Page 42 of King of the Cage

I chuckled. “Scream all you want, no one can save you from me.”

Blood ran freely down his face and got on my boot, still lodged at his neck.Damn.They were going to need cleaning.

“My brother will make you pay for this, O’Connor,” Enrico wheezed.

Ah, that’s right. Enrico was just the youngest Sepriano to take the political route. His brother, Aldo, was the real deal. I couldn’t have cared less.

I tutted, pushing through the last part of his ear with brute force. The damn gristle was thick at the base.

“No, I don’t think he will, because if you tell him what happened, I’ll tell Elio Santori and Renato De Sanctis what you were trying to do to their little sister… Then I won’t get a chance to kill you. Elio Santori will take you out with a sniper shot, right through your bedroom window.”

I straightened up and inspected my hands. Damn, they were a mess. Enrico whimpered on the floor. I was surprised he was still conscious. I tossed the ear at his head and lifted my foot off his neck.

“Here. A souvenir of your trip to the land of terrible ideas.”

Enrico whimpered again, eyes glazed. He was going into shock, but I knew he’d heard me about the De Sanctis family. The last thing he could afford to do was have them as enemies. I patted him down and found something in his jacket pocket. I pulled the bottle from the pocket, already knowing what I’d find. I held the vial up to the light. There it was, the same logo and everything.

“Actually, scratch that, Rico. You’re coming with me after all.”

The other men around the room lay in various stages of hurt, some groaning, others out cold. Declan lit a cigarette in the aftermath, like he’d had a particularly good fuck.

I grabbed a random security stooge who cowered against the wall.

“Give me your jacket,” I barked at him.

He couldn’t follow my request fast enough, falling over himself to hand it to me. I wiped my hands on it as well as I could. I didn’t want to touch Giada or her friend with Enrico’s blood on me.

Giada sat, holding her friend. The girl lay on her side, her head pillowed on Giada’s lap. She stroked her fingers through her friend’s long hair and hummed something comforting. She looked like an angel, untouched by the carnage around her. A leather-clad vicious-looking angel in blood-red lipstick. Something moved deep in my chest as I stared at her. Her beautiful face was serene but determined as she gazed at me.

“Are you going to finish him, or am I?” she asked in a voice no man would dare fuck with.

“We need to find out where he got his shit from first. That drink was meant for you… you know that, right? He wanted to bring you here. He wanted to make you act like… a doll.”

Giada frowned. She glanced down at her friend. “What do you mean a doll?”

I hesitated. I didn’t want to demonstrate the fucking evil effect of the drug that Enrico had given her friend, but the only way to believe it was to see it.

“Let’s take her back to your place. I’ll call the family doc. He can explain it.”

Giada hesitated. She wasn’t a woman who trusted easily.

“Why are you helping me?” Her tone was hard. Closed off and guarded.

“Bran, what should we do with them?” Declan called, breaking the spell between us. He held a guy ruthlessly by the neck, pinned to the wall.

“Make sure they can’t walk for a week without hurting. We’ll deal with them properly later. Call Doc and get him to Giada’s apartment. We’ll meet him there. Right?”

I looked to Giada for confirmation.

Slowly she nodded.

Taking an arm each, we guided her friend out of the place, into the night.

11

GIADA

Ifelt like I was going mad. I paced back and forth in my apartment, O’Connors everywhere.

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