Page 12 of The Beast

Massimo merely laughs out loud and waves around him. “She may not, but it’s obvious you do.”

Shaking his head, he gestures at the silent tables. “Did you really believe I would be foolish enough to walk into your trap, Don Majerio?”

He says nothing and Massimo starts rocking in his seat, laughing like a clown.

“You will never beat me. Nobody will ever beat me because I am invincible.”

He stops and grabs my hair and twists it cruelly and snarls, “Look at my wife. I control every part of her. She depends on me and can’t bear to be without me. Isn’t that right, my darling?”

He nods my head for me and the distaste in Don Majerio’s eyes makes my heart sink. He is no match for Massimo. He must know he is about to face death and lose the fight because one by one, every man in the restaurant stands and takes out their guns.

Massimo laughs like a maniac and, still holding my hair, snarls, “You’ve had a good run, Don Majerio but the race is over.”

He glares at Portia and snarls, “I have a particular fate waiting for you, my friend. Tell her, Winter, tell her how merciless I am when faced with betrayal.”

The tears course down my face as I fight the pain and just gasp, “He’s merciless.”

Massimo laughs like a hyena and then something happens that takes us all by surprise as the door opens and two new diners enter the room. Portia and Don Majerio glance past us, and a small smile breaks out across the Don’s face, and he smirks as he says to Massimo, “It appears we have a visitor.”

Dropping me like a hot poker, Massimo turns, and I see his expression change as he stares at the two people who are heading toward us. My own mouth drops as a familiar face reveals itself and I whisper, “Ivan.”

The tears fall unchecked because who cares about appearances now when I see the Savage who protected me so well at Rockwell academy heading into the restaurant, holding the hand of the woman from the painting. Imogen. Massimo’s wife.

The chair falls back as he stands and stumbles toward her with a disbelieving cry.

“Imogen, my darling.”

The whole restaurant stills as he cries, “Where have you been? I waited for you.”

He falters a little and shakes his head as if he’s seeing a ghost, and I suppose in his mad mind, he is.

“Darling, you must have been so afraid. Were you lost? Did you ache for me as I have ached for you? We have so much to catch up on. Tell me the names of the people responsible for keeping me from you, and I will ensure their long and painful death. You can help me; we will be a team again. Where’s the baby?”

He looks around wildly and then screams, “WHERE’S THE BABY? WHO TOOK OUR BABY?”

He howls like an animal in pain, and I don’t believe one person here expected to see this sight today. The real Massimo Delauren in all his chaotic glory. The mask has slipped and shattered to the ground as he struggles to separate the past from the present.

The expression on the girl’s face is terror personified as she holds on tightly to Ivan’s hand, who is staring at Massimo with all the fury of Satan himself. As Massimo lurches forward, Ivan steps in front of her and snarls, “Back off Massimo.”

Massimo stops as if stunned and his voice breaks a little. “Who are you? Why are you holding my wife’s hand?”

He turns to his soldiers and shrieks, “Kill him!”

He looks wildly around and stares in disbelief as every last soldier lowers their guns and he can be in no doubt of their intentions as they stare at him with hate and disgust.

“What are you waiting for? Kill the bastard! Kill them all. I order you!”

The silence is palpable as Massimo stares in confusion around him and then his eyes flick back to the woman he believes is his dead wife. The expression on his face is one of pain, confusion, and hope. He has so much love and need in his eyes as he stares at the woman he loved before she died so cruelly, and witnessing the uncertainty in his daughter’s expression makes my heart break for her. Just picturing her fate lying beside her mother in perpetuity fills my soul with pain and then, from out of nowhere, a voice from the past whispers in my ear and I hear his words as clear as the day I heard them.

“Learn how to survive and always look for their weakness because there always is one. Then use that to your advantage to get what you want. The element of surprise is a powerful weapon, and I’m guessing you can learn to wield it where it will do the most damage.”

Now is that time. My opportune moment because Massimo can’t tear his eyes away from the woman I must save. I steal a furtive glance around me and it’s as if the packed restaurant is frozen in time as they witness a scene play out that is so unbelievable it doesn’t seem real.

I note that Massimo’s men’s guns are lowered as they view something they would never have believed, and Portia is staring in disbelief at the woman who is the spitting image of her mother. Don Majerio appears as stunned as the rest of us and nobody gives me a second glance as I reach into Massimo’s jacket that he hung on the back of his chair.

I hold my breath as the seconds tick down to the end of life as I know it and my heart races as my fingers close around the metal box that contains the deadliest injection.

My hands shake as I attempt to remove it under the cover of the table, and when I feel the plastic syringe in my hand, I relish the sense of power at my disposal.

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