“How do you know who I am?” I whispered, barely choking out the words.
“I make it my business to know everything about my enemies and members of your family have been some of my most vicious enemies,” she said, smiling gently though what showed in her eyes was anything but.” motioning to a chair. “Come sit with me child and tell me why you risked so much to speak with me, for we both know you will not leave this room unless I allow it.”
As I stared at her I pushed Dom’s, Nero’s, and my Grams face before my eyes, knowing that they were the reason I was here. I sat in the chair she indicated and closed my eyes to block out the sight of her and force the terror trying to overwhelm me down deep. I had come this far. I wasn’t going to fail now. Finding strength in my family I sat myself up straight. I was a Genovese. We cowered to no one. “I’m here to stop the war that is going on between your family and mine. Dominic thinks that the only way to stop it is through you.” I hurried to finish as the amusement in her face from a moment ago disappeared. She stared at me for a long moment then walked toward me. The only thing I could think was this was it. Death had come for me. I was shocked when she took the seat across from me.
I must have been sitting there stupidly for longer than I realized because she snapped her finger in my face. Focusing on her blazing green eyes I jumped a little at her terse, “Tell me.”
To have the focus of her eyes was terrifying. It was as if she could see to my very soul. Unable to hold her gaze, I looked down. “My sister Caterina is the one that arranged your shooting. Lucca thinks that I am Caterina. Dominic figured out I wasn’t my sister and kept me from Lucca.”
“Stop,” she said. I stared at my hands until her firm hand gripped my chin and forced me to look up. “How did Dominic know that you weren’t Caterina?”
“Because he slept with both Caterina and me,” I whispered.
“Start at the beginning. Why are you here?”
“Caterina sent me tapes after Enzo’s death. Tapes that made me want to search you out.” She released my face and a distant look entered her eyes. “I met Maria at college and became her friend. Lucca knew about the tapes so he sent Dom to watch me. We figured out too late that it was all a setup by Caterina to start a war between our families. Dom protected me from Lucca when he wouldn’t believe that I wasn’t Caterina.” I looked back down at my hands afraid of what I might see at the next words I spoke. “Caterina took Maria and sold her south of the border as a sex slave. My brother Nero went with Dom and got her back, but not before…”
“I understand,” she snapped out, cutting me off. “Continue.”
“We got her back and your friend Joan came to us saying that you sent her after Lucca burned one of our clubs down and took hostages. After seeing Maria she left to speak with Don Salvatici, who Nero was to meet the next day to trade your family for ours. Don Salvatore believed that Dom and his friends were traitors, and demanded that they and Maria be turned over or our men would die. My brother wasn’t going to do it until Dom convinced him to, saying it was the only way to stop the war. He wrote a letter and put it in Maria’s bag for Joan to find and deliver to you, but Joan said that it wasn’t there. There was an ambush at the exchange. People from both sides died and Dom disappeared. Lucca thinks we’re hiding him and has been attacking us for the last few months, trying to find Dom and kill my brother and me.”
I took a breath and looked up into her rage-filled eyes. “If you need a life, please take mine for the sins of my brother and sister. Just please leave the rest of my family alone and please find Dominic if he’s still alive.”
Here face turned to granite at my words and the eyes of the killer that lurked within stared at me. “If I wanted your family dead I would have done it years ago,” she said in a hard voice. She got up and went to a closet then to the bathroom with clothes in hand. Before I could even process what had happened she was dressed and walking out of the bathroom toward the crib. She picked up her son, held him in one arm then reached down and gripped my arm with her free hand, pulling me up. “Stay behind me,” was all she said before releasing me and moving toward the door.
She stopped and pulled open a draw at the table next to the door and removed a gun. She slid it in the waist of her jeans at her back, opened the door wide and stepped out. To say the guards were shocked at the sight of me was an understatement. They rushed forward but were stopped by a single word from her in a voice that caused terror to show on the faces of the two before her. She sent one scurrying away while the other stared at the wall, barely breathing.
