I can’t help but smile.
After all these years, we’re finally here. Ciro looks like a completely broken man. And his daughter looks absolutely delectable. I’ll have fun breaking her in a different way.
Ciro’s lawyer takes the contract and bows his head. “I’ll make the copies,” he says, before scurrying to the door.
“Bring in our men,” Dad demands after him.
The lawyer disappears into the hallway and a second later, two of our men appear in his place.
“Take the girl back to my place,” I order.
“No, please!” Elisa begs. Her pretty hazel eyes are wide and wild. She certainly is good at pulling at whatever threads are left of my heartstrings, but she’ll learn soon enough that I can’t be bartered with on an emotional basis. Elisa can blame her father for that. My short time with him as a boy made me cold and ruthless. And it’s why I’m here today. To drag her from one gilded cage to the next. From Ciro’s dark tower to mine. Only I won’t be so gentle with the porcelain skinned princess.
“It’s too late for any of that, my dear,” her scumbag father says. He’s hardly worried about her. It’s his own ass he’s trying to save, and that’s by design. “You already signed the contract.”
“I did it to save you,” Elisa says.
“And I thank you.” He turns his back to her and a strike of anger erupts behind my chest. The bastard really is just as cold as I remember. How could you treat your own family this way?
I was hoping for more dramatics from him. Oh well, this isn’t over yet. I’m sure he’ll be singing a different tune by the time I’ve tied Elisa up for good.
I nod at my men and they take Elisa by the arms. A pang of possessive jealousy nearly knocks me off my feet. I wasn’t entirely expecting that, but I have to admit, I do get protective of my possessions, especially when I pay this much for them. And especially when I purchase them for revenge. That big lug of Ciro’s nearly bruised my pretty little prize. If my father hadn’t calmed me with a hand on my shoulder, I might have shot him right between the eyes.
“I’ll see you tonight, little flower,” I say, more to taunt her father than to frighten her. She’s in for a hard road, and I’ll make sure she knows who’s fault that is.
Luckily, Elisa goes limp in the hands of my men as she’s dragged from Ciro’s office. His big lug of a guard is quickly dismissed as well. Now it’s only the three of us. Dad, Ciro and me. Old friends. Enemies until the end.
“You’re evil, Aiden,” Ciro mutters under his breath.
“Wrong.” Fury lines my veins as I step towards the fragile older man. He’s not nearly as scary as I remember him being. But I’m also no longer a child. I’m not his hostage anymore either. He’s mine. And so is his daughter. “You don’t get to use my real name. When you made me Brutus, it sealed your fate. To you, I am Brutus. Just count yourself lucky I didn’t bring my knife.”
My father steps between us, a cool calming presence in the furious storm. “You reap what you sow, Ciro.”
“Aye,” the Italian puts on a faux Irish accent. “I guess so.”
“At least you’ve bought yourself a few more breaths,” I spit. The money I just paid for Elisa may be a drop in the bucket for us, but it’s a lifeline for Ciro.
The bastard is in trouble. Deep trouble. Dad and I have been purposely draining him behind the scenes since the day I came of age.
We both crave our revenge on the man who tore our family apart and drove my mother to end her life.
My fists clench at the memory of that gray drizzly funeral. I never got to say my goodbyes. All I was left with was that little ray of hope. It’s long gone now, as is my patience for the man who snuffed it out.
“Is that all?” Ciro asks, refusing to turn around and face us. He looks so weak and pathetic that I’m almost angry at myself for ever letting him have any control over me. You were only a kid, Aiden.
“Do you have anything left?” I ask.
“Take my house, why don’t you!” Ciro says raising his arms and turning back around to us.
“I think I’d rather see you rot here.”
Ciro looks up at the camera we’ve installed in his office. “You’ve made me a prisoner in my own home.” He shakes his head.
“Just keeping an eye out on our assets,” Dad smiles.
“You don’t own me.” Ciro growls.
“But we own everything else,” I state. “Even those armed men outside. Are they loyal to you or your money? I’d bet money. They’ll do as we say and you’ll be left here to stew in your own failure.”
