Beautiful Carnage: A Dark Mafia Bully Romance (The Boys of Sinners Bay Book 1)

by Caroline Peckham

I dropped down onto the edge of my bed, wondering what would be worse. “The future,” I breathed. “What’s going to happen now?”

  “A wedding,” he said gravely. “Your father is already rearranging your marriage to Nicoli Vitoli this very weekend. He’ll be announcing it tomorrow.”

  I almost choked on that. I’d thought I had some time, but he wasn’t giving me any. It was as if my life had been put on pause, not like I’d been kidnapped. Father had no empathy at all. Now I was back, he just wanted to get his affairs in order.

  I nodded, letting that truth settle over my heart. “What else?”

  “He’s planning to kill the Romero brothers. He’s laying a trap, but he hasn’t yet shared the details of his plan with me. What I do know, is that their deaths will be prolonged and his victory over them will be spread all across Port Diavoli as a warning to the Romeros never to touch his family again.”

  Fear clutched my heart with razor sharp claws. I should have wanted the Romeros dead for what they’d done. But still, some part of me couldn’t bear the thought of them lying in graves. Least of all Rocco. He’d shattered my heart, but there was still some piece of it which yearned for him. Belonged to him.

  “Okay,” I said, trying to figure out what to do with that information.

  My stomach swirled and nausea made me wanna hurl. It felt like a lifetime since I’d eaten back at the Romero manor and I couldn’t imagine there was anything left in my stomach to come up.

  “And what about the past?” I asked, resting my hands on my knees.

  Royce stepped forward, lowering his tone, seeming anxious. “It is your father’s best kept secret. And it weighs on me every day…”

  “What is it?” I breathed, my pulse thundering in my ears.

  “The night your father went after Martello’s wife, he knew she would be at home alone with her son, Angelo.”

  I nodded, a knife driving into my chest at knowing how callous my father was.

  “He killed her in cold blood, then had us prepare to burn the place down. I wasn’t happy with the whole thing, it was the worst job I’ve ever done.” He shuddered, unable to meet my eye. “But if I went against your father, he’d do more than just hurt me. I have family he would go after.” He ran a hand over his hair and my heart went out to him. “There was a little boy screaming in his bedroom. I was ready to try and step in, to stop things before they went too far – I’d never hurt a child. But then Giuseppe ordered me to pick up the boy and take him to the car.”

  My eyes widened in confusion. “But I thought-”

  “We were vowed to secrecy,” he cut over me. “I kept him hidden. I took him out the back of the house to avoid the security cameras.”

  “But why?” I gasped.

  Royce bowed his head. “Your father was jealous of Martello having four sons when he could produce none himself.”

  My mouth parted and horror raced through me as I realised what he was saying.

  “His name was changed and he was kept away from society for years while Giuseppe brainwashed him, coming up with a story for him while making him forget who he was.”

  “No,” I breathed in disbelief.

  Royce nodded, his expression endlessly dark. “Yes, Sloan. Nicoli Vitoli is Angelo Romero.”

  I crept through the bushes to the west of Giuseppe Calabresi’s mansion stronghold under the cover of darkness. Then I waited.

  I had three things with me which belonged to Sloan Calabresi. Her dog. My heart. And the truth. I planned on leaving two of them for her tonight and carrying the other with me for the rest of my days, beating a sorrowful tune as it mourned the life we should have lived together.

  Coco remained quiet in my bag, the little beast seeming to know it was important we weren’t caught.

  I found a spot deep within the bushes with a clear view of the house and waited as I watched the windows. Lights switched on and off as people moved about inside.

  Two days without Sloan had only served to burn the blackened remains of my heart with a fire so fierce I knew it would never go out. But despite the fact that I wished for nothing more than to run to her now, to wait in her room and drag her back into my arms, I knew I couldn’t. If she’d wanted this life with me then she would have chosen it. So now she deserved to hear the words it would take to fix this mess. And though a selfish part of me hoped with every fibre of my fucked up being that she might just love me despite all my flaws, I wasn’t going to hold my breath. Fate had never shone so kindly on me as that.

