Page 51 of Scream (Duchess & Devils #1)

I shift my sight to Vincenzo. “Give the money back ? You lost seventy grand last night alone.” I grab his hand and yank it to me.

“With this hand, you held the cards. Yes you did. I watched the camera feed. Is this your pussy finger?” I grab his index finger tighter and use the pliers on the last knuckles, squeezing until his hand drops to his lap but I’m still holding onto his finger.

His scream fills the air.

I throw it into the bowl.

“It ain't so bad, De Luca,” I grab his other non-bloody hand, and he struggles a bit more. “At least it's me doing it. Sasha here has a thing for eyeballs. Lucky for you, his favorite ice pick has gone missing.”

Clip.

Another scream.

Sasha laughs. “Accidentally took it home. The wife put it in the dishwasher for safe keeping. Sent me a picture of it just this morning.”

Another chuckle amongst the men behind me as I cut off another finger and the finger falls to the dirty floor, but I don't reply to them. “Know what I like about these pliers, De Luca?”

He shakes his head furiously side to side, eyes squeezing out big fat fucking tears.

“They don't just cut bone. They cut muscle. Did you know our tongues are made mostly of muscle? It's one of the only muscles that works independently from our skeleton. Isn't that incredible?” I ask rhetorically, but the dumb fuck still nods along as if it’s gonna help him. Spoiler alert: it won’t. He’s in my grasp now.

There is no mercy coming. Not from me. “So, I'm going to ask. Your answer depends on whether you get to keep it or not. Ready? Good. Why did this Brodsky guy need guns?”

“I swear, I don't know. I thought he was one of your Russians. Said you gave the order. That you were the one snipping off Rossi.”

Huh.

I eyeball the ugly fuck, then twist my head to look at one of the Giordano’s oldest allies. “Rossi. You believe I'd scrape off from your business?”

“No,” he replies sternly. “If I did, I wouldn't be here right now. One of us would be very dead.”

“That's what I thought, too.” I turn my head back to look at De Luca, snot bubbles dripping down his wide toad-like lips. Pathetic. “Sasha, strap his head for me.”

He does, grabbing a belt from the table, then grabbing De Luca by the temples.

Sasha puts it over his forehead and holds it while I grab the small forceps.

I glance down at the bloody pliers in my hand, frowning.

Nah, this fucker needs to feel it. I throw the pliers into the surgical bowl and grab the small saw from the table. “You know what happens now, don't you?”

“Please, they…” gurgle “I thought they were your guys.”

“You should've called and asked , De Luca.” I chastise.

“You've been in the game long enough. Obviously it's your stupidity that's kept you from being promoted. I mean, thirty-seven and still doing security? One call would've fixed everything. Christ, they paid you to look the other way. That was your first red flag. The issue here is, it just feels like you’re lying to me, De Luca, you know. We have no room for untrustworthy rats. Seeing as your mouth is as useless as your brain, we have no use for it. Therefore, you have no use for your tongue. How much was it, huh? How much were you paid?”

He opens his mouth to answer me and when he does, I take advantage and shove the forceps in, catching his tongue.

I yank it back, and tip the saw forward, fighting the struggling wiggles and thrashes as I cut.

They don't tell you when you cut something with a hand saw, connecting the tissues back together is more difficult because it's not a perfect cut.

It's a massacre of nerve endings. Eight different muscles in the tongue.

But my father knew.

He taught me that the first time I watched him do what I'm doing now. A type of anatomy lecture. I was sixteen. When he hunted down every motherfucker that had been part of my mother's death. That's how I got so good at what I'm doing right at this moment.

I took part in every cazzo's death that had planned hers.

Fourteen tongues.

Fourteen lives.

I took fourteen lives by the time I was eighteen.

I did what I had to, blended in where I needed to.

Became my father's secret weapon, since my mother kept me out of the media as much as she could.

The only picture that ever surfaced of me when I was young was when I was standing next to her casket beside my father.

A grainy black and white photo with my head bowed to hide my anger.

My tears. My heartache. In this life, my mother was the best person in it.

She was not only a good mother and wife, but she was also a pillar of the community.

