Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 101247 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 506(@200wpm)___ 405(@250wpm)___ 337(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 101247 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 506(@200wpm)___ 405(@250wpm)___ 337(@300wpm)
It was the first time I’d laid eyes on Silent Night, and after all the gory tales I’d heard about him, I expected him to look like the devil, but it was the opposite. There’s a saying: The most beautiful things are often the most dangerous, and Valentino personifies that saying. He was so magnificent my heart couldn’t help but flutter. Even so, I knew that beauty should take a back seat to character. How right that perception was. The more I get to know him the uglier he becomes, starting from when he’d decided to marry a woman against her will, and to now with him going to a whore on our honeymoon… on our very first night together.
Okay, I’ll admit, I did reject him, but just for the sake of propriety couldn’t he, at least, have controlled his animal urges for one freaking night?
I made a pact with myself to never get involved with a man like my father, and here I am. Lusting for an unworthy man. But worse I now know that my body will betray me and I must find the will to stand my ground against my husband before I lose every single iota of good left inside me.
I must keep my body pure and remain faithful to my love for Thomas.
Chapter Five
VALENTINO
“Here’s your guy,” Vance says, slapping the file on the desk in front of me. “Thomas Dwight. A twenty-seven-year-old bleeding heart, social justice warrior.”
I steeple my fingers in front of me, staring at the small-eared, pasty-faced ridiculous man in the photo before me. Unbelievable! A creature like him has Francesca Barbieri’s heart. Just unbelievable. The longer I look at him, the more my blood boils.
“He attended the same public college that Signora Barone did,” Vance briefs me. “They met on their way to English literature class. He graduated top of his class four years ago, and even though Signora Barone dropped out, they continued to see each other.”
They continued to see each other.
The more Vance talked, the more I hated this Thomas cock-sucking mongrel idiot.
“It looks like they never dated formally,” Vance says, like he can read my thoughts. “He was too afraid of her family to do more than just speak to her in the cafeteria.”
“So, a coward, then?”
“A spineless coward,” Vance agrees.
“What the fuck does a man like him do?”
“He works for a small independent magazine that mostly peddles far-left, Marxist talking points, you know, the free food, housing and education for all fake utopia. But here’s the interesting thing. He’s been secretly sending job applications to many mainstream media publications. Side note; they’ve all rejected him. It seems he desperately wants to work for a mainstream publication, but he’s been lying to all his friends by claiming he would never work for any mainstream publications as they are all corrupt capitalist organizations.”
I smiled.
In the old days, his end would have been swift, but now I have learned to give people rope, enough of it and they will hang themselves right before your eyes. Francesca will find out that good and evil are subjective amorphous things. She hates me because she thinks I’m the devil himself, but her angel of love and light is about to get some rope.
“Do you want me to take him out, Boss?” Vance asks, glancing at his watch. “It’s 10 am here, which means it’s 04:00 pm in New York. Dwight is getting ready to end his afternoon shift. Say the word, and we’ll take him out.”
“Where is my wife?” I look around the living room. I couldn’t sleep after she left, not after all the damn things she said to me, so I’ve been sitting around for the last two hours and she still isn’t back from her outing.
“She went to Mass.”
I look up. “Church?”
“Yes, Sir. There’s a Roman Catholic Church a few minutes from the hotel.”
Good. I like the idea of having a wife who can stay on her knees for long periods. “I want eyes on her at all times.”
“Yes, Boss. Two of our best men are on the job.” Vance nods towards the file, his lips are pressed into a thin line. “Want us to take Dwight out?”
“No. That won’t be necessary.”
I glance at the photo of Thomas again. He’s nothing but a speck of dust in the scheme of things. That’s how inconsequential he is. If I give Vance the word, he’ll be snuffed out like a candle, and no one will miss him.
Well, except my wife. The thought causes the embers of my rage to burst into flames again. I hate being in Paris; there are not enough things to do to let off steam. Usually, I spend my time in Paris gambling or buried between the thighs of beautiful women, but neither thought excites me anymore.
I want Francesca with a passion that surpasses anything I’ve ever felt in my life. My hand slips into the pocket of my pants to touch the gold bracelet. It’s cool to the touch. It’s always cool to the touch, reminding me that this is the only piece of Francesca that is truly mine.