  My heart skipped a beat as Sloan appeared standing in the window of the room to the far right of the house. She hugged her arms tight around her body and stared out over the sweeping, snow-covered lawn as if she was hunting for something. Or someone.

  Wishful thinking will only get you killed, stronzo.

  I watched her for several minutes, my heart pounding with the desperate ache to go to her. But I didn’t move. If she’d wanted a life with me then she would have stayed.

  She finally moved away from the window and I waited until the light went out, watching as another came on in the stairwell and keeping my eyes on the dining room where Giuseppe sat waiting for her to join him.

  The moment she entered the room, I moved.

  I hugged the shadows around the perimeter of the building until I made it as close as I was going to get without having to cross the snowy yard, then I shot a text to my brothers.

  Rocco:

  Now.

  Enzo:

  Are you sure about this?

  Rocco:

  Distract them or I’m going in while they’re all still here.

  Frankie:

  Calm the fuck down, fratello. We’re doing it now. Who knew being in love would make you even more psychotic??

  I frowned at that assessment. What the fuck would he know about it anyway? Frankie never saw a girl more than once. He didn’t do feelings with anyone outside the family. Which I was starting to think was a clever fucking way of being.

  I pushed my cellphone back into my pocket and looked at the building which housed my deepest desire and waited for the distraction they’d promised.

  The flare of headlights shone through the gates at the edge of the drive in the distance and the dull tune of the DHL delivery truck’s horn came just before it crashed into the gates with a tremendous boom.

  The guards all started yelling at once, pouring out of their hiding places and racing across the yard to the gates, expecting an attack. It wouldn’t look like that though, just an accidental crash with a driver who we’d paid off so damn well, I knew he’d never breathe a word of the truth.

  The moment they’d moved away from me, I darted out of the bushes and ran for the house. A window was open on the ground floor and I leapt up, heaving myself inside and blinking as I found myself in a gaudily decorated bathroom.

  I bypassed the gold shower and slipped out of the door into the corridor.

  The stairs sat to my right and I jogged towards them, thanking Giuseppe Calabresi for his bad taste in carpets as my footsteps were muffled by them as I moved.

  I made it upstairs and hurried to Sloan’s room, pressing the door closed behind me as I slipped inside.

  I gave my pounding heart a moment to calm as the scent of her enveloped me. She was sweeter than any sugar, more tempting than anything she might have whipped up for me in her kitchen.

  I moved to the window and drew the curtains across before flicking on the lamp on her nightstand.

  I pulled the bag from my shoulder and unzipped it, freeing Coco so that he could leap down onto her bed. He nuzzled into her pillows happily and I was more than a little tempted to join him.

  My heart ached at the idea of being so close to her and not waiting to see her face, to touch her skin, kiss her lips… Not that I had any reason to believe she would want any of those things from me anymore.

  I moved to her nightstand and pulled the letter from my pocket. I owed her this much. The truth.

  I placed th
e letter down on her bed and my gaze caught on another envelope sitting beside her lamp. This one was thick, embossed with the Calabresi crest and just begging for me to look inside.

  I picked it up and pulled out the contents, eyeing the elegant script with my heart melting into a vat of acid.

  Giuseppe Calabresi requests the honour of your presence

  at the marriage of his daughter

  Sloan Calabresi

  To

  Nicoli Vitoli

  This coming Saturday, the 13th

  I gripped the invite in my fist so hard that the thing crumpled up into a tight ball.

  My heart wasn’t just being melted in acid, it was being flayed, eaten by crows, cut into a million pieces and crushed in a vice so tight I couldn’t breathe.

  I dropped the destroyed invite and turned from the room, closing the door behind me with a snap so final it sounded like the world caving in.

  I didn’t bother to be quiet as I headed back down the stairs and into the bathroom. I didn’t bother to run as I strode away across the snow covered lawn outside the Calabresi manor. I didn’t care if they caught me and tortured me and killed me in the most agonising of ways, because it felt like I had nothing left anyway.

