Page 45 of The Don

Luca shrugs. “It looks like a common pigeon. Like the ones that harass you in the Neapolitan squares. Pests.” He spits that last word as an insult at me.

I smile. It’s always nice to know the depths of someone else’s hate matches your own.

“Okay,” she says cheerily. “We will be in contact. Thank you.”

Luca rudely disconnects the call without a farewell. “Tell me the rest.”

“Gladly,” I sneer. “She said you cried after you came and that she had to take two showers to wash your stench from her skin. No, actually, it was worse. She said you smelled like salt and sun cream, and you couldn’t stay hard. And then she laughed until she cried. Her mascara was running down her face, and her lips were stained with wine. And she still tried to seduce me. She thought I would want her after that. She thought I would find her superiority seductive. Like you did. That was the problem with that family. They thought they were better than everyone else because they had money and power and could hire other people to do their dirty work. And cowards like you believe them and prop them up. You let them trifle with your life and your money while they laugh at you behind your back.”

Luca looks like he’s about to be sick all over his desk.

“How does it feel to know that you’ve wasted your life in love with a woman who thought you were Sicilian trash?”

“I don’t believe you.”

“You’ve always been a fool,” I concede with a shrug.

“Where is she?”

“Dead,” I say with a smile, so happy to tell someone who will care because I do not. “I killed her yesterday. I should have killed her years ago, but it was still sweet, however delayed.”

Luca moves faster than I would have expected. He rips the phone from the desk and throws it at my head.

I duck out of the way, but it still clips me on the temple. The pain is sharp and stinging, but I refuse to acknowledge it because I need to survive this. Luca pulls a desk drawer open and I can only imagine what’s inside, but I do not want to find out. I rush toward him and slam the butt of my gun into his face and hear the satisfying crunch of metal against skin and bone.

I would have been happy to walk out of here and let our enmity remain for whatever time we have left, but I was raised to meet force with more force.

I hear the door open and Federico’s steps as he rushes inside, but I refuse to let myself be distracted. I bring the butt of my gun down onto Luca’s head again, the sounds of breaking bone, splattering blood, and gargling moans are like music to my ears.

“Padrino. Move. Let me,” Federico says frantically.

“I’ve been waiting for this!” I scream now that I can finally let my bloodthirst loose.

Luca is bleeding beneath me, crying, moaning Flavia’s name. The smell of piss is in the air.

He’s pathetic to the end, and I enjoy reminding him that this is all his loyalty to her will ever get him with each hit. I slam my gun into his face until I can barely hold onto the barrel, the entire thing is slick with blood and sweat. I beat him until my back and arm are aching with the exertion.

When I’m done, when I’ve finally sated years of rage, I kneel next to Luca’s writhing body and wipe my gun on his bloody shirt.

I stand and take a few moments to catch my breath. I feel almost as light as I did after I killed Flavia.

“She hated me,” I tell Luca. I have to yell loud enough, hoping that he can hear me over his wailing. He doesn’t deserve this kind of mercy, but I give it to him anyway. “She hated me for killing her father, but she hated me most for not being weak enough to let her use me. And she hated you for the exact opposite. That was the thing about Flavia; she was ruined before you ever met her.”

Luca curses at me, blood and spittle seeping through his broken teeth.

I sigh and shake my head as I shoot him once in the temple and three times in the chest. The first was a kill shot. The other three are purely for my own pleasure.

I’m a simple man.

“We need to go, padrino.”

I appreciate Federico’s calm and the fact that he has a handkerchief on him. The performance review I give Giulio might be the best I’ve ever given.

I wipe at my face and follow him back into that hallway. I expect that it will be full of Luca’s men, but apparently, he inspired the same kind of loyalty from them as Flavia.

What a waste of a life.

Federico and I rush through the hallway back toward the nightclub, where the volume of the music hurts my ears. At least I can rest assured that no one heard those gunshots.

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