Phew! Vote and Comment. Xoxo 💋
Chapter 83Stacy’s POV⟻⟼ ✦ ⟻⟼Driving to the airport in the dead of the night was hell enough. But doing it with a bunch of gangsters who’d sooner throw me into a shallow grave than exchange pleasantries was like being hand-delivered to my executioner. The executioner was sitting right beside me, gripping the steering wheel like he wanted to twist my neck instead.Vincenzo insisted on driving. Of course, he did. Control freak. He hadn’t said a word since after the room episode, didn’t even have to tell me to get into the passenger seat after him, all he had to do was glare at me and I was scrambling inside. Thinking about it now, that unconscious reaction from yours truly pissed me off even more. Every once in a while, I’d catch him flexing his fingers, like he was imagining them wrapped around my throat. He could do that later of course, just not in the kind of way that’d give him the long term satisfaction he wanted. Russel and Allesia were in the car ahead of us, cuddling, I b
Chapter 84Stacy ⟻⟼ ✦ ⟻⟼I needed to get out of that seat.Between Vincenzo’s constant micromanaging and the suffocating air in the cabin, my nerves were fried. The discomfort bubbling in my stomach was the perfect excuse.“I need to go to the restroom,” I announced, already unbuckling my seatbelt.Vincenzo shifted beside me, his glare sharp enough to cut glass. “You’re not going anywhere. Sit down.”I shot him a look that screamed try me. “If you want me passing out and drooling all over you, fine, I’ll stay. But otherwise, I need to go.”“That’s a lie. Sit down.” I let out an angry scoff, “Seriously, dude. It’s not like I’m going to jump out of a moving aircraft. I need to pee! My bladder is combusting!” He groaned, dragging a hand over his face. “Fine. Go. But don’t take forever. And don’t touch anything you shouldn’t.”“Yes, capo,” I snapped, brushing past him. I had bigger things to worry about than his perpetual grumpiness. Bigger things like the fact that I could practicall
Chapter 85 Stacy ⟻⟼ ✦ ⟻⟼ Some things never leave you, no matter how much you bury them. The blood, the screams, the helplessness—it’s all there, clawing its way back when you least expect it. I stood at the edge of the cabin, arms crossed, glaring out the window into the beads of clouds we were zooming through. Allesia wouldn’t let them help her to the damn bed, insisting it was making the pain worse, she was hunched over, gripping her belly like it might explode, her groans were getting louder with every second. Not my problem. None of this was my problem. But to think I’d have to endure this for nine agonizing hours. Russel was pacing like a lunatic, muttering something about how this wasn’t supposed to happen here and how he’d never put her in this condition ever again if she survives this one, while Vincenzo stood still behind Allesia, arms on the ready to grab her if she allowed it. He was so calm about it that you’d think he was the husband. And then Allesia screame
Chapter 86Stacy ⟻⟼ ✦ ⟻⟼“He’s fine,” I whispered, staring down at the small, wriggling body in my hands. For a moment, the tension dissolved, and the only sound was the baby’s piercing cries. He was alive. Allesia was alive. Somehow, we’d done it.I placed the baby on Allesia’s chest, my hands trembling more from relief than exhaustion. Her tears flowed freely now, her expression a mixture of pain, relief, and joy as she clutched the child to her.“My boy,” she murmured in a broken voice. Vincenzo was staring at the infant in total disbelief, he bent down cautiously, like he was peeking at a ticking time bomb. When Allesia, smiling through her tears, lifted the baby slightly so he could get a better look, he instinctively took a step back like the baby might lunge at him.When Allesia laughed, Vincenzo scowled, clearly feeling stupid. “I thought he was supposed to be a girl,” he muttered, incredulous.“I know,” Allesia agreed. “The ultrasound said it was a girl.” She grabbed the b
