FULL NOVELXO Devoted: Chapter 76
Frankie slams the basement door shut while wiping a bloodied hand across his forehead. “He’s ready for you.”
I pull back my fist and launch it into his cheek. He stumbles backwards, a look of shock on his face.
“You brought him back here. You allowed their wedding, you fucking asshole!” I roar, grabbing him by the throat and slamming my knee into his groin.
He shouts in pain. “What the hell, Luca?” he hisses.
I shove him back against the wall and pull my knife. “Is that why you really killed your brother? You knew he let his man rape his daughter and then let him get away with it?”
His mouth falls open. “What? I-I had no idea.”
“Bullshit. You’re just like your brother,” I spit, pressing the tip of the knife in further. Blood trickles down the blade.
“Don’t you dare.” His eyes flash with anger.
“Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t end you. You’re no use to Rosa, anyway. You abandoned her. You let her get engaged to her rapist.”
“Marco was responsible for the death of my girlfriend. And my unborn child. That’s why I killed him, okay? That’s why I worked for Romano. I have been plotting his end for a long time.”
Shit.
He rubs his neck as I remove the knife.
“That’s why I left. The explosion that killed Rosa’s mom also killed Leila. Marco killed Romano’s first wife, and that was the retaliation. I had to leave. I couldn’t leave Rosa and Eva as orphans, so I let him live until the time was right. I didn’t know, Luca. I swear to God.” His fists ball at his sides.
“Jesus, Frankie.”
He takes a stride towards me, his finger taps hard against my chest. “I’ll let this one go, you’re protecting my niece. But, you try that again, I’ll end you. Never speak of my past again. Do you hear me?”
My eyes narrow. “I think you need to explain that to Rosa.”
I know it eats her up, thinking Frankie abandoned her. Even if, in his own messed up way, he loves her.
He grips my shoulders, and his gray eyes darken. “I will. Now, let’s go and unleash hell on that piece of shit down there. I need to find Eva.”
I descend the stairs to the basement and my mood lifts in anticipation.
Dante’s guttural screams are like music to my ears. The metallic scent of blood lingers in the air.
Red is smeared across his forehead, and his nose has a new bend to the left. He tugs at the unrelenting chains on his wrists.
I look over at the metal bench, the smell of burning flesh filling my nostrils. Five of his toes and two fingers are laid out in a line.
Dante’s eyes go wide when he spots me. Lighting a cigarette, I make my way towards him.
Sweat beads on his forehead, mingling with the crimson.
“Nothing to say?” I let a plume of smoke waft into his face.
“Fuck you and that fucking whore upstairs,” he yells.
I draw back my right hand and crack it into his mouth. Blood splatters, followed by a couple of teeth bouncing on the floor.
“You don’t get to speak about her, or ever say her name again,” I say through gritted teeth.
He hisses as I stub the cigarette out on his forehead.
A fresh wave of hatred washes over me, thinking about what he did to my girl. I push my thumb into the corner of his eye and push, hard enough for it to pop under my thumb and out of its socket. I grab the soft ball and pull, relishing in his screams as I jerk it free. “That’s for even looking at her.” I promised Rosa pain, and that’s exactly what I’ll deliver.
“No more. Please, just get it over with.” A stream of fresh blood streams from his sunken eyelid.
The room erupts into laughter. “You’re pleading with the wrong men, Dante. We show no mercy.”
I clutch Rosa’s engagement ring, the thing that trapped her for months.
“Open your mouth,” I command.
He shakes his head.
Grabbing his jaw, I pry open his mouth and shove the massive diamond in. “Now swallow.”
He clenches his teeth, fighting to shake my hands free. Pinning his head, I pinch his nose shut and cover his mouth with my hand.
“I said, fucking swallow.”
Leaning in, I whisper. “If you don’t, I’ll cut your dick off and make you eat that instead.”
He tries to thrash under my suffocating grasp, but finally does a dramatic swallow.
He’s not nearly in enough pain yet. “Keller, pass me the hammer.”
Keller steps out of the shadows and drops the heavy weight of a small sledge into my palm. I take a step back, swinging my arm up, and with an angry load of force, smash the hammer straight onto his kneecap.
The bone crunches as his lower leg juts limply out in front of him. He tips back his head and lets out a blood-curdling scream.
I prop the mallet on my shoulder. “Now, where the fuck is Eva?”
I clench my teeth. I bet that hurt like a son of a bitch.
Tears stream down his sweaty face, dripping from his split lips.
He lets out a wheezing laugh. “Why does it matter? She’s probably dead by now.”
My heart sinks for Rosa. In all honesty, I don’t believe Eva is alive. Not now that I know Maria was in on it.
“What limb next?” Frankie calls over, holding up the hacksaw.
“Hands.” I toss the hammer on the table next to the dismembered digits.
