Take Me Apart (Vitale Brothers Book 1)

In my head was the last place I wanted to be. I replayed my recent interaction with Tex, picking it apart piece by piece. How he’d felt pressed against me, or the way his ass had sucked me in and clenched tightly, threatening to never let me go. However, that wasn’t the case. Tex ran, and I let him every single time.

I ground my teeth as my fingers curled around the knife in my hand. Muffled screams pulled me back to reality, and I blinked a few times as everything came into view. Gone were Tex’s blue eyes and warm touch.

A heavy sigh fell from between my lips as I took in former officer Aaron Chandler. Even while dissociating, I’d made sure to avoid any vital spots. His leg was a carved-up mess. If I squinted and tilted my head slightly to the right, I could make out Tex’s name.

I dragged the sharp blade over the torn flesh, and it split further. Blood ran down the sides and joined the growing puddle.

“We can do this all night,” I said.

He shook his head, the cloth in his mouth keeping him from talking. Reaching up, I removed the damp fabric.

“You… you haven’t asked me anything.”

I blinked. I’d been too deep in thought. Shrugging, I stood up taller and loomed over Chandler. “Why waste my breath? You know why I’m here.”

He shook his head. Why did they all want to do it the hard way? Normally, I looked forward to those who could hold out against me. The longer they did, the longer I could enjoy my time holding a knife and watching blood spill. Lately, however, my patience was paper thin.

Any second now, I’d slice his throat. We’d be back at square one, trying to find out who was steadily fucking us out of money and trying to ruin connections.

“Did you think stealing from us would work out for you?”

Chandler shook his head. “No, I would nev—”

I twisted the knife around and brought down the handle on the arch of his nose. The crunch of bone resonated around me like someone chewing on corn nuts. A thick gush of blood followed and splattered on my already blood-soaked hands.

“All lines lead to you,” I said.

Rolling my shoulders back, I stared down at him as he turned his head, spitting the blood that dripped into his mouth. The rap of knuckles on a door gave me pause. I looked up just in time as Benito and Giancarlo walked in.

“Anything?” Benito asked.

I shook my head as we all stared down at the man who’d fucked us over. His eyes widened the moment he realized he didn’t just have one but all three Vitale brothers there.

“You did a number on my business.” Benito pulled out a cigarette and lit it as he brought it to his lips. “I can’t help but feel as if you were unhappy with the amount of money you were getting from me.”

Chandler coughed. “No. I… I didn’t do this. Ramada dragged me in.” His eyes pleaded with us to believe him.

Benito blew a puff of smoke out, filling the air with the smell of tobacco. He looked calm, as if the whole ordeal wasn’t threatening our very foundation. “And you kept it going?”

Chandler flinched and tugged at his restraints, but he wasn’t going anywhere.

“I was going to tell you about it,” he cried out.

Benito hummed and nodded at me. “You see, I don’t believe that. Why should I trust anything that comes out of your mouth right now?”

I moved toward Chandler and removed the last bit of fabric covering his cock. An undignified squeal came from him as I gripped his cock in one hand and brought my knife to it.

A memory of me doing this very same thing to Tex flashed before my eyes, and heat traveled down my spine, followed quickly by longing. My hold tightened until Chandler screamed out in pain. I loosened my grip slightly and shoved down the memory of Tex. It would only further distract me.

“I’m going to ask some questions, and I want answers, or you can become a dickless man.” Benito shrugged. “Up to you.”

Chandler was trembling from head to toe. His wild gaze bounced from each of us as if trying to find a lifeline in the room full of monsters. He wasn’t going to get any help, not from us.

“We only hit up the suppliers who were going down in busts. It was already a product that was going to end up in evidence.” Chandler coughed, making his body jerk and pressing his cock closer to the blade of my knife. “Shit, get that thing away from me!”

Pussy. Tex could handle it. Fuck, he’d even cum for me. I swallowed back the groan and kept my face impassive.

“You’re wasting our time. What else?” Gin prompted.

“That was it. I swear, we didn’t plan to take any money straight out of your pocket.” Chandler cleared his throat, trying to meet our gazes but failing. “It all stopped once Ramada went missing.”

Benito blew out a puff of smoke. I applied pressure dragging the blade back and forth, cutting into Chandler’s flesh. I had to be careful. Too much pressure would have the knife cutting off his dick like a hot knife through butter. I sawed it instead, forcing him to feel his flesh parting slowly as I cut off his cock.

