Maddox tore his face away from my finger, glaring at me as Sylvester spoke, “And the fact that you literally tore off Bianca’s throat won’t be enough?”
Ah, yes. My feat of besting Bianca had gotten around. It was kind of funny to hear it through the grapevine. Apparently, me tearing off a woman’s throat was not something this city had ever heard of.
I mean, if it took fear to make people fall back in line, then that’s how this would go. I didn’t want to be like Bianca, to kill anyone and everyone who I thought was weak, but I would not hesitate to kill those who went against me or my men. I wouldn’t stop killing the sleazy men who deserved it. My hands would only get bloodier as the years wore on.
The Lucianos and the new leader of the DeLuca empire? We were working together now, and we would remain that way forever. A new chapter was turning on this city, and those that fought it were in for a harsh awakening.
We spent the day visiting a lot of people. Some were finally happy to put a face to the name, while others could barely hide their disdain toward me. But that was fine—I didn’t care if they hated me. As long as they didn’t try anything, we’d be cool. What was really fun was stopping by the Castello house and meeting with that family. Let’s just say Mina’s parents were very welcoming, unlike the girl herself.
Couldn’t blame her, since I flaunted Maddox right in front of her.
What could I say? I was still the spiteful bitch I was before. That much wouldn’t change about me.
The hours blended in together, and I grew tired of it all. I’d brought my mask, and I wore it around my neck during each meeting. Sylvester had gotten Fang to create a chain that hooked from both its sides, a chain that allowed me to wear the mask over my tits like an oversized necklace.
Night eventually fell, and we were headed to our last stop. Harvey, Viper, Mike and I drove in one car while Maddox and Sylvester drove in another. We were headed to a place where Bianca’s name used to pull a lot of weight, a place where I had been forced to put on a show and sing like a dancing monkey.
The Gilded Rose.
Harvey parked on the sidewalk, not caring about traffic laws, and I was the first to get out, stretching my legs, limbering up. If anywhere was going to be a problem, it would be here. Newton, the manager of the place, was a hardcore DeLuca loyalist. We’d see what he’d do tonight.
Once the others were out of the car, I led us to the bouncer at the front. The bouncer was expecting us, so he took one look at me and stepped aside.
The Gilded Rose was as I remembered: full of golden things, glass everywhere, a stage front and center surrounded by tables where the patrons would sit. Tonight, though, there was no one. No one but Newton, who was waiting for us.
Well, Newton and his men, burly guys who looked like they could handle themselves in a fight.
Newton met us halfway, his men standing by near the bar, in case anything should go wrong here. He wore a tan suit tonight, his blonde hair slicked back, brown eyes taking in the mask on my chest instantly. “I’ve been anxiously awaiting your presence all day, Lola Harding,” he spoke, offering me his hand. “Or, should I say, Dolly Queen.”
“Somehow I doubt that,” I said, giving him my hand all the same. I did not want to bring Carter in here tonight; not after everything that happened. That hothead might just shoot the place up, even though everyone who’d shot up the Dollhouse was dead. It’s partially why I told Roman and Carter to take some time away from the city with Zoey. Let us handle things for a while.
Newton smirked, took my hand in his and, instead of shaking it, bent his head down and kissed it.
Right. Like I was the new princess of town or something.
I could feel my men bristling behind me, and I resisted the urge to wipe my hand off once Newton let it go. “Whatever formality you had with Bianca, you can let it go,” I said. “I’m not like her.”
“Clearly,” he said. “For you’re the one still standing. From what I hear, you toppled the Bloody Princess yourself.” His dark gaze took in Maddox and Sylvester, along with Viper and Mike. “And you are helping to usher in a new era in this city. I’d have to be a fool not to see it.”
Maybe tonight wouldn’t go so horribly wrong after all, then. I admit, I didn’t think Newton would see it like that.
“Whatever empire you’re building,” Newton paused, standing tall as he held his hands behind his back, “I want to be a part of it.”
