Sweet Pain: A Dark Mafia Billionaire Romance (Amatucci Family Book 3)

by Sadie Jacks

  Ryker filled my plate with a small mountain of pasta and red meat sauce. I ripped apart my first of many pieces of garlic bread.

  We ate in happy conversation. Ribbing, joking, laughing, groans of playful disgust. These people were my happy place. My refuge. My solace. My anchor.

  Ryker took my free hand, threaded our fingers together. More than the others, this man was my joy. My shelter. My heart’s keeping. My tether.

  When I looked over at him, I saw the same joy reflected in his gaze that probably showed in mine. This family accepted both of us, exactly as we were. That Ryker had embraced this family as readily as I had blew my mind, healed my heart. Their acceptance of him soothed the jagged edges of my tattered soul.

  **

  I groaned. Between the bread and pasta overload, I was going to need to be wheeled to my bedroom. Or waddle. Even my yoga pants felt tight. “Stick a fork in me, I’m done.”

  Ryker chuckled under his breath as he flexed his fingers on my thigh. “I love you. I love your cooking. Tomorrow we eat salads and meat. No carbs.”

  Momma snorted. “Protein is for pansies.”

  Ryker didn’t rise to the bait. He was probably fighting off his own carb coma. Other than the quick ham sandwich we’d had for lunch, we’d really only had carbs today. I was feeling it, that was the freaking truth.

  The Amatucci siblings rose from the table. Like the well-oiled machine they truly were, they had the table cleared and the dishwasher loaded before Momma or Papa could direct them. I smiled as I watched the familiar circus.

  The New Trenadie mafia family cleared their own table, washed their own dishes. Cooked their own meals. They were a family in the truest sense of the word. I was just happy to be claimed by them.

  “Food is done. Now for business. Foster, you leave,” Momma said. She pointed a stern finger at the elevators.

  Foster’s mouth dropped open for a second. He looked at Ryker.

  Ryker shook his head. “I’m not the head of the family.” He jutted his chin back at Momma.

  I swear, my adopted mother had little birdies dancing in circles over her head as she looked at my man. She nodded. She looked back at Foster. “Si. You can stay on one condition.”

  “And that is?”

  “Take the oath. You can choose to remain outside what our Willow calls the ‘back of the house.’ But you will hear no family business without taking the oath. Decide.” She crossed her arms. “Now.”

  Foster looked at Tali.

  She was pointedly studying her wine glass. Her arms crossed over her belly. I saw the slight tension in her shoulders as she waited for Foster’s answer.

  It seemed I was going to have to corner my sister and pry the details out of her. And depending on her answers, Foster might or might not retain his kneecaps. I glared at the man.

  His upper lip curled when he looked at me.

  I crossed my arms, raised a single eyebrow.

  Momma slapped a hand on the table. “Now.”

  Foster turned back to our matriarch. “What is involved in this oath?”

  “Fight club rules,” Ryker said.

  Foster’s lips twitched. “I can handle that. If I break this oath?”

  Mas cleared his throat. “You will not live long enough to regret your decision long.”

  Foster nodded. “I’ll take it. Do I get to choose which areas of the back of the house I want to be in?”

  My eyes widened. Foster was either an idiot or very comfortable with his skills and personal integrity.

  “No. If you want back of the house, you join up like any other recruit. Depending on your skill set and some other factors, you would be allowed into select areas. But that is a discussion for another time,” Turo said calmly.

  Foster nodded. “I’m ready when you are, Mrs. Amatucci.”

  I nodded, glad he’d not assumed he could use her informal name for her. That would have been a breach I wouldn’t have stood for. I still wasn’t sure I liked the man. I would try, if Tali needed me to. But right now, the jury was still in deliberations.

  “You will need a drop of your blood,” Momma said.

  Tali rocked forward, one of Mas’ knives in her hand. “I’ll get it for you, Momma.”

  In a move that looked choreographed, Foster darted forward and had the knife out of Tali’s hand before she made it even halfway across the table. With his free hand, he gripped her hair. Held her head back at a sharp angle. “Hellcat, if I wanted you to draw my blood, I would have asked you to. Now sit down so I can join your family, please.”

