Page 70 of Ruthless Touch
“One question before I put you out of your misery,” I say, leaning in close to Franco’s blood-soaked face.
Through swollen, black and blue eyes, he looks up at me and waits for me to ask him what I need to know. I’ve put this off until now because I’m dreading what he may say.
“Did you do anything but hit her?” I ask as calmly as I can.
I doubt this asshole can hear the slight tremble in my voice as the thought of him violating Aria between beatings tears me up inside. He should have taken my money I gave him for her and stayed away like I told him to.
Franco shakes his head as he sobs out his answer. “No.”
I take a few steps back and survey the damage I’ve done to this motherfucker. I would have been happy to have let him live as Aria’s ex as long as he stayed away and left her alone. This didn’t have to happen, but once he touched her tonight, his fate was set in stone.
“Good.” Pulling my gun out from behind me, I aim it at his head just as I did with Alex earlier tonight. The difference is I have no problem actually killing Franco. The time for threats is over. “Maybe the fact that you didn’t rape her will help you wherever you’re going.”
He sobs something, but I don’t hear him. I’m focused on how good it feels to give him what he deserves.
The gun goes off, and a second later, the bullet tears through his skull. Franco’s head falls forward, and my fun with him is over.
“I had no idea you could be so vicious, Gideon,” my father says with a wicked grin. “And here I thought you were the civilized one out of all of us.”
As I stuff my gun back in my waistband, I roll my eyes. “I am. There’s just a point where every man knows he has to give up his civilized ways to avenge a wrong. He wronged Aria, so he got what he deserved. Now onto that fuck Marcello.”
“Are you going to want to do him too?” Alaric asks, probably wondering what the fuck he’s doing here if he doesn’t get to kill anyone tonight.
I shake my head. “Not the whole thing. You need to do something, right? Don’t want to make it a wasted trip for you. I’ll get him started since now I know he laid his hands on Aria too. You can finish him off.”
As I turn to leave Franco’s apartment, Alex complains behind me, “Why do you and Alaric get to have all the fun? What the fuck are Dad and I supposed to do? Just stand around with our goddamned hands in our pockets?”
I look back to see my father glaring at my older brother. With a laugh, I answer, “I told you Alaric and I could handle things. Just because I don’t go around threatening every fucking person I see doesn’t mean I can’t take care of business.”
While he grumbles, Alaric slaps me on the back, and we walk out together. “I’m with your father. I had no idea you had it in you to fuck up someone like that. I guess those expensive suits hide who you really are.”
With a smile, I say, “I’m a Rule, just like you. I just tend to be a different kind of villain than you, Alex, and my father. The end result is the same. Franco got what he had coming to him, and now that Angeloni fuck will too.”
Alaric leans in and says low in my ear, “I’m thinking your father is going to want to handle him. Anyone have a woodchipper nearby here on the Amalfi Coast?”
“That’s fucked up,” I say, shaking my head. “I need to live here after all of you leave. Killing Franco the way I did is one thing. Fucking ripping someone up into tiny pieces will make people think the man in charge of the Villa Aurelia is a fucking psycho.”
We hit the warm night air and begin walking out toward the street as he says, “It would make handling your enemies easier. Word gets out that the Rule are woodchippering motherfuckers who cross us, I might not have to kill anyone ever again.”
I raise my eyebrows in surprise at how happy he sounds when he says that. I’m guessing he and Sienna have plans to get married and have a family, so continuing as a hitman probably isn’t high on Alaric’s list of things he wants to do in the future.
“For tonight, we’ll just have to do things the old-fashioned way. Two to the head should be enough.”
My father walks up beside us and pulls me away from my conversation with Alaric. “We’ll catch up with you and Alex in a minute.”
Surprised my father wants to talk to me alone, I watch my brother and cousin walk away, as curious as I am as to what Helix Rule wants to say. It’s rare that my father ever wants to have a conversation with me.
“Go back to the hotel and take care of Aria. We’ll handle Angeloni.”
His tone tells me he’s decided this already, so there’s no point in arguing with him. To be honest, I have little interest in beating another man up tonight before Alaric kills him. As much as I’m a Rule, I am civilized, and after fucking up Franco, I’m not really into a repeat performance with Marcello.
But he did join his man in hurting her, so I have a right to get revenge for Aria.
“He fucked with her too, Dad. I should be the one who takes care of him.”
My father shakes his head. “He fucked with someone a Rule cares about. That means we all have a stake in seeing him pay. Go back to the hotel and take care of her. I doubt she ever wanted you to be a killer any more than I did. We’ll take things from here.”
Unlike usual, I don’t get the feeling my father’s disappointed I’m not like Alex this time. Still, years of being compared to my older brother make me wonder why.