by Reilly, Cora
He inclined his head. “It will be brutal and bloody. You are free to watch on the screen.”
He turned and walked back to Danilo, followed by Dad. Samuel squeezed my shoulder. “If it’s too much, go sit there.” He pointed at a sofa behind the table with the screen. “You shouldn’t leave the building. I don’t want you outside without me or Dad.”
I nodded. Samuel released me and joined the other men. Slowly, I moved closer and when I reached the table, I caught sight of the screen. My breath caught in my throat. It showed Adamo in an empty room, bound to a chair, his head hanging down.
“Ready?” Dante asked. Danilo, Dad, and Samuel nodded. Dante turned to the man at the screen. “Are we live?”
“All set. The camera in the torture room is sending.”
“Good,” Dante said coldly. With a last glance at me, the men disappeared through a door. A few minutes later they appeared on the screen, entering the room. I sank down on the chair beside my father’s soldier, who gave me a quick curious glance. I could imagine what he thought, what they all thought. Since I had been kidnapped, I was only known as the woman Remo Falcone sullied. The broken one.
Samuel held something under Adamo’s nose so he jerked upright, eyes flying up in shock. He had changed since I’d last seen him. His face had become harder, older, and he had grown and become more muscular. He wasn’t wearing a shirt, and a few scars littered his chest but not nearly as many as Remo had. The distant resemblance to Remo sent a stab through my heart.
Adamo’s gaze wandered over my dad, Samuel, Danilo, and Dante, and for a second fear flashed across his face. Then he controlled his features.
Dante stepped forward, and the look on his face sent a chill down my spine. “Adamo Falcone. Welcome to Outfit territory.”
Adamo smiled bitterly. “I would have won the race if you hadn’t shot out my tires.”
My eyes grew wide. Provoking my family in a situation like that was madness.
Dante’s expression became harder. Samuel had already taken his knife out, and Danilo looked ready to plunge his dagger into Adamo as well. Only Dad remained back. He was a restrained man but his stance was off.
“You share the same arrogant disposition as your brother Remo, I see,” Dante said pleasantly. “It’s only fair that he gets to watch you pay for his sins.”
Adamo shook his head. “No matter what you do, Remo won’t care. Remo is crueler than all of you combined.”
Dante tilted his head. “We will see.” He took a knife from a table to the side and moved back toward Adamo, who tensed and leaned back. Dante reached down and cut Adamo’s right arm loose.
Confusion drew my brows together. Dante grabbed Adamo’s arm and turned it over, displaying the Camorra tattoo. “How long have you been a Made Man?”
“One year and four months,” Adamo muttered, glaring up at my uncle.
“You will be judged as a Made Man, not a boy, Adamo Falcone.”
Adamo grimaced. “I don’t give a shit about all this. Do what you have to do. It won’t change a thing.”
Dante stepped back and gestured at the other men. “Who wants to go first? You are the ones who are closer to Serafina.”
Adamo winced and looked at Samuel, who took a step forward. “I want to go first.”
Tears stung in my eyes. Please don’t, Sam.
Samuel moved toward Adamo and punched him hard. Adamo’s head fell back, blood spraying out of his nose as it broke. I rose slowly from my chair, ignoring the stare from the man beside me. Samuel brought his knife down on Adamo’s stomach and left a long cut. Adamo cried and lashed out with his free hand, but Samuel grabbed it and twisted the hand back, breaking it. I took a step back, my hand covering my mouth. I had never seen Samuel like this. I knew what he was, what they all were. This wasn’t right. I had to stop them somehow.
“See, Remo, your brother will bleed in your stead. We’ll tear him apart piece by piece for what you did to my sister. He will suffer for you,” Samuel snarled. In that moment, little of my twin was left. A Made Man, a monster. Just because I never saw his monstrous side didn’t mean Samuel was less of a monster than any other of the men in our world.
Dad pushed away from the wall, gripped Adamo’s free arm, and jerked it back with a sickening crunch. He had a look on his face I had never seen. Adamo’s screams blared through the speakers, and I began running.