He was the first person today to say something like that, and I found myself interested but not overly so. “And why should you be?” I questioned. “You were not terrible to me, true, but you were a part of this. You made me perform for your guests.” And you brought me to Tony, but I couldn’t say that part, because mentioning Tony would only make myself and my guys think about what that motherfucker did.
I’d finally come clean to them, after Bianca was dead. I’d told them what exactly Tony and I got up to in the Gilded Rose’s office, that I had no weapons, that I’d known it was pointless to fight. I didn’t know, even to this day, if I’d call it rape, but it was definitely not on the consensual side. After everything Tony did, after involving me in a war—after I’d realized I was in love with the Lucianos and Viper—I wasn’t giving it away anymore, so it wasn’t his to take.
Oh, they’d been furious. Furious at Tony, upset at me for keeping it to myself for so long, but what could I have done? Telling them before the calm had settled wouldn’t have helped us. The past few weeks, they’d started to look for him, but anyone with half a brain would skedaddle if they were Tony.
Because now that I was the new face of the DeLuca empire, I could kill whoever the fuck I wanted with no repercussions, Night Slayer or not.
“I did,” Newton admitted. “At first, I didn’t know who you were, but when I found out, I was more than a little curious. Plus, you have one of the most beautiful singing voices I’ve ever heard.”
Such words might be a compliment to other girls, but to me? To me they were the opposite.
“Now, of course I’m not asking you to include me in anything on mere goodwill,” Newton said. “So I had my boys search high and low the moment I heard you offed Ms. DeLuca. I think you’ll find a partnership between us can be very beneficial for both of us.”
I narrowed my gaze, still unsure what this guy was talking about.
He started walking away, gesturing for us to follow. “Come to my office. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.”
Glancing to Sylvester, I waited for a sign, if we should go with him or not. His armed men didn’t seem to be following him, which confused me to no end. All Sylvester did was shrug, and I thought, very helpful, thanks.
In the end, I trailed after Newton, Maddox and Sylvester behind me while Viper and Mike stayed downstairs with Newton’s men.
Up the stairs we went, and I pushed out the memories that threatened to surface of that night, the night everything had gone to shit. Tony, meeting Bianca for the first time, wondering if Viper and Mike were dead because of me… my brother. That night was not a night I ever wanted to remember.
We arrived on the landing just before the door to the office, and Newton was the first who pushed in, me seconds behind him.
And then I saw the body lying in the middle of the floor, tied up and gagged, and I smiled. I smiled so widely my cheeks started to hurt, and behind me, Maddox and Sylvester could hardly contain their shock.
“How—” Sylvester started. “We’ve been looking for him for weeks.”
“Ah,” Newton spoke with a shrug, “sorry about that. I suppose I could’ve let you know sooner, but I figured you’d be making the rounds soon enough.” He glanced down at the unconscious body. “I actually heard you were looking for him, so I tried to find him first.”
Right. Because he made a good bargaining chip indeed.
Who, you ask, was laying on the floor, looking quite worse for wear? Tony Torio himself.
Of course, Tony looked thinner than I remembered, probably
because Newton had him locked up somewhere and hardly fed, but that was more than alright with me. Lock him up in the dark where he could never escape for all I cared.
“I think,” I spoke after a while, “you and I can work something out, Newton.”
Newton gave me a smile that told me that was all he’d wanted, and I did not take my eyes off the still figure lying below.
“Pack him up,” I told Maddox and Sylvester. “I have something in mind for him.” My men were all too happy to drag Tony’s still frame out of the room, and now that I was alone with Newton, I gave him a grin. “I look forward to doing more business with you.”
“And I with you,” he said.
I pretended not to notice how intently he stared at me as I walked away, mostly because my brain was too focused on Tony and what I was about to do to him. The poor, unwitting fool had no idea what monster he’d let loose that night.
The industrial part of town was a favorite of mine. It was like stepping into another time, everything dirty and abandoned, unused for years. Not sure what they used to make in all these warehouses so close to the river, but I didn’t rightly care. There was no surveillance, thus it was one of the best places in town to get rid of your dirty laundry.
