Page 109 of The Devil's Fire

“You already know.” I was in no mood to talk about it with her, and I definitely didn't want to hear her go on about how ‘she told me so.’

She would always get that smug, satisfied expression on her face whenever she was right, and I hated it. If she had been my brother with that kind of attitude, I would have knocked it out of him in no time.

In a way, Arianna was a female mixture of both Lorenzo and me. She handled business the way we did, and one wouldn’t think she would know how to defend herself by the looks of her, but she could easily take down a two hundred pound man.

“You know, Althaia has great survival instincts…” Arianna trailed off. I glared at her, not liking where she was heading with it. “Hear me out before you give me your death stare.” She rolled her eyes.

“All I’m saying is if she can break Sofia’s nose like that, imagine what she could do if she had proper fight training.” She finished, and I tilted my head at the suggestion.

“Althaia broke Sofia’s nose?” Lorenzo asked with a hint of amusement, not expecting to hear that.

“Oh, you thought I did it? Nope. I was about to, but then Sofia kept screaming about how her face was smashed into her knee and needed medical attention.” Arianna laughed. The corner of my lips curled up,and a feeling of pride filled my chest.

“She’s right, Damiano. We don’t know who is targeting her. If we train her, she might actually stand a chance.” Lorenzo added. I shook my head, not agreeing with them.

“No, I’ll increase security around her.”

“Because that worked so well for Si–”

“Don’t you fucking say her name.” I sneered in a warning tone, sending her a sharp look. A scowl formed on her face as she narrowed her eyes in frustration.

“Can’t you see what you’re doing?” Arianna continued. I rose to my feet and walked to my desk.

I didn’t want to talk about her. I didn’t even want to hear her name. The memory it brought back was so dark that I knew it would cause me to lose control. The urge to kill took over, and I spent months fighting to regain control of myself. A mere glance in my direction was enough to trigger a deadly response.

“You’re making the same mistakes, Damiano!” Arianna said. I rubbed my jaw in frustration when she wouldn’t drop it. “Althaia is different. She’s strong enough, and she’s not scared. If she was, she would run for the hills right now. Far away from you.”

“You better stop right now.” I spat out.

“I saw what you went through with Sienna, and it killed me to see you like that. If you’re not careful, Althaia will taste the same fate as her.”

“Don’t you think I know that?! Fuck!” I smashed my fist onto the desk, shattering the glass in my hand. Her words made my blood boil with anger. Althaia was mine, and I wouldn’t let anyone take her away from me. I would make sure of it. No matter what it takes, even if I had to burn the whole fucking world.

“Arianna, enough.” Lorenzo snapped.

“Whether you like it or not, I’m going to teach her. It’s for the best.” Arianna finished and walked out of the office. The muscles in my neck tensed as I clenched my jaw, struggling to keep my anger in check.

The sound of my phone buzzing in my pocket broke the silence. My bloodied hand fished it out of my pocket to see it was Raffaele.

“What?” I snapped as I answered the call.

“We found him.”

“I’m coming.” I didn’t wait for him to say anything else and hung up the phone. “Make sure Althaia doesn’t move around.” I told Lorenzo as I made my way out of the office, wrapping a handkerchief around my hand.

The sound of my footsteps echoed down the long corridor of the storage facility until I reached a specific steel roll-up door where Raffaele was waiting for me.

The door creaked as he pushed it up, revealing a narrow staircase that descended into darkness. It was built to be soundproof, deep beneath the earth’s surface, so that even the loudest screams couldn’t be heard.

We walked down the tunnel path until Raffaele broke the silence.

“I heard what happened. Who would have thought Sofia could go bat shit crazy?”

“Shut up before I shoot your ass.” I kept staring ahead, not in the mood to talk about it.

“Right. So, another problem I want to take up with you. He won’t talk.” Raffaele said as we turned around a corner.

“I’ll make him talk.” I said, moving my neck from side to side. I couldn’t wait to get my hands on him.

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