Scorned Obsession (Scorned Fate)

In an ideal situation, Gian’s brains would be on the wall. I would shoot my way out of here with Bianca in tow. The gangsters present wouldn’t dare be in the sights of my gun. Admittedly, there were a few too stupid to live.

But Bianca would never leave Renz. Covered in blood, she speared her venom-filled glare at me, Gian, and every single person in this room. I didn’t recognize the woman in front of me and I wanted to roar.

My world was nothing like the morally gray one she lived in.

Mine was pitch black. I swam with the filth of the underworld. The cockroaches.

“Fuck that,” Renz gritted out.

“Or do you want me to kill you now?” Gian asked Renz.

My finger feathered the trigger. Gian would be dead before he shot Renz. Griselda clasped my arm, but I recoiled from her touch and stepped away from her.

“I’ll do what you want.” Bianca’s voice cracked. “Just⁠—”

I seethed in silence. No, Bianca. Fuck, no. I’d never shot anyone without purpose. My kills were never based on emotion. Cold. Methodical. Words I lived by. I was anything but cold right now. I was anything but methodical at this fucking instant. I exposed my card when I shot the man who shot Renz.

I would kill a Rossi before anyone hurt Bianca.

“Bianca, goddammit,” Renz broke off in a groan of pain.

“Shut up and save your energy,” she snapped at her brother. She rose like a battered soldier who still had a lot of fight in her. One who was about to make a last stand. She stared down at Gian. “I’ll do what you want.”

Gian rose to his feet. He wasn’t a tall man, five eight at most, but he made up for his height with arrogance and the sickening entitlement he shoved down people’s throats to make sure they knew he earned his place in the family. That he earned the Rossi last name, unlike me, I wanted to get rid of it. That was still the plan.

“But my brother gets medical attention right this fucking minute,” Bianca continued with steel in her voice.

“Of course.” Gian’s gloating tone triggered the swoosh of fury in my ears. Marrying Bianca De Lucci was a coup. No one in the mafia dared pursue her for fear of Cesar, but this was a rare advantage. My mind worked furiously on how to get her out of this crisis and it was hitting every roadblock except one.

“And after I marry you, you will return Renz to my family,” Bianca continued to negotiate. “Unharmed. Otherwise, I will make you sorry you married me.”

“Feisty,” Gian said with a malice that sickened me. “I like that.”

“Sandro.” She addressed me in a monotone voice as if she was reading a manifesto of someone sentenced to death. “If he reneges on his promise and either Renz or I are killed, you will avenge us, yes?”

Gian laughed. “You can’t make that request, my dear.”

“Sandro is an enforcer, is he not?” Her eyes were still on me, her anger morphing into a chilling stare.

“For the Rossi crime family,” Gian said. “He cannot act without my order.”

That’s where you’re wrong, cuz.

I kept my face expressionless. But my whole body thrummed with the urge to act. To yank Bianca out of this nightmare.

“But you put the Rossi crime family at risk if you don’t have Renz or me to bargain with.” She stared at me. “And as the guardian enforcer, Sandro is acting within his rights to eliminate the risks to the family…meaning you.”

A silence fell over the room. I had become an urban legend after I killed the notorious butcher of Toronto at age nineteen. He’d been the biggest threat to our organization. The elders created my title as the “guardian” enforcer—the protector of the family who eliminated anyone who was a danger to us, even a boss or a high-ranking member. They didn’t clarify the extent of my powers. When I went away for a year in a Russian prison and didn’t crack, the legend only grew. I scoffed at it. No one could really make a direct link to me and my kills. But if it would make Gian second-guess hurting Bianca and Renz, I was gonna play it up.

“She’s right.”

“And how did she know about the guardian position?” Gian asked. “This is not common knowledge outside our family.”

“Who cares!” Bianca snapped. “My brother needs medical attention now.”

“Doc is on his way,” Tommy said.

