Page 54 of Maddest Temptation

“Yeah.” Another pause before I sighed again. “Vitelli, one more thing.”

“Don’t tell me it gets worse,” he protested.

“Sorry,” I admitted. “He kept telling me he killed them, over and over again. When I asked him who, he started talking nonsense. He did mention something about a Grigori Petrovich and something about a bar,” I told him almost everything, earning me a long vivid line of curses.

“Fuck!” he shouted. “Okay, I’ll post some guards at your building in case something happens.”

“Will something happen?” I gripped the phone harder.

“I don’t know, we never know with the Russians, just… call me if something happens.”

“Okay,” I assured him and that was the end of it.

I dropped the phone on my sofa and headed toward my door, then locked it once more. It was a foolish thing to do if the Russians wanted to get in, they would, but at least it gave me a sense of safety. I then headed into the kitchen and took a knife from the counter. Turning all my lights off, I headed back to my room where I found Cassio sleeping soundly in my bed.

I checked his bandage, there was no blood seeping from the wound but that didn’t mean it wouldn’t get infected. I stared at his torso and the massive bruise forming over it and then unable to look at it any longer I turned away. Anger boiled in my blood and rage coiled in the depths of my soul. I wanted the men who hurt him to pay.

15

CASSIO

“What is going on between you and Francesca Manci?”

I wiped my bloody hands on the towel and kept my eyes on it, ignoring Vitelli completely. Pain radiated from where I had broken my rib, but I ignored it. The skin where I had gotten ten stitches was beginning to itch as well, but like the ribs, I ignored them.

“Since I know you haven’t gone deaf, I’ll take your silence as my answer.”

Closing my eyes and taking a deep breath, I gave him my attention. “Drop it” my eyes ordered him, but knowing my brother, that only fueled his imagination.

“So, there is something going on?” he whispered even though there was no need to.

I turned my attention toward the dead Russian in the room. He was strapped to a metal chair, his face busted, and bullet holes made him look like Swiss cheese——a courtesy of yours truly.

Interrogations had always been Luciano’s forte, his area of expertise. But after what happened last week, I needed to vent some remnant pent-up rage from that night. Attacking that Russian bar had been a bad idea, but they were growing on my nerves, and after I learned that they killed two of my men in a brawl, I lost my shit.

In my rage, I’d forgotten my promise to myself and had drunk two shots of vodka before pulling my gun out and killing the Russian fuckers. All of them were affiliated to the Bratva. I didn’t let a single one live. Although I felt guilty for drinking, I knew I was getting closer to avenging my sister.

“Vitelli,” I sighed again. “Don’t you think we have more troubling issues to discuss other than my sex life?”

He grinned like a motherfucker. “So, you two, hmm?” He wiggled his brows.

I stared at the ceiling and contemplated if God would forgive me for committing fratricide. Sometimes I wondered how he was still breathing. Vitelli had a gift of pissing people off, constantly, always getting on their last nerves.

Ignoring my brother and his questions, I turned to my enforcer who was still in the room. “Take the body and dump it where the Russians will find it.”

“We are poking the bear,” Vitelli finally dropped the Francesca matter. “Grigori will come for us.”

“I’m counting on it,” I said. “We can’t kill him if he remains locked up in his fort,” I explained.

Grigori Petrovich had been hiding in his mansion ever since he killed my sister. His place was highly protected, making the White House look like child’s play. Which was why it made it so difficult to kill the man.

“We need to lure him out,” I said running my thumb under my lower lip—pensively.

“What about this Volpe?” Vitelli reminded me of the spy.

I looked at the dead Russians.

I clenched my hands and said to Luciano. “I want you to send a message,” I said with a calm I did not possess. “Tell Grigori I’m coming for him, and that I know who his spy is.”

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