Chapter 1 Prologue
Trigger Warning
This is a dark romance story with explicit sexual content, abuse, con-non-con, gore, cussed words, morally grey and flawed characters you’ll hate to love, and love to hate. BEWARE!😏😉
LORENZO
Two Years Ago, Villa Marchetti.
“Please, Enzo, have mercy. I am useful, and I will prove it to you. Just give me a chance, and I will be loyal to you forever. I vow it. I…I know things….useful things. So many things about your grandfather even you don’t know about,” the bloody man at my feet rambles, shamelessly crying—the coward.
There’s absolutely nothing he has to offer me in exchange for his miserable life. Even if he hadn’t shot at my cousin, I would still have ended him. Because I’m an asshole who holds grudges, and I have a grudge against him.
Besides, there’s no place for a spineless coward in my kingdom. If you think about it, I’m even doing him a favor; it is better if he dies at my hand than wait for Alessandro to end him. The waiting might drive him insane.
I ignore him as I watch the pile of bodies burning right outside the Villa Marchetti. The only place I ever identified as home, despite every hardship I had gone through here. Maybe it has something to do with my Nonna or the cousin who was my role model growing up.
To be honest, I don’t know. However, I know I have waited more than a decade for this day; today, I will kill my enemies. Tomorrow, I will begin my rule. Who says patience doesn’t pay off has never really put in the effort for what he wants. But I have, because if I have one thing in abundance, it is my patience to wait, even when things don’t look particularly positive.
“We’re family, Enzo. I have family, a wife, and my daughter. She’s about to have a baby. Diventerò nonno” (I will become a grandfather). He ended in Italian, finally recognizing death as I started over to Luca, my second in command. Benedetto has always been like that, all talk, no action, a fucking coward.
“You’re not my family, Benedetto. You’re a sick, twisted man and a thief. A coward who will do anything to survive instead of dying with honor. Your master is dead and cold, but like the fucking cockroach you are, you refuse to die. Instead, you decide to steal from your boss, and you break your omerta. You have no dignity, none.”
“And trust me, those kids and grandkids you mentioned, they would be better off without you, Luca, the sword.” I stretch my fingers for my favorite weapon of punishment.
“Ss…swo…sword? What sword, Enzo?” he sputtered, those greedy eyes bloodshot and wide with panic and fear. I grin, my hand wrapped around the hilt of the double-edged sword.
“This,” I said, stroking the sword like it was the lush body of a beautiful woman with a single finger. I hissed as the sharp edge cut through my finger, and my grin widened.
“This isn’t just a sword, Benedetto; she’s La giustizia. I guessed that with old age, your memories must have also started failing you.” Using the sharp tip of the sword, I lift his red-mottled face to stare into my eyes. Red blood beaded on the tip as it dug a little deeper into his flesh than I intended.
“This was the same sword you had told Nonno about and had it confiscated from me when I was sixteen? No? You don’t remember?” There was no recollection in his eyes, the fucker. I was a bit disappointed, to be honest.
“Jesu Cristo, I’m begging you, Enzo!”
“Shhhh,” I shush him with the sword on his lips. His eyes turn impossibly bigger. Luca and the other soldiers chuckle as poor Benedetto begins to wet his pants. I frown in disgust.
“Now, Benedetto, you might call me deranged for wanting to use a sword on you, but in my opinion, what I am is petty, and to be honest, a gun is a little too impersonal for what I feel for you.” I pull my hand back.
“I never forgot all the things you said to my Nonno about me, give him a message from me.”
“Enzo….”
“Rot in hell.” Then I swung hard, severing his head from his body. Blood splashed on my face and body as his body shook for what felt like hours but was mere minutes.
Fabio hands me a crisp white handkerchief. I wipe the sword clean and throw it on the waste of human beings at my feet.
“Take his head and his body to join the others,” I ordered, and watched as three soldiers rushed to do my bidding.
“We did everything you asked,” Luca said, pointing at the soldiers carrying the empty gallons of fuel.
“The servants?” I asked, taking out my accendino (lighter) from my pants pocket.
“Everyone is gone, Enzo; I double-checked everything myself. I also took out all the necessary things like the metals.”
“Good.” I nodded. While the house needed cleansing, the guns did not. It would be a waste and pure stupidity to burn guns worth that much.
“What now?” I flipped it open, switched on the lighter, lit my cigarette, took a pull once, twice, then flung it into space until it landed near the entrance, lighting the ground with a small flame that began to spread and grow.
“Let it burn.” I stride towards my car without a second glance at the mansion now completely engulfed in flames. I get in the backseat, and Fabio and Luca join me in the front, with Fabio in the driver’s seat.
“Where are we going?” Fabio asked.
“To the hospital, I’m going to check on my cousin.” I stroke the sword that’s now sheathed and on my thighs. My brows creased; it was time I finally checked on the man who had helped me achieve my goals.
I know his condition is critical, but I don’t know how critical. Though I’m a little worried, it didn’t last because I know that stubborn asshole will pull through.
He has to!