“We can’t stay here,” I said. “This is the first place the De Luccis will look.” I ignored the blast of betrayal coming from Bianca, but Dom and Matteo were out of town. I didn’t trust Dom’s underboss, and Nico was a hothead.

“You’re right,” Gian agreed, then grinned at Bianca. “I’ll have the marriage license expedited.”

Bianca stared at Gian blankly. Lost in the fiasco playing out in front of her, she was bearing all the blame for what happened to her brother. Her skin, once creamy and vibrant, had taken on the grayish pallor of death.

As much as I wanted to reassure her, Bianca needed the enforcer and not her childhood friend.

“We need to move his delivery van,” I told Gian. The property owner of this house was a shell company. Given the De Luccis’ resources, though, they would connect it with the Rossis in no time. A plan was forming in my head. A path I never imagined taking, but it was the only way.

Hours later, Tommy emerged from his huddle with Gian. “The Brooklyn property is crawling with De Lucci soldiers,” he informed me. “Nico is with them.”

I’d already switched off my phone with the number the De Luccis knew. Two hours after Renz and Bianca became our prisoners, I received the first text from Nico. Like I suspected, it wouldn’t take them long to figure out the Rossis’ connection to the house in Brooklyn. Dom texted me next. With my lack of response, they called. The messages became angrier and progressively threatening at my continued silence. And my silence indicated I was involved in their disappearance.

“Keep an eye on what they’re doing. Any news on the other De Luccis?”

“No. But Luca is trying to reach us.”

Fuck.

The De Luccis were trying to get to us through another channel. One that would be hard to ignore.

“Gian needs to act fast.” I needed to act faster. “We don’t want to end up on the wrong side of Chicago.”

“Gian should have thought about this before he held Lorenzo and Bianca hostage,” Tommy muttered.

“You’re his underboss. You should’ve said something.”

“He doesn’t listen. The power has gone to his head.”

“It should have been you,” I told him.

Tommy emitted a bitter laugh. “Oh, you mean it should have been you, Sandro? The elders wouldn’t want a Scavo in charge. They will always want a Rossi.” The elders. Only one elder left and he was acting consigliere—the adviser—for the family since my brother, Frankie, whacked the last one.

“It’s time for change,” I told him. “The Scavos have been loyal soldiers.”

He gave a shrug. Tommy was the one who considered the best interests of the family first. It was through Tommy that I found out that my brother, Frankie, had suggested kidnapping Bianca in retaliation for Matteo stealing Sera from an arranged marriage that would have benefitted the Rossis.

I would kill my own brother to protect Bianca. Luca did it for me. That was the secret Luca and I shared because all witnesses to him shooting my brother were dead.

“I’m going to check on Bianca and Renz.”

Tommy smiled faintly. “Good luck with that.”

I grunted and made my way through the old house. I wouldn’t call it a mansion, but it had eight rooms, and a basement used for interrogations. A lean staff kept it maintained, and it was one of the few properties the other Five Families knew nothing about.

Once Cesar De Lucci landed in Manhattan, war was imminent unless I could head him off before he acted unilaterally and went after us. He operated outside the rules of crime families and had a paramilitary team at his disposal, which he used to police the underworld.

I didn’t agree that underworld organizations needed an oversight. Everyone had the right to power. Luca being an example. Had Luca not been related to the De Luccis, Cesar would have gone after him a long time ago. Hypocrite, much? Luca bled power and made deals with the Russians when it suited him. But that power came at a price when he lost his wife. The wolves were circling. They scented a wounded animal. Wounded animals either gave up or fought back.

Luca was fighting back. He was still looking for Natalya.

People thought he was crazy, but I understood his obsession. Because if Bianca disappeared without a trace with no body to prove she was dead, I would scorch the earth looking for her.

Yet, I asked myself, why? To what end?

I trudged to the second floor. The ancient steps creaked from decades of use. I was glad Gian was hospitable enough not to stick his bride and her brother in the basement.

