Page 113 of Falling for the Enemy

Unsheathing the knife he carries above his hip, he steps up to Stefano’s side. The soon-to-be-deceased mafioso screams, fear now overpowering his apparent anger.

The kingpin twirls the blade in his fingers. “For what you did to my woman, I vowed I’d tear your huevos out through your throat.” Next to Nikolai, Casper flinches the slightest bit. I nearly laugh. “But that’ll have to wait because I have other things in mind first.”

Footsteps pound the stairs leading from the first floor, taking me by surprise. Even more so when Benito appears, followed by Christian.

It seems they wish to join the party as well.

“Perfect timing.” Alejandro grins. “Benito, what happens to anyone estúpido enough to touch my woman?”

“They get a blade to the hand.”

“You’re fucking right they do.”

Stefano screams when my kingpin plunges his knife through his cuffed hand and into the top of his thigh. Sweat coats his nude body as blood trickles down his leg and he begins to shake.

He looks as though he may be sick.

Nikolai smacks Casper’s shoulder and gestures toward our prisoner. “You fucking durak, do you see what you did? They’re not even going to take his fingers.” He shakes his head. “You could’ve let me chop one off. No one would have even noticed.”

Exasperated, my bull drops his head back.

“Ari.” Alejandro’s deep baritone claims my attention once more. “La verga or huevos, baby. Which one do you want me to take first? The choice is yours.”

I cross my legs. “Why not both?”

He grins sadistically. “I like the way you think.”

Without further ado, he gets to work.

* * *

Stefano looks nothing like he once did.

Resembling someone who’s been run over by a freight train more than the caporegime he once was, he clings to life by the tips of his burned fingertips, the anguished groans that fall from his lips unending.

Much to my delight.

I’d told Alejandro that I wanted the mafioso to bleed, to feel that pain that he doled out tenfold, but I underestimated just how well he’d hand-deliver all that I wished for.

But now it’s my turn.

I may be weakened, but I have enough in me to complete the one task that’s most important: delivering the kill shot.

More than ready to send the svoloch before me into the flames and the devil’s torment, I stand and slowly circle him, his only remaining eye fighting to track me.

As I pass my men, Casper bumps his arm into Nikolai’s and points at Stefano. “A hundred bucks says she goes for his throat.”

Nikolai scoffs. “Nyet, I say gut wound.”

Benito chooses to jump in. “Fucking pendejos. Haven’t you been paying attention? It’s his heart Jefa’s after.”

Bingo.

Nikolai crosses his arms. “That was my next guess.”

A silent Christian just shakes his head.

Having savored the sight of his busted face and mutilated body enough, I stop in front of Stefano. Alejandro’s heat blankets my back when he steps up behind me, careful to keep his touch featherlight as he bands an arm around my front and kisses my temple.

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