Page 17 of DeLucas After Dark

He once again chuckled at the shocked look on my face. I thought those people were preparing for my fake wedding.

“Oh, you thought that party was for you? You really do think a lot of yourself. That sweet girl you were trying to take advantage of knew all about your plan. She spent all your stolen money on this little celebration just for me. Thank you for your generosity. I promise to dance with her tonight to show my appreciation.”

“Sheree? She knew?”

He didn’t answer me. He just kept messing with a container on the tray next to the table that I was strapped to. What the hell was he doing? I would soon regret asking.

“Have you ever heard of bullet ants? They are fascinating creatures. They say their bite feels like getting shot by a gun, hence the name. You’ll let me know, won’t you? Mario, remove his pants and underwear if he has any,” Fausto commanded.

Before I could protest, he shook the jar he was holding, picked up a pair of tweezers and pulled one of those wretched bugs out of the container.

“No, please! Anywhere but there.”

The words hadn’t left my lips good when I felt the most intense pain ever in life. My nuts felt like they were exploding. The bastard placed several of those angry insects on my cock and balls. They certainly earned their names. It felt like someone had an assault rifle pointed at my nether region and emptied the clip.

“Nooo! God help me! Get them off! Get them off! Please, I can’t take it.”

The monster stood over me laughing, along with the other men in the room. I was nothing but entertainment to those fuckers. At least Nicolo wasn’t here to gloat. It was the one thing that kept me sane in the moment. When my body started convulsing, I wished for death. I wanted it to come fast. I just wanted the pain to go away.

My mind quickly changed when I saw what Fausto had in his hands. In one hand he had a scalpel, like a surgeon would use. In the other, there was a rib spreader. I had seen one on my favorite television show centered around doctors by that lady Shonda Rhimes.

I watched in horror as Fausto raised his hand in the air and came down to my, now bare chest, with the blade. I was able to see the blood spurting up out of my body. The pain I felt when he inserted the rib spreader was on a pain level I didn’t know existed.

Each slice of his blade was felt as I realized what the man was doing. He couldn’t be! Fausto wasn’t notorious for nothing. When he removed his hand from my chest holding my still beating heart, I knew it was over. A few seconds later I lost consciousness. I welcomed the eternal darkness.

FAUSTO DELUCA

Iwatched as the light extinguished in Johnny Lips eyes. He had always been a thorn in the side of the DeLuca family. I was happy to be the one Don Enzo called to permanently remove it.

After my nephew, Nicolo, told me of Johnny Lip’s deception and how he was using the young girl, Sheree, to exact his revenge, I knew I needed to make his demise as painful as possible.

When I was away, a Brazilian friend told me stories about a very painful ant, they used back home, to make people talk. I was going to have to send him a case of Cuban cigars after this. He was right on the money.

Once I was sure the bastard would never take another breath, I laughed. The men in the room joined me in my amusement. They had all heard the tall tales that circulated around the family about my methods. I am sure they would be more than happy to add to my legend when the wine started flowing later.

“Mario, bring me that box on the shelf, would you?”

“What, this Christmas box?”

“That’s the one.”

I placed the warm organ, that was no longer beating, into the satin lined box and had Mario place the top on it. I walked over to the sink and cleaned the blood from my hands. One good thing about snatching a heart from a man’s chest is that there is low blood splatter. There is nothing to pump the blood out of his body.

After making sure I didn’t miss any blood, I dried my hands and rolled my shirtsleeves down. Once I fastened my cufflinks, I put on my jacket and snagged the box from the table where Mario placed it.

“You boys get this mess cleaned up. Do whatever it is you do to destroy the body these days. When you’re finished, come join us out back at the party. We have a lot to celebrate. Fausto is home, at last!”

When I entered the tent that had been erected in the back yard for the celebration, I immediately looked for Nicolo. He was standing near the bar talking to a few members of the family. I walked over to him, waving and nodding at the people who greeted me along the way.

“Uncle Fausto?”

Nicolo asked the question with his eyes. I smiled at him and then nodded once. He got the meaning. I extended the box I held out to him. He reached out, taking the box and giving me a curious look.

“Merry Christmas, from your Don. Open it in private.”

With that, my job was done for the night. I looked around the room and located the young lady who had been a victim of Johnny Lip’s stupidity. I moved in her direction, wanting to keep my word. I would have one dance with this girl to let her know things were fine.

“Dance with me.”

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