What else had he been lying about? What else had he been cooking with Enzio to get back at Tino?
Is this some sort of payback? Leo and Claudia. Now, you send your cousin to do the same to my sister.
Tino’s words stabbed at me. When Dom had denied it, could he have been lying about it, too?
That fucking traitor was engaged to my cousin! Only a piece of shit like him would take a woman when he was promised to another. He had no honor to protect.
If that score was settled, why was Dom so angry when he’d mentioned the engagement, and why was Leo here in a cage, booked for a long red trip?
Convulsions of pain attacked my body. The man I’d trusted with everything had been lying to me right from the start. The man I’d forsaken everything for, stripped bare before, given my darkest secrets along with my heart, had been playing me all along. How could I have been so blind? How could I’ve ever believed anything he’d said?
“Your husband is fond of odor torture…among other things. I’m sure you know it.” Leo nodded at the wall across from him. “I could hear what you two do in there. Very entertaining.”
Fury and confusion washed over me. I followed the path he took with his eyes with mine. “You can hear us from there?”
“He’s been doing all kinds of kinky shit in there, even before you. Congratulations, by the way. You followed your sister’s lead and got yourself a Mob husband, and I thought you were the smart one.”
“Shut the fuck up. You don’t know the first thing about me or Lina or Dom.”
“I know one thing. Something you and I have in common, maybe Lina, too, and I think you know it, too.”
I took another angry step and banged the shovel on the cage metal bars. “You don’t get to say her name on your filthy tongue, and I have nothing in common withyou.”
“So we weren’t both tools in Tino Bellomo’s hands? People he lured into his world no matter how hard we rejected and fought it? People he chewed and spat after we became exactly what he wanted?” He let out a tight groan. “Think about it, Nicky. I didn’t want to be a made man. I’d stayed away all my life until I fell in love with your sister so much I gave up my good life for her. I went through with my initiation just so he’d protect her. And he agreed, using my love for her so I’d be his underboss, even though he wanted her for himself all along, even though he had no fucking intention of letting her go.”
“Shut up.”
“And then there’s you. You loved your school and hated the Mob more than anything. How did you end up marrying a sick fuck like Domenico before you even graduated? I take it it wasn’t your choice, and I have a good guess who forced you into it, until you no longer knew yourself, until you’ve been shaped into what he always wanted you to be.”
“I said shut up.”
“After a while, it makes you think the world you’ve long rejected has been what you’ve always wanted right from the start, thinking he was doing you a favor, opening your eyes, forcing you to see what you didn’t want to see foryour own good. Sounds familiar? It sounds too fucking familiar to me.”
“Shut up. Shut up! SHUT UP!” I slammed the shovel against the bars and crumbled to my knees.
“I could see it on your face, fucking hear it in your voice, Nicky. How much of a fool you think you are, and how much you fucking hate my father for getting you here, for letting you get used like that. Everything that has happened was because of him. I know how much you want him dead. I know it because I feel it, too. Another thing we have in common. Our hate for Tino fucking Bellomo.”
A strange emotion I’d never felt before took over me, possessed me like a fucking demon as I listened, as I sat, invisible chains shackling me helpless against Leo’s mindfuck.
“I should have never shot at your sister. It was the worst mistake I’ve ever made, and I’m paying for it with my life. But if I got a do over, I’d make it right. I’d kill Tino Bellomo, and I didn’t care if I was shot dead right after it.”
“Shut up, you son of a bitch.” My demand came out as a feeble whisper this time.
“Domenico always comes from this door, the one that opens to your playroom. He never enters the way you came in. That was only for the soldiers who clean up after him. It’s been two days since they changed the buckets, which means they’re not coming today—”
“No.” I jumped to my feet, my eyes darting to that door he spoke of, my mind screaming. “No! I know what you’re doing here, but I’m not falling for this shit. You’re no better than him. You’re no better than either of them. If anything you’re worse. I won’t be used or manipulated again. I’m not falling for this shit!”
“I’m the only one who can take the man we hate the most down, and you know it. I’m your last chance at it, Nicky, so let me do what I was supposed to do a year ago. Let me fix it for the both of us.”
“It’s too late.”
“No, it’s not. If Tino is gone, the Lanzas would no longer care about retaliation on any other Bellomo. You’ll be free. You’ll get your life back.”
“What about my sister?” I couldn’t believe I said it out loud. I couldn’t believe I was even considering helping Leo Bellomo escape.
“I know you can’t trust me, and I’m not stupid to ask you to. But use your head. I have no crew, and he has an army and the Lanzas to take me down. I’d be shot on the spot…but I won’t let them shoot me until I put a bullet in his brain first.” His eyes shone like a rabid animal, flashing with hatred I’d never seen before. Then he glanced at the concealed door. “Domenico hasn’t returned yet, which means he isn’t coming back tonight. He never takes that long of a break. If you hurry and use that shovel, you can break the lock and shackles in no time.”
“I can’t do this. I’ll be a traitor. They’ll kill me. I can’t do this.”