My footsteps crunch on the cold, wet concrete. The floor has been ripped up in places, which breaks as I head deeper into the chilly expanse. Waiting for me is the asshole I’m about to rip to shreds. He’s watching me as I near him.
“What the fuck do you think you’re playing at?”
He doesn’t respond right away. Instead, someone walks out into the dim light, and her gaze locks on mine. “Mr. Donati,” she greets with a sly smile that makes my stomach coil. I didn’t think I’d come face-to-face with her, but here she is.
“You came a long way just to see me,” I remark, meeting the same stormy eyes I’ve been looking into for the past month. The only difference is that the woman standing before me is much older and much more sinister than her daughter.
“When I last spoke to you, I was under the impression you were going to do as I asked,” she tells me, which only makes me laugh.
“Do you really think I’m going to obey you when your fucking husband killed my father?” I bite out, my teeth grinding against each other, causing my jaw to tick with frustration. “I don’t bow down to anyone. I’m a Donati. And your little boytoy over here has gone too far.”
“I’ll decide what’s too far,” Pandora Davenport tells me with a smirk creasing her lips. No wonder her husband was happier disappearing than spending time around her. The bitch is a psychopath.
“Actually,” I respond, pulling the gun from my pocket. Cocking it, I lift it slowly, aiming it at the bastard’s face. “I’ll decide where we go from here.”
“Have you fallen in love with her?” The sheer shock that’s painted across Pandora’s features is clear as it drips from her question. Have I? No. I can’t love her. She’s just a girl I enjoyed fucking.
“I don’t deal well with men who do bad things.”
“Does she know who you truly are?” Her challenge has me gripping the gun harder, my fingers wrapping around the handle, my finger hovering over the trigger. “Because I think if my dear little girl found out about the man she’s spreading her legs for, she’ll run in the opposite direction.”
“That’s better than someone raping her when she’s underage?” I sneer, my gaze locked on the piece of scum whose expression tells me he didn’t realize I knew the truth.
“That’s just a story she’s made up to get attention.”
“Is it?” This time, my glare lands on the older woman. “Why don’t we ask him?” My focus zeroes in on the man I’m about to kill. “Tell me.”
“Hey man, she was up for anything when she walked into my bedroom. You would know. The little bitch opens her pretty pussy for any dick offering.” He chuckles, his words dripping through me like poison, and my finger slips, sending a bullet flying, hitting him right in the shoulder. “What the fuck man?”
“Tell me the fucking truth.” My command bounces off the metal walls that surround us. “I don’t like repeating myself.” Another bullet hits him in the knee, and I aim the next for his crotch, which has the asshole howling in agony.
“Okay! Okay!” His hands hold onto his dick, which is gushing blood. “I did … I mean, she was …” I cock the gun once more before he finally admits, “Wait! Okay, I did. Yeah, I forced her. I didn’t think it was an issue.”
That’s all I needed to hear, and the last bullet hits him right in the chest, just missing his heart. Stalking toward his shuddering form, I straddle his body before gripping his neck with one hand, and squeezing, watching his eyes bulge from their sockets.
“You’re filth. Rot in hell.”
“Quite the dramatics,” Pandora says when I finally rise to meet her stare. The stench of metal fills my nostrils, but I’ve never felt more alive. Taking someone’s life is intoxicating.
“Where is your husband?”
“I don’t know. He flew to Europe to hide out, but my men lost him. We haven’t been able to track him again.” The woman came to me when she found out about her dear husband’s illegal activities within the political sphere. He had bought votes, paid off informants to learn more about his competition, and not long after being elected by a landslide, he had been caught with a prostitute, which sent Pandora over the edge.
She found out about his underhanded business with my father and three months ago, she came to me and asked for my help by appealing to my need for revenge. Pandora poked the proverbial sleeping bear and here I am.
Pandora realized her husband had hired guns to come after my dad, and that’s when she realized I would help put an end to her husband. But then I made the deal when I saw the one thing her husband would never leave behind. I wanted something for my trouble. I didn’t need money, so I asked for the one thing I knew she couldn’t refuse me—Arabella.