Blackmailed to the Altar (Caputo Crime Family #2)

26. Chapter Twenty-Six

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

R iccardo

Samuel flew out and dropped off a package for me. He hid it right in the hole I’d asked him to. I couldn’t wait to kill that uncle, but now wasn’t the time. His retribution by the Brotherhood’s hand would come later. For now, he could sit and think. Alone with his thoughts in a dark hole, where he couldn’t hurt any other person.

My little wife was being a very bad fucking girl. She may have knocked out my alter, but that left me wiggle room to wake up in his stead. I stood in the doorway of the bedroom, as she tried to hide the broken cell phone in her hands. Her big doe eyes were wide with false innocence.

See, I was coming to check on her, after pulling up the video on the phone, and seeing her vomit in the bathroom. I saw her facial expression, and it sent tingles down my spine. A knowing feeling in my gut grew. I couldn’t help shoving Sebastian down when I saw. She was pregnant, which was the only reason I hadn’t grabbed her by her throat for breaking a basic rule.

I took a step inside. “Who were you talking to?”

Mya stood up and backed away from me. “N-no one,” she stammered.

I tsked. “You can lie to Sebastian, but we both know that shit won’t fly with me.”

She gasped. “So what? You’re the bad cop, and Sebastian is good?”

I chuckled, rolling up my sleeves. “Sebastian is the bad cop. And me? I’m the fucking Devil.” I lunged toward her.

I’m not ashamed to say that I saw red. The words I’d wanted to say died on my lips, replaced by the roaring rush of blood, and memories that clawed their way to the surface. It wasn’t Mya’s panicked face I saw anymore. It was Amelia, her eyes wild and furious, the smoke thick and suffocating, as it wrapped around us both.

She screamed and tried to escape me, but I caught her around the waist and swung her toward the bed, ignoring her legs kicking in the air as she fought against me.

I threw her on the bed, unbuckling my belt, when my phone started ringing.

“Riccardo! Please!” she cried.

I couldn’t ignore the incessant ringing. I’d been busy as hell with business, and now wasn’t the time to miss a call from Vito. “What?” I barked into the receiver.

“Amelia is dead,” Vito whispered.

The news snapped me out of my crazed mind. “Where are you?” I demanded. “What the fuck did I tell you about using the phone?” My voice was raw and ragged, echoing with the remnants of my anger and fear. “I told you: no calls. No contact. You keep your eye on things.”

“In the hospital, Samuel saw something while hacking her records, and I went to check it out. They pronounced the girl dead only a few moments ago. I’m suspecting the family will be here soon.”

“Fuck,” I cursed, running a hand through my hair. Mya scrambled to the other side of the bed while this conversation was happening, but she hadn’t run out the door.

“The Albanians are going to try and come for us.” I pinched the bridge of my nose, feeling a headache coming on.

“Arjun is here. I have to go before he sees me, and my cover is blown.”

“Thank you for your hard work, Vito.” I hung up on him so he could keep watch. While Sebastian had been busy figuring out his relationship with Mya, I’d implanted someone I could trust to suss out the Albanian situation.

“It’s not what you think!” she pleaded, her voice breaking, hands raised as if she could calm the storm raging inside me. “Nina’s in danger! I was just trying to help her.”

I hissed, “Lies.”

She threw her hands in the air. “What would I have to gain by lying to you?”

“Gaslighting, that’s what this is!” I roared, slamming my fist against the wall, the pain grounding me, pulling me back from the brink, but not enough. Never enough. I couldn’t unsee Amelia’s face, couldn’t unfeel the burns, couldn’t stop hearing the lies. I spiraled.

Mya’s eyes welled with tears, but I didn’t care. I couldn’t care. Not when everything inside me felt like it was tearing apart, every nerve raw and exposed, screaming. I couldn’t cope. Not with her betrayal on top of the flashbacks, not with her voice still echoing in my ears, mingling with the memory of Amelia’s screams.

“You’re done,” I hissed, stepping closer, looming over her. She shrank back, but I didn’t let up. “You’re going to deal with Sebastian now, got it? I’m done with this shit. I’m done with you.”

I watched her flinch, watched the fear twist her expression. Good. She needed to understand that she’d crossed a line. That whatever control I had left was slipping through my fingers, and it was all her fault.

“Riccardo, please?—”

“Don’t beg,” I snapped, cutting her off. “You think I care? You made your choice. Now, you’re going to face the consequences. Sebastian can deal with your mess, because I can’t do this. Not with you. Not now.”

