Page 38 of Savage Prince

“I don’t know,capo. Everything’s been different with her,” he pants, cradling his likely broken wrist. “From the moment you saw her all those months ago outside the club, you haven’t been acting right.”

“I haven’t been acting right?” I barely recognize my own voice. It has a deep, sinister quality unlike my own.

“Yeah. For months, you knew it was Dante pulling the strings in Rome, but you were so fixated on Raf’s girl, Isabella, instead of facing the real problem head on. You should have gone for Serena from the start.”

“So now you’re giving me advice on how to runmyorganization?”

“Yes,” he rasps out. “Your father would have killed her by now or at least tortured her to show Dante he meant business. Instead, you coddle her, buy her nice clothes, bring her dinner in bed. I’m only trying to help you,capo.”

“Help me? Because I needyourhelp?” My fingers clamp down tighter from the rage polluting my veins.

“All the heads of households in Rome are just waiting for the Ferraras to crumble to pick off the pieces. The Salernos, Sartoris, they’re only the beginning. The rest of your men are too scared to say it. Even Pietro agrees. YourPapàwas a hard man, a man who knew what he had to do to run an organization like this. You?—”

“I what?” I glare at the piece of shit, waiting for him to dare speak the word. I know it’s coming. Even Mariuccia who snuck into the room a few minutes ago and lingers at the door knows exactly what thisfiglio di puttanais about to say.

“You’re too soft,” he spits.

Wrath uncoils in my gut, potent and poisonous as my eyes narrow, drilling into a man who had faithfully served my family for years. “Maybe you’re right, Otto.” I force my lips to curve into a smile. “Maybe I have been too lenient since taking control of the Ferrara territory. But that changes tonight.” I release my hold and take a measured step back, grinning like a psychopath, the smile much too wide considering the rage twisting my insides. “Thank you for bringing this to my attention.”

Relief softens his pinched features, and he heaves out a breath. “You’re wel?—”

Before he can finish, I jab the side of my hand into his throat, cutting off his air supply. Then I kick his leg out from under him, and the big guy hits the floor with a thud, rasping for oxygen.

He lets out a shriek as he slams into the tile, panting and dazed. Muttered gasps echo around me, but I ignore them, focusing only on theimbecillewho dared lay hands on Serena then had the balls to question me. Dropping over him so he thrashes beneath me, I pull my arm back and let my fist loose. The crunch of bone breaking bone begins to satisfy the thirst for vengeance eating at me.Lex talionis. An eye for an eye. I hit him again and again. That darkness sweeps in, blotting out the screaming women and the writhing man beneath me.

Pressing all my weight down on him, my thighs straddling his midsection, I’m an unmovable force. I’m fairly certain he snapped something in his back when he fell because he’s not putting up as much of a fight as I’d expected. Soon it’s not only the lack of air that’s a problem. He’s choking on his own damned blood. I finally pause, my knuckles torn and bloodied, and loom over him.

“You think anyone will think I’m soft now, Ottavio?”

His lips are so swollen he doesn’t utter a sound. Instead, his head barely turns to the side.

“What do you say I display your head on a pike outside the gates of the villa? Do you think then the others will stop saying I’ve gone soft,coglione?”

Fear sparks across his bloodied, bruised eyes. They’re barely open now.

“And then what if I drag your eviscerated entrails across the center of Roma for your betrayal? Do you think then they’ll believe I’m just as savage as my father?”

His head slowly dips.

“Good. Then that’s exactly what I’ll do.” I reach for the metal poker by the hearth and hold it high over my head.

A tear streaks down his cheek, clearing a path through the crimson painting his face. “No, please,” he murmurs.

“Did Serena beg? Did she ask you not to defile her with your filthy cock?”

His lips go still.

“But you were going to do it anyway. You dared to touch my property, mytesoro, not only with your hands but with your fucking cock! Serena is mine, and I will use your gutted, mangled body as a warning for anyone who ever tries to take her away from me again.”

Before he can utter another lying, traitorous word, I bring the poker down with all my strength burying the pointed end into his good eye. Screams fill the chamber as he thrashes beneath me for only a second before I drive it in deeper, piercing his skull and reaching the soft, delicate brain tissue.

His muscles tense for an instant before his entire body relaxes beneath me, mouth falling open.

A sudden stillness blankets the room.

I sit there, straddling the deadbastardo,my nostrils flaring as I attempt to reel in the rage. The pungent, metallic scent of blood permeates the air, and crimson stains my vision. For aninstant, I’m transported back in time to another villa, this one consumed in smoke instead of blood.

Fire licks up my back as I carryPapà’s body through the blazing inferno. All I see, all I feel is scorching pain. The flames race across my shirt, then devour my skin, destroying everything in its path. It’s a miracle I survive… or at least that’s what the doctor says when I emerge from the wreckage.

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