Chapter 19

Aurelio~

Savina hadn't uttered a word during the entire ride to my place, and she was still quiet as a church mouse as we rode the elevator up to the top floor. I had purposely kept it from her that we were meeting Nero at my place because I hadn't wanted her parents to know more than they already did.

When I had questioned Paolo Valentine yesterday about his daughter, he had admitted to Savina coming to them last year, asking for help, and I'd never been so livid when I'd heard how he had turned her away, telling her to go back and sleep in the bed that she'd made for herself. I'd been so fucking pissed that I had lifted the man off the floor by his neck, almost killing him. She had come to him for help, and his pride had been more important to him than his own child, making me want to murder him with my bare hands whenever I thought about it.

Nonetheless, once he'd realized how displeased I'd been, he'd been quick to make the phone call to get Savina here. When I had shown up at their place tonight, Paolo had been wise enough to remain in the kitchen while Carla had kept me company, answering the door when Savina had finally shown up.

With nothing really to say, neither of us said anything, and even when the elevator doors had slid open, Savina had still kept her mouth shut. I couldn't imagine what all she had going on in that brain of hers right now, but being summoned by Nero Sartori would play hell on anyone's nerves.

As we walked into my home, I led Savina straight to my office, Nero waiting for us like he'd said he would be. The woman immediately started to fidget, messing with her cuticles again, and she really was going to have to get over her unreasonable fear of Nero. While a lot of people had legitimate reasons to fear the man, she wasn't one of those people.

"Have a seat," Nero instructed, gesturing towards the couch.

Savina obediently sat down, murmuring, "Thank you."

I went to lean against the desk as Nero remained standing in front of her, his sigh loud enough to make her flinch. The room also smelled like nicotine, but you'd never guess that he was stressing out about his wife by just looking at him.

"Okay, Savina," he started, his eyes regarding her seriously. "My wife is about to give birth any second, so I'm not overly pleased whenever I'm pulled away from my home." Savina's eyes widened a bit. "That being said, I'm going to ask you some questions, and so help you God, you'd better answer them quickly and honestly. I don't have the time to be fucking around with any shit that doesn't directly involve my wife at this time." He pinned her to the couch with a stare. "Understood?"

Savina nodded. "Ye…yes, of course…"

"Why in the fuck are you letting Ashton Oliver beat you like you hadn't been raised better?" he asked, cutting to the chase.

Her face immediately paled, but she was also smart enough to recognize that Nero wasn't fucking around. "Be…because of…of the video that he has on Aurelio."

My entire body froze.

What the fuck?

Even Nero seemed taken aback. "What video?"

Refusing to look at me, she said, "Ashton has a video of Aurelio killing Jorge Bustamante."

Nero shook his head as I remained frozen where I stood. "What…hold on…" Nero let out another deep breath. "You're telling me that Ashton Oliver has a video of Aurelio killing the city councilman?"

She nodded. "It's kind of grainy, but there's no mistaking that it's Aurelio."

"That's impossible, Savina," Nero told her.

She started frantically shaking her head. "No, no…it's true," she insisted. "I'd never lie to you about something like that. I mean…Christ, why else would I let Ashton treat me the way that he does?"

Though I'd been certain that there'd been nothing left of my heart after what Savina had done to me, I'd been wrong. My chest felt like it was bleeding out onto the floor, her words destroying me in a way that nothing else ever could.

"Savina, Ashton Oliver cannot have a video of Aurelio killing Jorge Bustamente," Nero repeated, his voice even, probably trying to keep her from getting hysterical. "It's impossible."

She shook her head again. "It's not," she cried. "He showed it to me a few months after we started dating. He said…he said that he'd show it to the police if I didn't…." Her voice got caught in her throat, and there wasn't going to be anything on this earth that was going to stop me from killing Ashton Oliver with my bare hands. "He said…he said that he'd show it to the police."