She gave piano lessons to children whose parents couldn't afford it, opened a women's shelter, and organized more charity drives than Angie.

Even with her overflowing schedule she made it to every single one of my practices and matches at Antonio's, the boxing gym where I started training when I was thirteen.

Of course I got revenge. Of course I learned how to be the most dangerous and feared man in New York.Of course I learned how to be this city's devil.

Because when they fear you, they respect you.

Unless you're my wife. With her, respect is given. Disrespect is earned.

I like my wife a lot.

I throw the mangled tongue and forceps into the bowl and take off the gloves, standing upright as I peer over at Rossi.

“Call Lorenzo. See if he can get any shots of the vehicle they were in from any street cameras.

Francesca, too. If someone's walking around my fucking turf claiming they know me, then it sounds like I need to meet the fucker.” I growl and look down at my blood-soaked sleeves.

“I need to hit the shower before I go home to my wife.”

Rossi’s dark eyes bounce between me and the moaning man behind me. “And De Luca?”

Oh. Yeah. “Sasha?”

“Yeah?”

“Take care of that.”

“Okey, but… I don’t got my lucky icepick, Boss.”

I take a few steps forward, then I stop. “On second thought, Sash, take his balls. The idiot doesn’t need to reproduce. Drop him off at the nearest hospital. I want this Brodsky fuck to know we know.”

More pleading screams are heard behind me as I stride through the pitch-black portion of the basement and enter the room there that has a shower.

Convenient, I know. But there's been too many times where I've had to handle business here and go back up and host a few other meetings.

The less blood you have on you, the more they pay attention to the words coming out of your mouth.

I hear Niko's footsteps behind me as I flip on the light switch, beginning to strip off my clothes and he closes the door behind us. “What is it?”

“Did you take a look at that information I sent you about that kid from the fight?”

I slip off my shoes and socks and go to turn on the shower, making sure the water is extra hot. Last thing I need is for Sabrina to even get a whiff of what I had to do down here. “Kane Burton. Syndicate's Bones Chapter.” I answer him coolly.

“That's not all. I did a little more digging, like one should when researching anyone in the Syn. He's an Ainsworth on his mother's side.”

I lock eyes with the bluest glaciers. “The fuck was an Ainsworth doing in New York.”

“The story? Business. Seems Jaxson Prescott is selling half of his shares of the company since Stephen Prescott is dead.”

I cock a brow. “The truth?”

He leans against the wall and crosses his arms. “The truth is, he looked a little too friendly with the missus before you and her guard showed up. I think he's here for something more… personal .”

Chills run down my spine, but my blood runs fucking hot. Steam from the shower is rolling along the ground and slowly rising. “Tail him. Get one of the best. Not you or Sasha - 'he'll recognize you. Get someone that blends a little too easily with their surroundings.”

I unfasten my pants and drop them, stepping out of them, and see Niko is still in the room. “Did you hear anything he said to her? The video showed him being pretty fucking brave. The little darkling, Raven . She was ready to go head-to-head with him, too.”

I saw that with my own eyes. From what Parker told me while Sabrina slept, that Kane guy was the one that dropped my wife off drunk as fuck, and she was never the same after.

“Tail the fucker, Niko. I want to know everything he does.

Find out where he's staying. I want to know what he eats for breakfast, to the time he shits.

If he gets close to my wife again, you shoot without question.

That's an order. And get my dear, old father-in-law. I need to be part of that shareholder meeting.”

He stands tall and gives me one nod then turns to go, and I step into scalding water with nothing but thoughts of my wife. Screw the shrimp scampi.

I want my wife for dinner.

“David, welcome.” I grin, pointing to the chair in front of my desk, not bothering to get up from my seat to greet him properly.

“Maksim.”

“You look a little nervous there, Dave. Can I call you Dave?” I don't wait for him to answer as he takes a seat. Niko and Sasha stand by the now-closed door of my office. “Glad you could make it.”

He clears his throat, which makes the loose skin connecting from the hollow of his throat to the bottom of his chin jiggle. He’s lost weight. Eyes are a bit sunken in. Red-faced, balding, sweaty. “To what do I owe the pleasure of being summoned?”