We now have our hands in everything Ciro’s ever worked for. His family. His businesses, both legal and illegal. His syndicate. Still, it’s not enough. If we were to truly repay him in kind, he’d be in the ground with a bullet hole between his eyes. That will come. First, he has to suffer. Just like he made me and my family suffer all those years ago. And for what? Greed? Power?
Ciro sulks by his office window and Dad puts a proud hand on my shoulder. Despite all that we still need to do, I take great delight in this moment. This is for him just as much as it is for me. My dad and Ciro go way back. Neither would be where they are today without each other, and now, they’d never have suffered as much either.
But Ciro started this war. We’ve just ended it. Well, we’ve started to end it. It won’t truly be over until he’s dead, but I can’t let him go so easy. Dad won’t say it, but I believe he feels the same way.
“One last thing,” I smirk. Rage and pride puff out my chest. If taking Ciro’s daughter didn’t send him to his knees as quickly as I was hoping, this piece of news will.
Ciro senses the anvil that’s about to drop. His wrinkling features droop towards the floor as he keeps his eyes angrily peeled on our camera. “What do you have left to take?”
“Your connection to The Family,” Dad says before I can spit it out. All I can do is chuckle. He deserves it, but hell would I have loved to deliver that blow.
“What?” Ciro’s jaw practically drops to the floor.
“You’re being completely excommunicated. For good this time”
Ciro’s defeated demeanour melts away for a familiar indignation. “How the hell does a savage Irishman like you think he has any say in that!?”
Dad has been cool and collected throughout this whole process, but now he jumps. “This savage Irishman was always the brains behind our operation,” he gloats. “Sure, you were cunning and ruthless and cold enough to get the job done, but we’d never have gotten to where we did if it wasn’t for this.” He points to his temple, then points towards mine. “And now you have to deal with two of us.”
“Four, actually,” I point out, referencing my two younger brothers, Nolan and Shane. They helped too. Shame they couldn’t be here for this. I’m sure they would have loved to see the look on Ciro’s face.
“You fuckin’ dirty micks…”
We can’t help but chuckle. “Careful, Ciro. You’re starting to sound like the savages you hate so much.”
“We’ll see what The Family has to say about this…”
“Oh, you won’t be talking to them anymore,” I smirk. “They go through us now. You know, since we own you.”
“Bullshit! The Family would never work with the Irish, no matter how rich and connected you’ve become since I expelled you from the underworld.”
We may have the upper hand now, but Ciro’s is reaching into a dark past, and a heavy stone of dread drops in my gut at the memories he’s dredging up.
“They aren’t working with us,” I say. “They’re working for us.”
Ciro collapses into his seat. “No…”
A new fury rises up in me at his reaction. He cares more about this than his own daughter. Maybe I was being too gentle with the fragile D’Ignoti princess. Whatever. The longer we keep Ciro alive, the more time he’ll have to sink into the despair of me breaking in his daughter. I’ll make sure he sees the full lengths I’m willing to go to make him suffer.
“You’ll find it impossible to contact them,” Dad says, taking out his cell phone. “But we still have their number. We’ll keep you updated on the process.”
“… And on your daughter,” I add.
“You bastards.” Ciro’s once strong and mighty voice is shattered into a thousand weaker pieces. It brings happiness to my heart. But only for a moment. I only ever get to experience happiness in small doses before the darkness comes over me again. Mom’s still gone. Lost forever. I never got to say goodbye.
Because of this bastard.
“You failed, old man…” I sneer.
“We’ll be in touch, Ciro,” Dad adds, signaling the end of this victorious meeting. Ciro is practically comatose and he hardly acknowledges us as we leave his dungeon of a home and head back to our base with all of his loot in hand.
But I’m not done plundering yet. My pants tighten as I think of the fragile little prize waiting for me. The D’Ignoti princess is mine now. How could something so pretty come from someone as ugly as Ciro? Elisa is the last piece of purity in that bastard’s corrupted world. My hard cock will put an end to that.
She’s going to break for me, and I’m going to have fun doing it. I will not be kind. I will not be gentle. I will be merciless and I will make sure she begs for more.
Only then will I have the revenge I crave.
