Page 85 of Twisted Knight

“What is it you want?” I asked Matteo, crossing my arms on my chest.

He arched his eyebrows, pointing at his chest. “Me?Vai! You’re the one whining like a little bitch because I killed that man.”

“Yes, a man whom I wanted to talk to. A man who didn’t deserve to die.”

He tapped his forefinger on his desk. “This is your weakness, Domenico, yours and Gianluca. You can’t lead this life and have a conscience. You can deny it as much as you want but you can’t.” He shook his head. “If I let that man go after what he did to you. It would have been a liability to have him free again and what would my men say if I didn’t avenge you? They would think I didn’t have their backs. That man had to die.”

“It had nothing to do with you. His grief was not against the famiglia. His grudge was against me. I hurt his family, and he wanted revenge. I’m sure that you of all people can understand that.”

He nodded. “I do understand and I can also empathize.”

“You don’t know what that word means.”

He threw me an exasperated look but ignored my comment. “But you have to understand that even disregarding the famiglia, this man hurt my family, my blood, and this can’t be left unpunished.” He took a deep breath. “I made his death as painless as I could.”

Knowing how Matteo loved to play with his victims… how he enjoyed their screams, I knew that killing him painlessly had been a great act of kindness for him.

He lit a cigarette and extended the pack toward me with his gold Zippo.

Oh, the hell with this, I deserved one. I grabbed the pack and lit a cigarette too.

“Plus, I find it quite ironic that you are judging me when you went out of your way, all the way to Canada, to hurt a man.”

I kept my face emotionless.

“I don’t—”

He raised his hand to stop me and rolled his eyes. “Don’t lie to me,idiota. I had a call from Fabrizio, asking for a favor.”

Fucking Fabrizio!

“I told him to contact Luca or me when he wanted me to pay him back.”

Matteo chuckled. “Maybe you did, but what he wants, only I can grant him.” He puffed out his chest a little.

“You love having all the power, don’t you?”

He gave me a half smile. “I worked enough for it.”

And I knew what he was not saying. He’d sacrificed enough for it.

“What I don't get is why you didn't simply have him killed? Much less messy and who is that guy? He is an architect or something.”

“He was India’s ex. He hurt my woman.”

Matteo shrugged. “Before she was yours? I don’t see how that is punishable.”

He couldn’t understand. Matteo barely felt anything on his best days and he lived and breathed by Mafia’s rules.

“It is to me.”

“And why just disable him? Killing him would have been much easier.”

“He needs to learn what it's like to be diminished, weak, to be at the mercy of others.”

“Oh!” Matteo’s smile turned wicked. “I think there may be hope for you after all, brother.”

No matter how unfair it was and how much it reopened the wounds of my sins, I needed to know more about that man and how he had chased me.

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