Page 57 of Virtuous Lies
“No,” Roberto answers.
She likely doesn’t understand, but Bianca has made herself unappealing based on her willingness. My brother feeds off pain, and Caterina’s will be greater than her sister’s.
“I’ll tell everyone you fucked me anyway.” Bianca shocks me by menacing. “I’ll tell everyone we’re in love. They’ll kill you for deflowering me when I’m promised to the boss of the Outfit. Your betrayal will be unforgivable.”
Roberto laughs. “You’re a little girl. Don’t fucking threaten me. Lorenzo isn’t a fucking fool. He’ll know the truth.”
“Will he, though?” Bianca tests. “You have areputation. Are you willing to bet your life on it?”
Silence ensues for a drawn-out beat, and hand to the door, I'm seconds away from leaving the confines of the bathroom, concerned for Bianca’s safety, when I hear my brother’s voice again.
“You’re a cunt, and you bore me,” Roberto bites. “Take your little games and find some other fucking mafioso to play with before I tell Lorenzo about your plan and haveyoukilled. I’m a consigliere, and you’re a sweet piece of pussy. You’re replaceable, nothing but a pretty hole to fuck.”
“When Lorenzo kills you.” She sounds farther away, and I hold my breath, begging her to leave the fucking apartment before I’m forced to bring her into my plan for vengeance and have her witness one brother kill another. “I’ll stand over your casket and spit on your face.”
The apartment door slams, and my shoulders slump in relief. With a heavy exhale, I push my forehead against the doorjamb and pull my gun from its holster.
I exit the bathroom, my heart the picture of calm in the face of death.
Roberto is sitting back on the sofa. “Can you believe that cunt?” he says when he hears my approach.
I could shoot him in the back of the head. Avoid the need to look into his cold eyes ever again in life. I’d stare into them in death and let the relief of his departed soul feed my black heart for an eternity.
He turns when I don’t speak, oblivious to the weapon in my hand. Red lipstick stains his mouth. My muscles tighten. He tasted her. He fuckingtastedher.
“Fuck the raid on the warehouse,” he spits. “Wait until Enzo hears about that cunt and her plan to undermine us all.”
“Do you think he’ll believe you?” I ask, moving around the sofa to face him.
Shooting him from behind no longer holds its shine. His eyes are already dead, and I long to see the fear on his face when he realizes his demise is imminent and at my hand, no less.
He opens his mouth to speak, but I lift a hand, pulling a silencer from my inner jacket pocket and securing it on my pistol.
Confusion pulls his eyebrows together. “Wh—”
“Will he believe you,a rat? Or, Bianca, the promise of peace with Chicago.”
Understanding crosses his face. He doesn’t move. “I hadnochoice.”
“You always have a choice.” I take aim.
“And this is yours?” He has the audacity to let a look of betrayal cross his face.
“No,” I say. “My choice would be to strangle you and force you to suffer through a slow and painful death.”
Roberto’s jaw clenches, his Adam's apple moving with purpose.
“Mychoice would be to enjoy watching the capillaries in your eyes burst and fill with blood. I’d smile at the way your neck would discolor with the pressure of my bare fucking hands. I’d take you to the precipice of death and then let you breathe. You’d beg me to kill you. You’d cry for mercy, and I wouldn’t fucking give it to you.”
“Go on, then,” he taunts. “Big, bad,NecktieFerrari doesn’t shoot people.”
“This will have to satisfy my fantasies,” I respond, refusing to bite at his taunt. “Looking into your eyes as your life blinks away the moment my bullet pierces your skull.”
“We’re family.” He lifts his chin.
“You don’t know the meaning of thefuckingword.” I pull the trigger, the bullet sailing through the air so fast I’ve barely registered the shot before he lays slumped on his sofa. Blood seeps from his forehead, and I walk away without a backward glance, climbing from the window and onto the fire escape, content that I eliminated a threat to my family, but with a new goal in mind.
“Is it done?” Enzo answers my call.