Page 66 of His Savage Ruin
Marco's eyes go wide and his hands come up automatically, palms out in a gesture that's half surrender and half defense."Don Romano, I wasn't threatening her, I was just making observations?—"
"Making observations." I repeat the words slowly, letting him hear how little I believe that bullshit."Is that what you call what I just saw?"
"I was just doing my job, I was keeping an eye on her like you ordered—" Marco's trying to talk his way out of this, words tumbling over each other in his rush to explain, and it just pisses me off more.
I don't let him finish.I drag him away from the wall and shove him hard, putting real force behind it.Marco stumbles backward, his feet tangling, and he crashes into the opposite wall with enough impact that I hear the air whoosh out of his lungs. He slides down slightly, catching himself with both hands against the marble, breathing hard.
"Your job," I say, moving toward him with deliberate steps that echo in the hallway, "is to watch her. Not make her uncomfortable. Not touch your fucking weapon while you're alone with her in a hallway. Do you understand the difference, Marco, or do I need to explain it slower?"
He straightens up slowly, still pressed against the wall, and I can see him trying to decide whether to keep defending himself or shut the hell up.He chooses wrong.
"Don Romano, with all due respect, she's causing problems in the house. The men are distracted, Romeo lost a finger, and I thought you should know?—"
My fist connects with his jaw before he can finish the sentence, and the impact sends his head snapping to the side with a crack that I feel all the way up my arm.Marco reels from the blow, his hand coming up to his face automatically, and when he pulls it away there's already blood on his fingers from where my ring caught his lip and split it open.
"You thought I should know?" My voice has gone quieter now."You thought it was your fucking place to judge her, to threaten her?"
Marco spits blood onto the marble and then—stupidly—the idiot swings at me.
His fist comes up in a wide arc aimed at my face, but it's sloppy and telegraphed, the kind of punch thrown by someone who's panicking rather than thinking, and I see it coming from a mile away.I lean back and his fist passes through empty air where my head was a second ago, and the momentum of the missed swing throws him off balance.
Before he can recover, I grab the front of his shirt and drive my fist into his face.Once, twice, three times in rapid succession, and each impact sends satisfaction shooting through my veins like a drug.His nose breaks under the second punch with a crunch, and blood explodes across his face, running down his chin and dripping onto his shirt collar in dark splatters.
Marco's hands come up trying to protect his face, but it's too little too fucking late.I hit him in the ribs hard enough to crack something, and he doubles over with a choked sound that mightbe a gasp or might be the beginning of a scream, and either way I don't give a shit.
"Matteo!" Alessia's voice cuts through the red haze, but I'm not done yet, not even close.
I grab Marco by the hair and pull his head back, forcing him to look at me through eyes that are already swelling shut, and I want him to see my face when I do this.
I hit him again, this time catching his cheekbone, and his head snaps back against the marble wall with a sickening crack that echoes down the hallway.
"Matteo, stop!"
Then hands grab my arm mid-swing. Small hands—Alessia's hands.
She drops to her knees beside me on the blood-slick marble, and I can feel her trembling as her fingers wrap around my wrist. "Stop! Matteo, please, you'll kill him!"
My arm trembles in her grip, every muscle still locked and ready to finish what I started. Blood drips from my knuckles—Marco's or mine, I can't tell anymore and don't really care. The rage pulses hot and insistent in my veins, demanding I finish what he started.
Then her other hand touches my face, turning my head toward her.
"Matteo, look at me. Please look at me."
I do and her eyes are wide, golden and bright with unshed tears. Her chest heaves with rapid breaths, and there's blood on her skirt from kneeling in it, but she doesn't let go of me.
"Please," she whispers. "Please stop. He's not worth it."
The word cuts through everything else and suddenly I'm not just seeing Marco's face anymore, I'm seeing hers, and shit, when did that become more important? The rage doesn't vanish, but it... shifts. It focuses on her instead of Marco, on the way her hands are shaking as they hold my wrist, on the fact that she put herself between me and violence even though she's seen what I'm capable of, even though she knows I could turn on her just as easily if I lost control completely.
I uncurl my fist slowly and thetension bleeds out of my shoulders one muscle group at a time, leaving behind exhaustion and an ache in my knuckles that I know will last for days, maybe weeks if I broke something, and I probably did.
I stand up slowly, my legs unsteady beneath me, and pull away from her touch before I do something stupid like kiss her in front of whoever might be watching from the main floor. Then I let go of Marco's shirt and he collapses to the floor immediately, crumpling like a puppet with cut strings.He's still breathing butbarely conscious, coughing blood, his face already swelling into something grotesque that his own mother wouldn't recognize.
"Romeo!" I call out, my voice rough and strained from the adrenaline and exertion. Romeo appears fromaround the cornerand his face goes pale when he sees Marco's condition. But he doesn't ask questions, just moves forward and hauls Marco up, slinging one of Marco's arms over his shoulders and half-carrying, half-dragging him toward the back exit.
"Get him out of here," I tell Romeo, and my voice sounds strange in my own ears—too calm, too controlled after what just happened, like I didn't just beat a man half to death.
Romeo nods once, his expression carefully blank, though I catch the way his eyes flick toward Alessia for just a second before he looks away."Yes, Don Romano."
