Page 96 of Die for You

“Gianna Ricci.”

It seems tonight wasn’t enough of an insult.

“She’s holding a charity ball to raise funds for Saint Maria’s Orphanage.”

“You’ve got to be shitting me. That woman doesn’t have a charitable bone in her body.”

“Gives us an excuse to dress up and fuck shit up.”

“Since when do we need an excuse?”

She chuckles lightly.

No matter how angry we are at one another, carnage always lightens the mood.

“Lucky we have Valentina’s lover as collateral because this ball is merely a ruse to lure us in like prey. She has home ground advantage. But we have the manpower, and now, we have something that’s precious to Valentina.”

I flinch at her choice of words; words she chose with intent to remind me that Valentina belongs to another now. Little does Bria know, Valentina doesn’t belong to anyone…and she never has.

So, it appears that D-Day has finally arrived.

The final showdown lingers, and honestly, I don’t know who will win.

ONE WEEK LATER

“Will I find a mommy and daddy?” Elena asks as I tie the elastic around the end of her pigtail.

She’s in a light blue pleated dress. Her white socks are pulled high. Her black shoes polished bright. She looks like a cherub you’d see on any chapel ceiling. Although she looks adorable, it sickens me that Gianna has chosen the “pretty ones” to support her bogus sham when she’s not doing this for anyone other than herself.

Ten children are dressed in their Sunday best. Gianna plans on showcasing them off to her guests in hopes they believe her bullshit and give her their money. They believe this money will go toward the orphanage, but it’ll be pocketed by Gianna.

She grows more powerful each day. I assume the new faces I see are men who have jumped ship, getting wind of Gianna’s flourishing reign. These men were once loyal to Lenny, but in this world, loyalty is a thing of the past.

Only greed remains.

“Valentina?” Elena prompts, alerting me to the fact that I need to get my head back in the game.

Tonight, Gianna dies.

As does Bria.

I have a plan, one which Lenny will not like.

But it seems easy enough—I hand over Bria. I get Lettie back.

I’m giving Gianna the benefit of the doubt, not that she deserves it. If I’m wrong, then I’ll wear it. But I don’t think I am, and the reason is that she loves playing the martyr. She sees a good deed as just another thing to hold against me, and why I should be at her beck and call.

Lettie is the ultimate thing to hold over my head if I ever dared question her authority.

But she has misjudged me if she believes I’m going to roll over and be her little bitch a second longer. The moment I have Lettie, I’m going to slaughter Gianna in front of her peers, but not before revealing what a monster she truly is.

And I have Francesco to back me up.

He has come through for me in more ways than one. I’ll never call him Father, but he’s all the family I have. God forbid if something ever happened to us, he’s all the family Lettie has.

This may seem like a family spat, but when I reveal the Riccis’ dirty little secrets, killing Gianna will be a mercy.

But I don’t intend to show any compassion toward someone who does not deserve a lick of it. Instead, I will deliver back to her every ounce of pain I suffered because of her.