Within three minutes the guard was back with a worried Joan. “Keep the baby and Alexa in your room,” she told Joan. “No matter what you hear do not come out.”
Joan nodded and gently took the baby from her arms before turning and rushing away, making me wish I could go with her. I didn’t want to be anywhere near this woman, either, when she exploded. With Joan out of sight, Angelica marched forward with the three of us hurrying to keep up. How the hell Enzo lived as long as he did against this woman I’ll never know. Men lounging around in view of the stairs stood as soon as they saw her, looking shocked. How the hell long had she been in that room?
As we passed them their shock turned to rage as they realized who I was. They moved toward us but were all stopped with a look from her, except for one of them. He reached out to push Angelica aside and ended up with his face planted into a wall and a gun at the back of his skull. “Your services are not required, Vic.”
“Do you know who that fucking cunt is?” he hissed, enraged that she had taken him out so easily.
She chuckled softly. “I’m very well aware of who this is. The problem is, none of you are.” She released him and pushed him toward a group just within the doorway of the living room. “Gentlemen, this is my guest, Victoria Genovese, and I will take it as a personal insult if anything happens to her in my home.”
Pushing himself upright, the man who had tried to put his hands on her snarled, “That’s Caterina Genovese. There is no Victoria Genovese.”
The mask of civility dropped from her face. “Would you like to stake your life and the lives of every member of your bloodline on that, Vic?” she asked, causing the man’s mouth to snap shut. She continued in a pleasantly sweet voice that actual caused a few of them to take a step back. “I am not in the mood to deal with this at the moment, so let me make myself clear. Should I tell you this girl is the Easter Bunny then that’s who she is. Anyone who disagrees with me and touches her will have my vengeance brought down on their whole family from the youngest to the oldest. I will bathe in their blood.”
She looked around the room and smiled. “Now I know that I won’t have to do that because all of you know that I would never endanger our family, so while I go and speak with my husband and father in-law, why don’t the rest of you continue what you were doing. Once I’m finished and as long as my directions are followed I’ll make us a nice dinner instead of forcing those of you still living to dig holes in the pouring rain to bury those that did as they pleased against my wishes.”
Oh my god, I can’t believe I ever wanted to meet this woman. No wonder Nero exploded when he found out. I inched away from her but was stopped when her hand shot out and gripped my wrist. Frozen, I stared at it. “I believe I’ve already told you if I wanted you dead I would have done it long ago. Now hold onto that backbone that foolishly had you seeking me out for a little bit longer.” She calmly said before tugging me along as she began walking again. Not one person followed us; obviously having no doubt that if they interfered with her she would carry everything that she had just said to them out to the letter. We came to a stop in front of a pair of doors. She told me to “sit” in one of the chairs just outside then opened the doors and went in. She didn’t close the doors all of the way after entering, so I was able to hear what was being said.
“Baby, what are you doing out of bed?” a man asked. It must have been Lucca Salvatici.
“I’d lik
e to have a word with you and Antonio,” she said in the same sweet voice that I had just heard her use.
“Sure baby, what’s wrong?” Lucca asked cautiously.
“Oh baby, I don’t know. How about the fact that you declared war on the Genovese family when they had nothing to do with me being shot? Or how about the fact that Dominic’s missing, maybe even dead? Wait, I know. Why don’t we talk about Maria, who was sold as a sex slave across the border then being ashamed and alone, was abandoned by her family and sent to live somewhere else? Why don’t we, my love, start with those things?” she snapped, obviously having reached the end of her patience.
“This has nothing to do with you, Angie. This is the family’s business,” a second voice told her coldly. It was Don Salvatici.
“Antonio…” she started to say but was cut off by Lucca.
“I believe my father just told you that this has nothing to do with you, now go upstairs with the children.”
