Page 28 of My Dark Fairy Tale
“Now, that is an idea,” I murmured, then looked up at Renzo over his shoulder. “You do not think my offer of wine is enough?”
He had to tread carefully to avoid further insulting me, but there was a sly cast to his gaze that intrigued me. “I have powerful friends, Signore. Not so powerful as you, but still, they are old school. They do not like one of their own to be mistreated.”
“What friends would those be?” I asked softly.
“Leonardo di Conte.”
I fought the smile that pulled at my mouth, but Carmine had to hide his behind a hand.
“Well, we would not want to upset Leonardo di Conte, would we?” I said somberly, even though the man he spoke of had been my lifelong friend, as close to a brother as I had ever had.
Obviously, Galasso knew enough to know about the mythical Il Gentiluomo, but not about my outfit.
“Will you get the keys, Zo?” I told Renzo. “The least we could do is let this poor man take a ride.”
Galasso’s eagerness leaked through the air, gaseous and nauseating. The charade was almost over, and I was finding it harder and harder to pretend.
“So you like red wine and vintage Ferraris. What kind of woman do you enjoy, Galasso?”
His name hissed through my teeth, a threat he was too inebriated to notice.
“Smooth,” he said, like the pervert he was. “Young and sweet. Ask any real man, he’ll tell you the same.”
I waited until his chuckles settled and then slowly got up out of my chair. “Come, let us go to the car.”
Galasso stumbled getting up but smacked Carmine’s hand when he tried to help, muttering a curse under his breath as he moved forward when I waved him down the hall ahead of me.
“I like them with eyes like a doe’s, wide and lovely brown,” I told him conversationally as we walked slowly down the winding, dark corridor carved into the ground. “Long dark hair soft as mink, andfast. So fast, you cannot catch them if you give chase.”
In front of me Galasso missed a step ascending to the next room and stilled, shoulders hunching slightly.
“Do you know such a girl, Signore Galasso?” I asked softly as I stepped too closely behind him, looming over his shorter frame. “Acerbiattaso enchanting you could not stop yourself from trying to hunt her down.”
“I don’t,” he argued until he felt the tip of the hunting knife in my hand pressed hard enough to draw a bead of blood, as red as our shared wine, against his neck. “H-how did you know?”
“Because that little fawn stumbled into the path of an even bigger predator as she fled from you.”
“You can have her!” he almost shouted, the words bouncing off the close walls. “I-I didn’t even touch her.”
“Oh, but I think you did. I think you touched her hip and then her ankle. Iknowyou wanted to touch a lot more than that. Did you never learn, Galasso, that all women are too good for the likes of you? And unluckily for you, this woman in particular is so far above your thick head that now you must lose it for attempting to keep her for yourself.”
The door opened before Galasso so quickly, he didn’t have time to orient himself before I was shoving him over the ledge onto the black tarp Renzo had laid across the floor. The older man fell to his knees with a wailing moan for help.
Of course, there was no help to be had.
He’d trespassed into my underworld, where I was judge, jury, and executioner. Some capos relegated the blood work to their soldiers, but not me.
Especially not now.
Before Galasso could straighten from his unbalanced lean, I was on him. My fists were slightly sore from the beating I had given the leather bag in my basement, but that did not numb their efficacy at all.
One strike to the side of his head, already muddled by the drugs I’d slipped into the wine.
Another to his broken nose when I flipped him over and straddled his torso.
A trio to the cheeks—left, right, left—like the number of kisses Italians bestowed for good luck.
I thought of Guinevere alone in a foreign country, helpless and vulnerable on the side of the road, desperate for aid that came in the shape of this man beneath my knees. I thought of the half-moon smile and the low-lidded gaze peeking out beneath long lashes as she smiled shyly at me and the surprising edge of her bladed tongue.
