I removed my jacket and rolled up my sleeves as I regarded Antonio and Raffaele bound to chairs in front of me. Stark terror reflected in their eyes and it was a beautifully satisfying sight.
I’d promised Valentina to end Antonio quickly, knowing I was lying. I couldn’t spare him, not only because I needed the information he harbored but also because I needed to satisfy the dark hunger in my veins asking for blood, for pain, for screams.
Arturo stood back, reading my mood curiously. “You want to handle them?”
I inclined my head with a cold smile that made Raffaele squirm in his seat, then groan against the tape covering his mouth. His kneecaps were splintered but that wouldn’t kill him. The shot wound in Antonio’s stomach was a bigger problem, but Arturo had bandaged it so he wouldn’t bleed out too soon.
“For now,” I said.
Arturo nodded and leaned against the wall. He’d only recently taken over from his father as Enforcer but he was a capable asset. He enjoyed the torture, which was always a helpful trait in our line of work. Yet sometimes I worried he enjoyed it a bit too much. One look at his eager dark eyes told me he was impatient for me to start. Right then, my own eyes probably held the same deranged need for bloodshed.
I let my gaze slide over the display of knives, scalpels and other utensils intended to make a traitor’s last hours as agonizing as possible. Arturo always tested new utensils, disturbingly creative in his job.
I preferred ordinary torture methods. Unsheathing my knife, I stepped up to Antonio and ripped away the tape. He cried out. “Think of Val. She’d never want you to torture me,” he croaked.
It was the wrong thing to say, reminding me of his connection to Val, of how he failed her like I’d failed her so far. Even knowing that he was gay, the thought of him kissing Val, of touching her sent a spear of jealous rage through me. I smiled and he began shaking. “Val won’t ever find out, now will she?”
Antonio swallowed, his eyes darting to my Enforcer. If he hoped for help, he was very mistaken.
“You will tell me everything I want to know, every little detail, about this coup, about your fellow conspirators. But first… about Val.”
Antonio’s eyes widened.
I had Raffaele to torture for information on the conspiracy, but Antonio was the only one who could help me understand my wife, the very essence of her being, and maybe my conflicting emotions for her.I changed clothes before I returned home. The house was eerily silent when I stepped inside. Taft was in his guardhouse and Zita and Gabby must already have gone home. I headed up the staircase in search for Valentina. After the picture Antonio had painted about my wife, my guilt set even heavier on my shoulders. Val was a good woman, trying to help the people she loved with everything she had.
The sound of running water drew me into the bathroom and the sight before me broke through the dark clouds the torture had plastered over my soul. Val cowered in the shower, her legs pulled tightly to her chest as water rained down on her. Her hair was plastered to her shivering body. I stalked toward her and turned off the water, surprised to find it hot when Valentina’s goosebumps suggested she was cold.
I couldn’t explain what I felt looking down at my broken-hearted wife, at her anguish and sorrow. The tortured cries of Antonio and Raffaele had done nothing to me but my wife’s state tore at me.
I picked Valentina up and lifted her into my arms, feeling her shake against me. I wanted to protect her from all evil in this world, but the greatest of all evil were my own demons.
I set Val down, but she clung to me even as I dried her with a towel. She surprised me by burying her face in my neck, shuddering.
“Oh God,” she whispered.
I lifted her once more and carried her over to the bed where I gently put her down before I stretched out beside her. Val’s breathing was coming in harsh gasps, her eyes darting back and force as she succumbed to shock. I touched her cheeks, forcing her to look at me. “Shh, Val. It’s okay.”
“I killed him,” she croaked over and over again.
“Val, look at me.”
She did and the sorrow in her green eyes stirred emotions in me I hadn’t felt in a long time. “You did what was right. You did what you had to do to protect me. I won’t ever forget it. Never.” I stroked her cheeks, meaning every word. Despite how horrible of a husband I’d been for Valentina, she’d chosen me.
“I told you that you could trust me.”