Page 151 of Filthy Liar

“I can do that,” Beckett answered, hesitating before adding, “You’d better make it out of here, Lavaro. I can’t deal with Raven if you don’t. She’ll cry. A lot. I will bring you back and kill you myself if you put me through that.”

“Face it, you’re worried about me.”

“In your dreams. I just don’t do tears,” she grumbled, motioning for Raven to follow.

“Be safe,” Zavier said sternly as he moved closer and clapped me on the shoulder, taking Raven’s hand to pull her from the room. She stared back at me, and I blew her a kiss to try and relax her.

This wasn’t going to be pretty, and the last thing I needed was her refusing to leave.

Elio stood by the door, his gun in hand. “I’ll wait outside the door, just in case you need cover on the way out.”

“We’ll only be a second. You can go with them,” Dante called out, waiting for him to leave before letting some of his pain show on his face. He was so bruised, and I made a mental note to check him over properly when we got out of here.

“Tell him he looks like shit,” Antonio said way too cheerfully in my ear, making me scoff.

“Antonio wants you to know you look like shit.”

“If that fucker wants to stay on as my tech guy, he’ll shut up,” he answered, but his small smile gave him away.

“You useless, ungrateful—” Stefano was pissed, but we weren’t going to humor him. This wasn’t his show anymore, it was ours.

“What are you waiting for, Ander? Set him on fire so we can leave,” Dante said exasperatedly, crossing his arms. “I don’t have all day, I have an empire to run.”

“I could, but I want him to be terrified first,” I said bluntly, sneering at Stefano as he continued to glare at me and spew his hatred. “Grab anything you can find so we can start a fire.”

“Brother, just?—”

“If I set him on fire, it will all be over fast. I want him locked in this room, tied to his chair, not knowing when the flames will touch him and ignite from the gasoline,” I gritted out. “Help me or leave, Dante.”

“Savage,” he chuckled, helping me drag anything in the room towards the back corner. The old musty couch and a few chairs would do the job nicely.

“You killed my family,” I started, grabbing Stefano’s chin to force him to look up at me. “You took me from my home, beat me, raised me with fear, and now have the audacity to wonder how your sweet boys could do this to you. You didn’t raise men, you raised monsters who hate you. The thing about monsters is once you let them loose, they have a tendency to turn on you. You came after my best friend. You ran down my girl and killed her unborn child. You’ve stalked and hurt those who I see as my family. The only good thing about you? I got a brother out of it. He’ll run your empire better than you ever could.”

“He will destroy everything I spent so long building!” he threw back, making me smirk.

“That’s the plan. Burn in eternal suffering, Stefano. If I stumble across you in hell one day, we’ll do this again.”

Dante moved towards the door as I lit the couch on fire, making sure it was crackling and spreading through the material first before tipping what was left of the gasoline all over the floor then making my way out of the room.

Stefano was shouting for us to release him as he fought his restraints, and I closed the door and locked it, watching his panic through the small window.

“Coming?” Dante asked when he realized I wasn’t leaving.

“In a minute,” I answered, getting great satisfaction when Stefano broke his restraints and ran towards us, frantically jiggling the handle and throwing himself at the door.

“Andre Ricci you open this fucking door this instant!” he bellowed, but there was no anger in his tone, just pure fear.

The flames and smoke started filling the room, and Dante grabbed my arm. “Ander, c’mon. We have to go.”

“Just a little longer.”

“You’re as sadistic as he is, you know that?” he said dryly, leaning back against the wall opposite the door to eye our father who was now frantically banging on it.

“I should be offended, but I’m not,” I joked, taking a small step back as the flames drew closer.

I heard it in his voice the second they touched him, just before he ignited with a scream.

“Satisfied? Can we go before we’re toasted Italian marshmallows? This place has a storage room of flammable looking chemicals,” Dante informed me, a little bit of tension in his tone. I knew I had two seconds before he’d start dragging me out, and I smiled slightly, watching as our father pounded on the door as the flames consumed him.

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