  I held my breath, my eyes flicked between them like we were at a Wimbledon match. Holy cannoli crapoli. What the hell was going on?

  I took a quick peek at the Amatucci brothers. Turo and Nico had matching smirks on their faces. Rafe was busy drawing in the condensation on his glass.

  Mas though…Mas was standing at Tali’s shoulder. His focus was a living breathing thing on Foster. I felt the watchful poised menace of both men. One waited for a woman. The other on the man.

  It was Tali’s move.

  I saw her lips move, but couldn’t make out the words.

  Foster’s lips quirked the slightest degree. “You had your chance. Should have taken it then.”

  “Tali, just sit down. He’s taking the oath. Not asking to marry you,” Rafe drawled.

  Tali dropped her hold on Foster’s hand in her hair. “Fine.”

  Foster let go of her slowly. The power play was as obvious as the sun in the sky on a clear day.

  No wonder T’s pissed. She wasn’t used to men she couldn’t boss around or wind around her little finger. And since Foster wasn’t panting after her, I could only imagine what their time together had looked like.

  Tali dropped into her chair. Her cheeks were as red at Nik’s hair. I caught her gaze. Widened my eyes.

  She gave me our signal that we would talk about it later.

  I dipped my chin slightly. Gave her a smile and crazy eyes. It was our ‘we’ll kill the fucker’ look.

  Her lips twitched as the flush left her cheeks.

  Foster looked back at me.

  I gave him straight-face. Asshole was about to learn what it meant when he messed with my sister. I narrowed my eyes at him the longer he watched me.

  “Now, Foster. We do not have all night,” Momma said with a sigh.

  Foster turned back to Momma. Nodded. “Si, Madre.”

  Momma smiled. “Spill a drop of your blood. I, say your name…”

  He eased the edge of the knife into the pad of his thumb. “Io, Foster Cason Ambright,…”

  “By the blood of my body, do swear to take this oath to my grave.”

  Foster repeated her words immediately. In Italian. “Per il sangue del mio corpo, giuro di prestare questo giuramento alla mia tomba.”

  Asshole.

  Momma’s smile grew as she finished the oath. “I will not speak about family matters with outsiders. I will not betray any action or deed ordered by the Don. I will not betray a brother or sister. I will do nothing to endanger a brother or sister. If I break any of these rules, I accept the punishment. If someone dies because of my action, my life is forfeit.”

  Foster carried on like the kiss-ass he obviously was. “Non parlerò di questioni familiari con gli estranei. Non tradirò alcuna azione o atto ordinato dal Don. Non tradirò un fratello o una sorella. Non farò nulla per mettere in pericolo un fratello o una sorella. Se infrango una qualsiasi di queste regole, accetto la punizione. Se qualcuno muore a causa della mia azione, la mia vita è incamerata.”

  I looked at Tali, tipped my head in Foster’s direction.

  She rolled her eyes, nodded.

  Once Foster was done, Ryker sighed. “Fucking teacher’s pet.”

  Foster sent him a huge, blinding smile. “Just because you dropped out of Italian, doesn’t mean we all did.”

  Ryker flipped him off.

  Momma smiled as she sat down. “Ryker, the meeting is yours.”

  Ryker st
raightened in his chair. “I think I’ve figured out a way to take down the Chases.”

  Chapter 29 – Ryker

  “Nik has found proof of their involvement not only with de Silva, but also with supplying Errington with at least ten of his victims. Direct proof.”

  “Twenty-two. The collective finished. I just got the update,” Nik added.

  Ryker nodded. “Twenty-two.” I watched Willow for signs of upset or illness. When she did some deep breathing exercises, I felt pride well deep inside me. “Here’s my thought. According to the love of my life, Winslow and Beverly always make a huge deal out of the people they’ve helped with their foundation. A huge slideshow of self-congratulations and humble bragging.”

  Tali smiled. “You want to put the victims up there. Force them to see their faces again.”

  I nodded. “I want to not only put their faces up there, I want one of the women gathered here to read their names. Their birthdate, their death date. I want Jessa—if you’re up to it—to read aloud the cause of death. I want to shove it down these people’s throats that we see them for the monsters they are. That we have unmasked them. Spotlighted the blood on their hands.”