Adamo didn’t deserve this. And with their actions, they would make everything worse because Remo would seek retribution. He would attack viciously, would maim and kill, would leave nothing in his wake, and whatever the outcome, I would lose someone I cared about. Either my family members or the father of my children.
I followed the screams to the last door and burst through it then froze as the smell of burning flesh filled my nose. Adamo was screaming as Danilo was holding a lighter to his forearm, burning away the Camorra tattoo.
“Enough!” I cried. I stormed forward and pushed him aside before either of them could grab me. Danilo’s eyes flashed with fury, and all the men stared at me. “Enough!” I screamed. “Enough!”
Adamo groaned and I turned to him, kneeling before him. Only a small part of his tattoo had been burned away, and the skin was blistered and red. I touched his shoulder and he flinched. “Adamo,” I whispered.
He raised his head a few inches, teary eyes meeting mine. A weak smile pulled at his lips. “Serafina.” How he could still sound friendly after what had been done to him was a mystery to me.
A shadow fell over me and I looked up. Samuel. “Fina, you should leave. He gets what he deserves.”
“He is a boy,” I said. “And he always treated me with kindness.”
“He is a Falcone,” Danilo said, stepping forward with the lighter still in his hand. His eyes were hard and merciless. “You were punished for something Outfit soldiers did. Adamo will pay for something his brother did.”
“I suffered for your sins,” I spat at them. “And he suffers for Remo’s. I’m sick of it. This ends here. Adamo won’t suffer any more pain under your hands.”
“That isn’t your call to make,” Dante said firmly.
I looked back at Adamo, who looked resigned and had begun shaking. A phone rang and Dante picked it up. “Remo.”
I jerked, my eyes widening.
REMO
Kiara was asleep with her head in Nino’s lap. It was early afternoon, so I didn’t understand how she could be tired. Maybe Nino kept her awake all night. I frowned then drew my gaze back to the screen where the race was playing out. The number of participants was staggering. They had to start from different spots, all the same distance from Kansas City, to divert the attention of the police. A few of them would be arrested like usual, but that was part of the game. Eventually the different routes would merge to one for the last 100 miles before the end.
Car racing brought in good money, but I didn’t really care for it. I preferred cage fighting.
Savio ate another bite of the cake Kiara had baked. “Do you think Adamo has a crush on that whore?”
“C.J.,” Nino said.
“Whatever. He’s been in the Sugar Trap an awful lot. They’re definitely fucking. And come on, he spent the night with her again. What is he doing with her? Cuddling? He can’t fuck her for hours. I’m surprised he gets one up at all. If he had to pay for her, he’d be broke by now.”
I shrugged. I didn’t care if Adamo fucked a whore or not. I’d never seen him talk to any of the other whores, though. It worried me, not to mention that it wasn’t the first night he’d spent with the whore at the Sugar Trap. Fucking her was okay, but spending so much time with her could definitely prove to be a problem.
“Trust Adamo to fall in love with a whore and be monogamous when she’s got about a dozen dicks up her pussy every day,” Savio said.
Nino made an impatient sound, obviously keen on watching the race in peace. One of the participants was currently being chased by three police cars. Bets if the fucker managed to escape or not wer
e probably burying us already.
“You don’t know what’s going on. Maybe he only enjoys her skills.”
Savio scoffed. “She’s not bad but there are better whores out there.”
“It’s not like he has many to compare her to,” I said, growing tired of the discussion.
“One of these days he’s going to bring her over here and keep her,” Savio said.
The perspective switched to another drone camera, and my brows drew together. It briefly showed a few burning cars, some of them black limousines. The others were race cars. Then it changed back to the police chase.
“What the fuck was that?”
The front door swung open with a bang, steps thundered toward us. Nino put an arm over Kiara and pulled his gun. I rose with my own gun raised. Fabiano stormed into the living room, panting. “The Outfit attacked our territory!”
