Bark For The Don Who’s Been Hunting Me For Ten Years Chapter 06
The Marchettis get thrown out of the estate like three bags of garbage.
Bianca. Camilla. My father. The guards drag them across the driveway and dump them out in the freezing rain.
Before they can even process losing the billion, another body comes flying out after them.
A red blur. Bloody. Twitching.
Valentina.
Her face is swollen up like a bruised piece of meat. Every tooth in her mouth is gone. Just gone. Blood and drool running down her chin in one long string.
She’s dragging herself across the wet gravel. The sound coming out of her throat isn’t even human anymore. Just wet, whistling screams through empty gums.
My father scrambles back from her. The piss stain on his pants is still wet from earlier. Now the smell hits again.
Valentina claws at his pant leg. Her tongue barely works. But she gets the words out.
“That bitch. She’s her. The girl the Don’s been tearing this city apart for. She’s the real one.”
My father’s eyes roll back. He almost blacks out right there.
Camilla starts screaming. High and cracked.
Bianca just stands there. White as the wall. Shaking.
Because ten years ago, it was her. She’s the one who watched me get dragged off by kidnappers and ran. She’s the one who lied to save her own skin.
If I’m really the girl he’s been hunting for ten years. If I’m really her.
Then the Marchetti family is dead.
They pile into the SUV and race back to the family estate in the dark. Locking every door. Waiting to die.
Then the miracle happens.
Next morning. Cassian’s personal assistant makes the call. Voice polite. Ice cold underneath.
“Mr. Marchetti. The Don is very pleased with your delivery.”
“One billion. Wired to the Marchetti Group’s corporate account. Please confirm receipt.”
Ding.
The notification lights up my father’s phone.
Zeros. So many zeros they blur together.
The man who was writing his own suicide note ten minutes ago is suddenly on his feet. Laughing like a lunatic. Punching the air.
“A billion! A fucking billion!”
The fear evaporates in seconds. Greed rushes right back in and sets up shop.
Camilla’s face does a full flip. Smug little smile back on.
“See? I told you. That little bitch knew exactly what to do. She fucked her way straight into his bed. Easy.”
Bianca’s fingernails snap off in her palm. Something ugly moves behind her eyes. She leans in close to my father’s ear.
“Daddy. If Sera’s his kept woman now, she’s not gonna give a shit about us anymore.”
“We should move fast. Transfer the company assets into my name while she’s still locked up in his bed.”
My father nods. Already picturing himself drinking with the heads of the Five Families.
He pulls out his phone. Fires off a group text to every relative he has. Fingers flying.
“Listen up, everyone. Anybody’s got problems in this city, you come to me now.”
“My daughter Serafina? She’s Cassian De Luca’s woman. The Marchetti name is about to be back on top.”
Meanwhile.
Top floor of the De Luca estate. Master suite.
Something’s happening in this room that would send every Don in New York into cardiac arrest.
Sunlight spilling across the Persian rug.
I’m stretched out on the velvet couch, playing with the phone. My father’s group text is still lighting up my screen. Him bragging to the whole family.
And down at my feet.
The Don everybody in New York shits themselves over. The man they call the Butcher of the Five Boroughs.
Cassian De Luca is on one knee. Head bowed. Like a foot soldier at his boss’s feet.
He’s holding my right foot in both hands. Sliding a diamond-crusted heel onto it. Like it’s made of glass. Like I’m made of glass.
He doesn’t get up when he’s done. He rests his cheek against my knee. Nose pressed into my thigh. Breathing me in like a starving dog.
“Baby. Your family’s fat and happy now. Say the word and I’ll bury them tonight.”
The group text is still going. My father’s still bragging.
I let a smile curl across my lips. Doesn’t reach my eyes.
“The higher you climb. The more it hurts when you fall.”
“Give them three more days.”
“Three days. Then I want to watch them fall out of the sky. All the way down to hell.”