His screams grew, and he flailed as much as his restraints allowed. His words became intangible as he banged his head back against the table. The stench of urine filled the air, mixing with the metallic scent of blood.

I grimaced as piss cleared some of the blood off my tattooed hands. I gritted my teeth and stopped halfway through his cock.

Giancarlo pushed off the wall, grabbed Chandler’s face, and slapped him. The cop’s mouth opened and closed before his eyelids fluttered. Blood continued to drip out past my knife.

“You shouldn’t lie. Who’s all working on this?” Benito asked.

Chandler shook his head, choking on his saliva.

“Man, I’ve met idiots before, but you’re taking the fucking cake here.” Giancarlo took a step back, wiping his hand on his pants leg.

Benito didn’t need to give me direction. I cut through the remaining piece of flesh. Blood squirted up, and Giancarlo let out a huff of laughter.

“He’s not going to hold out,” I said. I’d been working Chandler over long before they arrived. It had just slipped my mind to ask questions.

“Doc is already on her way,” Benito said.

I grabbed a wad of paper towel from Chandler’s kitchen and stuffed it over the bleeding stump where his cock once was.

The room grew quiet as I leaned against the wall. Tension hung heavy in the air. This had been going on far longer than any of us had realized. We were going to need to put the fear of the devil in everyone that was under us.

Benito must have predicted that I was going to go too far too fast. Not even five minutes later, one of our men let the doc through.

Melony’s thick curly hair was pinned back in a bun. Her dark brown skin glowed even in the dim lighting of the kitchen. She stepped through, her mouth turned down in a frown, the moment she saw the man on the kitchen table. She stepped around, trying to avoid the puddles of blood as she approached him. “How long?”

Benito stared at the doc. “Long enough to answer my questions.”

She shook her head. “It won’t be easy.” She held her hand up, silencing Benito. She was probably one of the very few women who could, besides our nonna. “Once I’m done, be ready to work quickly.” She started setting up, taking some of his blood and testing.

I turned away and moved to the side as we waited for her to bring Aaron Chandler back around. Couldn’t get answers if he was knocked out or too close to death.

“When he gives up your boy, I want him dead,” Benito said.

I went stiff at the thought of killing Tex. No matter how much I threatened him, if it came down to it, would I be able to pull the trigger?

“He won’t,” I said through gritted teeth.

Benito didn’t look convinced. Giancarlo was quick to jump up before a full-blown argument started again.

“Come on, are we sure he’s working with someone?”

“Yes,” Benito and I both said in unison.

“There are too many products and too many avenues being fucked with for him to be able to do it alone,” Benito said. He put his cigarette out and grabbed another. “Had to have inside information on our shit as well.” He eyed me accusingly, and my fist balled up tighter.

It isn’t Tex! I kept my mouth closed. I could scream it until I got blue in the face, and my brother still wouldn’t believe me. It would take every drop of evidence and then a fucking miracle to convince him otherwise.

“Benito—”

“Shut up, Gin,” Benito said. He pointed his cigarette at him. “I know you don’t want to go back to prison.”

Giancarlo’s face twisted in anger before smoothing out. Out of the three of us, he wore his emotions a lot more. He was also the one who hated confined places. Hospitals and jails were all the same to my brother.

“This is different,” Gin argued.

“Is it? As far as I’m concerned, this is history repeating itself.” Benito glanced my way. “Only this time, he went straight to the enemy.”

It isn’t like that. Right? Am I destined to pick between my family or the man I love?

My chest tightened as I realized that I loved Tex. What was I supposed to do now?

“Stop your quarreling. I know you’re brothers, but you’re going to make me fuck up.” Melony pulled back and finished hooking up the IV. “Alright, I say you got another ten, maybe twenty minutes.”

She stepped back and packed up her things. She didn’t glance back toward the man on the table as she headed toward the door. “Benito, double my fee for tonight. You know how I feel about working on corpses.”

He nodded, not arguing with her. To be honest I was certain we’d pay Melony more than a surgeon made if it meant she would be all ours. But she liked running her low-end clinic with her girlfriend. And we weren’t going to get in the way. Out of all the people who worked for us Melony came close to being family.

The moment she was gone, I shoved off the wall but Benito was up and shaking his head for me to stay still.

“I don’t want you tampering with answers.”

I gritted my teeth.

“If he was going to do that, then he would have done it already. Come on, Benito. Enzo has always put the family first.”