I froze. Savio jerked to his feet.
“What?” I growled. If Dante had set a single foot on Vegas ground, I’d walk into Chicago tomorrow. Then another thought struck me. “The race.”
Fabiano nodded. “The organizer from the Kansas race called a few minutes ago. There was an attack on the race. I think he called me because he thought it would stop you from killing him.”
Tough luck. I’d deal with him once I was done with the Outfit. “How long ago did they attack?”
“About an hour ago. There’s chaos over there. But the race is going on with the remaining cars.”
“Why didn’t they alert us sooner?”
“They didn’t know what was going on at first. When they realized it was the Outfit, they tried to divert the other race cars first so they could keep the race going.”
Kiara stirred. “What’s wrong?”
I pulled my knife, shaking, furious that Dante had attacked again. Nino stood, pulling Kiara to her feet. “Go to our bedroom.”
She looked at me, eyes widening, then nodded quickly and hurried away.
My phone rang. I picked it up and brought it to my ear. “Remo,” said a man. The voice was distantly familiar, but I couldn’t place it. The background noise suggested he was in a helicopter or small airplane. “This is Danilo Mancini. I’m calling to tell you we have your brother and we’re going to enjoy his screams like you enjoyed Serafina’s. Tell Nino to set up a Darknet connection for later so you can watch as we tear him apart. I will enjoy slicing him into tiny pieces.” He hung up.
It took my brain a few moments to process the information. “Call the Sugar Trap and ask if Adamo’s there,” I ordered.
Fabiano frowned but did as he was told. “Is Adamo there?” he asked without a greeting. “Then ask her.”
“Remo, what’s going on?” Nino asked carefully.
My phone beeped with an incoming message with detailed instructions for the connection.
I held it out to Nino, who took it from me, frowning. His mouth tightened when he read what the message said.
“He’s not there. Apparently he left last night. C.J. said he asked her to pretend she was with him because he wanted to join the race.”
I nodded, trying to ignore the way my chest kept constricting.
Savio didn’t say anything, only stared at me. Fabiano had fixed himself a drink and downed it in one gulp.
Eventually Nino looked up from the phone. “We won’t be quick enough to save him.”
“There won’t be anything left of him to save when they’re done with him,” I got out, fury and a weaker emotion burning through my veins. Why couldn’t the kid have listened for once? Fuck it.
“Call Grigory. Tell him he can have Kansas if he attacks the Outfit.”
Nino nodded, and pressed the phone back to his ear as he walked back and forth in the room.
Savio ran a hand through his hair. “Fuck. We have to do something.”
From the words I caught, Grigory had no intention of getting involved. I flung my knife at the heavy bag. “Fuck!” I snarled before Nino had uttered a single word.
“He says this isn’t his fight.”
“Bastard,” Fabiano muttered.
“I will soon make it his fucking fight. For this, I will declare war on him and the fucking Bratva in Outfit territory.”
“Do you want me to set up the connection?” Nino asked quietly.
“Of course,” I growled. “If Adamo has to suffer, we will watch. We will suffer with him. Fuck it all!”
Nino didn’t move for a moment. Then he nodded slowly.
“We need to figure out where they are taking him,” I told Fabiano. He knew the Outfit better than any of us.
“I assume honor dictates that they take him to Minneapolis because that’s where her family lives. She wasn’t married to Danilo yet or they would have taken Adamo to his city to dish out punishment there,” he said.
It would take us at least three hours to reach Minneapolis and probably several more hours to figure out where they kept Adamo. The Darknet connection would begin in fifty minutes. I took my phone again and dialed Dante’s number. He rejected the call.
“Fuck him,” I rasped. “Call our pilot. The plane better be ready in twenty minutes or I’ll kill him.”
Nino made the call and we set out toward the airport. Fabiano stayed with Kiara, whom he was taking to a safe house with Leona. I’d alerted every fucking soldier in Las Vegas to be vigilant.
