Page 45 of Lies like Rubies, Part One

Enzo jerked against his bindings.

“Where’s your brother, Enzo?”

“I don’t know,” Enzo said. “And you better fucking let me go if you don’t want to start a war with Gio Costa.”

“The war that started last night when Sergio burned my buildings down and killed two of my employees?”

I put out my hand, and José’s man handed me a scalpel. From behind Enzo, I scraped a line down his cheek, deep enough to hurt. He clenched his jaw and said nothing. I cut a matching line down his other cheek, watching the blood drip off his jaw and onto his shirt.

“Where’s your brother, Enzo?”

Enzo shook his head. “I don’t fucking know! The goddamned Irish ran him off five years ago. He came back two years ago for a week and then ran off again, the useless fucker.”

I cocked my head, trying to piece the puzzle together. “The Irish ran him off, or the Russos ran him off?”

Enzo laughed bitterly. “Do you think the Russos cared that he knocked up their whore? No, they would’ve married her off to him, and he would’ve raised his kid. But the older sister’s husbands took offense and told him never to set foot in Yorkfield again.”

I smacked him across the back of the head. “Language, Enzo. We don’t talk about women that way in this club.”

My phone pinged, interrupting my train of thought. I angled my body so only I could see the screen. Sofia’s face popped up, the heavy black eyeliner she’d worn streaking down her face in sharp lines, her lipstick smeared, and her cheeks shiny with tears. My cock hardened at the misery in her eyes. I couldn’t believe she‘d taken the photo.

Dante

Good girl.

Sofia

I’m not a puppy.

Dante

You’re my slutty kitten, and you did exactly as I asked. What would you like for your reward?

I watched the three dots appear and disappear at the bottom of the screen, then pocketed my phone. I could flirt with my new toy later.

“Why is your brother in Yorkfield?” I asked my prisoner as José slipped back into the room.

“I don’t fucking know!” Enzo cried.

I walked around to face Enzo and crouched in front of him, running the dull side of the scalpel down his face and arm and then rotating it to slice through the fleshy part of his hand. “When did Sergio get back?”

Enzo shook his head and spat at me, to my delighted surprise. “José,” I murmured, “I need my tools.”

José rolled his fucking eyes at me, the prick, then handed me a rolled leather case. Taking a piece out of this disrespectful piece of shit would give me great pleasure.

I grabbed a pair of pliers and asked José, “Fingernails or teeth? What do you think he’ll regret more?”

José rolled his eyes fuckingagain, and then leaned over Enzo. “Dante’s slow as fuck when it comes to torture because your pain gets him off. He’ll pop out your fingernails one by one, then bandage you up to avoid infection before doing the same for your teeth.”

I didn’t know that I would take much care with this particular asshole, but my phone pinged in my pocket, and suddenly I was impatient to finish. “Teeth, then,” I said and grabbed Enzo’s head, bracing it in the crook of my elbow as I prepared to yank one of his molars out.

“Fuck! Stop, you crazy fucker! He’s been in town for two weeks. Fuck!”

I smiled but didn’t release his head. “And what’s he doing here?”

“I don’t fucking know! I just know he shows up, doesn’t reach out to his own fucking family, holes up with Gio Costa for a few hours, and then he went off the grid. Asshole.”

It wasn’t clear whether the epithet was for me or Enzo’s brother. Didn’t matter. “Gio bringing in girls?”

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