Page 71 of Raziel
I closed the distance between us in two swift strides. I didn’t think. I just swung. My open palm connected with her cheek with a crack that echoed off the brick buildings. The force of it whipped her head to the side, and a perfect, bright red handprint bloomed instantly on her porcelain skin.
She stumbled back, clutching her face, her eyes wide with a beautiful mix of shock and real, genuine pain.
“You stupid bitch,” I seethed, my chest heaving. “You just keyed a car bought for me by Raffaele Mercier. Not your fiancé. Your future father-in-law.”
The shock in her eyes evaporated, replaced by a dawning, gut-wrenching horror. The color drained from her face, leaving her sheet-white. “You’re lying.”
“Am I?” My smile was all teeth. I pulled out my phone and pointed it at the deep, silver scar gouged into what used to be flawless paint. “I’ll be sure to send him pictures of your handiwork. I’m sure he’ll be thrilled to see them.”
The fear on her face was complete. Utter. She looked from the ruined car to my phone, her bravado completely gone.
With a choked, pathetic sound, she turned and fled, scrambling into her BMW and peeling away from the curb like the hounds of hell were on her ass.
The street was suddenly, eerily quiet. I stood there, the adrenaline receding, leaving a cold, hard knot of dread in my stomach. I looked at the vicious scratch on my beautiful new car.
Every instinct screamed that I should have dragged her out of her car and beat her ass. But I knew better.
My hands were trembling slightly as I scrolled my phone and hit call. He answered on the second ring.
“Maya.”
“Raziel,” I said, my voice surprisingly steady, belying the tremor in my hands. “We have problems. First—your fiancée just keyed the car your father gave me. Second—you called off your engagement and didn’t tell me?”
Chapter Thirty One- Raziel
Don’t say a word to my father,” I’d told Maya, making sure my voice left no room for argument. “Not a pictures, not a hint. I’ll handle it.”
Handling it meant driving to the Vescovi compound in Hyde Park. The gates swung open before I’d even come to a full stop. They knew my car.
Enzio Vescovi was in his study, a room thatsmelledlike fear and cheap cigars. Alessia was perched on the arm of his chair, her face a perfect mask of wounded innocence. It shattered the second I walked in. Her eyes widened, then narrowed into venomous slits. Enzio didn’t stand. A calculated insult.
“Raziel,” Enzio said, not looking up from the papers on his desk. “To what do we owe this… intrusion?”
I didn’t sit. I stood in the center of the room, my presence sucking the air out of it. “Your daughter,” I said, my voice flat. “She keyed a car my father gifted to a friend of mine.”
Alessia shot to her feet. “She’s a whore! A junkie whore you’re parading around town, humiliating me! She attacked me!”
I ignored her, my eyes locked on Enzio. “The car was brand new. A gesture of goodwill from Raffaele Mercier. Your daughter took a key to it because her feelings were hurt.”
That got his attention. I guess she hadn’t told him that part. He finally looked up, his piggy eyes blinking slowly. A sheen of sweat appeared on his brow. Everyone knew what a gesture from my father meant. It wasn’t a gift. It was a flag planted in the soil.
“This is a private matter between you and my daughter,” he blustered, trying to regain control of a situation that had slipped from his grasp the moment my father’s name was mentioned. “Your… personal indiscretions are not my concern.”
I let a cold smile touch my lips. “They are when your daughter makes them your concern by disrespecting my family’s name. You think this is about a scratched door? This is about her spitting in my father’s face.” I took a step closer to his desk.
The color drained from his face. It was the truth, and truth was the one weapon men like him couldn’t defend against.
Alessia, seeing her father crumble, lunged forward, desperate. “She’s fucking my cousin, Raziel! She’s been seeing him behind your back! I have proof!”
I didn’t even look at her. My gaze stayed on Enzio. “You’re lying.” I knew she was lying because I had a hidden camera pointed directly at her front door and back door. I could see who came and went.
“I’m not! He was at her house! They were together!”
I finally turned my head, pinning her with a look that made her flinch. “I know exactly where she was, and who she was with. She didn’t fuck him. He should consider himself lucky that she didn’t, or I’d hang him by his fucking plugged-in hair.” I turned back to Enzio. “You should teach your daughter to be more concerned with her own behavior and less with inventing stories about my woman.”
I took a step back, signaling the end of the conversation. “Consider this my final warning. Both of you. You will leave Maya alone. Don’t speak her name. Don’t look at her. The onlyreason she hasn’t shown my father what your daughter did to his very expensive, very personal gift is because I asked her to. Consider that your thank you. Your payment for my restraint.”
I turned to leave.