  I let that sink in.

  Nik licked her lips. “I am more than willing to help with the background stuff. But you know I’d butcher it if I had to get up in front of a huge group of people.” She looked at me, stark fear in her eyes.

  Willow came to the rescue. She leaned forward so she could look Nik in the face. “I’ll read their names. I saw their faces. Most of them anyway. I’ll read their names, that I can give them back. Give back what my creation donors stole from them.”

  “I’ll read their dates,” Tali offered.

  I smiled, nodded. “Perfect. The rest of the show goes to Nik.” I waved the attention to her.

  She glared at me. “At least we’re all family, right?” Her chuckle was a little nervous. “Let me get my computer.” She popped up from her seat and ran across the room to her gear bag. She was back and had it hooked to my TV with a whole presentation set up. She dimmed the lights and I saw her shoulders settle in the light of her laptop screen.

  “Bossman had me looking into the files that Ethan kept. Yes, I copied his drives as I was sending them to the DA’s office. Everyone keep your mouth shut about it.”

  I couldn’t be certain since the lights were low, but I was pretty sure Nik glared at each of us. Of the two, I was much more terrified of Momma.

  “Go on, cricket. You’re safe with us,” Turo called softly in the dim lighting.

  “Right. Within the Errington drives, I found out that the bad doctor was doing extensive dissection and DNA typing with his subjects. From what Willow has told us, I have no idea why. That’s for the medical brains to figure out. What I do know is that he did most of the work for us. He pinpointed the regions each of his subjects came from. He did full DNA assays on them as well.”

  I bit my tongue to keep from asking Jessa why the psychopath had done such a thing. Since the monster wasn’t alive anymore, it would all be speculation anyways. We didn’t have time for thought experiments.

  “So Ethan gave us his victims’ names,” Willow said. She made it a statement instead of a question.

  “Yes. He even went one step further. He was either a software genius on the side or he paid out the waz for it, but he was able to send out a bot into the first email he responded to back to de Silva. That bot replicated in the host server. Every time she sent an email that contained a series of keywords, Errington would get a copy of it.”

  My eyes widened. I hadn’t known that. Then again, I usually asked Nik to bottomline it for me. My tech skills were good, but hers were in the stratosphere.

  “So, not only did Ethan give us his victims’ names, he gave us all potential victims in de Silva’s organization?” Willow asked. Her voice was shaky.

  I reached out, grabbed her hand. It was trembling. I pulled her into my lap, curled around her.

  Nik hit a button on her computer. A solid click that sounded somehow triumphant. A world map showed. Pinpricks of light dotted the surface. The only place without a dot was the landmass of Antarctica. Most of the dots were in the Eastern Bloc countries, the US, Mexico, and large portions of Asian countries.

  “Clearly we have an epidemic on our hands. We also have two sociopaths who were trying to somehow outsmart each other and both ended up dead,” Nik said. “And we have one survivor who bested both of them.”

  Willow shrank against my chest, shook her head.

  “Can we link Winslow and Beverly to any of the other names?” Jessa asked, her voice damp.

  “Yes. I set up an algorithm to trace any travel, emails, vacations, business stops, or bank transactions between Winslow and Beverly and any of the dots on Errington’s map.” Nik hit another button.

  Willow jumped from my lap. Raced to the bedroom. I ran after her. “Keep going. We’ll be back.”

  I heard the retching as soon as I crossed the threshold of the bedroom. My heart broke for her. I knew too well the horror of living with a monster. Hers had been in the closet or under her bed for most of her life. Nik had just torn even the semblance of normality out from under her.

  I grabbed a wash rag. Ran it under cool water until it soaked. I wrung it out and moved to the toilet. Quiet sobs added to the symphony of pain that oozed from my girl.

  I got behind her, braced her up, and put the wash rag on the back of her neck. I held her until my knees went numb. Until her body sparked a slight fever.

  Turning my head to the side, I bellowed, “JESSA!”

  Willow shivered and quaked in my arms. I tried to hold her tighter. To still the shaking, to absorb the trembling.

