Page 23 of Unleashing Mayhem
“Matteo.”
Matty sighed, stroking the velvet...fur? Skin? He wasn’t sure. He stroked the velvetwhateverof Nightmare’s antler. “What do you want to know?”
“Who is Dominico Caruso and why does he haunt you?”
Straight to the point. How mean of him. Matty stalled for time by studying his demon, his monster of the dark, not just in form but in spirit.
Because Matty had seen Nightmare’s face when he’d been torturing Dominico’s goon. Nightmare had enjoyed it. A lot. His white eyes had been glowing and his skull face’s teeth had been bared in a jagged grin.
And Matty didn’t care.
Heshouldcare, shouldn’t he?
Matty let out another sigh, dropping his hand from Nightmare’s antler and twisting his fingers in his lap.
“He was my stepfather Luca’s cousin. Or maybe half brother? They were never straightforward about it. Either way, he was a psychopathic dog, and Luca held his leash. He was—is…” Matty tried to find words for it that didn’t make him want to dry heave. “He took a liking to me early on. When I was still a boy. Luca put him in charge of—of my punishments. He enjoyed them.” Matty let his eyes drop to Nightmare’s crotch pointedly. “Reallyenjoyed them.”
Nightmare let out a low growl, and the dangerous sound bolstered Matty the slightest bit. He kept going, pushing the truth out before he could think too hard about it. “He wanted to do more than punish me. He wanted to keep me as one of his pets. Sometimes— Sometimes I’d wake up in the middle of the night to find him in my room, sitting on my bed. He’d tell me everything he had planned for me.”
Dominico had made a habit of it, especially at the end. Whenever he was due to report in to Luca, he’d skulk into Matty’s room in the dead of night and whisper horrors to him in the dark. Luca had allowed it, as long as Dominico didn’t touch Matty without his permission.
Matty had been terrified of falling asleep. Terrified of finding Dominico waiting in the shadows when he woke. The monster he couldn’t seem to shake.
Matty blinked back stubborn tears. He was safe here. Safe to talk about it. Safe to remember. “So Luca held it over both ofus—giving me to Dominico. A threat to keep me from running or talking, and a promise to keep Dominico obeying his orders without question.
“I—I saw some of the boys he kept.” Matty swallowed through a thick throat. “Their bodies afterward. He’s—he’sevil.” He made himself meet Nightmare’s eyes, made himself admit the truth. “But so am I.”
When Nightmare only cocked his head, silently demanding Matty keep going, Matty told him, “I stood by while they did awful things, Sarkaron. The pair of them, and the men who followed them. I let fear make me complacent. I should have killed them both, or gone to the FBI, or—orsomething. But I was too afraid Luca would catch me. Afraid he’d give me over to Dominico when he did. And over time…”
Matty twisted his fingers together so hard it hurt. “Luca wanted to break me. To make me into the kind of man he could use. The kind who would hurt innocent people and not care. A real successor and not just a scared little boy at his side.”
Matty leaned forward, dropping his forehead onto Nightmare’s shoulder, unable to bear letting Nightmare see his face as he let the truth spill out. “Maybe you can taste it in my soul, Scary. That they succeeded. Because Ilikedwatching you hurt that man. I’m glad he’s dead. I wish he’d suffered more. I didn’t used to be that way. I—I used to be good, I think. But they broke me like they wanted, and now I want to cut them all with my jagged pieces. Cut them intoribbons.”
Matty waited for Nightmare to shove him off. To hold Matty accountable for all the rot inside him. Any minute now Nightmare would tell Matty that he was too wicked to deserve anyone’s help, even a demon’s.
But there were only gentle fingers in Matty’s hair, stroking softly as Nightmare asked, “Why didn’t you trust Sascha and Kai to keep you safe, Matteo?”
“They’re trying to get out of Mafia business,” Matty explained. Sascha had told him all about it once. How much he hated the world he’d grown up in. How much he wanted to keep himself and Kai away from it all. “They want to stick to the light. To keep it to legal businesses and no violence. And Dominico… He works in the shadows.”
Nightmare let out a quiet, raspy laugh. “Sweet summoner, Iownthe shadows.”
Matty heard that simple statement for what it was: a promise. Nightmare was going to protect him, even though Matty was rotten and weak. Maybe that was because of the contract—maybe Nightmare didn’t actually have a choice—but still…
No one had ever protected Matty. Not his mother, not his stepfather, and certainly not his stepfather’s men. But this demon would. This monstrous creature would stand by Matty’s side, keeping him from harm.
Nightmare tugged Matty’s head gently off his shoulder and cupped Matty’s face with his large, warm hands, stroking those slender fingers against Matty’s cheeks. “I will be your jagged pieces, Matteo. I will cut them into ribbons for you.”
Matty’s eyes were wet. He was pretty sure he was getting salty tears all over Nightmare’s fingers. “Why are you so nice to me?”
“Selfish pursuits,” Nightmare whispered, his white eyes beginning to glow.
“You want something from me?”
A nod.
“Something bad?”
No answer.
