I Saved the Mafia Boss—Now I'm His Obsession. novel Chapter 28

Adriano

⫘☠︎︎⫘

The bat felt light in my hand, too light for what I planned to do with it.

Her face was still burned behind my eyes, that fucking broken look she wore when she stepped out of his building with her dignity in shreds and a duffel bag pressed to her chest like it was all she had left.

Carlos should’ve thanked the universe I let her walk out on her own.

Now I was here to finish what he started.

The hallway outside his apartment was dim and empty. I wore a plain black hoodie, sleeves shoved up to my elbows, black jeans, black gloves.

I adjusted my grip on the bat and lifted my hand to knock once. I didn’t come here to scream.

I came here to teach.

He opened the door with a half-laugh, shirtless, “Yo—who the hell—”

The bat connected with the door before he could finish. It slammed him backwards, cracked the wood off the hinges as I walked through it.

He stumbled back, hands up. “What the fuck? What the fuck—?”

I didn’t speak.

The first real swing hit the side of his dining table and shattered it to pieces. The noise made him jump, flinch like the coward he was.

A girl came running out of his bedroom at the sound wrapped up in nothing but a bedsheet. She screamed but I raised a finger and pressed it onto my lips to tell her to keep quiet.

Her scream died in her throat.

“I—Who? What are you—?”

The next swing caught him in the ribs, not hard enough to break them, not yet. It was just hard enough to make him feel it tomorrow, and the day after that, and maybe every time he thinks about Madeleine.

He crumpled to the floor with a gasp, spitting curses.

“Jesus, bro, what the fuck—?!”

I crouched down, bat resting across my thigh, my face inches from his and that's when he saw me, really saw me and recognized me.

He looked up as blood trickled from the corner of his mouth. And then recognition bloomed behind his eyes.

“Y-You,” he stammered, breath rattling.

My mouth curved, but there was no humor in it, “Took you long enough.”

Before he could blink, I grabbed his wrist, pinned it flat to the hardwood, and planted my boot over his open hand.

“What—wait, wait, wait—!”

The bat came down hard and the scream he let out didn’t sound human.

I swung again, right on the same spot. The wood hit ruined flesh and bone, and his body twitched like a dying bug.

Then something slammed into my back. My vision blurred for a half second and I turned fast, instincts flaring. A broken chair dangled from what was left of the girl’s grip.

She backed up against the wall, eyes wide like she’d just slapped the devil and realized he doesn’t care for the pain.

I didn’t hit her. I just looked at her for a second, no words.

She crumpled like a stack of nerves and dropped to the floor with her hands over her head and scooted back on her hips until she reached a wall and started sobbing.

I turned back to Carlos.

“You always let your side chicks fight your battles?”

He tried to crawl backward. I grabbed his other arm mid-scramble and slammed it to the floor.

“No, no—wait—wait, man, please—!”

“You really oughta hit the gym,” I muttered. “These arms feel like wet pasta.”

Then I brought the bat down, another scream echoed, another bone snapped. He writhed beneath me, both arms shattered now, snot and spit and curses running down his chin.

“Well,” I said, standing to my full height, “there goes your little job. It's hard to cheat on someone when you can’t jerk yourself off, huh?”

I stepped over him, bat resting across my shoulder again.

“I hope that measly ten grand you begged tor buys you a hell of a life, Carlos. Because that’s all you’ve got left.”

Carlos was coughing through the pain, one arm bent at a sick angle, the other already ballooning purple beneath the skin. He was trying to speak, but it came out in wet gasps.

“You say a single fucking word of this to Madeleine,” I said, “and I’ll come back for your jaw next.”

He groaned something but I crouched again and grabbed his chin, yanked his face toward mine.

“That was just a little warning. I haven’t even gotten creative yet.”

His head trembled in my grip, like a nod. I stared at him a beat longer, then shoved his face away and he landed with a wet thump.

The girl still sat frozen by the wall, the sheet pulled up over her chest. She looked at me like a wild animal, terrified and shaking.

I turned my gaze to her, and she shrank back instinctively, “I don’t hit women,” I said, “But don’t mistake that for kindness.”

Her eyes blinked fast, lips trembling.

“If you even think about telling her anything,” I said, stepping closer, “if her name comes out of your mouth in a whisper to anyone, I’ll ruin you in ways no hospital can fix.”

She nodded too fast, like her head was trying to escape her body. I stopped just in front of her, towering. She was nothing but fear and cotton bedsheet.

“Got it?” I asked.

“Yes,” she whispered, voice cracking.

I tilted my head, studied her face for one second longer. She wasn’t innocent, not really but she wasn't the guilty one either, just stupid. And unfortunately for her, she chose the wrong bed to climb into.

I turned away, heading for the door but before I crossed the threshold, I paused and glanced back once more.

Carlos was still trying to breathe, still twitching like something dying under a car.

“And if either of you think about calling the cops...” I smiled faintly. “Well. Let’s just say there are no cops where I’m from, just graves. And I’ve got room for two more.”

Then I walked out.

𓎢𓎠𓎟☠︎︎𓎟𓎠𓎡

Strobe lights pulsed overhead, blood-red and ultraviolet. The air reeked of sweat, sex, smoke, liquor and power. Exactly how I liked it.

My shirt was already open. Armani, drenched in champagne. The VIP booth was fucked, leather couches torn up by heels, crystal glasses shattered, liquor on the floor. Someone’s stiletto was still jammed between the cushions. I didn’t care. I poured Dom Pérignon over it anyway.

My bottle tilted, bubbling foam cascading down a girl’s bare shoulder, soaking into her silver mesh dress. She squealed and gripped my wrist like it was gospel. I didn’t look at her. I wasn’t here for her.

This was for me.

For her.

For Maddie.

And for the pathetic little fuck who finally out of her life.

My lips curled around the rim of the bottle, cold champagne trickled down my jaw, staining my throat. My rings clinked against the glass as I finished it in one pull and tossed the empty across the booth like trash. It shattered against the marble floor.

The whole room moved for me.

They always did.

Sweat dripped down my temples, salt on my tongue, and under the layers of perfume and smoke, I could still smell it... Victory. Carlos’s scream echoing in my head like a fucking song.

I laughed with my head thrown back and my hand wrapped around another bottle, shoving corks off. Champagne exploded in the air like gunfire. My shirt clung to my chest. People ducked, screamed, danced and some drank it off each other’s skin.

Blood still stained the inside of my wrist.

And in the back of my mind, there she was, Madeleine, curled around her cat in some soft bed I should’ve been in.

I felt hands over my body, I rolled my neck once, flexing my shoulders beneath the soaked Armani.

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