My dirty laundry? Tonight it was none other than Tony Torio.
I still couldn’t believe Newton had found him, kept him locked up for weeks, all hoping to use him to get my favor. Not gonna lie, it worked; I was beyond thrilled to have this motherfucker in my grasp. The vengeance I would wreak upon him would be hellish, to say the least.
Tony wouldn’t know what hit him.
The moon hung low in the sky, its silver sphere almost full tonight, illuminating everything in an eerie, ethereal glow. Since all the warehouses around us were abandoned and forgotten as time went on, there were no lights, no electricity, other than the beams of headlights from our vehicles.
Maddox and Sylvester stood behind me, Tony’s unconscious body laying before me. We stood in the yellow beams coming from our car while Viper and Mike went searching for some things I’d need to do this. Didn’t come prepared, you see. If I would’ve known Newton would have such a present for me, I would’ve had this planned out better.
Alas, we had to deal with him tonight, for I could not stand the thought of Tony living to see another day.
I stared at his still form, hatred boiling inside of me. With Bianca gone, all of my hatred had moved to this man, to what he’d done and how he’d thought he would get away with it. He wouldn’t. I would be his judge, his jury, and his executioner tonight.
The sound of the river coursing not far from us filled my ears, and I tore my gaze away to stare at it. The river didn’t cut through the city, but it did course around its lower edge, and it flowed away, taking the city’s pollution and filth with it. The concrete street between warehouses we were on dead-ended onto the river; right now, we were about ten feet above its rushing waters.
Drowning… must be a horrible fate, especially when there was nothing you could do to save yourself, and you knew it.
Viper came back with a metal bucket, and he set it down near his feet. The bucket was full of water, and hopefully it would be enough to wake the asshole up. I wanted him awake and alert, as much as he could be, while I finished him off.
“What’re you going to do with him?” Sylvester asked. He’d kept silent during the drive here, up until now. He dared not stop me, though, for if I did not make Tony pay for what he’d done, he would be more than glad to do it himself.
Same with Maddox, who folded his arms over his chest and scowled at the unconscious body. “Fuck him. I say we tie weights to his feet and toss him into the river, let the fish eat his corpse.”
That was not too dissimilar to the idea in my own head, however my plan did not involve weights of any kind.
“The fish will get their meal,” I whispered, “after I get my blood.” My mask sat on my chest, and I itched with the need to pull it up and put it on.
It was that moment when Mike returned, carrying a foot-long, rusted thing that might be called a blade if you used your imagination to its fullest. Whatever it was had been salvaged from the surrounding warehouses. No idea what it was originally, but it didn’t matter. It would serve its new purpose tonight.
“Will this work?” Mike asked, offering it to me. “It was all I could find.”
I nodded, taking it from him, feeling its weight in my hand. All I’d sent him to find was something sharp. This would most definitely do. “Untie him,” I said. “And wake his ass up.” As Mike went to untie the restraints on Tony’s wrists and ankles and Viper readied the bucket of water, I lifted my mask and hid the bottom half of my face.
When Mike was finished untying him, he took a step back, moving to stand near Maddox and Sylvester as Viper tossed the water onto his face. Tony didn’t jerk awake like people always did in the movies, and I assumed that was due to the fact that he’d had a terrible time these last few weeks. His body was weak. He might not even survive what I had in store for him, but that didn’t matter. He would pay regardless.
Tony groaned as he reached for his face, slow to sit up and wipe at the water around his eyes. It took him an unreasonable amount of time to realize he was no longer tied up, and then he took in the fact he was no longer locked away, wherever Newton had kept him.
And then he saw me.
“Lola,” Tony spoke, sounding utterly weak and pathetic. His hair, which was normally a light brown color, was so greasy it was black, uncombed and matted on the top of his head. The green hue in his eyes was clouded over, less clear than it usually was. He looked and sounded like absolute shit, and I grinned behind my mask.