I bark out a laugh and point to him. “ Summoned . Funny. You’re a funny guy, Dave.

” Nobody else is laughing. I suck my teeth, run my tongue over them, then roll it over my lip, tucking it between my teeth and my lip before I look at the grotesque bastard.

Arranged marriage makes sense for this fuckin guy.

How he made a daughter as gorgeous as my wife simply does not make sense.

Although, I suppose Tildy could be categorized as a MILF– if I had eyes for other women.

“I’d offer you a drink but, seems my wife doesn’t like the taste of alcohol on my breath.

With that being said, David, I don’t have time to waste.

I need to be home in time to have dinner with my wife.

I need in at the PresCorp meeting, and you ” I point directly at him “are my way in.”

“I don’t have-”

“You do.” I interrupt. “Because that’s what’s written in our contract, David.” I gesture between us. “The one you and I signed. Remember? You get me in with the Syndicate,” I point to him then myself. “I marry your daughter. I fulfilled my end. You… have.. not.”

His mouth flaps open and closed and the longer he sits in front of me, the more I want to watch Sasha use his icepick on this motherfucker. “I’ve introduced you to-”

“Low level.” I cut him off again, keeping my eyes on his, not breaking.

“You introduced me to your level Syndicate members. I need to go... Higher. I need… to be in negotiations with PresCorp. I need to sit in front of the man who sexually assaulted your daughter after drugging her and give him no reason to ever come back to the Northeastern Coast. I need to be able to look that sick fuck in the eyes and let him know I’m coming for him. ”

David’s jaw drops, eyes wide. He looks aghast. I smell a fucking rat. “ Raped… my daughter? Who ?”

Not a rat. An owl.

I slam my fist down, bile rising. And the slimy fucker jumps in his seat.

I know I just said it, but I hate hearing it.

It makes me fucking sick to know someone took something so great and tried to diminish her light.

“That’s for me to kill, and for you to never know.

Now, I need in that meeting, David. I’m not fucking around. Get me in.”

He shakes his head. “I don’t know if I can.”

“Pull all the strings you need to. All the favors. Otherwise you’re expendable to me, David. It’s not a good thing to be expendable here.”

He looks shocked. Appalled. How could I have the gall? The audacity? He doesn’t say it. But the way those slate gray-blue eyes widen in shock; I may as well have shoved my thumb up my ass and did a little dance on my desk. “I’m your father-in-law. You-you can’t kill me!”

“And your daughter is the only thing that’s of significant importance to me,” I snarl.

“ You think I don’t have eyes everywhere?

Huh? You think I don’t see how she treats you?

You’re nothing to her. You made me everything to her.

You sold her to me for your life, and I’ll do whatever the fuck I please with your soul. ”

“Y-you really are a soulless devil,” he murmurs with that shocked expression still on his face.

I tilt my head back and rise to my feet, his beady eyes following me. Niko and Sasha’s lips tilt up in cruel smiles. “I’m so much worse , David. I’m the devil obsessed with your daughter… whom you are still indebted to.”

He stands to his feet quickly, leaving a sweaty assprint on the chair. “I don’t have to take this! I’ll… I’ll tell Sabrina!””

The guys work quickly, grabbing him by the shoulders and shove him back down and Niko has his gun to his temple and shushes him.

He won’t shoot. Not here. Not in my office, at least. “You have seventy-two hours to secure me a place in that shareholder’s meeting.

Or we’re just going to show up together instead.

Make no mistake, David. If I find out you somehow had any hand in my wife being hurt for some Syndicate bullshit – I’ll kill you and serve her your fucking heart in a glass box.

You will simply disappear. Not one person will mourn you, and I’ll still have your heart in a glass box. ”I smile.

My red-faced father-in-law whimpers .Like a little bitch.

“It was nice seeing you, David.” the guys let him stand.

He turns to shuffle away, but before he leaves I say, “I would be proud, you know, if I too were a useless sack of shit, and my daughter’s husband was doing what he could to take out the man who hurt her.

I’d give him a firm handshake and offer whatever services I could. Loyalties and devils be damned.”