  But they didn’t do any of those things. And I just kept walking off into the night until the shadows swallowed me and all that was left was darkness.

  My father was barking orders at his men from the front door. The commotion at the gate turned out to be some DHL driver who’d skidded on a patch of ice. It sounded like he’d caused a lot of damage too. But Papa’s pockets were deep enough to have it fixed by tomorrow. He wouldn’t let the defences of his fortress stay down for long.

  A distant yapping made me frown and I stopped stirring the coffee sitting in front of me on the kitchen counter as I listened. Papa started shouting again and I assumed I’d imagined it, continuing to make my coffee.

  My mind had been knotted with a thousand thoughts since I’d spoken to Royce. I had no idea what to do now I knew who Nicoli really was. Royce had sworn me to secrecy, but how could I keep this from him? I’d want to know if my whole life had been taken from me. My father had murdered his mother and kidnapped him, twisted his mind and planted him in our lives. It was sick. I just needed to get some time alone with him, but how I was ever going to explain this?

  The yapping sounded again and I frowned, abandoning the coffee and heading out of the kitchen, jogging upstairs towards my room.

  My heart rate rocketed as I recognised Coco barking, certain I wasn’t imagining it. I threw the door open and Coco leapt off of the bed. I gasped, dropping to my knees and cuddling him to my chest in delight.

  “Oh my god, you’re here,” I gasped, then scooped him up and ran to the window, searching the dark grounds below for any sign of a Romero. Why would they bring him back to me? And how the hell did they get in here past the guards?

  My gaze slid to the gathered guards at the gate as they waved the truck driver off down the road. I realised it was no accident at all. This was planned.

  I swallowed the jagged lump in my throat, moving away from the window and rubbing Coco’s head. My heart pounded a mile a minute as I tried to figure out why they’d bring him back to me.

  Something caught my eye and I turned, spotting the wedding invite on the floor. It had been on my nightstand and from the crumpled looks of it, I guessed someone had screwed it up in their fist. My throat thickened as I realised it must have been Rocco who had come. But why would he care that I was getting married? Wasn’t it obvious?

  My eyes fell on a letter on the bed and my breathing hitched.

  “What’s going on?” Papa strode into the room and my heart lurched into my throat. I lunged for the letter, but he reached it first, scowling at the dog as he pieced together what had happened. “The fucking Romeros have been here?” he snarled, tearing open the letter and pulling out the folded sheaf of paper.

  “Papa,” I gasped, grabbing his arm to try and tear it from his fingers.

  He held it above my head like I was a tiny child reaching for candy then shoved me away so he could read it himself. He snorted derisively, letting it fall from his hand a moment later. “He thinks he can come into my home and hurt my daughter again, does he?” He marched from the room, slamming the door behind him and shouting for the guards to search the grounds.

  I bent down, picking up the letter with shaking fingers. I knew it was from Rocco, but now that the door was closed I could smell him here too. Pine and danger rolled around me and made my heart hurt.

  I dropped onto the bed, curling my knees up to my chest as I let my eyes fall to the page, unable to get enough oxygen into my lungs as I read it.

  To my sweetest hate,

  The reason I’m writing this to you, is because I can’t not write it. I hate you too much not to let you know it. I love that you are gone. Truly, I love the empty rooms, the silence, the lack of you at my side.

  I hated every moment I spent in your company but have loved each one I spent hurting you, breaking you, spilling your tears. I hate that your soul is a dark mirror of mine and I love that I will never spend another moment with you again.

  I have hated you so hard these past few days that it has split my heart open, making it bloody and raw. To love you would be my greatest weakness. To love you would be the worst thing any mortal could do and I would regret any moment I spent with that feeling.

  I will hate you forever until my body is nothing but bones.

  From your nightmare, your monster, your eternal hate,

  Rocco Romero

  I dragged in a shaky breath as tears fell from my eyes. I crushed the letter in my fist, anger rising in me and ripping at my heart.

