention because a pair of strong arms wrapped around me. I settled immediately, even though I knew that he could so easily take me out where we stood if he so wanted. At the moment, he seemed more interested in pinching my nipples through my robe. They hardened at his touch, and that familiar ache returned. It was almost comical that the son of my enemy was the only one that could set my body ablaze. Not Stefano, or any of those other men I trained with that took me with such ruthless voracity all in preparation for times like this. They’d made me come, most likely because of the trust factor that I had with them, and I realized in that moment that I trusted this man currently biting along my collarbone as well.

I leaned back against him, then wrapped one arm around the back of his neck. His hands moved stealthily, parting my robe so he could touch my aching breasts with no silk barrier in the way. I wanted and needed more, and as if he realized that, Nazario dragged one hand down to my panties which were more a flimsy piece of lace than anything else. His fingers teased me by dipping beneath the waistband of them, but he never touched me where I needed him to. The throbbing in my core grew more insistent.

“I beg you,” I pleaded, although I didn’t know for what.

“You’re begging me for what?” he asked as he licked along the throbbing pulse point in my neck. “Tell me what you want, Viviana.”

A shiver wracked me as he said my name. I loved the way it slipped so easily off of his tongue. “I want your head between my legs.”

He froze in that moment, but I wasn’t worried that I had been too blunt. I didn’t need light in this dark cellar to confirm that he was smirking, because I knew and had studied him enough to know that he was. When he removed his hands from me, I almost thought I had erred in my earlier thinking. Thankfully, he’d only released me so that he could spin me around. Seconds later, he lifted me up and pinned me against the wall. There was nothing else to hold onto, so I rested my hands on the top of his head.

His hair was so curly, and it made the perfect thing to hold onto when he used his hands to push my panties off to one side. The moment his tongue touched me, I let out a small cry. “Sì.”

My head lolled from one side to the other as his wicked tongue and mouth teased me. He wasn’t doing exactly what I wanted and as the seconds turned to minutes, my own frustration started to set in. Stefano was a big proponent of making me wait for orgasms, and I realized his son had perfected that art even better than he had. The one thing I had learned over the years was that life was short, so I wanted what I wanted, when I wanted it. I wasn’t going to beg Nazario any more, even though I knew he probably wanted me to.

Finally, I pushed at his head and was able to eventually wriggle back down the wall. I sat in that spot and cursed him inwardly. I’d need to remember the feel of his mouth on me and get myself off once we were able to get out of this damned hole.

“You’re a bastard,” I told him when he sat down beside me. “Maybe, I’ll kill you along with your father.”

“Many have tried and failed,” he retorted, and I let out a huff.

“Why do you hate me so much?” I hadn’t meant to ask it, but since it was out, I waited for his answer.

“I don’t hate you, but I do hate everything that you represent.”

My brows furrowed at that. “And that is?”

He took my hand and cupped it between his. “I want you too fucking much.”

“I don’t understand.” Well, I did, but I didn’t.

“Ever since you walked back into my life, all I can do is think about the ways that I want to ruin you. You’d break so beautifully, but then again, you already have for him.”

I didn’t miss the way he referenced his father with such disgust in his tone. His other words echoed in my head, and I knew that he would love to break me. Men like him, and his father, liked their women subservient and submissive. With Stefano, I played that role, and while I could with Nazario too, I knew it was a much deadlier game because he could probably reach parts of me that my friends in Sicily and his father couldn’t.

I’d had everything done to me in the name of revenge. I wore battle scars from those nights, and carried the mental reminders in my head. I’d never taken the kiss of a whip... the cut of a blade... or the psychological warfare others inflicted on me in the name of pleasure. I did get off, but it had never been the intention and rather just an expected result.

“You’re right. I’m already broken,” I finally said. “And we both know who’s responsible for that.”

“You’re fractured, but not truly broken beyond repair. If you continue to play this deadly game, you will be, though.” I didn’t need his warning, and pushing away from the wall, I pulled my robe back together and tied the belt back around me. “Where are you going?” he asked when I stood up.

“I’m not having this conversation with you again. Just because you tickled my clit with your fucking tongue doesn’t mean that I will fall back, so you can do something that you claim to want to do yourself, but have had years to do and haven’t.”

I started walking away, even though I had no idea where I was going. I heard him rise to his feet and seconds later, I was pushed face first against the cold, stone wall. “I’ve been waiting for the right time. There’s a—”

“The right time,” I responded with sarcasm, “Just go on and admit that you’re not man enough to do the job. Afterward, you can step aside and let someone who is do it.”