Chapter 87Vincenzo⟻⟼ ✦ ⟻⟼I leaned against the SUV’s door, staring out at the dark, rain-soaked streets. Everything felt too quiet now. The jet ride, Allesia’s labor and childbirth, the emergency services swarming around Allesia and her baby—all of it was still sharp in my memory. But what lingered most was the image of Stacy, kneeling on that blood-soaked floor, her hands trembling as she worked to save Allesia’s life.Despite my reservations about Russel, seeing him like that—a father—was almost surreal. A part of me wondered if I’d ever experience something like that.No. That kind of life wasn’t for me.It had softened something in me though, watching Stacy like that. For Russel and Allesia, no less. A woman who lived by manipulation and games had, for once, done something selfless. It made no sense. Stacy Salvatore wasn’t supposed to be someone who cared. And yet, tonight, she’d been that person.Now she sat beside me, her head tilted against my shoulder, her body slack with
Chapter 88 Stacy ⟻⟼ ✦ ⟻⟼ As soon as my head touched the pillow after a sluggish shower last night, I went to lala land. This morning, I felt like I’d been hit by a truck—then reversed over for good measure. I stretched lazily, yawned for the longest time and stretched again, then pushed the covers away only to discover I was completely naked. I shook my head at that carelessness. Well, thankfully I remembered to lock the door as soon as I entered the room. Not like Vincenzo couldn’t come in even if he wanted to, but he didn’t. I let my eyes trail lazily across the room, it wasn’t necessarily a prison, though it might as well have been. The space whispered opulence, with its dark wood bed frame, soft-as-sin sheets, and a faint scent of something expensive and citrusy in the air. Subtle, tasteful, and just arrogant enough to scream Vincenzo Mancini owns this place. I didn’t linger. The bathroom called, and I answered like it was salvation. Under the punishing spray of the sho
Chapter 89Vincenzo ⟻⟼ ✦ ⟻⟼I’d never really seen Stacy as the type to have a haunting past. Then again, she’d always been a master of theatrics, draped in humor and an unapologetic tendency to make you feel like the idiot in the room. But like many perceptions I’d had of her, this one seemed to be about to change.She sat beside me, stiff as a board, she’d drawn her knees up, they now hugged to her chest like she could somehow protect herself from whatever memory she was struggling to suppress. She’d been talking in fits and starts, her words stumbling out like a drunk who couldn’t find his footing. I listened, silent, smoke curling around my face, waiting for her to give me something to work with.“It was a science project,” she said finally, her voice very low. “Something about chemical reactions—whatever. It doesn’t matter now.”“Sounds thrilling,” I murmured, flicking ash into the water. “Bet you were the star of the class.”Her lips twitched like she wanted to laugh but couldn
Chapter 90Stacy⟻⟼ ✦ ⟻⟼The pool water rippled faintly, like it had heard my evil confession and was trying to carry it away. Vincenzo sat beside me, silent as ever, his cigarette burning down to the filter. The smoke curled around him like some ominous crown, and I swear, if silence were a weapon, he’d be wielding it like a pro. Did I think he was some priest in an old, echoing cathedral, ready to absolve my sins? Hell no. But I also didn’t expect him to sit there like a grim reaper deliberating over whether I deserved a swift death or slow torture for the heinous crime I’d committed at fourteen. His eyes bore into me, sharp and emotionless, like he was trying to solve a murder mystery where I was both the victim and the suspect.“Just say it already,” I snapped, my nerves fraying.Still nothing. The man was quieter than a corpse, and for a terrifying second, I wondered if he was contemplating how to make me one.I hated that look. I hated him.But most of all, I hated myself. Fo