  Coco nuzzled into me, licking my hand again and again. I couldn’t see through a blur of tears and I was furious at myself for letting them fall. Rocco was the nastiest man I knew, and I couldn’t believe I’d fallen for his tricks.

  “At least he spared you,” I whispered to Coco, hugging him close.

  I crumpled up the page and tossed it across the room into the trash can, falling back onto the bed to stare mutely at the ceiling.

  I was broken, empty and a bride-to-be. And part of me just wanted the world to stop turning.

  ***

  The next morning, Royce guided me out to the Bentley which was parked at the front of the house. I’d been given no information about where I was going and had the feeling my imprisonment was about to get a whole lot worse since I’d spoken out against my Father. I hadn’t even been given a phone yet.

  Royce opened the back door for me and I dropped into the car, frowning at him as he moved around to take the seat beside the driver.

  I’d asked Royce a hundred times where I was going, but if he had any idea, he hadn’t shown it. The driver pulled away, following directions on a satnav and I stared out of the window, figuring I was probably heading to a dress fitting for my wedding. I couldn’t exactly wear the last one seeing as it was in shreds in the Romero trash somewhere. That dress had cost nearly twenty thousand dollars. Hand-made, the hem stitched with diamonds. Did I give a shit? Not one bit. Good riddance. I hoped some lucky garbage man had found the diamonds.

  We headed deeper into Port Diavoli, queuing out towards the western docks before turning down a narrow street which was cast in the shadow of the Calabresi tower. My father owned it, the steel initials GC gleaming on top of it in the morning sun.

  I frowned as the car slowed outside Doctor Dariello’s private clinic and Royce hopped out to get my door. I stepped onto the pavement, unsure why we were here.

  “I’m not sick,” I stated.

  Royce took my arm, guiding me up to the glass door, his brow heavily creased.

  “What aren’t you saying?” I hissed under my breath.

  “It won’t take long, Miss Calabresi,” he said, which wasn’t nearly enough of an answer.

  We stepped into the waiting room which was white-walled with a polished receptionis
t sitting behind a crescent desk.

  “Good morning. Doctor Dariello is all ready for you, Miss Calabresi. If you’d like to go through.” She pointed to the door at the back of the room.

  “I’ll wait out here,” Royce said, giving me a taut smile.

  I swallowed thickly, moving to the door and pushing my way inside. I found myself in a clinical room with a hospital bed with raised stirrups on the end of it.

  I immediately froze as the doctor got to his feet. He was a tall guy, slim with thinning hair and piercing blue eyes. “Ah long time no see, Miss Calabresi, how are you today?”

  “Fine, doctor, what’s this about exactly?”

  “Oh, your father didn’t say?” he asked awkwardly, moving to the door and flipping the lock.

  My skin prickled as I stared at him. “No, he didn’t.”

  “Well as you’ve been through quite the trauma recently, he just asked that I make sure everything is all…in order.”

  “What is that supposed to mean?” I pressed, folding my arms.

  “If you’d like to move behind the screen and remove the bottom half of your clothes, we can get started. It won’t take long.”

  I ground my jaw as he didn’t answer my question, refusing to move.

  “Miss Calabresi,” he said in a serious tone. “I’m afraid this isn’t exactly optional. Your father was very insistent and if I fail to give him any results-”

  “And how is that my problem?” I demanded, a little shocked and a little proud of myself for challenging him.

  Dr Dariello’s face suddenly became stern. He might have been a doctor, but I knew enough about him to know he was dodgy as shit. He’d stitched up plenty of my father’s men off the record and I knew he wasn’t beyond taking bribes.

  “Look, my dear, your father will simply come down here if I don’t complete these tests. It’s nothing major, I promise you,” he said earnestly. “I’m just checking you’re in good health.”

  I tapped my foot, knowing my father would force me to do this if I didn’t agree. I knew what these so-called tests were about. He was checking whether his precious daughter’s virginity was still intact in time for her wedding. Like me being raped would be less important than that fact.