Page 39 of DeLuca: The Devil

Chuckling, I say, “The fuck you are.”

“Dom,” she whispers, “You don’t love me and never will. You said so yourself. Just let me go.”

“You remember?”

She shakes her head and winces from the pain, “No. Nat told me. I know I never meant anything to you other than to settle some mob dispute.”

“One conversation with your friend, and you’ve got it all figured out? Is that right, Bellissima?”

“Yes,” she whispers.

“Nothing could be further from the truth. I am so fucking in love with you, I barely survived the last year. I know what you experienced was far worse than my pain, but it was not easy. I stepped away from everything business-related to find you. Nothing other than you mattered. Not Enzo. Not your father. Only you. When I was told a woman in the hospital matched your description, I prayed. I prayed to God to bring back my wife, and I’d leave the only world I’ve ever known. He didn’t bring my wife back to me. Instead, he brought a woman back to me who feels nothing for me. Perhaps that’s the price I have to pay for telling you I’d never love you. When I said it, it was my truth. I believed I was incapable of ever loving a woman in this way. You changed everything. I can be accused of a great many things. I’m not a good man, Bellissima. But not loving you? Anything but that. I have had three great loves in my life. Money, Vengeance, and you. I’d give up the other two for you, but I wouldn’t give you up for the other two. I’ll walk away from it all. But I’ll never walk away from you, so you’ll be coming home where you belong when they release you. With your husband who fucking adores you.”

“Dom.”

She closes her eyes, “What if I never remember?”

I speak far more confidently than I feel, “We’ll make new memories. I’ll make you fall in love with me all over again.”

“What if I never do?”

I growl, “Failure is not an option, Bellissima. I will spend the rest of my life trying. There is no amount of time in which I give up on you. They call me the devil, but you’re my angel. I cannot exist without you.”

“Can you lift the head of my bed?”

I grab the remote and lift it slowly.

“That’s good.”

I fix her pillow, and she opens her eyes, “Why do they call you the devil?”

Now I’m back to rubbing my temples, “Are you sure you want to know? It’s gruesome.”

“Nothing could be worse than what’s been done to me. I’m sure.”

I sit back in my chair and rub my jaw, remembering that day, “My mother and sister were kidnapped as retaliation. They were both raped repeatedly, my mother was murdered. My sister was a little girl at the time. I vowed to capture them and make them die a painful death. They did.”

I was hoping that would be enough for her but it’s not, “What did you do?”

“I had a bottomless cage for both of them. I put it over their head and bodies. I put three rats inside each cage. The one side of the cage was heated. The rats ate the men’s flesh as they tried to get free from the heat. They slowly ate away at the flesh until they died an excruciating death. I left them to be found, intentionally. The papers said only the devil could’ve done something so heinous. It was well known in our world who was responsible for it. They began calling me the devil and it stuck.”

“Are you going to kill them too?”

I sit back and watch her cautiously, “Anthony and Enzo?”

“Yeah,” she breathes and I’m not sure if she’s hoping I will say yes or no. So, I opt for the truth and let the chips fall where they may, “Yes, Bellissima. After what they did to you for a fucking year, they will die a brutal death. It’s the only way I know.”

“Thank you,” she whispers, “I hope you do the rats. It was so terrible, Dom, I can’t even put it into words. I’m never going to be the same.”

I take her hand in mine, “If that’s what you want, then that’s what you’ll get, baby. I promise you’ll get through this. It won’t be easy, but you won’t go through it alone.”

“I’m hungry.”

I chuckle, “Let me see what I can do about that.”

Walking out to the nurse’s station, the three nurses sitting there look me up and down before blushing, “My wife is hungry. I know it’s only been an hour since she ate, but surely, she can have something?”

One of them reaches into a small refrigerator and hands me a cup of applesauce with a spoon. I say thank you and turn to leave. I’m sure she thought I was out of earshot when I hear a snicker, “Too bad we don’t have any Alpo.”

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