  Jessa’s feet slapped across the bedroom floor. “What’s wrong?”

  “She feels really hot,” I said.

  Jessa got to her knees. Turned Willow’s face towards hers. “Oh, baby. It’s not your fault. None of this is.” She took the wash rag and pushed to her feet. She rinsed it out and wrung it out again before bringing it back to Willow.

  Jessa washed Willow’s face. “Does anything hurt?” Her quick smile was sad. “Other than your soft heart?”

  Willow jerked against me. “My belly.”

  Jessa chuckled dryly. “Well, you’ve lost your dinner. I can only imagine that it hurts. Lean back against Ryker for a minute. Let the blood drain back down where it’s supposed to be.”

  I tipped back onto my ass, thumped into the wall. I settled and pulled Willow back against my chest. Her head fit in the space between my neck and shoulder. Tears still tracked down her cheeks.

  “Do I have that in me?” she asked in a terrified whisper.

  I opened my mouth.

  “No,” Jessa said. Her voice was hard as granite, sharp as a scalpel. She grabbed Willow’s chin, tugged it down so my girl was forced to look in her eyes. “No. There is zero chance that you are like them. Their darkness honed you. Crafted you into a being of pure light and joy. Your asshole ex tempered you in the fires of hell so that when you could emerge, you would be unbreakable. Your light might dim and your soul might fracture, but you will never break. Not because of the darkness.” Jessa leaned forward, her gray eyes sparkled like silver. “Never doubt that you carry nothing of them inside you. If you start to waver in that belief, you come find me.” She smacked her lips to Willow’s.

  “Hey,” I pulled Willow back. Growled at Jessa. “Mine.”

  Both girls laughed.

  “Only because I don’t have a dick,” Jessa said.

  I snapped my jaws at her. “Even then…mine.”

  Jessa slid the wash rag over Willow’s cheeks again. “Tummy better?”

  Willow nodded. “I don’t feel like the top of my head is about to explode either.”

  Jessa smiled. “Good. Just too much blood being forced both up and down. Your body was trying to figure out where everything went.” She pushed to her feet. Reached down to help Willow up.

  “I’m g
oing to sit here for a bit,” Willow said. “If that’s okay.”

  Jessa smiled, nodded. “I’ll beat the crap out of anyone who says otherwise.” She turned and walked out of the bathroom. I heard her pull the bedroom door shut.

  Willow’s body slumped against mine.

  “You believe her, don’t you?” I asked.

  Willow shrugged. “I want to kill them, Ryker. Slice them up like Ethan did to all those girls. I want to cut off pieces of them and dance in the parts like it’s confetti. I want to shower in their blood while their screams provide the dance track.” She shook her head. “That’s not normal.”

  I snorted. “I think you might want to ask your other family members what they want to do to your parents. I would think you were in good company. Not the odd man out.”

  She tipped her head back. “What do you want to do to them?”

  I licked my lips. “I want to sell them to someone. I want to line up an eternity of monsters for them to be sold to. I want them to experience a lifetime of the horror they inflicted on others. And then when their voices are broken from begging for a mercy that never came, I want to skin them. Shove a pike up their ass and put them up as a warning to anyone else who thinks that human trafficking is a solid career choice.”

  She sighed and snuggled closer. “We’re kinda sick.”

  I nodded. Shrugged. “I’m okay with that, really.”

  She chuckled. “Me too. Thanks for being my sicko.” She turned, lifted her mouth.

  “For the rest of our days, cupcake.” I sealed the promise with my lips on hers.

  We sat there for a little while longer. My ass went numb, but, honestly, I didn’t care if my entire body went numb. I wasn’t moving until my girl was ready to face the horrors that waited for us in the other room.

  She sighed after a couple minutes. “I supposed we should get back out there. They are my creation donors, after all. They might need some insider information or creative ways to kill them. I can definitely help with the latter, that’s for damn sure.”

  I hugged her. “I’m in awe of you, Willow Koa Chase.” I pressed a kiss to her hair. “Jessa was right. Your light might dim and your soul may fracture, but baby, you don’t break.” I kinda wanted to be like her when I grew up.