Benito grunted. I couldn’t agree with Giancarlo this time. Not when my heart was still racing with the knowledge that I loved Tex. Fuck, for the first time in my life, I questioned my loyalty to my family.

If Tex’s name is listed what am I going to do?

I felt eyes on me and looked up, not remembering when I’d tilted my head down. Giancarlo stared at me and I couldn’t find it in me to reassure him, not yet.

“Time to wake up,” Benito said.

He smacked Chandler a few times, but the man only groaned. Benito pinched Chandler’s broken nose. His eyes flew open as a nasally shout left him. That was one way to do it.

Clarity was fleeting in his dull-looking eyes.

“How many of you are fucking me out of my money?”

Chandler’s head nodded to the side, and Benito slapped him again. “Answer me.”

“Th-three… no-now two.” His teeth were chattering as he lay there. “C-co-c-cold.”

“Who’s your new partner?”

My stomach clenched as I waited on bated breath.

“I’m so, so, so cold.”

Benito lit a cigarette and sucked in a lungful of smoke before putting out the red cherry against Chandler’s flesh. The sizzle crackled in the air before the man screamed.

“There, you’re nice and warm now.” Benito grabbed Chandler’s face and forced him to look up at him. “Name now!”

Every single time his teeth clanged together as he shivered brought more anxiety trickling down my spine.

“R-r-ro-ro… Rourke… Houghton.”

My feet were moving before my brain could register it. I stood next to the table as Chandler repeated the name as if it was the only thought going through his head.

I knew it wasn’t Tex.

Chandler started to convulse, his body shook, and his eyes rolled to the back of his head. We stood there watching him going into shock, none of us racing to help him or ease his way to death’s door.

Time slipped by. What was probably only a matter of minutes passed as Chandler took his last breath. His fingers twitched, and I checked his pulse. I concentrated on the warm flesh as no pulse greeted my fingers. I dropped his bound wrists, and they flopped down lifelessly.

“Leave an example,” Benito said.

I grabbed the severed cock and pried open Chandler’s mouth. Shoving the limp cock down his throat was messier than I’d assumed. The member squished and folded under my fingers. Blood eased the way as I stuffed him like a Thanksgiving turkey. I grabbed my knife once more and carved the word thief into his flesh.

Blood rolled out slowly, the heart no longer pumping it through his veins. It made cutting him a lot easier. I moved around and shoved him a little way down the table. I traded out my knife for his kitchen meat cleaver. It had a good weight to it as I raised it and brought it down over his wrist with a substantial amount of force.

I hacked away at his wrists two, three, four times before they pulled free.

“Get in here and clean up. Leave the body,” I said.

Some of our men moved in with gloves on and went about cleaning up the evidence. All that would be left behind was the body of a thief. No one stole from the Vitale family and lived to see another day.

I washed the blood from my hands before heading out of the house and toward my car. Giancarlo’s hand gripped my shoulder, and I stopped. I cocked a brow at my brother as he studied me.

“You seem different.”

My natural reaction to tell him he was seeing things didn’t come forth. Could I deny it when I felt different?

“Things are changing.”

He nodded. “What are you going to do about him?”

Gin didn’t have to specify for me to know he was talking about Tex. My heart fluttered, and I absentmindedly rubbed at my chest. “I’m going to drag him home.”

Giancarlo’s mouth tilted down in a frown. “He’s a cop.”

“He’s the man I love.”

We both stood there, Gin’s eyes wide as his mouth fell open. Saying it aloud only cemented the feelings.

“Enzo.” Gin’s voice was sullen.

I pulled free and turned to face my brother. “Tex is mine.”

Gin pushed his fingers through his hair. “You know what they say. If you love something, let it free or some shit like that.”

I shook my head. “That is ridiculous. It should be, if you love something, lock it away so that it never escapes.”

Giancarlo laughed. “Man, I’m starting to feel bad for a cop.” He moved past me. “We solve this shit and get things back in order. After that, we’ll see about you getting your cop.”

“Tex.”

Gin cocked a brow at me.

“He is more than a cop. His name is Tex.”

Giancarlo laughed and it helped dissipate some of the tension that constantly surrounded me as of late. “Right, a mobster and a cop.” More laughter bubbled out of him. “Fuck, you got it bad.”

There was no denying that. I loved Tex Caster, and there was a future for us even if I had to clear the way with blood.