Dante’s mouth opens with a low moan and frantically begins shaking his head. Frankie hands me the saw.
“What’s your preference, left or right?” I touch each one with the tip of the tool as I ask.
“Fuck off.” He sucks in saliva and spits it at my shoe. I kick it off.
“Both, then.” I shrug, and Grayson laughs behind me.
Shedding my jacket, I roll up my sleeves and slide out my tie. Amputations can be messy. “Frankie, hold him back, then you can do the other one.” It’s the least I can do for kneeing him in the nuts earlier.
A sadistic grin creeps up on his lips.
“Gladly.” Frankie’s eyes are dark as he wraps his arm under Dante’s chin.
“This is for touching her,” I hiss. Dante shakes against the metal chains. I hold down his clenched fist and put all my pressure onto the hacksaw as the teeth start to tear through his flesh.
By the time I hit bone, he slumps in his chair.
“Hit him up with some adrenaline. He needs to feel everything,” I call out. Grayson jabs a needle into his neck and pushes the liquid in.
“He’ll be right as rain in a minute.”
I slap his cheeks. “Wakey! Wakey! We still have a little while left.”
He groans, his one eye flickering open.
“You don’t get to die yet. You’ve tortured Rosa for years. It’s only fair you feel her pain.” I drag the serrated edge over the last flap of skin. The lifeless hand lands with a soft thud.
Yellow liquid pools next to my feet.
I look at him with disgust. “Really? I expected better from Romano’s firstborn.”
“My dad will kill you.”
“Well, he can join you and your brother down in hell. A little family reunion.”
Grayson works on patching up his hand, burning the stump and wrapping it. The cooking meat stench has me cringing.
“Why do I suddenly want a hot dog?” Grayson chuckles, wrapping the stub left of Dante’s arm.
I rip open his shirt, revealing his hairy chest, and pull the small blade out from my pocket.
“This is for her nightmares.”
I scatter deep cuts across his chest and abdomen, his muscles tense as I slice away, creating a pattern of fissures.
He gasps for breath between each pass of my blade, barely able to keep his head up. I glance over to Frankie. He’s itching to get to him. If anyone can get Dante to speak, it’s Frankie.
I step back and beckon to him with the tip of my knife. “You’re up.”
Frankie grabs Dante by the throat, forcing him to look at him. “One last chance before I cut your dick clean off. Where the fuck is Eva?”
“Get fucked, Frankie,” Dante coughs.
Frankie stands back, lifts his foot, and kicks him in the chest, toppling over his chair.
“Reckon he will really cut his dick off?” Grayson appears beside me, his arms crossed, watching Frankie. I swear there is a glimmer of approval from Grayson.
“I’m banking on it.”
Frankie’s wild eyes look over to us. “Keller, unchain him and hold him down.”
Keller cuts Dante’s ties, lays him flat on the ground, and pins his legs.
“Grayson. Grab his arms.”
Frankie unbuckles Dante’s belt, yanking down his pants, revealing his shriveled dick. We all burst into laughter. Dante’s pleads are garbled through his swelling lips.
I hand Frankie my blade. He yanks the flaccid organ and starts cutting. Keller and Grayson look away. I’ve never heard a man scream like this–loud enough my ears are ringing.
Frankie kneels back, Dante’s chunk of tissue barely filling his hand. “First time I’ve cut a dick off,” he grunts.
He shoves the detached cock into Dante’s mouth to muffle the screams. He’s bleeding all over the concrete, I doubt he has much longer to live.
“He’s not going to tell us where Eva is.” Frankie stands with a resigned sigh and tosses Dante’s little snippet into the growing puddle.
But it isn’t over yet. We won’t stop searching for her. Dante, however, is done. I just want to get back to my Rosa.
I lock eyes with Grayson. “Burn him.”
“You got it, boss.”
The four of us, we are sadistic fucks. Each of us has lived a life of pain. We aren’t good men. We never will be. But we will always be the best for our women and our children. Everything we do is for them.
And right now, I want mine wrapped tightly in my arms.
Keller and Frankie drag the bloody, unconscious man out the small door leading to the van. There’s a walled off area at the other end of the property for just this kind of barbeque. In our line of work, these places become second nature.
Grayson douses Dante in gasoline, the stench clouding the air. I suppose it’s better than piss and sweat. Dante’s eyelids flutter; he’s conscious enough to know what’s going on.
I walk over with a cigarette in my mouth. The men back away.
“This is for Rosa.”
I light the end, take a drag and throw it onto his chest. The four of us stand back, watching as the flames take over his body. He flails on the charred ground, leaking screams of despair that fade to the crackling sound of inferno.
“I’m going back to my woman.”
They all nod, the flames dancing in their eyes. I’ve seen enough. He’s gone.