Bride.

That word left an acrid taste on my tongue.

I came upon a room with the lock on the outside. I never wanted any part of my fucked-up family to touch her, yet here we were in a more fucked-up situation.

I unlocked the door and stepped inside.

Bianca sat by her brother’s bedside, but her eyes focused on me. I wished I could offer comfort, but all I had were the doctor’s words.

“Doc said if he makes it through the night, his prognosis is better.” I nodded to Renz’s sleeping form. “I heard he was belligerent and had to be sedated.”

She stared at me for a long time, not speaking. Her condemning gaze weighed heavily on the suffocating silence, but I forced myself to meet it. I could fix this, but everything hinged on her cooperation. The mounting pressure from the De Luccis would lessen if we returned Renz.

“I’ve never despised a person more than you.” Every single word was like a bullet hitting me center mass.

“That’s fair,” I returned.

She stood, walked around the bed, then stopped in front of me. Jesus, why was she still in her bloody clothes?

“I despise you more than your cousin.”

“I understand.”

“Did our friendship mean nothing to you?” she asked. Tears rimmed her angry eyes. And I ached to cup her face and wipe them away. But I needed her pissed. To hate me if she must.

“Of course it does, but you never listen, do you? You can’t save me. This…” I lowered my voice and threw my arm behind me. “Is my world. This is the sickness that runs in it. You deserve better and it can never be me. Now, do you see why?”

“But you should have tried harder instead of showing me everything to the contrary. You should have showed me what a sick bastard you are. The type to go along and let me marry Gian.”

“What would you have me do? Turn everything red? Kill everyone to save you?”

“You could have convinced him to let us go, but your fiancée had to open her big mouth.”

“I killed the man who shot your brother. He had every right to shoot Renz.” We reviewed the security footage and Bianca’s brother overpowered the Rossi goon and knocked him out. “Lucky for us, he wasn’t a made man, or Gian would have me removed from the scene. Where would that leave you?”

“Apparently, the same place I am right now. But I wish you could have convinced them to drop Renz off at the hospital.”

I crossed my arms because she still couldn’t see my dilemma. My worlds were colliding. Protect the Rossi organization and protect Bianca. I didn’t know how to do both. Wait, I did. I knew who I would save first, but I needed a plan.

“You overestimate my importance. I’m forever the bastard son of Carmelo Rossi whose only purpose to the Rossi crime family is its assassin.”

“Even me? If they tell you to kill me, would you do it? Because I hate your family with all my heart. And if I could burn this place down with everyone in it, including you, it would make me very happy.”

“Bianca.” Regret roughened the way I said her name. Not because she wanted to kill me, but because I never wanted her to experience such hatred. She had only known love and was spoiled by her family. Seeing her now in bloodied clothes made me want to wage war against my family, but I had to play it smart. Even if it meant Bianca ended up despising me. Maybe that was the only way she would let go of her obsession with me. Maybe she already had.

“Would you kill me if they asked you?” she asked.

How could she say that? This time I couldn’t help myself. I erased the distance between us and cupped her cheek. Her multifaceted brown eyes were now dimmed into a brown as dark as mine. “My bullets, my blades, and my fists are meant for everyone else. Never you. I would never hurt you. I would slit my throat first.”

She didn’t say anything.

“I’d do it now to prove it to you, but I won’t. Right now is when you need me the most.”

She stepped back, effectively dislodging my hand from her cheek. I let my arm fall back to my side, yet my fingers itched to touch her.

She held my gaze for a few seconds longer before she walked back to Renz. “I don’t need you anymore, Sandro. I needed you hours ago.”

She sat in a chair, elbows propped on the mattress, staring at her brother. “You chose them over me.” She shrugged. “I always believed there was hope for you. I was wrong.”

Her words should’ve set me free. Whatever bond we shared broke. Or it had already broken.

She saw the monsters in my family and knew I was one of them.