She stepped toward me with her hand held out. My breathing was erratic, and I pulled away as soon as she touched me.

“I think you’re having an episode,” she murmured, her voice soothing as she stepped toward me.

“I–” I choked. I couldn’t speak. I was fucking weak.

She gently dragged me down to sit with her. She lifted my hand and placed it on her breast, her heartbeat racing. We sat still together, breathing the same air, as our hearts started to sync.

“I-I’m sorry, firecracker. I don’t know what came over me.” That night tried to flash in my mind, but I shook it off.

“Are you alright?” Mya said gently, trying to turn me toward her.

“What?”

Mya sat back and folded her hands neatly in her lap. “Well, would you care to share what that phone call was, and why exactly it got you so upset?”

“No,” I bit out.

“Hmmm.” That was all she said. She didn’t move, and she hadn’t changed her tone.

“Don’t psychobabble me, doc,” I sneered.

“Oh, I wasn’t attempting to do anything of that nature, Riccardo.” She batted her lashes my way.

I snarled, “Right, like you weren’t asking me to tell you why these Albanian fucks would come after me. I mean, clearly the situation was my fault. I kidnapped you, didn’t I?”

“Riccardo,” Mya said gently. “I didn’t say any of those things, but if you want to share what’s going on with me, I’m here to listen.”

I wanted to squeeze her neck. Her calm, affable tone grated on my nerves. But I breathed out a harsh breath, trying to put myself in her situation. A new leaf, I’m sure. I would use all of my skills to manipulate those around me.

But I calmed myself. Would it truly hurt to tell her? After all she’d been through. She was strong and resilient. Not unlike Eden, in her own way. A woman had to be, in order to put up with a monster such as myself.

I opened my mouth and shared our shame with her. The real story of how my dead ex-fiancée ended up in the hospital and, now, in a coffin.

I could smell the smoke now as my mind drifted back. “I was a different man back then…”

Amelia called to tell me that she was waiting in our suite, and she wanted to talk. I didn’t. I didn’t want to marry her. I didn’t want to be with her. I broke off the engagement a long time ago, and was debating telling her I wanted to move her to another villa. We weren’t a couple; I couldn’t do that anymore.

I opened the front door and heard low music playing, and Amelia had lit every candle in the house. In each room, as I passed, I saw more candles lying about. It felt like a bad romance movie.

“Amelia?”

“In here,” she called back.

Her voice echoed from the bathroom in our wing of the villa, and I jogged over, wanting to get this over with, noting all the candles lining the way. She didn’t even need the lights on, there were that many marking the way to her. Roses were strewn on the floor, as well.

“What the hell is all of this?” I asked, looking around the room. I felt like I’d walked out of my reality, and stepped into a horrible mockery of it instead.

She stood in the middle of the room, wearing a short, white sundress, her hair loose, just like I liked it. “I wanted us to talk, and I have a special night planned.”

I backed away from her. She knew exactly what my weaknesses were, and I needed to stay away from temptation. She was the most manipulative woman I’d ever met, and I would not fall back under her spell.

“We broke up, Amelia. There is no special night. The only reason I am here tonight is because I want you to stop calling me, stop texting me, stop showing up at my work. You think my parents are going to be persuaded to save this arrangement? They don’t care about you. Just like me. We. Are. Done.” I said the words slowly and concisely, hoping they sank in this time.

“It was only one time, Sebastian. She meant nothing to me,” Amelia pouted. She ignored everything else I’d said to her. For fuck’s sake.

“I’m sick of this, Amelia. Male or female, stepping out of our agreement without permission is cheating. I told you from the jump that’s not what I want in a partner. I told you not to bother, if you couldn’t accept those terms. Yet you still broke the agreement, time and time again. There is no us; you stomped all over it.” I turned on my heel to walk away. It was stupid to even try to have a conversation with her.

She truly believed cheating on me with women didn’t count. She said any other man would be happy to share her with another woman, but I wasn’t any other man. I didn’t fucking share. She’d trampled all over everything we had, our love. I was done pretending.

A crash from behind stopped me at the entrance of the room. I turned around to see Amelia had thrown a glass trinket at my head, and it had exploded on the wall next to me.

“Don’t you walk away from me, Sebastian.” Everything in her reach turned into a projectile, as I dodged flying items, attempting to back out of the room.

