Chapter 56 - Yours, Daddy.

AUTHOR'S POV

"So she still hasn't reacted to any of the messages?" Mr. McAllister questioned, tapping his fingers on his desk furiously.

"Yes, sir. I don't think any of the messages infuriates her enough to get a meeting with her. She is most probably being cautious" his personal assistant replied and he groaned.

He picked a piece of paper on his table and rumpled it before throwing it across the desk.

"The little bitch is being cautious... Send her another text message tonight. If there's no result still, send her the video. That would definitely bring her out. I am doing her pretty much a favour anyways."

"Yes sir."

Mr. McAllister watched as the guy exited his office while he remained fuming with anger. He needed Russo's power in the company reduced and Rosaline was his only to it.

He strongly believed that once Rosaline took some of the powers, he could help her become the CEO of the company and once she was in power, he would just have to manipulate her into doing his will. He was pretty sure that unlike Russo, Rosaline would actually give in to his manipulations especially if he was with her in her journey to becoming CEO.

It wasn't going to be easy to get her to become CEO but as long as Rosaline was determined enough, Mr. McAllister was sure it would only be a matter of time to weaken Russo's power in the company.

RUSSO EL MASSIMO

I walked into the meeting room, throwing my jacket at Matteo before heading to the empty chair.

I pulled it out and settled onto it, undoing the first button on my shirt.

"And here I am."

"Massimo" Giovanni spoke up first.

I glanced at him. A man in his late fifties, he was sweaty at the moment and he looked like he was going to pass out in no time.

"Giovanni" I called his name and looked around at the other men seated around the table in silence.

"Russo" one of them called and I looked at him with a small but clearly insincere smile.

"Martinez" I called his name.

"Rio and his friends have very well offended you but why don't you consider Giovanni and let them go?" Martinez said.

"Let them go?" I looked around the table, narrowing my gaze a bit at Diego. I chuckled before leaning back into my chair.

"Two died that very night. There's just one left, actually." I informed them.

I saw Giovanni sweat even more profusely as he looked to be on the verge of tears.

"W-who is the one left?" His voice was shaky as he asked.

"Why don't you guess who that one is?" I threw the question back at him and he sucked in a deep but shaky breath.

"Rio is still alive, right?" It was Dark Caster speaking.

"I don't know." I shrugged my shoulders.

"All I do know is that one of them is alive but then, he surely won't be alive for long."

"Russo, don't do this to me" Giovanni begged.

"Rio is my only son. He is all I have, please"

"Russo, why don't you consider the fact that we all, very busy men gathered here to ask you to let go of Rio and just give him back to Giovanni? I know you must have thought him a good lesson never to cross you again." One of the men spoke. I wasn't very familiar with him and had only seen him a few times.

"I am far from done teaching whoever is alive a good lesson" I replied him.

"What do you want, Russo?" Martinez spoke up.

"His death and that is exactly what I will have" I looked at Giovanni as I spoke the words.

Giovanni wasn't very powerful but the business had been in his family for generations so he had quite good connections and I had never seen the man so close to tears. It weirdly satisfied me.

"Russo, please. I will teach him a lesson. I know I haven't been exactly teaching him to be respectful but I will this time. I swear he will never ever cross you again and I am sure he had no idea that he was crossing you. Rio would never have dared to do so." Giovanni attempted begging again.

"He definitely will never cross me again because well, he would be dead so he won't be able to do so."

"Russo, we are not here to chat endlessly. Say what you want, give us your condition and release the boy to us" it was the man from earlier.

"You heard me clearly the first time. What I want is his death but I will let his father choose though..." I looked back at Giovanni who pulled closer to the edge of his seat.

"What is it?" He asked, his breathing heavy and ragged.

"In what way would you rather have the body discarded? You can choose that. I will have Matteo send you a list of ways I have available. You just have to tick the one you think fits."

"Russo!"

"Russo, please! Consider Giovanni!"

"Consider our presence here! His death brings nothing to you."

"I have honoured you all by being here today even though I was very, very busy with something important." I rose up from my chair and pressed my fists to the table.

"I have just one known family and that is Rosaline Caramia Massimo. I will never spare anyone who hurts my niece so when you seek for who to hurt, hurt me first and not my niece. For hurting me, I would strike a deal and let you live peacefully but for hurting my niece? I would never consider letting you live." I straightened up and walked towards the door but stopped midway.

"And lest I forget, Giovanni, you would still have to apologise to my niece for your son's mistake. And yes, don't worry I will let you know what your son's last words are."

*

"Russo" Diego called my name again as we walked into my study.

I sat behind my desk and looked at him with a look that clearly said I wasn't interested in listening to him but trust Diego to still sit and rant.

He sat on the chair opposite me. "Russo, this doesn't have to be that hard. You killed two guys already and Rio is definitely not in a good state right now. Why don't you just let him go? You could definitely do without the enemies this would attract to you."

"No, I can actually do with those enemies. Hasn't it been a little bit too quiet and peaceful these days? I could actually use some chaos in this situation."

"Look, those guys there are all mad at you right now. And yeah, you are powerful and you've got the money but it won't do good for you if they all go up against you." Diego pointed out.

"And you think they will all go up against me, knowing the loss it would bring to them?" I questioned.

"Perhaps not all but some, this impending bloodbath can be avoided..."

"Perhaps it can be avoided but I won't avoid it. I have never been known to avoid bloodbaths."

"But you have also never been known to be irrational, dude. You could literally strike a deal that would fetch you a lot more than usual in exchange for letting Rio live. You can make money from this but you aren't being in any way professional about this. You are really furious about this, Mr. Massimo. Are you sure this is just because she's your niece? I mean of course you would definitely protect your niece but going this far?"

My gaze had hardened with his completely stupid words.

"Dude, are you sure you are not falling in love with her?" He shot the question.

"There you go with your nonsense" my response was quick. Perhaps too quick, in fact. I was in a hurry to dismiss that thought from Diego's head.

Love was fucking impossible between us.

"If you are not in love with her, then I would really suggest that you let this go. Teach Rio some lesson and let him go. Giovanni looks like he is going to die if his son dies. Pity him and let Rio live."

Nonsense. Everyone was spouting nonsense. Damn the fucking consequences, I wasn't going to let Rio live. If anything, they were making me want to kill him before the day I had earlier intended. And they were making me want to kill him in even more gruesome manners.