Page 12 of Cardinal

Men like him—mafia men—always had secrets, which I hated. Granted, there were probably some things he couldn't tell me because they weren't his to tell, or maybe he was just an asshole and didn't want to tell me something… Or it was to protect me… But I was fucking tired of being in the dark when it came to my life, and I was a nosey little shit.

Huffing out a loud sigh, I ruffled around on the bed to get comfortable, which was easy to do because the bed felt like some soft cloud—if a cloud could be solid. I thought my parents had nice beds, but fuck, this beat it by a long ass mile.

Curling up into a ball, I lifted the front of the shirt up to my nose and inhaled deeply. It was so embarrassing and weird, but I couldn't help myself. The rich, deep scent of warmth, whiskey—I think—and amber flooded my senses and body with a warm comfort.

Well, at least he smelt nice, or at least his clothes did.

Sighing heavily, I buried myself further into the bed with another huff before letting my eyes flutter closed.

Rest and recover. I could do that… I think…

Chapter 7

Luciano

"You did what!?"

Leah might as well have physically slapped me with how harsh she sounded. There weren't many people in my life who scared me, but Leah was definitely one of them. Yes, I was terrified of the little 5'4 Asian woman. To be fair, she could very well lay my ass out without breaking a sweat.

"Luciano! You fucking… Argh! Go fix that shit!" Leah seethed, whacking me with her bag. "I knew you were a fucking brainless gorilla, but even this is beyond for you."

"Would you stop?" I grunted while deflecting her hits. "Of course, I'm going to fix this. It was my stupid mouth and brain that got me into this situation. Just… I'll tell her later when she's not processing through the trauma of her heinous rape and torture. You're the doctor. Do you really think right now is a good time to break that news to her?"

Letting out a brief huff of relief, I straightened myself back out after Leah stopped punching at me. "Besides, if things go accordingly, then I won't even have to tell her because this marriage scheme will be buried before it surfaces to her."

I had it handled, hopefully. The plan was simple: get rid of Lady Heral. A very simple plan because if Juliet was in the establishment, then there were other skeletons hidden and waiting for me to unbury them. If I could uncover all her dirty secrets, discredit her, and shut her down before she blew this thing up, then I'd be golden. I would just have to figure out some other lie about why Juliet wasn't my bride by the end of the year.

Well, I could wed her and divorce her, but that wasn't right. My dad would have my head on a pike if I were to dare do such a thing because of how religious he is, and I'm sure my mother would rise from the dead to beat my ass for being a bad son and shit. I had my views on divorce, but if it was the only way to keep Juliet safe, so be it.

"You better hope she doesn't find out about it before it gets resolved. She already has been through too much for someone her age, and this would just be another slap to her face." Leah huffed and rolled her eyes after hooking her hands on her hips.

Maybe I was being a little overly confident, but only because I knew I could pull this shit off without a hitch. "It should be fine in the end. Two months is more than enough time for me and my men to dig up more than enough dirt and filth on Carol to drag everything related to her by name to Hell." I waved a dismissive hand at Leah before drifting my gaze back to Juliet's medical file that sat in front of me on my desk.

For her sake, I shouldn't read through it, but a part of me needed to know in order to fuel my sick, and twisted revenge plan. "There's no going back once you open that file," Leah warned with a heavy sigh and forlorn expression.

"I know, but I need more fuel for my hatred against Caroline." Anger never blinded me. No, it always cleared my mind, strangely enough.

Blinding red rage was something I'd never come to know in my life. Ever since I could remember, rage had always given me a sense of clarity. Everything would come into hyper-focus, my thoughts would go a mile a minute, but everything would make perfect sense, and the thrill and pleasure from letting the rage explode out of me was something beyond what words could describe. Yeah, I was a little fucked up, but I loved and craved the control my anger gave me.

Leah spoke up again after a deep breath. "Six men, that's how many were in that room, according to her. They took turns holding her down and sodomizing her. I'll run whatever fluids Gia collected last night, along with what I got during my exam, and maybe we'll get lucky with some hits in the database or something." Though calm, I could feel and hear the rattling anger in her voice. "Can I at least kill them if something comes back?"

"No." My blunt denial came rather tersely. "If something comes back, I want them captured and brought to me. I want answers from them before you slice them into oblivion." I wanted to know who to go after and who to punish.

"As long as I get a swing at them," Leah grumbled with a roll of her eyes.

"You know, for a doctor who is supposed to be healing and shit, you are very violent and sadistic," I commented out loud with a chuckle while picking up the file and opening it.

"I care when it matters." Leah chuckled under her breath before letting her eyes grow wary of me.

My stomach churned at every word on the page, but not in a way where I wanted to vomit. I was thoroughly disgusted, yes, but I mostly grew angry at the fact this all happened to Juliet. She seemed like an innocent and precious little thing, someone who didn't deserve this level of assault; well, no one deserves this level of assault besides the assailants themselves. Of course, that gave me an idea about how to make these bastards suffer when I'd find them. Yes, when, not if. I wasn't doing it out of revenge for Juliet. No, it was for my personal benefit. People don't end up in these situations without some kind of connection, ones I needed to shut down if they were in my territory. No doubt Champions wasn't the only place in the city to get access to these asinine taboo acts.

On second thought, maybe it wouldn't be so bad to let these rotten scumbags rot in jail; they'd definitely get more damage done to them long-term. Paying off the guards and some prisoners wouldn't be too hard. Actually, maybe I should just have them tossed in prison after I was done with them, have them suffer through and through. Yeah, I should do that to get my dose of fun. Of course, Leah would be able to have a go at them as well; I'd just have to make sure she didn't kill them afterward.

Scowling deeply, I sighed heavily as I slammed the file shut and threw it onto my desk. "Let me know if something from the swabs comes back. I'm going to do some of my own digging in the meantime." Probably gonna be a pain in the ass, but fuck it; I would have my men comb through the lounge's camera feeds to narrow down my victim pool.

"Can you check on her again and make sure she's ready?" I asked with another sigh while running my hand down my face.

"Why don't you go check in on her? You're gonna have to get used to interacting with her since she's basically going to be living here for lord knows how long." Grumbling briefly under her breath, she rolled her eyes. "Besides, if this plan of yours goes belly-up, then you are gonna need to know your future wife at the very least." Leah bit out the last part rather harshly with a scowl and glaring eyes that made me flinch a little.

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