Page 34 of Fixate (Devious Mafia Daddies #2)

Pip

As I waited for Pharrell to come down to the torture room, I watched the guy across from me. He’s been a sniveling mess since I ripped the molar he’d been planning to off himself with. Apparently, they trained the men in the easy way out rather than how to withstand a beating.

It was going to be fun to watch him break.

From the way the boss sounded earlier, he was going to have a real good time with this one. I would have loved to participate too, but I was more than happy to watch after having done all the leg work to track him down.

Granted, I hadn’t worked alone.

Henri had helped me out with a few aspects that required some digital digging. I could work a computer, but I didn’t have near the skill he did. The only person I knew who might have been better was across the country and working for NightShade.

“You shouldn’t have done it,” I sing-songed to him when another hour passed without any sign of Pharrell showing up. “Now we’re both stuck in limbo since Boss is going to have all the fun with you.”

He shook his head. “Stop!”

“No can do, kid. I’ve got all the time in the world. You were my big project and keeping you is all I have planned for the next stretch.”

I took out my knife sharpener. The block was a favorite of mine because it made my blades so precise I barely had to touch someone to slice through their fragile skin.

There was nothing like the first line on unmarred flesh. It was a drug I’d been long addicted to.

“Pip!”

I whipped my head up at the sound of the voice. A smile stretched across my face as Henri came storming into the room.

“Yes, Henny?”

He bristled at the nickname I’d given him ages ago. It was close enough to another name I wanted to call him.

Besides, it always riled him up, which was a favorite game of mine to play.

“I’ve told you to stop calling me that a million times. What is going on in here? Why did Pharrell text me to meet here?”

Leaning back in my chair, I ignored the blade I’d been enjoying before to focus on the man standing in front of me.

For all his bravado, I saw the slight twitch in his jaw and the flex of his fists.

There was an unmistakable tremor in his stance too, as if he were faking a brave face when really he didn’t want to be here at all.

“What’s wrong, Henny? Didn’t want to come join in on the fun?”

He shook his head. The movement must have reminded him we weren’t alone. His gaze went to the prisoner I had strapped and waiting for Pharrell.

“Is he…?”

“The one who planted the bomb and stabbed Ricardo? Yeah, he is.”

“Fuck,” he grunted softly.

I smiled at the slip up. Henny worked hard to keep himself all put together, sort of like a mini boss. Yet I knew under all the fine clothing and slicked back hair there was a ruthless killer. He was just on a very, very short leash.

What a fucking waste.

Burying our natural instincts only led to problems down the road. It’s that thing people called… damn, what was it?

Oh, yeah.

Going postal.

That’s what happened when people blew up after keeping feelings buried for far too long.

Henny was definitely going to wind up on a most wanted list if he kept this up. No matter how much I tried to get him to let loose, he wouldn’t listen. Pharrell was the only one who got to boss him around. Everyone else was merely a bystander.

Before I could tell him more about what I knew of our guy, the boss and his boy walked in. Ricardo looked pretty good considering he’d been stabbed so recently. Having taken a knife to the gut myself, I knew that area was a bitch to get over.

“Heyyyyy Boss! Look what I brought you.” I nodded. “You too, Ricardo.”

“He’s not touching him.” Pharrell’s bitter tone made the man beside him smile.

They made their way over to where Henny and I stood. Ricardo put his hands in his pockets. I had a feeling it was probably more to keep himself in check rather than to adopt some type of lazy stance like others might have with such a move.

“Pip. Henri.” He dipped his head our way before turning to the guy. His easy smile turned down. “That’s definitely the guy. I remember looking into his eyes when he stabbed me.”

The boss let out a snarl as he turned to face the man as well. In a flash of movement, he swiped my knife and rushed the man. He slid the blade under his chin, lifting his head with a slow movement.

“Who. Sent. You?”

Each word was deep and demanding. I could tell he was seconds away from ending this too soon.

“Boss,” I called out carefully. His eyes met mine. “He needs to suffer, right? Give him the same treatment?”

I watched the fire drain from his gaze. He’d pulled himself back into a reasonable mindset.

The knife left the man’s chin, dropping with the fall of Pharrell’s arm. He shook his head slowly, then dropped to his haunches.

“Let’s try this again. Why did you stab him? Were you working for someone? Tell me now and we can end this easily.”

The man choked out a laugh. “There’s no easy here. You’re going to hurt me no matter what.”

“Actually, it can be easy. Would you like me to explain?”

I watched as the man thought over his options. Pharrell had adopted a gentler tone, as if he could soothe the man by keeping calm for a few more minutes.

It was an illusion. I knew it wouldn’t be long before the room was running red with blood. There was no fast or quick exit for the person who’d hurt Ricardo.

Maybe the man wanted to believe enough to hope he’d be wrong because he started talking a few seconds later. With each word he spoke, he further dug the hole he’d never be able to climb out of.

“There wasn’t anyone I was working with. Not directly anyway. I had some help from a former Bratva guy, but he’s too old to really be family anymore so he’s not official.