Oh fuck, he didn’t. Silence stretched for a long moment before she spoke again. “I’ll be leaving in a moment, but I will be heard before I go.” She said it so coldly that frost had to be filling the room. “Caterina Genovese is just as sick as was her brother Enzo. She is cut from the same cloth of insanity as he was. Nero and Victoria Genovese, on the other hand, are the exact opposites of their psychopathic siblings.”
“What the hell are you talking about? There is no Victoria Genovese.” Don Salvatici demanded.
“Victoria Genovese is Caterina’s twin. When they were children Caterina and Enzo framed her for the murder of their mother, stepfather, and underboss. Her grandmother had her declared insane and purged all records of her to hide her. Rose Genovese went as far as to put contracts on the heads of any that ever touched her or them, to ensure Enzo and Caterina could never profit from their deaths.” Scorn dripped from her next words. “Had you fools told me what was happening you would have known all of this before starting a war. Instead you’ve handed your son and brother over to the enemy and declared him a traitor. You’ve scarred your daughter and sister to the point that I might not be able to fix her this time, and managed to alienate your best ally against your true enemy. Tell me, are Marcus and Chis really dead?”
“No. We’ve been holding them, trying to get Dominic’s whereabouts from them.” Don Salvatore choked out as the full implications of what Angelica just told him sank in.
I stood up, knocked on the door, pushed it open, and stepped in. Angelica stood before a large desk that held a sitting Don Salvatici and a standing Lucca Salvatici.
I quietly spoke to the men staring at me. “My brother Nero and I had nothing to do with any of this. Nero was willing to risk our men so that you didn’t kill your own son, but Dominic wouldn’t allow it. He felt the only way to force you to listen would be through Angelica, so he placed a letter in Maria’s bag, hoping that she’d receive it. When the attacks came I tried to tell my brother that she hadn’t gotten it, but he wouldn’t listen. My grandmother defied my brother when we heard that the commission had been called and helped me so that I could try and reach Angelica.”
“You’re Victoria Genovese?” Don Salvatore asked, already knowing the answer. At the nod of my head he turned to his son. “Lucca, have Vic go collect Marcus and Christopher and bring them here. Also I want Paulie brought in.” He saw the look in his son’s eyes. “I want Paulie alive, Lucca. Then you can do whatever you want to him.”
“I doubt it was just Paulie. I’m going to assume that Nero isn’t the only one with traitors in his family. Is he, Angie?” Lucca asked his wife, who had moved to the window.
“It’s likely there are more. Caterina learned from Enzo and Enzo knew that the best way to break a family was from the inside out.” She looked over her shoulder at her husband. “If you have any more of Nero’s men, release them, Lucca. If we have any chance of finding Dom alive we’ll need all of the help we can get.”
“Do you think my son is still alive?” Don Salvatore asked in a distant voice, as the reality of his own betrayals against his son filled him.
For a long moment the two of them stared at one another before Angelica finally spoke. “Unfortunately yes. Like I said, Caterina is the female version of Enzo, and Enzo always liked to play with his toys until he broke them and threw them away.”
At her words, visions of scenes from Enzo’s collection of torture tapes rose to my mind. The screams of those women haunted my nightmares. Would their wails that begged for the sweet release of death soon be replaced by Dominic’s?
Chapter 22
Pain was my only friend. It held me in the night, never leaving me. Months or years passed. I didn’t know. It all blurred together in this endless hell. Each time they finished with me I was thrown into my cell to lie in my blood and pray that this was the day that my wounds would take me. It would be so much easier if I surrendered and let them kill me, but it wasn’t a part of my genetics to quit. To allow someone else to get the better of me. So I fought, I killed, I fucked, and I took the torture and degradation, because I couldn’t do anything but. Every breath I took riddled me with pain, bringing me closer to the sweet oblivion of unconsciousness. Stuck there in the in-between, my mind took me to that first day I awoke in hell.