The plane was ready on time, and we started almost immediately. I tried to call Dante again, but he didn’t pick up.
“It’s his game this time,” Nino murmured after a while.
Savio had his face buried in his hands.
“It is,” I agreed. “And he’ll win.”
Nino raised his eyebrows.
“I’ll allow him to put me checkmate.”
“Remo,” he began, but I smiled grimly and indicated the laptop. “It’s time to turn this on.”
I pressed the blade against my palm when Adamo appeared on the screen. He was slumped forward on a chair.
When they started cutting him, Adamo’s scream filled the airplane, blaring from the speakers mercilessly, and fuck, they were the first screams in forever that got under my skin. The first since her screams. I cut into my palm, deep, drawing blood. Savio gripped the armrest of the seat, his arms shaking. Nino was behind me, one hand digging into my shoulder.
Danilo was next and took out a lighter. I jumped to my feet, shaking with rage ... so much rage, it threatened to rip me apart. Adamo’s eyes widened. Fuck, he was a kid. He wasn’t like us. This was supposed to be me. I was supposed to burn for them.
Danilo touched the flame to Adamo’s skin, and his screams got louder. I reached for my phone again, knowing that Dante would reject my call like before and hating this fucking sense of helplessness. I was supposed to burn for them, for him, and I would.
“Enough!” a female voice rang out, and my eyes snapped back to the screen as Serafina threw herself in front of my brother, protecting him. I froze, unable to trust my eyes, to believe that the woman who haunted my nights was really in front of me.
Nino and Savio stared at me, as if they waited for me to lose my shit completely.
“Fuck,” Savio murmured, shaking his head.
She hadn’t returned to me like I’d thought she would.
She hated me more than I’d expected, and yet she protected Adamo. Because he wasn’t the one she wanted to see suffer. She wanted to see me bleed. She would get her wish.
“Remo?” Nino said in a cautious voice.
I raised the phone to my ear, waiting for the inevitable, but this time it didn’t come. He finally answered my call. “Dante, I’ll give you what you really want. Tomorrow morning I’ll be in Minneapolis and exchange myself for Adamo.” He didn’t need to know we were already on our way, but maybe he did.
“Remo,” he said coolly. His eyes focused on the camera for a moment before the screen turned black and Serafina and my brother disappeared from view.
“It’s me you want to see burn, not my brother, and you w
ill get your chance.”
“Tomorrow morning, at eight. If you’re late, your brother won’t be recognizable as your brother anymore, understood?”
“Understood.”
“I’ll have someone send you the details, Remo. I’m looking forward to meeting you again,” he said coldly.
I hung up.
“They will kill you, Remo,” Savio said.
“They will cut me, skin me, burn me, cut off my dick, and then maybe they’ll kill me,” I said quietly. And all I could wonder was if Serafina would watch them do it.
CHAPTER 26
SERAFINA
They allowed me to stay with Adamo, and I crouched at his feet, feeling sick to my stomach from what I’d witnessed and even worse thinking about what was to come.
“Remo will exchange himself for you,” I whispered. “Tomorrow, you will be back in Vegas, and Nino will treat your wounds.”
Adamo tilted his head, dark eyes bleak. “Remo is Capo. He won’t die because I’ve been stupid enough to get myself captured. I’ve been a disappointment to him since I was born. He will use this chance and kill Dante instead of handing himself over.”
I lifted soaked fabric from his burn, and he groaned deeply. His wrist and nose were broken and his shoulder dislocated. He must have been in horrible pain, and there was nothing I could do to help him. Playing the guilt card forced my family give me this small freedom. It didn’t convince them to call a doctor though. They would have probably kept torturing Adamo if I hadn’t refused to move away from his side.
“You’re wrong, Adamo. Remo will protect you. He doesn’t fear death or pain. He will take your place because you are his brother and he cares for you. He’d do anything for you.”
Adamo let out a choked laugh. “Why do you speak about him as if you don’t hate him? He kidnapped you. He ruined your life.”
