Bark For The Don Who’s Been Hunting Me For Ten Years Chapter 05
The whole hall goes dead silent. Like somebody sucked the air out of the room.
Cassian is staring at me. His eyes drag from the cut on my cheek down to the bloody word carved into my chest.
This is the man who runs New York. The man who makes grown Capos piss themselves.
And he’s shaking. Actually shaking.
He staggers forward one step. Then his knees give out.
They hit the marble hard enough to crack.
He’s kneeling. Right there in front of me.
His voice comes out wrecked. Bloody. Broken. Not even sounding like him.
He reaches up. Those hands. The ones covered in a hundred men’s blood. He tries to touch my face and stops half an inch away. Like he’s scared he’ll break me.
“Baby. Who did this. Who the fuck did this to you.”
His eyes are wet. Red. He’s about to lose it.
Valentina’s still living in her fantasy. She hasn’t caught up yet.
She trots over. Puts her hand on his arm all sweet.
“Cass, honey. You’ve got the wrong girl. This is just some fake they dumped on us. She’s nothing.”
Cassian’s on his feet before I can blink.
He kicks her square in the chest.
Something snaps. A rib. Maybe two. She flies backward like a rag doll.
Slams straight into a display case of antique porcelain. Priceless vases explode around her.
Shards go everywhere. Cutting up her face. Her scalp. Blood pours down into her eyes.
My father sees his billion dollars evaporating in real time. He crawls across the marble on his hands and knees. Grovels at Cassian’s feet like a beaten stray.
“Don De Luca! Mercy, please! If she’s upsetting you I’ll kill her myself right now! Just the billion. Please. If you would just—”
Cassian’s gun is against his forehead before he finishes the sentence.
Cassian’s eyes are pure red. The kind of look that means someone dies tonight.
His voice comes out of somewhere below hell.
“Kill her. Do you have any idea who she is.”
“She’s the only person in this world I’d take a bullet for. This life. Every life.”
My father twitches. Something wet spreads down the front of his pants. The smell of piss hits the air.
Camilla and Bianca collapse. They can’t even beg. Their throats aren’t working.
I close my eyes. The cut on my mouth pulls and I hiss through my teeth.
“Cass. If you don’t hurry up, I’m gonna die here in front of you.”
His head whips around.
The killer look drops off his face like it was never there. Replaced with pure panic.
He shoves the gun away. Rips off his suit jacket. Wraps it around me like I’m made of glass.
Gentle. So careful. Like I’m the last living thing in the world.
He scoops me up in his arms and heads for the stairs.
He walks right past Valentina. She’s writhing in her own blood, screaming for him. He doesn’t even glance at her.
His voice comes out cold. Colder than the marble.
“Get the pliers. Every tooth in her mouth. One at a time.”
Every guard in the room flinches.
Then Valentina’s screaming starts. Real screaming this time. Then the wet crack of iron on bone.
The dark room. Second floor.
No windows. No lights. Just candles.
Every wall covered in paintings of me.
The air smells like whiskey and sleeping pills. Ten years of it soaked into the walls.
Cassian lays me down on the bed. Soft as anything.
Then he grabs the first aid kit. And he drops to his knees again. Right there beside the bed.
His hands are shaking so hard he can’t hold the cotton steady. Tears keep falling onto the back of my hand. Hot enough to burn.
“Does it hurt. Baby. I’m sorry. I’m so fucking sorry.”
He’s cleaning my wounds and apologizing at the same time. Not even in order. Just falling out of him.
“I thought you were never coming back. I tore this whole city apart looking for you. I burned it down.”
I sigh. Reach out. Run my fingers through his hair.
That’s when he breaks.
He wraps both arms around my waist. Buries his face in my neck. And he sobs. Ugly, wrecked sobs that shake his whole body.
“Take my life. Take it. Just don’t leave me again. Please. I’ll be your dog. This life. The next one. Every one after that. Just don’t go.”
I don’t say anything. I’m listening to the sounds from downstairs.
Valentina’s screams are getting weaker. Now it’s just the sound of iron ripping teeth out. Wet. Slow.
I pat his shoulder.
“Leave Valentina alive.”
He nods against my neck. Doesn’t even ask why.
“Whatever you want. What about the Marchettis. I can chop them up right now. Feed them to the Rottweilers in pieces. Just say the word.”
I let a slow smile creep across my face. Cold.
“No. They wanted that billion dollars so bad, didn’t they. They wanted to be somebody in this city.”
“Wire them the money. Every cent. Let them climb all the way to the top.”
“Then I want them to watch. I want them to watch it all burn down. Every single thing they touched.”
Cassian looks up at me. Red-eyed. Wrecked. He nuzzles into my palm like a big, starving dog getting fed for the first time.