I looked at Alex. “Pick your poison, sweetheart.” She shot me a confused look, and I added, “You get to choose how we torture and kill him.”
She grinned. “What are my options?”
Drake raised his hand and said, “Follow me.”
I pressed my palm to Alex’s back and led her into the three-story building with my brothers following us. My father had acquired the property twenty years ago from a man who owed him a lot of money. Most of our wealth came from favors and debts.
At one time, the Salvatores served as bankers for the criminal underworld. We were like the Medicis of organized crime. Then my great grandfather founded The Devil’s Knights to join forces with the wealthiest families in the country.
Drake guided us through the dimly lit hallways and walked up two flights of stairs. We stopped in front of the last room on the right. He pushed open the door to reveal Cal Kurti tied to a chair at the center of the living room. There was a small kitchen to our right, bedrooms on our left. We stood in a sizable living room of the vacant apartment. Drake had lined up an array of torture devices on the kitchen island.
Alex froze when she saw Cal. I tapped Alex on the back, forcing her to move into the room. I wasn’t sure if she could even do this, but I wanted to give her the chance to get her revenge. There was nothing I wanted more than to cut Cal into tiny pieces, but I made a promise.
He was Alex’s kill.
Drake moved toward the island and lifted a diamond and sapphire necklace.
Alex rushed over to him. “You found it.”
He nodded. “Turn around.”
Alex turned toward me, her back facing Drake as he lowered my mother’s necklace over her head. She smiled as our eyes met. I loved when she fucking smiled. It was the only thing that kept me sane some days.
Alex’s eyes swept over the weapons on the kitchen island. Drake had gathered a collection of guns, knives, ropes, chains, and different surgical tools. She gripped the edge of the counter, studying each weapon carefully.
I moved behind her, slid my hands to her hips, and breathed against the shell of her ear. “Are you happy, my queen?”
She glanced over her shoulder at me and smiled. “Very.”
“You’re the judge, jury, and executioner, baby. How do you want to kill him?”
Alex lifted a scalpel from the table. “After what he did to me, I was thinking death by a thousand cuts.”
“Brutal,” I commented, though I was proud of my girl for having the guts to go through with this form of slow, painful torture.
Cal deserved much worse.
“This could take all night,” I told her.
Alex tapped the blade against her palm with a wicked look on her beautiful face. “I have time.”
She spun around to look at Cal, then stormed over to him with the blade in her hand.
I gave Drake a look, and he nodded. “Sonny tied the knots. He won’t get out of them.”
Sonny was a master sailor. From all the years he’d spent on his yacht, Sonny could bind and restrain prisoners better than the ex-Navy SEAL members of our team at Salvatore Global.
Alex stood in front of Cal. “Remember me, you fucking bastard?”
“My father will come for you, whore.” Cal tried to spit at her, but the mucous landed on the floor by his foot. “He’ll slaughter every one of you.”
Cal struggled with his restraints, and Alex raised her leg to slam the heel of her shoe into his chest. “Don’t fucking move,” she growled. “I haven’t even started with your sorry ass.”
“He’s not going anywhere, baby.” I stroked my fingers down her bruised arm. “Sonny’s an expert with knots.”
“Alex,” Aiden said from behind us.
She glanced at her twin.
“Are you sure you wanted to do this? You can’t go back once you cross this line.”
She nodded. “You can’t even imagine what he put me through.”
“This will change your forever,” he shot back.
“I’m already changed because of him.”
Aiden attempted to reach her, and I threw my hand out. “Leave her be.”
“I knew you would fuck her up, Salvatore.”
“Shut your mouth,” I snapped. “Stop disrespecting our queen.”
Alex released a deep breath. “This is my choice, Aiden. You’ve made yours, now let me make mine.”
She moved with speed toward Cal and made the first cut down his arm.
He howled, rocking back and forth in the chair. “You bitch, you will pay for this,” he yelled in broken English.
“I studied Chinese culture,” she told him. “So I could understand the meaning behind their art. I learned about torture called death by a thousand cuts. It was a punishment used on criminals.” Alex made another long incision in his arm, and he screamed. “They tortured men in public so that they could feel the shame for their crimes.” Alex looked over her shoulder at the Knights and pointed, blood dripping from the blade in her hand. “We have an audience who will witness every ounce of your humiliation before you leave this world.”