Undressed By The Mafia God

The warehouse door groaned open, and Veronica turned her head. Graziella stepped into the office wearing black. Her face was pale beneath her makeup, her eyes red but dry now.

The two women stared at each other—the mother of the dead and the wife of the man who had killed her.

Graziella looked her up and down.

"Hey, Mrs Vitale..." Veronica drawled, leaning back. Her wrist burned, her body ached. Still, if she had to die, she would at least be unbearable first. "With your presence here, I guess it’s safe to say we are in Italy. How convenient."

The tiniest scrap of information was still information. One more thing she could hold onto while these lunatics held her.

Graziella turned to her son in disgust. "I don’t see her tongue cut out."

Veronica lifted her brows. Well. Straight to the point. No tea, no greetings. The Vitale women clearly did not believe in wasting time when they could leap directly into medieval solutions.

David exhaled. "No need for that. It’s Luca we want."

"He is not going to hurt me," Vee drawled.

That, at least, she said with more confidence than she felt. David had already hurt her. He had drugged her, dragged her across borders, chained her, touched her. But killing her and torturing her was different. David wanted Luca alive with fear. Wanted him broken before he bled. Vee was not safe, no, but she was useful.

Graziella turned back to her slowly. "You think so?"

"I know so." Veronica let her gaze flick to David, then back to the grieving woman. "Let me keep you updated, since apparently your family communication has been absolute shit." Vee smiled, gesturing to her body. "Your son here wants some of this."

The woman’s hatred faltered, interrupted by shock. The horrible possibility that her sainted revenge mission had come with a perverted little side quest.

"He wants to keep me for himself," Vee continued, watching the words strike exactly where she needed them to. "You will have the misfortune of watching me alive and breathing every single day, even if he succeeds in killing Luca."

Graziella turned to David. "Is that..." Her voice cracked with disbelief. "Is that true?"

"Ma...."

Graziella turned back to Veronica in alarm. "What did you do, you bitch?" she snapped. "What?"

"I didn’t do anything," Vee said. "Your children just have a knack for holding on to people who will never feel anything for them. I wonder why that is? Inadequate love from their parents, maybe?"

Graziella moved so fast Veronica barely saw her coming. The slap cracked across her face, snapping her head to the side. Pain burst hot along her cheek. The chain rattled when her body lurched with the impact, metal biting deeper into the raw skin of her wrist. "I don’t need to kill Luca to hurt him."

Veronica slowly turned her face back. Graziella’s hand disappeared into her bag. When it came out, a gun came with it.

"I can just kill you." She aimed it at Vee.

Veronica held her gaze. Her heart hammered. Fear crawled up her throat, bravery did not mean she wanted to die. She wanted Luca. Wanted his arms, his voice.

But if this was it, then this was it. She would not beg Graziella Vitale for her life.

"Ma..." David’s voice came from behind her.

Graziella turned slightly, lowering the gun a fraction. Her face was ruined with grief, her mouth shaking around rage that had nowhere to go. "I don’t want Luca any more...I am going to kill her."

David stepped closer. Veronica saw the shift in his eyes. He closed his hand around the gun. "Let me, Ma."

Graziella’s shoulders collapsed. David pulled her into his arms as she sobbed, one hand cradling her like a devoted son.

"I shouldn’t have brought you here," he whispered then drove the knife in his other hand into her stomach, twisting.

Graziella’s eyes widened. She did not seem to understand what had happened. Her hands moved slowly toward her stomach, trembling, as if she expected to find some reasonable explanation there. "David..." she choked out.

Veronica could not see properly from where she sat. Graziella’s body blocked most of the view. She heard Graziella’s breath break first, heard the wet, terrible stumble of her feet against the floor, and then Graziella dropped.

Only then did Vee see the blood.

Her eyes widened. "Oh my God!"

Graziella hit the floor hard, one hand still pressed uselessly to her stomach, her mouth open around a sound that never fully formed. The gun clattered beside her, spinning once before going still.

David looked down at his mother. "If anyone is going to kill you," he said calmly, "it will be me."

Veronica stared back and forth at David and Graziella. "Oh my God!" she repeated, her voice rising. "You’re crazy! Jesus Christ, you’re crazy!"

He simply moved to the chair opposite her and sat down. "The things I do for you," he said, looking down at Graziella.

Vee’s mouth fell open. "Me? Me?" Her voice cracked with disbelief. "I didn’t ask you to stab your own mother." She yanked at the chain, rage making her forget the pain in her wrist. "Would you please check her pulse, you dimwit!"

"No use," David said. "Nobody survives that."

Veronica felt cold all over. Horror settled deep, past the skin, past the bones. "Why would you do this?" she whispered. "Why would you—oh my God." Her stomach turned as she saw his face. "You enjoy this, don’t you?"

David’s gaze stayed on the blood spreading beneath his mother. "It’s quite a sight," he said softly, "to watch the life drain out of a human being." He lifted his eyes to Veronica. "I’m going to look Luca in the eye, and I am going to watch him take his final breath."

Now, Veronica was afraid. Truly afraid. David Vitale was sick. Terribly, impossibly sick. Her body shook as she stared at Graziella lying on the floor. The woman’s black mourning dress was soaked at the stomach, the blood spreading beneath her in a dark, glossy pool.

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