Page 37 of Massimo (Santoro Mafia #3)
Chapter 37
Massimo
The scent of blood and other less pleasant body fluids overpowers my nose when I enter the basement of hell that Vito calls his playroom.
As I walk into the open space with a man hanging from his wrists wrapped in chains, Vito looks over his shoulder at me with an unhinged grin. He's shirtless and blood covers his chiseled, scarred torso and arms. "Welcome home, brother."
"Are you sure you should exert yourself, Vito? Wouldn't want you to rip your balls open."
His blue-green eyes crinkle as he laughs. "Still making jokes, you grumpy motherfucker." Then he shrugs. "Raf and Mario have been doing all the heavy lifting. My balls are good."
He fists a pair of brass knuckles and swings, slamming his powerful punch into the jaw of the dead man walking—well, dead man hanging. The guy's head snaps back with a groan as he swings on the chains. Raf stands behind the guy and kicks out his foot to push him back to Vito, who launches another punishing fist, this time right between the guy's eyes.
Blood gushes, followed by his howls of pain, as the brass knuckles split his forehead wide open. "F-f… fuck…you."
I unbutton my suit jacket, stalking closer. "Has he spilled his guts yet?"
"Nah, Mass." Raf eyes me with a smile. "That's your specialty. "
I do like to rip the entrails of my enemy out with my bare hands. Like Nova has heard, my monster reputation in the underworld is alive and well.
Rage ripples through me. I know this motherfucker is here on the orders of his boss—you follow orders or you meet a bullet, that's how our world works—but I don't give a shit that he's just a minion doing as he's been directed to. I have no mercy for him. Because he's playing a role in trying to take Nova away from me.
Not. Going. To fucking happen.
The guy lifts his head, blinking, trying to see through the blood coating his vision. I see the moment the recognition hits. His eyes widen in panic as I shrug out of my jacket. My intention is clear that I'm here to 'play'.
His struggles renew, making him squirm like a worm on a hook. "No. No!"
Vito grips his jaw in a vicious hold. "I'm fucking insulted, prick. Do you know who I am?"
Terror-filled eyes dart to my brother. "Vito…Santoro," he forces out as best he can with Vito's bloody hand clamping his jaw tight.
"Vito, is your ego bruised for being the unhinged brother?" Raf taunts his best friend while I unbutton my shirt.
"Well, fuck, yeah, of course it is." Vito sneers in disgust, but then he turns to me with a grin. "Good to see you." He hugs me before I can get my pristine white shirt off.
"Goddammit, Vito," I growl.
"Don't be such a grumpy motherfucker. Gabe has started keeping a change of clothes here for you."
Vito pulls back to study me, his hand tightening around the back of my neck. I see the darkness of his apex predator staring back at the darkness of the monster that lives inside me.
The urge to unleash it is strong, especially with that bastard hanging three feet away, a part of the plan to take Nova from me. But I need to cage and control that monster right now.
One, because I want this spy to live as long as possible to extract every sordid detail and secret about Mancini out of him .
And two, because Vito, Raf, and our other men present would question the depth of my depraved rage. Vito would see it for what it truly is—making the enemy pay for daring to try to take what's mine. Vito would instantly know that the rumors about me having Nova were true. And if he witnessed the psychotic things I wanted to do to this man, he'd immediately realize that Nova wasn't just a pawn in my revenge.
"What has he told you?" I ask Vito.
"Jack shit."
Raf thumbs his jaw. "Just keeps spouting that he knows you took the snake's princess, Massimo."
I sense Gabe getting ready to restrain me—not from attacking the man hanging from chains, but from attacking Raf.
That's twice now, my family's most loyal members have spoken with hate and malice when referring to Nova, making Renzo's warning hammer into my brain again.
Regaining control and putting my emotionless mask in place, I turn to our captive.
Vito, Gabe, and Raf step back, letting me take the lead. Mario and two other of our men lean against the wall, smoking a cigarette, happy to be spectators as well.
"What's your name?" I ask the dangling man.
He tracks me as I finishing taking my shirt off. Gabe takes it from me, and the captive's throat bobs as he swallows and studies my broad, massive chest. I'm not as chiseled as Vito, but I have a muscular physique and know I'm intimidating.
