Page 107 of Twisted Obsession

When she wordlessly declined to turn, I made the decision to end her. It would be a decision that could ultimately cost me my life, but I knew that Salvatore would react quickly enough to save Giovanna, and I made my peace with that. So, I pulled the trigger. It took one very neat bullet straight through the bitch’s temple to send her over the edge of the quay, into the water and to the hell she deserved.

With Giovanna relatively safe, I moved my attention to the son of a fucking bitch standing next to my wife.

‘So, what do you say, Giordano. Her or you?’ he asked smirking.

‘I say neither.’

As I squeezed the trigger, I was certain I heard gunfire from various directions and knew that very soon he’d be riddled. But, before that, I felt pain burst inside my left shoulder and was aware that his bullet had found me. The force of the entry sent me momentarily backwards, and I dropped my gun to the wood below my feet. Making sure I had all his attention, I righted myself and stood up straight. With my eyes still focussed on Ricco, I spread my arms wide, and I waited for him to try again.

‘Send me to God!’ I demanded.

I think I felt the heat first, before I understood something had been fired into his chest, just below his neck. His clothing caught alight quickly, fanned by the strong winds around us. He screamed louder, suddenly clutching at his face, as the flames licked higher. His fucking shoes noisily moved over the wood as though he was dancing an Irish jig. He may have only been feet from the water, but it was too far to save him.

Somewhere close by, I heard the deep voice of Salvatore. ‘The fucking shoes—it was you!’ I had no idea what he was on about. ‘Kill him. Make him stop. For all the Calabrian women and children who heard that before they lost their lives… MAKE. IT. STOP.’

Bullets once again came pouring in, taking his legs out from underneath him, and he fell to the floor, writhing in agony and still clutching at his face.

My interest in his agonising death waned, and I looked down to my wife. There in her hands was what looked like a flare gun, and I understood just what had happened.

‘Giovanna, you’re okay… you’re okay,’ I whispered, as I bent down to her and removed the weapon from her hands, before throwing it into the sea beside us. I took in that her hands werea mess, and most of her fingers looked as though the bastard had broken them by stamping down hard. ‘You’ll be okay, amore mio.’ I knew, given the strength of character she’d just shown, that ultimately, one day, she would play the piano once again.

‘Dante, you came for me,’ she cried, as she reached for me. Before sobbing, ‘I’ve killed him. I’m a monster, I’ve killed him.’ Hysteria began to taint her tone.

‘No, love, it wasn’t you…’ I looked around me and found what I was searching for. Without so much as even glancing behind me, I released bullet after bullet until Ricco gargled his last breath and finally shut the fuck up. ‘I killed him.’

Ignoring the pain in my shoulder, and the men now around us, I hoisted my wife up and into my arms and began to walk us away. Tears streamed down her face as I walked us off the pier and onto the debris covered sand.

‘Gi.’ Salvatore stopped in front of us. He touched her hair gently and placed a kiss on the top of his sister’s head. Then he looked up to find me. ‘Where are you taking her?’

‘We’re going home. Home to Calabria. Home to a life we promised each other such a long time ago.’

Relief spread over his normally hardened features.

‘Promise me you will look after your wife, Dante.’

‘I give you my promise, Don De Luca… and I now ask one of you. My Italian heritage feels it has had retribution for what they have done to my wife. But my English roots are demanding something more, for what he has done to your mama, and our families. I want him, and his men staked out on the rocks, cut them open and let the birds eat them. They are not to be buried; they won’t receive the last sacraments. Let the sea gradually claim them to the deep.’

‘Ricolleti?’ I heard Salvatore question, as he looked over his shoulder waiting for an answer.

‘It will give me great pleasure to comply with your wishes, Dante Giordano.’

I nodded my response to their words, the ones that finally showed Salvatore’s acceptance and Ricolleti’s agreement, then I carried on walking away. The storm had quietened, the winds had dropped, and the sky was beginning to lighten, as was the pain inside my heart. Light drops of rain began to fall, as the world began to cleanse itself.

‘You came back for me,’ she whispered into my chest, in disbelief.

‘I thought I was going to lose you, Giovanna,’ I admitted. ‘And it would have ended me.’

‘Never, Dante. I’m yours, remember?’

‘I watched you fall—and it was too fucking much.’

‘And you caught me, like you always said you would. Now, kiss me like the it’s the first time.’

I found her eyes with my own, before bending down and grazing my lips gently over hers and whispered.

‘You are mine, amore mio.’

‘Body and soul.’

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