Page 40 of Unforgivable Ties

His large hand still cupped my face as he turned to look at David. At this point, the man realized that I was with Vincenzo, and he looked a little sick.

“Ah, Vincenzo...I apologize; I didn’t know she was with you. Let me make it up to you by—”

“Let’s talk.” Vincenzo’s hand dropped from my face and grabbed David’s shoulder. “You two, stay with Stephanie.”

I hadn’t even noticed Tall Dino and another man were behind Vincenzo. It might have been the first time Tall Dino had ever been quiet in his life, I mused to myself.

Vincenzo led David away, ignoring his pleas for mercy.

“Let’s go to the back,” Tall Dino said. “There’s ice there.”

I followed Tall Dino and the other man, choosing not to look back at the retreating figures of Vincenzo and David. I wasn’t sure what Vincenzo was going to do to him, but whatever it was, I probably didn’t want to know.

The back room we went to wasn’t what I expected. It looked like a normal break room you’d find at a retail store, with a fridge and tables and chairs scattered about. The second man walked to the ice machine and poured some in his handkerchief.

“Who’s that?” I asked Tall Dino.

“Short Dino!” he exclaimed, clapping his hands together. “The one I was telling you about last time.”

He wasn’t even short. The man was probably about 5’11 and was more muscular than Tall Dino. But most people looked short standing next to Tall Dino.

Short Dino came back with the makeshift icepack and handed it to me.

“Thank you,” I said, taking it from him.

He grunted in response. It looked like Tall Dino was right about him not being much of a talker.

“What is Vincenzo doing to him?” I asked.

Tall Dino shrugged, and I couldn’t get a read on his expression. Would Vincenzo really beat up that guy, or worse, just for hitting me? As the two of us chatted, I realized I didn’t know Vincenzo as well as I thought. Even though we had shared some incredible moments together, he had a darkness that engulfed him that was unfamiliar territory to me.

I should want to run away from the darkness that shrouded him. Instead, I wanted to know more.

Vincenzo

Iwas seeing red. Seeing David slap Stephanie across the face had elicited a primal rage in me I’d never known before. He had always been an arrogant fool, but brought so much money into the club we had looked the other way. Not anymore.

And how dare he touch what was mine? I wanted to tear him to shreds when I had seen him touch Stephanie’s chest without her consent.

I had kept it together in front of Stephanie, but the minute David and I were in a back room, I unleashed my fury. My fist shot out faster than I could blink, colliding with his jaw. His head whipped backward as he stumbled, losing his balance and almost falling to the ground.

“I said,” he heaved, spitting out blood. “I was sorry. I didn’t know she was your woman.”

“So it would’ve been ok to do that to another woman?”

I hit him again, harder this time. He fell to the floor in a crumpled heap, his hands scrabbling for purchase on the cold tiles, but I wasn’t done. I stormed over to him, my rage a searing flame in the pit of my stomach.

“Give me that,” I said, extending my hand to one of the grunts in the room.

Two of them had already been inside the room when I threw David in. They were on a smoke break, and any conversation they might have been having was cut short. Now, they stood quietly, puffing on their cigarettes as they watched me beat the shit out of David.

The grunt passed me his cigarette. I took a drag; the smoke burning my lungs, fueling my anger. David was moaning on the ground, crumpled in a heap. I let the embers of the cigarette grow hotter as I sucked in another breath and blew out a cloud of smoke.

Then, I drove the cigarette end into David’s lip, right where he had smacked Stephanie and given her a split lip. David screamed, his hands flying to his face, but I only pressed down harder. The cigarette sizzled as it met flesh, filling the room with a foul smell.

“Doesn’t feel too good, does it?” I asked, voice as cold as ice.

David’s screams were still echoing in the room as I tossed the dead cigarette butt on his writhing body. His hands frantically pawed at his face, trying to soothe the excruciating pain.

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