“Arjun was right about you!” she screamed, as she threw some shoes and kept following me. She called me every name in the book, curses flying like her rage.

I tripped on the bottom stair when she uttered that haunting phrase.

“Do you smell smoke?”

At first, I thought she was playing another game with me. She rushed up the stairs, back into the room we had just left, and screamed, “Sebastian!”

That wasn’t faked. I took the stairs, two at a time, to see the flames had spread. “We can’t put this out. Let’s go,” I told her.

“We have to, it’s my house,” Amelia cried. She was just fanning the flames.

“Even in a fire, you’re a crazy bitch. This isn’t your house.” I grabbed her arm and started to drag her out of the room, but the fire was on our heels. The smoke made it hard to see, and I couldn’t find the stairs, and Amelia was lagging behind.

Had the hallway always been this long? Did my parents get out? Did the servants? I wasn’t sure of anything as we stumbled along, coughing and wheezing.

I fell over before I reached the stairs, flames and smoke licking the ceiling above us. I crawled onward, realizing Amelia wasn’t behind me anymore. Just as I turned around to look for her, a beam cracked above me, falling across the hall, and separating us.

She was screaming my name, but I didn’t look back at her. I couldn’t save her, but I had to get myself out before this became my tomb. A small piece of the ceiling fell on me. I was knocked to the ground, and could feel the searing pain all along my body.

Get up, I begged myself.

Nothing moved, and the burns became deeper.

Get the fuck up, I demanded of my body.

I could smell my flesh in the air. A feeling of power rushed through my body, and I managed to pick myself back off the floor. My hands were terribly burned and stuck to the knob.

I screamed as I pulled my hand away, the flesh pulling like cheese from the handle. I threw open the doors, and the rush of oxygen made everything exponentially worse. A loud boom came from behind me, and the world shuddered as I went flying through the night air.

“Sebastian!” I heard my name being yelled over the roar of the flames, as my broken body laid starfished on the grass.

“Sebastian! Sebastian!”

“My mind fractured that night, knowing my family was screaming for me in the flames, until their voices went silent,” I clarified.

“Is that when you became…?” Mya’s hushed tone was like she was worried she was going to spook me.

“Yes, I was weaker then.”

“So you do think of yourself in the first person,” she mumbled.

“Sometimes.” I couldn’t help thinking of us as we, either. It just was. A complication.

“I don’t want to merge. I know that’s what you think you can get us to do. We work better separately.” I nodded like that was her answer, and changed topics. “Can I show you something?”

She hesitated. “I-I’m not sure.”

“Wait, I know what we have is crazy, and Sebastian wanted to give you a gift.”

Her eyes narrowed. “What kind of gift, and why can’t he give it to me himself?”

I sighed, drawing her hand in mine. “Let me show you.” I’ve never pleaded with a woman, but if there was one in the world I should be on my knees for, it was Dr. Mya Rivers.

She was amazing in every way. Our equal.

I walked her downstairs, past the door to the basement, in what used to be the family entertainment section of the house.

“What are we doing here?” Mya looked at the doors suspiciously.

I pulled the panel on the side wall, next to the steel doors, down. “Wait for it, firecracker.”

She huffed, impatient.

I typed in the code, pressed my thumb down on the pad, and leaned forward so I could have my retina scanned.

Mya gasped, and I turned to face her as the door was opening. “I’ll get you set up for access soon.”

We walked into the decontamination room. “Strip,” I commanded.

“What?” She backed away from me.

I pointed to the white suits. “We have to keep a sterile environment.”

She caved, and went through decontamination with me. We got dressed, and I hit the button to open the door of the lab we built her.

“Oh, my fucking god.” She gaped.

I chuckled, not used to hearing my firecracker curse.

“How long has this been here?” She spun in a circle, a wide smile on her face.

“I had it built.” I stalked behind her and pulled her into me.

She gasped. “W-why?”

I kissed the side of her neck, feeling a surge of power when she shuddered beneath my touch. “Because you wanted it, and we want you.”

“This is mine?”

I nodded. “You need somewhere to create your drug, so that you can clean up the prisons. Take down whoever you want, tesoro, you have the full backing of the famiglia.”

Her eyebrows raised when I spoke for not only myself, but for Sebastian, and our famiglia, too.

“Don’t believe me?” I smirked.

She shook her head no.

“Well, why don’t you ask him then, firecracker?” And I sank into the abyss, so Sebastian could talk to our woman.