Page 18 of Brutal Queen

“It won’t be long, Aurora. I promise I’ll do everything the doctors say to make sure I’m healed and home with you soon.”

We sit in silence, happy to exist in each other's space, and I’m so thankful she’s here. That I’m not alone in the dark anymore. Before long, I’m stifling yawns, struggling not to doze off.

“Sleep,mio re. I promise I’ll keep you safe until you wake up.”

I do as I’m told and drift off with her soft hands stroking my hair, grounding me enough to know that I’m free and she’s truly here and not a wishful dream.

END OF PART THREE

I thought ruining Aurora’s precious champion would give me a sense of satisfaction. And it did, for all of two hours.

I made sure to dump his worthless carcass down a side street we had eyes on. We executed a hostile takeover of some low-level drug runners looking to start shifting their own product downtown. While the men are next to useless, they came with some fucking useful real estate.

I’ve been able to renovate a few locations as either safe houses or warehouses. Less for storage and more for off-site interrogations and clean-ups. Dumping Enzo outside this one means I’ll have to burn this location, but it was worth it. Watching them find him on the CCTV cameras was exhilarating. I could practically feel the force of the fear rolling off them through the screens.

However, as soon as the ambulance drove off, any contentment or pleasure I felt disappeared with them.

It’s not enough for me to know I’ve hurt her. I want to see it. Taste it. Feel it. I want to look her in the eye and see her misery reflected back. See for myself that there’s a piece of her soul that willbe forever marred with guilt, knowing thatsheis the reason he suffered.

I’ve tried to get some of my people into the hospital, but that bitch doctor has them protected. She’s becoming a thorn in my side.

The entire fucking Bianchi organisation is a thorn in my side, for that matter. Enzo’s condition has kept her out of my way. Aurora hasn’t left the hospital in weeks. But she’s mobilised the capos and holds full fucking counsel out of the hospital once a week. Any moles I had are currently MIA, so I have no fucking clue what the Bianchis are up to.

My phone vibrates in my jacket pocket and I roll my eyes when I glance down at the screen. I cancel the call, fully aware of how much it will piss him off. Sure enough, the phone buzzes again almost instantly.

I reject the call again, which brings a smirk to my lips and makes me feel fractionally less pissed off than I was a moment ago. Until I can find a new toy to play with, I’ll take the edge off by fucking with this guy.

More buzzing. I let out a sigh, knowing that if I don’t answer, he will just keep ringing. This time, I accept the call.

“What the fuck do you want, Manny? I don’t have time or the inclination to deal with your fucking ego right now, dipshit.”

“You can’t talk to me like that,” he shouts, sounding more like a bratty teenager than a grown-ass man.

“I can and I will. You burned every fucking bridge you ever had. I’m all you’ve got left, so you’ll do exactly as I fucking say.”

“How long do I have to stay in this shithole safe house?”

“Till I say so. Was there anything else?”

The other end of the line is quiet except for a few tell-tale sounds of fingertips tapping against a hard surface. He needs something, but he doesn’t want to have to tell me what it is.

“Spit it out, old man.”

“Fuck you, you jumped up little prick. I did everything youasked. I handed you and your father the keys to the fucking kingdom. It’s not my fucking fault you couldn’t handle one pathetic little girl,” he snarls down the phone at me.

“I thought you wanted something from me, Manny, but apparently, all you wanted to do was piss me the fuck off. I’m growing tired of your entitled attitude. You’ve been rewarded for your loyalty to me and my vision for the De Luca organisation. You are hidden because the minute you show your face, the Bianchi’s will either have you executed, or if you’re really lucky, they’ll kidnap you, interrogate you, and THEN execute you.” There’s a begrudging grunt of acknowledgement, so I take that as his agreement and continue, “As much as I could do without your fucking attitude right now, I need your experience as my number two. So you will stay fucking put until I have finalised a new location and security for you.”

Another grunt is all I get, but this one at least sounds vaguely contrite.

“So, you will say ‘thank you, Don. I’ll work on the assignments I was given from here’ and then hang up before I order my men to make you one less fucking headache and have you shot.”

“Thank you, Don, I’ll work on my assignments from here,” he forces out and then the line goes dead. Fucking prima donna.

There needs to be entirely less whining and a lot more doing as he’s fucking told if he wants to survive as my second. I’m already growing tired of him.

My skin begins to crawl, the familiar need rising to the surface. Playing with Enzo did a better than average job of keeping my urges under control. It was so satisfying finding someone almost as resilient as myprincipessa, but now I’ll need to find some new toys to help me scratch the itch.

PART FOUR

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