My head was killing me. I forced my eyes open and saw the stained concrete floor. What the fuck? It took me more time that I’d like to admit to realize that I was cuffed to a chair. With a groan I sat up and looked around. The vastness of a large warehouse echoed every move I made. The click of heels heralded my jailor. Dark pleasure filled her face as she looked at me, her plans for me naked in her eyes. Staring at her, I wondered how the fuck I could have every thought she was Tori. Everything about her was hard and cruel, from the twist of her thin lips to the flick of her red talons. Darkness and death hung around her like a cloak; cruelty and pain she suckled like it was mother’s milk. It was blind loyalty to my family that had made me believe even for a moment that this monster was my Tori.
She motioned to one of her men. I watched as he brought over a chair and set it before me. She leaned down in front of me, bracing her hands on my thighs. She dug her claws in deep while she watched my face. “Hello Dominic,” she purred.
“Caterina,” I acknowledged, waiting to see what her game was.
She chuckled softly, removed her hands, and sat down in the chair. “You, my love, have been a thorn in my side that I didn’t expect.”
“How so?”
“Well, I never expected you to believe my sister. That night after she disposed of that girl’s body you did just what I thought you would. You gave my goody-two-shoes sister a nice hard ride but then you didn’t kill her. Instead, lover, you listened to her little tale and took her home with you. Now here I was, all ready to send big brother Nero a tape of you raping and murdering his little sister, but you only gave me half of what I needed.”
She leaned back and gave me a small smile. “So I had to rethink my plan. Taking Maria was easier than I thought. I was worried because that whore Angelica had been with her, but motherhood seemed to have taken the bite out of her. I have to say I was shocked that my men almost killed her.” She wrapped her finger around her hair and looked away kind of dreamily. “I’m glad they didn’t, you know. I really want it on tape so I can watch it again and again. I would have had it in the hospital but Lucca guarded her like a dog with a bone, catching my men each time. It was too close. If he had caught one that actually knew something he could have gotten the truth from him. From what I hear your brother can be very persuasive with a knife”
She focused back on me. “So I had to abandon that idea. Maria, on the other hand, I had in my grasp. I don’t suppose you know if your brother enjoyed the little video I sent him of Maria do you?” She laughed at the rage I couldn’t conceal. “Don’t worry, I sent Nero your little performance with sister Tori, so I have to say I was quite surprised to find you alive and well. My sister must have really enjoyed herself and pleaded on bended knee for your
life. I always knew she was like me. The only difference is that Enzo helped me to embrace what I was, while Tori hid from it.” She reached forward and ran her red talons down my chest. “Don’t get me wrong. I’m not surprised that she enjoyed her time with you. I know I did.”
I leaned forward as far as I could. “Un-cuff me Caterina, and I’ll give you something that you’ll never forget,” I said darkly, ready to rip this bitch’s throat out with my teeth. She stood up and straddled me. She dug her nails deep into my scalp and pulled my head back hard, keeping her face an inch from mine while she ground on my like a cock. I was amused at the anger that I could see clouding her face, as my dick didn’t so much as flinch at her administration. “Sorry, baby. My boy knows trash when he feels it,” I taunted. “The only reason that I was able to keep him hard enough to fuck you was by thinking about your sister. You could never get my rocks off in that well-plowed hole. I had to go take care of myself in the shower. My cock likes a tight grip in a pussy, not a hollow echo chamber to wiggle around in.” I laughed.
Enraged, she climbed off me and threw her chair. Amused, I watched her temper tantrum. She turned back to me, heaving. “I was going to keep you for myself, but now I see that you need to be trained.” She wrapped her fingers around my neck. “You and I are going to be together for a long time. No one’s coming for you. No one knows I have you. Your family thinks you betrayed them, and my family is going to have a lot more to worry about with your brother Lucca hunting for them than to worry about what happened to you.”
She snapped her fingers and held out her free hand. As soon as the paper touched her fingers she swung her hand an inch from my face. “Do you know what this is? No, let me tell you. It’s the letter you wrote to that cunt, Angelica. You were going to sacrifice your life for nothing. No one’s going to be coming for you. No one’s going to stop this war. I will get everything that’s mine—and you, Dominic, are mine.”
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