“And all he did was tell me where to buy the parts for the bomb. I looked up all the other stuff. It’s easy enough to get all the details I needed.”

I sighed as I stepped closer. “So, you got a bomb together and decided targeting one of the most powerful men in the city was a good idea?”

“It wasn’t because he was powerful. It’s because of what he did.”

As if by magic, the facade of a weak man faded away. He sneered at Pharrell, all arrogance and anger. He would have attacked the boss had he not been strapped down thanks to yours truly.

“You took her from me,” he said slowly. “And I planned to take everything from you.”

Pharrell’s knees hit the concrete. “This is about Stasia? Even from the grave the bitch haunts me.”

“DON’T CALL HER THAT!!”

“Then what should I call the woman who has ruined my life? She betrayed me, tried to have me killed, and apparently enticed a number of men into her bed — one of whom thought he could seek vengeance on her behalf.”

When the boss finished speaking, the other man shook with a barely restrained sort of rage. It amused me to no end. He had zero self-preservation skills.

Not that they would have helped.

“She was an angel. Beautiful and kind. Loving. She deserved to be free of you. That marriage was a prison for her. We were going to be happy together.” His voice caught at the end. I would have felt sorry for him if it weren’t for how delusional he was.

Pharrell must have felt the same way. He shook his head as he pulled out his phone.

I watched him dial a number, then the sound of gunshots rang through the room. One look at Ricardo and Henny told me they were as clueless as me about the plan of attack here.

A set of voices I recognized as Dante and Preacher spoke on the recording.

They were talking about the plan against Domenico Romano, Dante’s father and the former leader of La Famiglia .

As the audio continued, Domenico himself joined in the chat, and then Stasia.

I’d have recognized her voice anywhere, but it was the obvious surprise from everyone on the line that made it clear who she was.

With every word she spoke, the man’s passionate anger faded away. You could clearly hear the sound of kissing and promises of forever between Stasia and Domenico.

Pharrell cut it off before things reached the point where Stasia was shot. “Do you want more proof of her lies? Maybe the video recording as well? I can get it if you want, though I don’t think seeing her all over a man nearly three times her age will help you any.”

“No. No. No. She couldn’t… she wouldn’t. She promised me — ”

“It doesn’t matter what she promised you. I stood at an altar with her and vowed to love her until the end of our lives. We took an oath of an alliance between our families, yet she went back on her word the first chance she got. Nothing you had with her was ever real.”

With that blow, the man lost it. He thrashed and cried, screaming with every fiber of his being. It was like an exorcism of his emotions.

“What now, Boss?” I asked when there seemed to be no end in sight.

He shook his head as he stood. Turning to Ricardo, he held out the knife. “It’s your choice, mon chou. We can make it quick, or I can do as I intended when we came down here.”

Ricardo’s gaze raked over the man. He watched him closely for a minute or so before shaking his head.

“You’ve already destroyed his life. There’s nothing left that will hurt him as much. End it, Daddy.”

Henny made a coughing noise behind me, which made me grin. Had he not picked up on how kinky those two were yet? Or was it that they didn’t seem to care that we were around as well?

Maybe he was curious himself?

Wouldn’t that be a major plot twist?

I cleared my throat, stealing the pair’s attention. Holding out my hand, I motioned for the knife. “Why don’t you let me take care of this, Boss? You two can head back upstairs to rest.”

Pharrell frowned. “You’ll make it quick?”

“If that’s what you truly want, then yes. I’ll even handle clean up,” I said with a smirk.

The guy was still too far gone in his anguish to hear us discussing him so casually. Probably a good thing. We were going to give him peace, despite the fact that he should have been fileted for his fuck ups.

Boss gave me a nod as he turned Ricardo toward the door. Soon enough they were gone, leaving me and Henny behind with our prisoner.

“You’re going to make it quick like you promised?”

Something in Henny’s voice drew my gaze. He was staring at the other man, a look in his eyes I didn’t like.

“I said I would, so I will. You can leave. I’ve handled more than one project alone.”

He shook his head and went to grab the plastic roll from the side of the room. “I’ll help you with the prep and cleanup. I have no desire to do whatever you have planned.”

“Nothing too messy really. Can’t help a bit of blood, but we’ll be done in no time.”

Henny helped me lay out the sheeting, then he even went so far as to dragging it under the chair when I moved the guy around enough to position it just right.

When it was all ready, he stepped to the side and crossed his arms. “Go ahead,” he said.

I raised my brow. Was he going to watch like some kind of supervisor?

The idea was laughable.

Still, I wouldn’t turn away the chance to have his eyes on me.

With everything in place, I walked around the guy and gripped the top of his head. Tugging back quickly, I positioned my knife at his throat.

“Rot in pieces,” I said calmly as I slid from one side to another, tearing through the skin with ease. My eyes connected with Henny’s and a part of me wondered what he saw when he watched me work.

Was I a monster?

Could I be his monster?