That earned me a growl, and when Nazario wrapped his hand around my neck, I briefly wondered if I was pushing him too far. The tightening of his fingers around my throat made my panties get wetter. I used to be terrified of things like this, but in working with those that I trusted, I had learned to enjoy it. In fact, I also fucking craved it. Pain was an emotion, and one of the only ones that made me feel alive. Everything in my world revolved around it, so when he slipped his other hand into my panties, I didn’t even flinch.

I also didn’t moan or cry out when he pinched the very clit I mentioned earlier. He rolled it between his fingertips and alternated between squeezing and rubbing it. My knees were growing weak, yet I wouldn’t allow him to see how easily he affected me. Any touch of his was done with the sole purpose of manipulating me into doing what he wanted. I wouldn’t cave. I couldn’t.

And as if on cue, he spoke, “I will put you up somewhere and fuck you to your heart’s content as long as you leave this house tonight. Do not marry my father. Don’t even—”

I used my elbow to muscle my way away from him. I caught him by surprise enough that he released my neck from his grasp and I quickly rubbed out the soreness in it. I was glaring, not that he could see. “I’ll never leave until I’ve done what I’ve come here to do.”

“You’re a goddamned fool,” he cursed, and I glared harder. I didn’t give a damn what he thought about me.

“You want me gone so badly. Why?” I didn’t think he would respond, so I wasn’t holding my breath.

“I need to be the one to take him out. What would it look like for you to do it? The price on your head would be astronomical. You wouldn’t live a day after carrying out your vengeance. Can’t you see that I’m only looking out for—”

“I don’t need you to look out for me. I don’t need your protection or concern. Do I give a damn if I die? No! Just know that I won’t be the first one to succumb.”

I was livid, and physically shaking. Nazario didn’t understand how important this was to me. He couldn’t. From what I had learned about him, there were things that mattered, but friends, family, and women were not on that list.

“Cazzo!” His tone was short and clipped. “Do you think that you’re the only one that he’d scorned?” I went to answer, but he started talking so quickly that I closed my mouth instead. “I once had a heart. A soul, too. I lost it all the last year of school when Stefano took the only thing that mattered to me, and broke her into pieces.”

“I don’t believe you,” I stated. He’d likely say anything to try to appeal to me.

“I loved her, or at least I think that I did. I tried to keep our relationship secret because I knew the type of man that my father was. It wasn’t enough. Her father owed a debt and turned her over to him as repayment. He drugged and raped her, then sent her away where she was later killed by animals even worse than him.”

I gasped, the sound much louder than intended in the enclosed space. “Did you try to help her?”

“How could I? It’d happened before I arrived. The bastard recorded the entire thing and made me watch. The things he does with you... Let’s just say that not everyone else is so willing to submit.”

“D-Donna,” I cried out.

“He’d been in town on business and had his local crew round up a few girls. Stefano likes them young, but bordering on legal. She tried to fight him off, but it’d been too little too late. He was enraged and instead of selling her off to others, he killed her. Dead women can’t talk so his secrets remain safe.”

“No,” I cried out, the truth even more heinous than I had ever imagined. I knew Stefano Vaccaro was a monster, but I had no idea of how much of one. To think that I was willingly allowing this man to lay a single finger on me had me nauseous. I had to end him tonight. My mind started to conjure up past scenes and I allowed the tears to fall as I remembered every ounce of pain that he inflicted on me, and how I would beg for more. It’d all been a mission, and with each second longer that Stefano was allowed to breathe, it was a second longer than he deserved. “Don’t you see? I have to do this now for sure.”

“No!” The word cracked in the air like a whip, and I flinched as if waiting for the blistering strike from a single tail. “I believe that he also abused my mother before she was murdered. In fact, I have it on good authority that he was behind it all.”

I read what had happened to her. She’d been killed by a rival strike, or had it been intentional. “Do you think he turned her over to them?”

Nazario chuckled. “Even worse. I have proof that he killed her himself and set them up for it, like he did others for Donna’s death. And for Kristalina.”

I remembered that name and now thinking about it, I did recall that he was very close to her. Visions of the two of them sitting together, or standing by one another’s lockers came flashing back. I also remember that she went home one day and was never seen at school again. I wanted to feel bad for Nazario, but I knew firsthand that he was no saint.

“Did Stefano see us last night?”

“No, but one of these nights, he will. He will watch me break his wife, and only then will he know how sour the taste of betrayal really is when you’re on the receiving end of it.”

“You’re fucking crazy. I’m not marrying...” And before I could get the rest of my thoughts out, the lights flickered on and I raced to the door. Tonight, Stefano would die, and this nightmare would be over.