Chapter 108Vincenzo⟻⟼ ✦ ⟻⟼Liam traced the location to a place called ‘The Iron Vault’ in Agrigento, though someone should’ve just called it ‘Come Die Here.’“That’s the spot,” Liam’s voice boomed in my ear. I was staring at the location he’d sent while Nikolai was driving us there. “The guards look sloppy, but the trucks? Military-grade. Clyde’s been spending his allowance.”Dante sat off to the side, arms crossed, his expression as cold as stone. “You know this is a trap, right? Clyde doesn’t do subtle.”“Yeah, well, neither do we.” Nikolai said from the driver’s seat.I lowered the tab to my lap and spared a second to glare at him. Russel insisted he come, and he accepted the guy’s offer to help him eliminate his brother, but looking at this guy who had the same face as the guy we were going after had a way of making me want to squeeze his neck.How do we even know it’s not Clyde sitting here?“You’re not coming in there with us.” I told Dante without hesitation.“Why?”“We’ll ne
Chapter 107Vincenzo⟻⟼ ✦ ⟻⟼“The hair does match, but she’s too overdressed, which is unlike her.” The cigar in my hand burned steadily, wisps of smoke curling into the dim air of my study as Vito leaned over the desk, pointing to a grainy photo on my laptop screen. His voice was calm but edged with urgency.“Outside of Palermo,” he said. “We’ve had reports of her moving with a small group of Irish men who were trying a little too hard to blend in. No confirmation yet, but the timing matches. They might be keeping it low, but she’s alive.”I exhaled slowly, and watched the smoke drift toward the ceiling as my mind worked through the implications. Alive. That could mean a lot of things, it could mean I still had to kill her with my own hands. It could mean Russel would find her first and do it anyway. It could mean Dante might get her first and withdraw from whatever agreement we had. Or it could be a direct contradiction to everything Valente told me, which would mean I’d still hav
Chapter 106Vincenzo⟻⟼ ✦ ⟻⟼The villa reeked of her.I never liked her, not even as a kid when she’d parade around in her silk dresses, pretending to play the perfect wife while twisting knives into my father’s back. Hell, she’d never liked anything concerning me either. Maybe that was the one thing we had in common.The men in this place went down like dominoes, pathetic to the last. She always surrounded herself with men who looked the part but crumbled the moment you applied pressure. A quick choke, a snap of the wrist, and they folded. I didn’t bother watching them hit the ground, I was already halfway up the stairs.She was working with the Irish. Against her own blood. Against her own children. And for what? A scrap of power she’d never actually hold? A seat at a table where no one respected her? Revenge on me? It would’ve been laughable if it wasn’t so goddamn infuriating. My men had already fanned out, securing the lower levels of the house. I made my way upstairs with V
Chapter 104Stacy⟻⟼ ✦ ⟻⟼He murdered her.The thought circled endlessly in my mind, like a cruel pendulum swinging back and forth, slamming into me every time. He murdered her.I was still sat in that cold, damp cell, my legs still strapped in unforgiving metal chains. My tears had dried hours ago, leaving my cheeks stiff and raw. Nisca’s head rested in my lap, her lifeless body sprawled awkwardly, her once-bright eyes now dull and glassy. My hands were covered in blood, either hers or mine, I wasn’t sure.When Clyde dragged her in last night, limp and wrapped in a sack, I thought I might’ve been hallucinating. It wouldn’t have been the first time my mind played tricks on me. But then they ripped the sack off her head and tossed her at my feet like garbage.“You must be lonely,” Clyde had said, his voice dripping with smug satisfaction. “I brought you a companion.”That companion was Nisca. But it was not the smiling, love sick girl who’d tried to protect us when they barged into
Chapter 104 Vincenzo ⟻⟼ ✦ ⟻⟼ FEW WEEKS AGO Chains dangled from the ceiling, the metallic clang echoing every time Valente twitched, which was often. He was tied to a steel chair, wrists strapped so tightly that blood trickled down his arms in sluggish streams. His face was a mess….swollen, bloody, barely recognizable as human after the first round. I flexed my knuckles, the blood coating them sticky and warm. “You scream like a woman, Valente. Did your mother raise you that way, or is this just your natural state?” “Please,” he gasped, spitting blood onto the floor. One of his teeth clattered to the ground like a broken pearl. “Please, Vincenzo—” “Please?” I crouched in front of him, gripping his chin so tightly his jaw cracked under the pressure. “You think ‘please’ is a magic word? Jesus, what are you, a nun?” He whimpered, his bloodshot eyes darting toward the door like he thought salvation might walk through it. “Let me explain something to you,” I said, my voice dropping