"Why?" he asks me. "So you can kill my family?"
"As your employer would do."
"Get it over with," he grits.
"You're an enemy who has come into my territory." I step closer, making his nostrils flare, but otherwise, he remains motionless.
Surprise spreads through me. I had assumed Mancini would send a dispensable low-level grunt on this suicide mission. In my experience, with those types of prisoners, their fear was palpable and they broke quickly. However, this guy has a backbone. Yes, he's clearly pissing his pants in fear—and literally, from the smell of him. But from Vito's workover so far, he hasn't crumpled like a grunt or even a new soldier in Mancini's army would've.
Which means Mancini sent someone higher than one of his lowest foot soldiers, and that tells me he is desperate to confirm and prove that I have Nova.
Technically, he could strike at me without that proof. However…
Some pieces start to crystalize into focus as a possibility.
Mancini isn't just aligning with Vincenzo, Gastone, Achille, and Camillo for profiting off Glucoaid-X. He wants my syndicate as a whole to turn against me, and even though I considered and dismissed it previously, Vincenzo and the others could be conspiring with Mancini to do so.
Normally, the 'Ndrangheta would automatically side with one of our own against an external threat. They'd stand beside me and honor our oath to protect the families within our syndicate. However, there's things I can't ignore that are supporting a conspiracy theory, including Beast—a member of the French Mafia, who is allied with Mancini—is a welcomed guest in Vincenzo's territory.
If Mancini had solid, irrefutable proof that I took Nova, technically the 'Ndrangheta couldn't do anything to me because I hadn't actually defied the vote and decision, which was to let Mancini live. However, if Mancini is conspiring with Vincenzo, Gastone, Achille, and Camillo, that's a different story—they could push through a vote for the 'Ndrangheta as a whole to attack me, using the evidence as their justification.
This may all be circumstantial conjecture, but a jolt of urgency rips through me.
The linchpin solution to all this potential threat is Nova pregnant with my heir. Even if she isn't my wife, if it's to protect my unborn heir that I've publicly claimed, the 'Ndrangheta would have no choice but to side with me and protect the woman carrying it. My marrying Nova would give her that continued protection once the child is born.
Renzo wasn't just right about me being short-sighted; I had the entire sequence of events wrong. Getting Nova pregnant was the most crucial, imperative thing I needed to do, followed closely by marrying her.
Turning my attention back to the captive hanging in front of me, I ask, "Why does Julien Moreau and the French want Nova so badly?"
He's clearly taken aback by my shift in questioning, but he scoffs. "You think I know what the boss is up to and planning? You're delusional."
I pride myself on having an uncanny ability to detect when someone is lying. I had missed it with Lixin and Amazu, which had made me doubt myself, and was a big reason for how I acted toward Nova at the start. However, in this, I know my gut instinct is right, and like a predator, I smell blood.
Stepping forward, I finger the cold chains wrapped around his wrist where he dangles from a hook in the ceiling. "Everyone has a breaking point; I'm happy to find yours."
Panicked, sharp pants of breath push out of his nose, but he doesn't beg.
Without taking my eyes off the guy, I speak, "I want barbed wire around his wrists for him to hang from instead of the chains. And I want a flogger."
"You kinky fucker." Vito grunts with a laugh.
"Soaked with lye and wrapped in barbed wire."
"A depraved kinky fucker," Raf says.
Mario pushes away from the wall. "On it, Don. Anything else?"
Panic is escalating in my captive. I see the reflection of my monster looking back at me in his terrified, wide eyes. Smiling, I pat his cheek. "I want him over the floor drain."
"No." The guy jerks, starting to fight as he gets an idea of what's coming for him.
"On it, Mass." Raf steps forward. "Tiny and Dante, you're with me to get this guy ready for the boss."
The two who had been standing with Mario crush their cigarettes and stalk forward.
The guy starts to shout and kick at Raf, Tiny, and Dante, but he's staring at me. "I don't know anything! I don't know anything! "
But it's as if the lie is staring back at me, illuminated by a blinking neon sign. "I don't believe that, and you'll tell me everything."