Page 129 of The Devil's Fire

“Whatever.” He leaned back and closed his eyes. I just rolled my eyes at him.

“Anyway, I’m sorry to trouble you like this, Luca. I tried to talk Damiano out of it, but he wouldn’t budge.”

“Nah, don’t worry about it. I’m happy to do it. I never got the chance to say thanks back then. This is me repaying you for saving my ass.” He chuckled. I smiled and gave his shoulder a small squeeze.

“She saved your ass?” Giovanni opened his eyes, now interested in our conversation.

“It was stupid, really. We were playing UNO while Antonio and Damiano were gone. I lost all rounds and thought Luca was cheating. While I was trying to get him up from the couch, I fell on top of him. At the same time, they returned and saw us like that…” I grimaced as I explained to him.

Giovanni looked at Luca in surprise.

“Shit, and you got out of that one alive?”

“Barely. Antonio almost got my ass if she didn’t step between us. Damiano made him back down when she did.”

“You didn’t even try to defend yourself! I know what it looked like from their point of view, but still, it was a misunderstanding.” I frowned.

“But that’s not how it works.” I looked at Giovanni as he spoke. “If Damiano decides he wants to kill you, no excuse or explanation will save you. Luca was just accepting his fate. That’s how it works.”

“How does that even make sense? Honestly, the more I get to know about all of this, the more fucked up it gets.” I sighed.

“Did you expect it to be all unicorns who shit rainbows?” Giovanni scoffed.

“No.” I shot him a blank look. “I just get surprised by how dark and twisted it all can get.”

“Oh, it can get dark and twisted. You should have seen what he did to the guy who attacked you.” He smirked, and Luca turned to glare at him.

“Giovanni.” Luca warned him not to tell anymore.

“Damiano told me already.” I shrugged.

“He did?” Luca looked at me in the rearview mirror in surprise.

“Yeah. I asked, and he told me. Something about placing a cage with rats on him.” I shuddered in disgust.

“That was nothing.” Giovanni laughed. “The way Damiano nailed his hands to the chair and fucked up his hands for touching you. The best part was when he drilled holes into him and hung him up on the wall. He called it a fucking masterpiece. It was insane! And the guy kept passing out, which only pissed him off more.” He continued to laugh, and I sat quietly while staring at him in shock.

A shiver ran down my spine as I imagined the scenario in my mind. Graphic pictures of a machine drilling furiously into the guy’s bones had me feeling sick.

“He… what?” I blinked at him. Giovanni stilled and looked at me.

“… Didn’t you say he told you?” He frowned at my reaction.

“The rat thing, yes… I didn’t know he had left that much out of it.”

“That’s why you should have kept your mouth shut!” Luca gave an angry stare.

“Ah, for fuck’s sake.” Giovanni sighed in annoyance.

“It’s fine. I shouldn’t be shocked… I have, after all, witnessed him shoot people.” I tried to reassure them, but I think I tried to reassure myself more with that statement.

“And you almost passed out when you did.” Luca reminded me.

“Well, since then, my ass almost got killed twice. I would like to think I have gotten a thicker skin.”

“Talk about having bad luck.” Luca grinned, and I couldn’t help but chuckle a bit.

We had been driving for six hours and I had to explain once again to Giovanni’s grumpy ass why we were driving and not taking a flight back. Truth was, I was scared of flying. I would avoid it at all costs if possible.

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