Page 59

Chapter 59

Massimo

Seven hours and forty-nine minutes later, we're in the playroom.

Between the Santoro resources and the Frolov Bratva, we had annihilated our enemies. The Serpents gang was no more, and none of the soldiers of the Mancini family and the French mafia lived.

The sole survivors—Ivan, Julien, Mancini, and his second-in-command, Mauro Torrisi—are current guests in the playroom.

Ivan hangs from chains in the ceiling but he won't be with us long. He's bloody; his right eye is swollen shut, and his abdominal wound will soon kill him.

However, the other three are unscathed, since they hid and let their soldiers fight for them. The cowards. Ivan, at least, had the balls to face his enemy.

Mancini and Mauro are hanging from chains and are gagged. Julien, though, is screaming like a banshee, flailing and kicking, desperately trying to stop two Russians from grabbing him and taking him to Rurik Frolov.

Kirill, Rurik's second-in-command—known as the sovietnik in the Bratva hierarchy—is a towering man with broad shoulders and just a hint of salt-and-pepper in his stubbled beard. He looks to be nearing forty, but his physique is that of a honed, brutal soldier many years younger. He winds a chain tightly around his fist, then whips it over his head, wrapping it around Julien's neck like a lasso. He jerks on it, effectively choking off Julien's screeching and his air, and the Frenchman falls to his knees.

Kirill pivots on his heel, dragging Julien across the floor with the chain around his neck. He stops in front of me while Julien's face turns an alarming shade of purple. Where Rurik sounded like ice, Kirill is all fire—the intensity of his hatred for Julien radiates off him.

Kirill's gaze shifts to Nova, standing silently by my side. She wasn’t present during the raid or the ensuing battle, but after we succeeded, Gabe instructed Damien, Max, Tino, and Marcelo to bring her here. Since her arrival, she's been quiet, observant and unwavering.

As Kirill studies her, the chains around Julien's neck have loosened, and he chokes and sputters, struggling to pull air into his lungs through his battered airway.

"Would you like to say anything to your formerly betrothed, Mrs. Santoro?" he asks.

The title seems to take her by surprise, and she quickly glances at me. But then her shoulders pull back, and her chin tilts up. Defiant, strong, and unbroken. "I have nothing to say."

Julien's eyes are bloodshot from the chain leash. His gaze moves over her as she stands over him. "Nova." His voice is a choked rasp. "Princess—"

Julien is up off the floor, feet dangling, as I fist his throat. My massive hand grinds the chain into the fragile bones of his trachea. His eyes bulge from his head and he starts to kick, squirming like a worm on a hook.

"She's my princess," I seethe in Julien's face.

Kirill pats my back. "Easy now, big guy. The deal is we get Julien for our grand finale."

Air bursts from my nostrils like I'm a snorting beast, and I release my grip. Julien crumples to the floor, wheezing through a further damaged windpipe.

"Get him out of here before I rip his throat out."

"With pleasure." Kirill jerks on the chain. "Nice working with you, Massimo. "

Then, he and his soldiers drag Julien out the door, and Mario shuts it behind them. The sharp, resounding echo of the door slamming shut is a cold reminder that Mancini's gruesome end that will come by my hand.

As Vito, Gabe, and Gemma prepare everything I need, I turn to Nova, gently cupping her face as she stares up at me. "You don't have to be in here for this. There's another room Gabe can take you to."

She rests her hand over mine, and I'm momentarily distracted by the wedding ring on her finger. It's a perfect fit and suits her perfectly. "I want to be here. I need to be here."

Her gaze is steady and sure, but I'm still uncertain. "The baby… Your pregnancy…"

Her other hand cups her belly, and we both look down. "Our little one is bound to be a bloodthirsty little beast. Just like their father."

I feel like my grin is as unhinged as Vito's usually is, but I temper it quickly. "The first sign this is too much—"

She pushes up on her tiptoes and presses her lips to mine. "I promise."

Taking her hand in mine, we walk to face our enemies. Nova's steps don't falter, not even when Mancini's hateful stare locks on her.

From the look of Ivan, he won't be among the living five minutes from now. His breaths are shallow and erratic, and his head hangs limply on his chest. I release Nova and step to him. Fisting his hair, I lift his head so he can see me.

"Why?" I growl. "You had gotten what you wanted with getting on the Chamber."

Even with death so close, his cocky bullshit attitude still lingers. "Four million… plus a seat on… the Chamber was too good… to… pass up."

"That's it? Your rationale is greed?"

The light is fading in his eyes. "Isn't…it…always?"

I grit my teeth as Ivan dies, never getting to tell him that no, he's fucking wrong. It's not always about greed. Not for me, not for my family. It's about protecting what's ours to protect.

I release him, and his head falls back to his chest. Shoving away my frustration that Ivan took his death from me, I regard those still breathing and here to pay for their sins .

I don't like how Mauro is looking at Nova. He's bound, gagged, and hanging like a pig that's about to be gutted, yet he's looking at her with lust .

Darkness swells with me. Vito, as if reading my mind, comes over and hands me a blunt-tipped knife.

