Total pages in book: 36
Estimated words: 34406 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 172(@200wpm)___ 138(@250wpm)___ 115(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 34406 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 172(@200wpm)___ 138(@250wpm)___ 115(@300wpm)
Blood was on the floor, and he saw the stain on one of the butcher’s knives.
“Valentina!” He called her name, knowing his voice carried around the house. Giovanni repeated her name, a second, a third time, and then he heard her scream for him.
It was filled with pain and fear, and he followed the sound.
They had taken her to his office, and as he stepped inside the door, he saw Victoria there, holding a knife to Valentina’s throat.
Blood dripped down Victoria’s arm from a nasty-looking cut.
Staring at his wife, he looked her in the eyes and saw the tears glistening in them.
She screamed a second after he felt the bullet hit him.
It burned, and he fell to the floor, keeping his eyes open as Leonardo came into view.
“Ha, look at the fucking Butcher now.” Leonardo drew back his leg and landed a blow to his stomach. “You think you can best me, but you can’t. No one can. You think I didn’t know it was you who attacked the warehouse? Who took the Capos?”
Another blow, and he grunted.
The wound on his shoulder wasn’t a killer blow, but it sure stung like a son of a bitch.
Being kicked in the stomach wasn’t so fucking pleasant either. With Leonardo focusing on him, his wife was safe.
“Come on, Leo, finish him and let’s skin this bitch. I want her dead. Her fat fucking ass deserves to be in the ground.”
Victoria was his current problem. He had to get her away.
When Leonardo went for him again, he grabbed the man’s foot and shoved him back, sending him off balance, and he fell to the ground. Grasping him around the neck, he stood and faced Victoria, who’d frozen.
“I suggest you put that blade down!”
“Kill her!” Leonardo said.
“Kill her, and he dies, and then, sweetheart, I am going to make you scream.”
“You kill me, and my father is going to end your sorry fucking ass,” Leonardo said.
“Your father is on his way, Leo, and he knows you’ve been a very bad boy.”
Leonardo tensed in his arms.
“Your father is here,” Thomas Rossi said, entering the office.
Victoria gasped and dropped the blade. Valentina was tied to the desk and couldn’t wriggle free.
All he wanted to do was go to her, but he had no choice right now.
Thomas stared at his son. “My own son, threatening to end my life, to take my empire away from me.”
“You don’t deserve it anyway. You don’t deserve nothing.”
He got a slap around the face. Then Thomas pulled back and punched him in the gut.
“You can’t kill me,” Leonardo said. “I’m your only son. Your only heir.”
Thomas pulled out a picture. “I have a new grandson, a new heir, and you, I don’t need you anymore.”
Giovanni kept his grip on Leonardo’s neck, but he held out the tip of the blade to Thomas.
Leonardo tried to thrash within his grip, but he held him tight and firm, not allowing him to escape.
“Get the fuck off me.”
He tightened his grip on his windpipe, and then looked at Thomas, who’d taken the blade. “You are an embarrassment to me, to my family, and you have ruined your name.”
Giovanni removed his hands, and with a slash of the blade, Thomas ended his son’s life and the tyranny he’d dealt out to others.
****
Several hours later
“I’m fine,” Valentina said. “I’m more worried about you.”
“I don’t care about me. The baby is fine?” Giovanni pulled her down into his lap, and she tried to struggle within his grasp.
“You were shot.”
“So?”
“Doesn’t it hurt?” she asked, glancing at the bandage on his shoulder.
“No, nothing hurts.” He winked at her.
She rolled her eyes. “Please, you were shot and kicked, and I had to watch.” She also had to watch Leonardo get killed, as well as Victoria. Thomas had been violent and vicious, but Giovanni had taken her away immediately after.
He’d insisted they go to the private doctor who was constantly on call. She’d already been given the all-clear. Giovanni wouldn’t allow the doctor to take care of his wounds, not until he’d been sure she was fine, and she was.
The baby didn’t show any signs of stress, and other than offering relaxation, she was fine. Perfectly fine.
Giovanni was being a pain, and she needed to know that her husband was okay. He wouldn’t let her go, so she settled in his lap. The doctor had gone to get the necessary equipment. She knew Giovanni was giving Thomas and his men time to bring the cleanup crew in to deal with their house and the bodies.
“With you in my arms, I don’t care about anything else. Hearing you on that call, it was … I have never been so terrified in my life, and I saw my parents get killed.”
She wrapped her arms around him, holding him close. “I’m here.”
“You can’t die on me, Valentina. I’ve loved you for a long time, and I know I’ve been selfish picking you and wanting you all to my own, but I am a selfish man.”