“Here?” I gesture around. “In the middle of the damn woods?”
She shrugs. “The cabin basement is still intact.”
“Is she tied in up in there?”
Viola nods.
I run my hair through my hands and nod. I may not like it, but she’s fucking right. We have to know if that bastard can be trusted. “Fine. I just need to take my sister home. I don’t want her around this fucked-up shit.”
Her brown eyes peer into mine. “Take the car, and then come back for me.”
Despite everything, I’ve never wanted her so badly than in this moment. I grab her and kiss her hard, shoving my tongue into her mouth, bruising those sweet, luscious lips. When I pull away, she’s panting, looking at me like she wants to devour me.
“I’m so angry at you right now for lying to me,” I say. “But I get why you did.”
“So am I forgiven?”
“Far from it, sweetheart, when I get back, I’m going to punish you by fucking you so hard and deep that you won’t be able to walk for a week.”
She smirks. “I look forward to it.”
I give her lips one last teasing suck and then let her go so she can open the trunk.
Inside is a small woman with dark hair and dark brown eyes. From the angle Viola seems to have wedged her into the trunk, she doesn’t look comfortable. Her clothes are in disarray, but enough that I can see the edge of a familiar-looking tattoo. There’s also one on her hand, a small star. She rages at Viola from behind her gag, only stopping short when she sees me.
She mumbles something into her gag that’s incomprehensible unless you know the language.
I give a shake of my head. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me. She’s Camorra mafia,” I say, closing my eyes for a minute to massage the bridge of my nose. “But you know that, don’t you?”
Viola gives me a sideways look. “It changes nothing.”
I glare at her. “It changes everything. You can’t kill her.”
“If she gives me what I need, then I won’t have to,” she says nonchalantly.
The woman is still trying to stay something to me. If only I’d paid more attention to the lessons Joseph used to make me attend. Only a few words do I catch like ‘traitor’, and ‘son of whore’.
Fucking charming.
I makeJude take Sasia back to the school, then I stand and force myself to watch while Viola uses her knife skills to extract information from her old boss. Viola doesn’t hesitate to do what a grown man would.
She’s our Angel of fucking Death alright.
Only once do I avert my eyes—when Viola is cutting her eyelids off. That’s not something I want haunting my nightmares. Her screams, though….
That will never leave me.
But all the things she has done for the firm, all the things Polina has already admitted to, tell me she deserves it.
When Viola finally puts Polina out of her misery, her eyes are burning with an intensity I’ve only seen once—when she had me tied up on her bed in the farmhouse. Viola was supposed to kill me then and she didn’t. I don’t know how I feel about that, so I start up the stone steps to the outside world to get some fresh air. Viola casts her eyes over to me as she works, but she doesn’t stop me. There’s relief behind her eyes, as though she would rather be alone with her prey.
That suits me just fine.
Outside, there’s a fresh breeze and only the sound of the wind in the trees. I check for messages from Jude, sitting on a bit of burnt-out cabin wall to wait for him. I told him to bring back some accelerant on his way back, so we can burn the body. The Italians are already going to be after us, I’d rather they didn’t find what is left of their dead boss.
Viola emerges a short while later. There’s blood on her face and clothes, but otherwise, she looks peaceful.
“How did you know she was mafia?”