Page 6 of Merciless Queen (Moretti Mafia #1)

Caterina

She was extremely underweight as I carried her unconscious form downstairs.

It was easy sneaking into his bedroom and drugging her.

She put up a small fight, but eventually she gave into the sweet embrace of darkness.

I couldn’t get the look on her face out of my mind.

It was a mix of fear but with a hint of…

relief? Her eyes were somber pools of mahogany with little life beyond her gaze.

Was she sad because her fiancé was destroying lives instead of being in bed with her?

With how thin and malnourished she was, I could easily snap her neck and leave her corpse at the bottom of the staircase.

A happy little accident for him to come home to, but I needed more information.

I needed him to wither with unease. I also needed to curb this unhinged desire for revenge.

She would be the key to breaking him, and I wanted to watch him bleed.

Soon I would finally have my revenge on Vincenzo Mancini, and he would regret the day he crossed the Moretti family.

Luca finished his download, waiting for the cameras to send the feed to his laptop before he nodded.

With the girl asleep in my lap, Malachi drove us home.

We would prepare for the fallout of my choice, but I won this battle.

Now we had to prepare for the war. I watched her sleep; she breathed a soft rhythm that rose and fell in sharp, uneven bursts.

Occasionally, her limbs twitched or jerked, as if she was fighting an unknown force.

This woman was beautiful, even in her unhealthy state.

Dark hair that was dull, but cascaded like a waterfall.

She had bruises, fresh and old, with a plethora of scars on her pale skin.

My father taught me at a young age how to handle liars, traitors, and thieves.

He knew the pressure of having me lead. The men would see me as weak.

Enemies would use my body against me, attempt to hurt me or rape me, but little did they know growing up as an only child meant I would be a target.

He had me training with the boys the minute I could walk.

I knew how to kick a man in the balls at five, and I could shoot a gun at six.

My first kill was when I was nine, after a man broke into our house and came into my room.

He slipped under my covers, lifted my unicorn nightgown, and touched me.

A rival family sent him to take my father’s happiness .

Little did they know his happiness had a black belt in karate at eight.

I broke his nose, which caused the six-foot-two giant to scream like a bitch.

Instantly, my room was filled with my father’s men and my parents.

My mother grabbed me, gasping at the slight bruising on my thighs, and I didn’t shed a single tear.

I looked at my father and looked at the gun in Rico’s hand.

He nodded, and I took the gun, shot the man in the dick, and then again in the head.

My father kept training me to be better and to protect myself.

Now, as the leader of the Moretti crime family, my men trusted me, and people knew what would happen if they crossed me or pissed me off.

She flinched in her sleep. It was like she was fighting a constant battle. What was she dreaming of—and why the fuck did I care?

She was mine now.

She was still sleeping when I tied her hands to the hook.

I cut the thin silk shirt off of her body, letting the fabric fall to the floor.

My fingers trailed down her body, lightly running over old scars and new marks.

Her little body bore multiple old scars.

My eyes caught a deep scar on her inner thigh.

VM . He branded her like she was cattle.

The women we rescued never had a brand like this.

I needed to know what happened to her before I continued with this.

I wanted revenge, but I also knew what Vincenzo Mancini could do.

Fuck.

If this was a mistake, I’d deal with it later.

I rummaged through a few chests in the basement, finding a t-shirt.

Depending on how long she was with Vincenzo, I could get a second perspective.

I lowered the restraints, unhooking her for a moment as I slipped the white t-shirt over her body.

Without knowing who she was or if she was willingly with Vincenzo, I wouldn’t let her upstairs.

She would stay down here until I knew exactly what I was dealing with.

I secured her hands once more, resting her head against the wall.

Vincenzo made me irrational, but hurting her would be pointless if she was a victim.

I had intentions of tormenting her until she spilled her secrets, but looking at her…

fuck, I need someone else to look at her and tell me before I did something I couldn’t take back.

After I checked in with Luca about the girl, I needed to check in with Malachi and make sure we were okay with our next drug shipment.

Sex and drugs were two of the best things to control in this lifestyle.

Of course, my version of sex came with a price, and it was from willing participants.

There were plenty of people who enjoyed having sex for money, and there was no problem with that.

Sex could be intoxicating. If anyone got too handsy with my people or crossed a line, they would die a horrible death.

I made sure my people were safe and enjoyed themselves.

No one should be forced into this lifestyle.

No one should force anyone into this lifestyle.

A tool used for forced pleasure for despicable men.

I saved girls who were stuck in Vincenzo’s clutches.

They’d never been the same. I saved Elizabeth, Luca’s girlfriend, five years ago.

One of Malachi’s men saw Vincenzo’s henchmen dumping a body.

Poor girl almost died. My doctor put her in a medically induced coma for a month while her body healed.

She had sepsis, and her organs were on the verge of shutting down.

Multiple fractured bones and a brain bleed.

Lena said she had severe vaginal and rectal trauma, which told me all I needed to know about what she endured.

Elizabeth worked for me now. She was at the strip club with Spencer bartending.

Spencer helped her with her trauma, and she and Luca got together almost four years ago.

She was going to work with Luca in the security portion of both legal and illegal businesses.

After intense therapy, she slowly healed.

She always kept asking about a girl, but she assumed Vincenzo killed her.

My end goal was to save all the women from Vincenzo and his men, after I put a bullet in his skull and watched the life drain from his eyes. But right now, I had to handle his woman.

I walked to my security room, where Luca lived.

He made it into his bedroom. I found it weird, but he liked to know what was going on.

Luca was in front of the twenty monitors, watching for anything.

Four of them were at Vincenzo’s. Five at Siren.

Two monitors were located at my office, while the remaining ones were distributed throughout town and at the shipyards.

“Vincenzo is pissed.” I could care less about Vincenzo and how he felt. My main concern was the girl I stole from him.

“Do you think she’s a victim?”

Luca shrugged. “If she was willing, I personally think she would have lived better. She looked…She looked like Lizzy did. Malnourished. Covered in scars. Birth control in her arm.”

I ran my hands through my hair. “Did I mess up?”

“I can’t answer that because I don’t know.”

The monitors detected movement in the basement, and Luca turned his attention back to the girl. Luca turned on the sound, and she was screaming, panicking. “I’m sorry! Please, Vincenzo!”

She struggled against her restraints. “Get down there now. I’ll get Malachi and Lena to meet you down there.”