Without a word, I grip Mauro's chin, doing my best to grind it to dust in my punishing grip. His eyes snap away from Nova and lock onto me. I let him see my dark, depraved rage. He tries to jerk back, but my hold on his jaw is clamped tight.

I push the blunt-tipped knife into the space between his eyeball and orbital bone. Slowly. Enjoying his pain. Relishing his screams into his gag. Knowing—without Nova explicitly saying—that he has been a part of the hell she was forced to endure at Mancini's hands. If not directly, then he was complicit.

He's guilty as fuck in my mind.

I need to hear his screams, so I yank his gag out with my free hand while I finish gouging out his eye.

"You want to look at her again?" I calmly ask.

He sobs and clenches his remaining eye shut.

Dropping the eyeball that has seen too much of my princess's hellish pain over the years, I step on it, feeling the popping as it gives way under my heel.

As Mauro sobs and whimpers, Mancini glares at me, but I see his fear through his false bravado.

Before turning my attention to him, I check in with Nova. She's paler than she was when she walked into the playroom, but she's steady and her shoulders are back, her chin is up and strong.

She reaches up to caress my cheek, and something inside me eases. I hadn't realized how tense I was that once she saw the beast within me emerge, she may be afraid or feel differently toward me. But there's so much love emanating from her that I relax.

Gouging an eye out won't be the worst of what I'll do in this room. Silvestro Mancini will die how I've envisioned it—I'll beat him before I flay him, drop him at Nova's feet, a knife will be slid into his heart, either by her hand or mine, and then I will cut off his head .

Killing the snake who is my enemy.

Slaying the monster who brutalized Nova for way too fucking long.

Then I’ll finish by razing his kingdom to the ground, until nothing is left but ash.

Nova turns from me to face her father. I study her carefully, ready to whisk her away if the brutal lessons she's learned from his years of psychological warfare start to return.

However, the meek and mild Mancini Princess doesn't reappear. Her fire and fight are burning bright for him to see.

Reaching forward, she removes his gag. I feel Vito, Gabe, and Gemma close in behind us, ready to intervene and protect Nova. My heart swells with gratitude for their protectiveness of her—how they've so readily and quickly accepted her as one of us.

"Father." Nova's voice is steady and strong.

His eyes shift to me, then back to her. A sneer curls his lips. "Whoring yourself out, I see, daughter."

Black burns the edges of my vision, but I remain motionless for now because my queen is standing steady and strong, facing her worst monster.

Since Nova didn't react, Mancini tries again. "Just like your whore of a moth—"

His words are cut off, and I'm stunned at the slash of blood that splatters Nova's face. She doesn't flinch as she clenches the handle of a small knife. Where the hell she had gotten it, I'm unclear; however, her actions are crystal fucking clear.

Silvestro Mancini is here, at her mercy. And she has none to give.

Blood flows from a gaping gash across Mancini's face and soaks into his immaculate suit.

"Shut your mouth, Father," Nova hisses.

" Damn , sis." Vito chuckles.

Mancini's eyes widen in shock, and Nova smiles. "Yes, it's true, Father. Massimo and I are married." Her hand fisting the knife rests over her stomach. "And expecting. Aren't you happy for us?"

I smile at her ruthless taunting .

"You fucking bitch—" His scream of pain cuts off his words as she embeds her knife into his thigh and twists.

"Goddamn, Nova, you're my spirit animal." Gemma laughs.

Nova's lips twitch, but her attention remains on her father. "Would you like to know what's going to happen now?"

She doesn't wait for Mancini's reply as Mauro whimpers beside them. "Vito and the others will deal with Mauro. And you… Well, Father, you're going to get well acquainted with my husband."

My whole body reacts to her calling me that, and I grin.

"Massimo is going to peel your skin off, piece by piece. Once he's done, I will stab you through your black heart, leaving the blade embedded so you don't die too quickly. Then he'll will cut off your head."

To drive the point home, Vito lets the axe blade drop to the floor with a heavy thud . "Freshly sharpened for the festive occasion."

All Mancini’s bravado crumbles as terror floods his face. "The 'Ndrangheta won’t allow this."

Nova's laugh is cold and merciless. "Why? Because of your blackmail and the ledger that Nathaniel Kessler has safely sealed away?" She laughs again, savoring his shock, watching the fresh wave of terror wash over him as he realizes the truth—he has no way out of this.

But he still tries to slither his way free. "You will cease this at once, Nova." Seeing she isn't afraid of him, he changes tactics. "Would you like to know what happened to your mother—"

I fist this throat before he can try to shatter Nova with the truth of what he and his inner circle did to her mother before they finally killed her.

"Enough snake talk, wouldn't you say, brother?" Vito steps forward with a pair of pliers.

Gabe goes behind Mancini to hold him still, and Gemma hands me a small sharp knife.

Then I cut out the vile serpent's tongue.

Nova's brown eyes blaze with redemption and retribution as she stares at her father after I finish. "Don't fight the monsters, father. Because the monsters always win."

My heart swells with love and pride for this amazing woman .

With the fires of hell behind her, standing strong and proud, she smiles at me. "Do your worst, Massimo."

The one who is my equal in every way stands by my side. My princess. My hellcat. My queen. My wife.

My grin is savage. "With pleasure."