Nero turned to look at me, giving me permission to take over. So, doing my best to rein in my rage, I walked over towards the couch, then dropped on my haunches to look into her worried face. Her eyes looked wild, and there was no doubt that I was going to make that sonofabitch suffer. I was going to take him back in time, to an era when kings drank the blood of their enemies.

"Savina, I need you to listen to me, okay?" I said, fighting for calm. "Ashton can't have a video of me killing Jorge Bustamente because I didn't kill Jorge Bustamente."

She started shaking her head frantically, tears coating her lashes. "No…no, no…no, that's not true," she repeated. "I saw the video. It shows you stabbing him before you shot him in the head." She looked like she was about to pass out, and I had to fist my hands to keep them from shaking with rage. "It's you. I saw it…it's you." I was about to speak when her hands reached out, grabbing my arms. "Please...please, Aurelio…it's you. Tell me that it's you. Tell me that it was you…it has to be you…"

I was so furious that I could barely speak. "Baby, it's not me," I told her, my entire body radiating with a pain that I'd only felt one other time before in my life; the day that she'd left me. "I didn't kill him."

"The night that Jorge Bustamente was killed, Aurelio was in California," Nero said. "He was meeting with Christos Benetti, and we can prove it."

Savina paled as she looked at him. "No…" she whispered brokenly. "That's not true." She looked back at me as she let go of my arms. "You're…you're lying. I…I don't know…know why you're lying to me, but you are."

My entire soul screamed for her as Nero said, "Savina, we're not lying. The night that the news broke of Councilman Bustamante's murder, it was announced that he'd been shot, never stabbed."

Savina looked like she was going to throw up everywhere, and if she did, then that was okay. "Then…then that means that I…" Her blue eyes snapped to my face. "Oh, God…oh, God…the things that I let…the things that I let that man do to me…" She looked absolutely horrified, turning my stomach into knots. "I…for two years, I let him…the beatings, the names, his…his friends…"

"I'm going to kill that sonofabitch," I hissed as I got to my feet. "I'm going to fucking kill him."

"Aurelio-"

"You can't stop me," I bit out as I turned to my best friend. "Don't you dare try to stop me."

Nero put his hands up in a useless effort to calm me down, Savina's quiet cries torturing me from the couch. "I'm not," he said, his voice firm, reminding me of who he was. "I just think that guns blazing isn't the way to go." He gave a pointed look at Savina. "At the moment, there are more important priorities, don't you think?"

"Nero-"

He was in my face before I could finish my sentence, something that no one else would ever be allowed to do. "Ashton Oliver abused her in every way possible," he hissed as quietly as he could, though Savina was too lost in her own personal misery to even pay attention to either of us. "You need to make sure that she knows she's safe now before you run off and ruin the rest of her life."

"How the fuck is me killing Ashton Oliver going to ruin the rest of her life?" I hissed back.

Nero's dark gaze fired up. "Because she endured two years of hell for you," he snapped. "She let Ashton Oliver do unspeakable things to her because she loves you too much to see you go to prison. What in the fuck do you think will happen to her if you end up in prison anyway for killing him without thought? What in the fuck happens to her sacrifice then?" He stepped closer to me. "Get it the fuck together, Aurelio. For her sake, if nothing else."

He was right.

Savina's sacrifice deserved more than an angry reaction from me. Truth be told, it deserved me on my knees for the rest of my fucking life. All this time, I'd been hating her for walking away from me while she'd been enduring a life of hell to keep me safe. While I'd been living my life, doing my best to remove her from my heart and mind, she'd been treated like trash, enduring unlimited amounts of pain and humiliation because she fucking loved me.

I glanced back down at Savina, and I knew that I was going to do more than just kill Ashton Oliver. I was going to make him pay for every second that she'd had to live with him and subject herself to his demands. By the time that I was done with him, he was going to be begging me to kill him.

"Yeah…okay," I said, letting out a deep breath. "You're…you're right."

Whispering he said, "I'm going to give you two some time alone, but let me know if you need anything."

The only thing that I needed was to kill Ashton Oliver.