Page 136 of Vito

Lixin reaches back without taking his eyes off me. There's a hot hunger in them. "Amazu, your knife, please. You'll get your turn with our beautiful Eden."

Amazu slaps the hilt of his knife into Lixin's palm. "I'll enjoy slicing you to ribbons and making you scream."

"She's not to be killed; she'll be a great addition to the ring." The one with snake eyes studies me. "It will be a pleasure watching herbreak."

"Indeed," the one in the rumpled suit sneers.

"Mancini and Novak." Lixin's jaw clenches. His narrowed eyes cut to the side to where they stand. "Wait your fucking turn."

Mancini and Novak. Both enemies of the Santoros.

The convoluted puzzle pieces might be finally arranging into a clear picture. But the puzzle pieces falling into place don't alleviate my concern for my current predicament. Lixin had said I was out for two hours, and a lot of distance can be traveled in two hours. I might not even be in Santoro territory any longer.

My stomach falls.

How will Vito know where to look for me?

But I stiffen my spine. This knowledge won't defeat me. It won't destroy my resolve to stand up to these men for as long a I can.

Everyone has a breaking point, and the monsters looking at me are telling me that they'll do everything to find mine. But I'll go down swinging for as long as I can.

Lixin cups my chin. Gently at first, then he squeezes, vicious and hard, with a malicious smile. He lifts the knife and holds it in front of my face. "Where are your tears? Your whimpers?"

It feels like my jaw will be crushed, but I remain silent. He brings the knife to my hammering pulse point. The sharp tip breaks my skin.

The breathing through my nose—like puffs of a dragon—is the only reaction I give him. Even as he scores the knife down my neck, shallowly cutting the skin.

Lixin smiles. "Indeed, Mancini, Eden here will be so lovely to break." He raises from his crouched position but doesn't fully stand. Instead, he leans into me and licks up my neck, collecting the blood.

"So fucking tasty," he whispers in my ear. "I'll enjoy fucking you with my knife while you're bloody and screaming."

I jerk back as far as my restraints will allow, pulling my face free of his hand. "Need the knife to do what your pathetic dick can't?"

His nostrils flare, and it looks like he'll strike me. But then he straightens, looking down at me with a malicious hunger. Mancini comes beside him, and Amazu flanks Lixin's other side.

"We need to know if you have a successor in place at Gilly's," Mancini grits.

"What's it to you, snake?"

"Just like your brother," he hisses. "And look where it got him."

I laugh, the sound harsh in the room. "I'm going to berelievedof my duties whether I cooperate with you or not. So again, yousnake… What's it to you?"

"Because having control of Gilly's helps us to have power in San Francisco overall." Mancini glowers like I'm a piece of shit on his expensive shoe. "We'll have eyes and ears on all the criminals in this city and their activities. The intel we'll get from spying on Gilly's patrons will ensure we have the backing of every criminal group for our purposes."

Blackmail.

Having control of Gilly's allows them that control and opportunity.

Mancini can't stop talking about their grand plan now that he's on a roll. "It will help us take control of the ports for our pipeline for moving flesh. And it will benefit our goals of establishing a site for the death ring operations, which also has sex slaves—which you’ll make a beautiful addition to, Eden. The owners of the death ring areimmenselymotivated to set up a site on the West Coast, but the Santoros will never allow it. So while we destroy andannihilatethem, our partners, Lixin and Amazu, will ensure the Chamber is in favor and stands behind everything we're doing."

Fear sparks into a burning inferno inside me. This isn't just about Gilly's and getting information they can use to blackmail others. The bigger play is that they want to bring in some kind of death ring and take out the Santoros, using Gilly's and the Chamber to do it.

Does Vito know this yet? Is this what's on Aiken's recordings?

But no, if Aiken had any possible proof, he wouldn't have let this heinous ring be set up, nor would he have just let a whole criminal faction be taken out. He would've given Tommaso a heads-up.

But then he'd break his oath and take sides to protect one criminal group from another.

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