Chapter 103Stacy⟻⟼ ✦ ⟻⟼I’d worn cuffs too many times to not recognize the feel of them.The cold air stung my skin as I sat curled on the stone floor, hands trembling despite my effort to steady them. The dim light overhead flickered, barely enough to chase away the suffocating darkness that pressed against the walls of this room. No, it was a cell…my cell. Where the hell am I?Was I hallucinating? Oh yeah, my mind must be playing games, dating back to the time when I was shackled up in that tiny room in Russel’s warehouse, listening to my father scream while Russel took pieces off his skin. I’ve had those before. But why did it feel so real today? I had no idea how long I’d been here. Hours? Days? It was all a blur of rough voices outside the dark, chains scraping against cement when I moved, and the unmistakable sound of Irish men moving around like wolves waiting for the kill. Did Vincenzo capture me again? But Vincenzo is not Irish. Dante? Why would he want me chained up a
Chapter 102 Vincenzo⟻⟼ ✦ ⟻⟼Russel asked Nikolai to babysit me. Well, not technically, but having him follow me around for the last two weeks could be considered babysitting at this point.He thought I was fucked.The chair beneath me groaned, probably in sympathy with my irritation. Meanwhile, Dante sprawled across from me like he owned the damn world, oozing arrogance. And maybe Russel was right, because the only reason the man was still breathing was Nikolai.“You must be losing your touch if it took this long to find me,” Dante drawled, casually reaching for the glass of water in front of him. He was mocking me with every second he wasted. “Perhaps I wasn’t hiding. Did you think of that, Vincenzo?”I didn’t respond.My patience was hanging by a thread. No, not even a thread. It was barely hanging by a single hair. My mind felt like it was on fire, fueled by two weeks of sleepless nights, numerous dead ends, and the glaring absence of activity in my life.I’d gotten too used to t
Chapter 101Stacy⟻⟼ ✦ ⟻⟼TWO WEEKS LATERI’d escaped a physical prison only to end up in an emotional hell. There’s something uniquely pathetic about sitting cross-legged on the floor of a shoebox apartment, trying to piece your life back together. And by ‘life,’ I mean the sad collection of my father’s business files Elixir managed to stack away from the Mancinis.I shoved aside a cracked snow globe, its tiny Eiffel Tower missing, and yanked out the next item. A silk tie, flamingo pink. Flamingo. Pink.“Nisca!” I hollered, holding up the offending accessory like it was a dead rat. “What the hell is this?”Her voice floated in from the small kitchen. “Vintage Versace. You’re welcome.”“Vintage or not, it’s hideous.” I dropped it back into the box like it might bite me and leaned back against the wall, staring at the disaster surrounding me. Nisca, my former chief maid and Elixir’s sister, who was two years older than me, strolled into the room, a mug of coffee in one hand and a big
Chapter 100 Vincenzo ⟻⟼ ✦ ⟻⟼ She was gone. Gone. And I felt like the biggest fool alive. I’d woken up this morning, expecting to see her tangled in the sheets beside me, maybe still asleep, looking as sinful as she had the night before when she curled up on my chest. I’d told her—like an idiot—how much I cherished her. How much I couldn’t bear to lose her. She never said it back. But I hadn’t noticed. Not then. The bed was empty, but I hadn’t panicked. Why would I? Stacy liked her showers long, her coffee black, and her hair styled perfectly. I convinced myself she was probably in the bathroom or out on the balcony. I spent the first thirty minutes on the phone with Russel, going over Valente’s latest tantrum. Then I made calls to my men about the shipment in the Englewood warehouse. Approved it. Sent a text. And then decided to join her in the bathroom, maybe drag her back to bed for another round. The bathroom was empty. Still, I hadn’t panicked. Not yet. I’d checked th