Page 64 of Sweet Misery

ROMAN

“You did well on the Mansetti issue,” Father’s deep voice boomed out as we sat in the office downstairs. It was way too fucking early to be drinking, but that didn’t stop him because he was putting down our scotch with ease. If we were to argue over it, he’d tell us without him we wouldn’t have scotch so we kept quiet, me making a mental note we’d have to send one of our guys out for more once the asshole left.

The very real fear he’d hurt my little snowflake upstairs weighed heavily on me. I tuned his voice out as he spoke to Massimo, wondering if she was OK. Mass said he tied her to the bedpost before leaving her.

Ren and I listened while Sever fucked her last night. It was hard not to. They weren’t exactly quiet. I was grateful he’d finally broke. Ren had been right. All Sever needed was a little push and he’d fall.

Mass had popped his head in and had joined us, passing around a bottle of booze while we discussed what the fuck we were doing with our Misery.

It was quickly decided on that we all cared deeply for her and wanted to keep her. Permanently.

That was huge, and there was no fucking way I was going to back down from that. I knew Ren felt the same. Twin intuition, but it was more than that. The fierceness in his voice when he vowed to kill our old man if he so much as touched her. Mass had hissed at us, telling us to not talk shit like that, but I knew we all felt that way. Maybe Mass thought he could save our old man, but Ren and I knew differently. Our father was beyond saving. He was a piece of human waste that needed disposed of.

I was pretty sure Sever was with us in regard to taking our old man’s ass out. We just need Mass to join.

Mass would be a hell of a leader too. We all knew he would. The men loved him. We loved him. And now, I was sure our girl did.

“Roman?” Father’s voice tugged me back to the moment.

“Yes?” I called out, glancing at Ren who had a tight expression on his face.

“I asked you to give me a report on the whore I left for you.”

“Oh.” I nodded, my tone neutral. “We’ve all fucked her. Marked her.”

“That’s it?” He raised his brows at me. “You understand her father owes me over a hundred thousand dollars, right? That’s hardly a payment.”

“We carved our initials into her chest while she screamed for mercy,” Ren piped up. “And the three of us bit her until she bled.”

Father’s eyes glimmered.

Fucking dickhead.

“What else?” he asked.

“We chased her through the woods in the cold. She nearly froze to death,” Mass added.

Father nodded. “Have you tried any new tactics?”

I glanced at my brothers who were visibly tense.

“We’re working on something new,” Mass said, clearing his throat.

“I give you these toys to practice on for when we need information from our enemies. I also give them so you can have pleasure whenever you want it.” He was quiet for a moment before slurping down the rest of his drink and getting to his feet. “I want to see her.”

Fuck.

“Of course,” Mass said, his voice tense. “Follow me.”

We all left the room, our father walking next to Mass with me, Renzo, and Sever bringing up the rear. Sever hadn’t said shit since coming into the room. He was always like that, so it wasn’t unusual to our old man, but we knew Sever had it bad, maybe worse than the rest of us, and was going to lose it soon. Just because Sever was quiet didn’t mean he was calm. He had a way of snapping during the silence.

We got to Misery’s room and Mass unlocked the door. We stepped inside to see her tied to the bed in her t-shirt. I was grateful Mass had thought to restrain her. It looked more real this way.

Father walked over to the edge of her bed while we stood nearby, all of us tense. He stared down at her. I could see her shaking on the mattress, fear all over her pretty face. All I wanted to do was crawl on top of her and lick her tears away and shield her away from him. If she was going to fucking hurt, it was because we did it. No one else.

Father reached down and lifted a lock of her dark hair and rolled it between his fingers.

“It’s kind of them to clean you,” he commented, letting the strand of hair fall onto her shoulder. He cocked his head and studied her for a moment. She shrank away from him as he reached forward.

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