Page 45 of Ruthless Sinner
Chapter 47
Dante
Tommaso kicks the trunk of the car the entire drive home. In between kicks, we hear muffled yells, no doubt condemning us to a life of suffering. I am the calmest I’ve ever felt. Enzo drives, and I sit in the backseat with my arm around Adalina and my eyes fixed on the moon.
After tonight, I can focus on more important matters like getting rid of my fiancé without driving a wedge between the Terlizzis and the Castigliones. Then, I need to figure out what to do with Adalina. I can’t keep her when this is all said and done, but I don’t want to let her go, either. I don’t know what to do with her.
As we pull into the compound, I focus on the task at hand. My younger brothers are already waiting. Luciano and Salvatore are parked outside, holding cups of coffee and yawning. The hour is late, but they know their place. As Enzo pulls into the garage, they follow us in on foot.
“The Destroyers couldn’t have caught him during daylight hours, huh,” Salvatore jokes as I climb out of the backseat.
I offer Adalina a hand, helping her out. “Trust me, if I could have coordinated it for a more reasonable hour, I would have.”
Luciano and Adalina avoid eye contact, studiously looking in other directions. Salvatore walks right up to her and grabs her hand, tucking it into his elbow. “Let’s grab a drink while the others get your father down to the dungeon.”
“I don’t want to miss anything,” Adalina replies firmly, shooting a look back at me.
“You won’t miss anything,” I promise her. “We won’t do anything until you get down there.”
Salvatore swiftly ushers her through the door to the kitchen, his deep voice echoing off the walls as he offers her a choice between a cup of coffee or a shot of tequila. Despite his occasional annoying habits, I must admit that he’s a good brother.
Luciano waits for the door to click shut behind Sal and Adalina before he turns to glare at me. “Why is she involved in any of this?”
I walk around to the back of the car, pounding twice on the trunk. A second later, Enzo pops the hood. “Because she has as much stake in Tommaso’s death as the rest of us. Probably more, if we’re being honest.”
Martinelli’s face is a deep, angry crimson as the garage lights flood the back of the cramped trunk. His words are muffled by the damp handkerchief in his mouth, and we can’t make out what he’s trying to say.
“He knocks her around a little bit, and suddenly, she gets front-row tickets to his comeuppance?” Luciano glares.
As Enzo stalks around to the back of the car, he corrects my younger brother. “He didn’t just knock her around a bit,” he cuts in. “She has scars all over. This fucker,” he bends over to grab Tommaso’s shirt, hauling him out of the trunk with a forceful tug, “used her as a cigarette tray. If that wasn’t bad enough, he beat her. He broke her bones. He?—”
“Don’t,” I stop Enzo in the middle of his sentence. “You don’t owe Luc an explanation.” I turn to look at my brother, feeling just as pissed off as my bodyguard does. “I don’t know what your deal is with Adalina, but get the fuck over it.”
“My deal,” Luciano sneers, “is that she’s going to be your downfall. You’re going to break with the Castigliones for that girl. You’re going to fuck over our family for some teenage bitch.”
“She’s twenty-one.”
“I don’t give a fuck.” Luciano grabs Tommaso by the arm and helps Enzo lead him inside. “She could be twenty-one or eighty-one for all I care. What was supposed to be a simple kidnap and ransom has turned into an attempt on your life and caused us to get involved with the Destroyers. I know you never planned to marry Lucrezia, but the second you put her aside for Adalina, Saverio will wipe our whole family out. He doesn’t take kindly to his will being subverted, Dante. You know that as well as I do.”
Tommaso continues to mumble, his face growing redder by the moment. He looks from his captors, left to right, as if trying to communicate with them separately. However, both ignore him.
“We’re the biggest bankroll the Castigliones have. They won’t wipe us out.” They might kill me, but they’ll leave the others alone. No one has anything to worry about.
Luciano snaps his fingers at me. “So you admit it. You’re going to break your betrothal for the Martinelli girl.”
I don’t have to admit anything. I don’t owe Luc or anyone else an explanation. This family belongs to me, not him. My authority reigns supreme, and no one can challenge it. “Worry about yourself, Luc. If I welch on my arranged marriage to Lucrezia, I’m the one that has to pay the price. So focus on the important shit like getting this fucker to the dungeon.”
Tommaso lets out a guttural roar of anger as my foot connects with the back of his knee. His leg buckles under him, threatening to send him crashing to the floor, but Enzo and Luciano quickly step in to support him. “You think that hurt,” I growl at him. My rage for everything and everyone grows by the second. “You just wait until we get you downstairs.”
I haven’t the faintest idea how to make him suffer for as long and as badly as I want him to before he bleeds out or dies from shock. But one thing is certain: as long as I deliver the killing blow, nothing else matters.
Chapter 48
Adalina
Salvatore graciously leads me to a part of the house I’ve never been to before. He narrates where we are and what we’re doing along the way.
“This is Dante’s office. It’s where he plots to take over the world. Current attempts have been unsuccessful,” he jokes with a grin.