Page 3 of A Madness of Crows

My eyes close as the images crash in. We have lost too much tonight. All of us. So many.

My father is dead.

Frank V’Arezzo is dead.

Paul Morelli is dead.

AndBea– Pepe—

I can’t think about them. Not yet. So I take a breath, hearing the telltale snick of a photo being taken.

What?

My eyes open as I glance at Salvatore. He’s typing, a small smile on his face. “It’s a deal, then?”

He ignores me, waiting until he’s finished sending before he turns to me. And I stare at the phone screen he holds out.

Any hope I had… it fades.

The photo – ofme– tied and disheveled, sits just above the short message. He sent a message to Gio. But not the one I bargained for.

Do as you’re told, Fusco. Or the next photo will be the result.

“Luciano Morelli will die tonight,” Salvatore murmurs the words as I keep staring at that screen, willing the message to change to something else. “The Morelli line is finished, the assets to be split between the Corvo and Asante coffers. The Cosa Nostra has a new leader. A new era to face. And Fusco and V’Arezzo will doexactlyas they’re told.”

His thumb rubs across my cheek. “Or you’re the one who will pay the price.”

Frigid, icy anger and pain curls inside my stomach – guilt and horror andgrief.

Luc will die on that highway. If he isn’t dead already.

Salvatore’s thumb brushes a little too close to my mouth, and his roar of pain fills the car as I sink my teeth into it, biting down in the hope that he loses the fucking digit as blood fills my mouth.

He rips it free with a bellow, and I spit the blood directly into his face, relishing in the fury there as drops hit his face like the bullets I wish they were.

“Take a look in the mirror,” I snarl. “There will be plenty more blood when I am finished with you, Asante.”

I’m going to kill him. At the earliest opportunity, I’m going to watch the light fade from his eyes as my own damn favor to the rest of the world.

For everyone he has taken from me, I will make him pay.

Salvatore Asante is a dead man walking.

His laugh grates on my nerves as he pulls a handkerchief from his pocket, wiping across his face and wrapping it around his thumb to stop the bleeding. “Breaking you will be my new favorite activity, wife.”

He relishes that word, spits it like the punishment it is. “And you seem to have forgotten something, Caterina.”

I have not forgotten. Hoped that he had, that she would be left untouched from this at least, until Dante can find her.

They will find her. I have to believe in that, at least.

Find her.

“I will haveyourobedience,” he emphasizes every word, every bit of poison that comes from his thin lips. “Or your daughter will pay the price. There is nothing else to discuss, unless you wish to know exactly how many bones there are to break. A surprising number, for such a small,fragilebody.”

If I was standing, my knees would give out. As it is, my body sags against the floor, and Salvatore makes a satisfied noise. “I’m glad that we understand each other.”

How neatly the trap was set. And we walked right into it.