Couldn’t help it. I liked seeing him this way. If there was one thing I was all about, it was the motherfuckers like him getting their comeuppance—and tonight, Tony would get more than he could handle.
“Tony,” I spoke, swinging the rusted blade around. “Do you know why you’re here?”
He gulped, his eyes roaming to the mini-army of testosterone behind me. He did not say a word, which was probably smart of him, for nothing he could say would make it any better for him.
I knelt before him, leaning on the rusted blade as I did so. The night air blew past us, caressing my face as I said, “Don’t know if you heard, but Bianca DeLuca’s dead. I killed her. Do you want to know how?”
Tony’s jaw tensed, and it was finally dawning on him that tonight was not his night.
“I dug my nails into her neck and tore her throat off,” I told him, laughing as I did so. “It was something else, trust me. I never knew something like that was possible. Did you?” I didn’t give him a chance to answer that time, standing as I swung the rusted blade at him, catching him on his cheek. He fell back, and then the bastard tried crawling away from me.
Yes, crawling, like an insect. But that’s because it’s exactly what he was: a worthless thing not fit to stain the underside of my heel.
“Hold him,” I ordered. “I want his hands.”
Mike and Viper went to grab him, dragging Tony back to me. He tried to struggle now, but he was far too weak. Even Mike, who was shot to hell weeks ago, was worlds stronger than Tony. Tony was bone-thin and weak as a newborn kitten. Viper and Mike were on either side of him, both men grabbing an arm and forcing his hands toward me, Tony’s face on the concrete pavement below.
“You know,” I started, “I’m trying not to take enjoyment out of this, but who am I kidding? I’m going to love sawing off your hands and throwing you out like trash, because that’s what you are, Tony. You’re trash. You’re nothing.” I knelt before him again, using my free hand to grab his face and tilt his neck up toward me. An odd angle that had to hurt, but I didn’t care. “Look at my face,” I instructed. “Memorize it. It’ll be the last thing you see.”
I said nothing more as I released him, setting the jagged edge of the long blade against the top of his left wrist, the one Viper was holding, and then I put all of m
y weight behind it. The blade cut into his flesh, blood squirting from the wound, and Tony screamed. He screamed like a frightened little fuck, and I kept going. I kept digging, kept cutting. I did not stop until I felt the rusted metal cleave through the bone in his wrist.
I could not wipe the smile from my face—not as if anyone saw it behind the mask—as I lifted the metal blade and grabbed Tony’s severed hand. Some of the skin on the bottom was still attached, but with a good pull on my part, the skin snapped apart like a taut rubber band.
After tossing the hand to Maddox, who caught it with a scowl, I got to work on the other one. Tony, meanwhile, had nearly passed out, a blubbering mess of pain. This hand I tossed to Sylvester. One for each of them. Made it even, at least.
I got to my feet, taking a step away from Tony’s still form. He was alive, but barely. The concrete beneath his wrists had pools of blood, the newly-spilled blood reflecting the moon’s light. “Bring him to the edge,” I said, moving toward the river myself.
As the guys dragged Tony, I heaved a sigh and tossed the rusted metal blade into the rushing water. Viper dropped Tony beside me, and I bent down, fingernails digging into his filthy, grimy shirt. Even though he could not hear me, I found myself whispering, “You never should’ve put your hands on me that night, Tony.” And then, saying nothing more, I pushed his body into the water, hearing it splash and watching it submerge immediately.
His body floated facedown, and for a few seconds, I watched him float away in the current.
And then I remembered: his hands.
“Oh, yeah,” I said, grabbing the hands from Maddox and Sylvester, “almost forgot these.” With a chuckle, I tossed them into the river after him.
I stood there, with Mike and Viper on my left, Maddox and Sylvester on my right, for a good long while, long after I could no longer see Tony’s body floating away, until everything blended into the darkness of the night. With Tony gone, with Bianca and my brother dealt with, it certainly was a new chapter, not only of this city, but of my life.
Violent Heart: A Dark Reverse Harem (A Death So Sweet Book 3) Page 25