Until Forever Ends: A Dark Mafia Romance by Adelaide Forrest (black books to read .txt) 📗

I said, feigning kindness. Turning the key inside the lock, I twisted the knob and pushed the door open as Leonid's stunned gaze came to rest on the side of my face.

Just as he moved to shout, I shoved him inside the apartment with a rough hand at the back of his head. He tumbled to the floor in his drunken state, tripping over his legs until he fell in a puddle of awkward limbs. I closed the door behind me and turned the lock, my eyes landing on the woman tied to a chair at the dining room table. She squirmed and screamed into the duct tape covering her mouth, drawing a disgruntled sigh from my lungs as I turned my stare back to Leonid.

The duct tape proved convenient as I grabbed the roll off the table and tore off a piece with my teeth. "Help!" Leonid finally yelled as I moved toward him. Sighing, I drew the gun from my pants and readied myself for the stampede of security that would follow his pathetic attempt at salvation.

The door blew off the hinges as his men came charging in blindly. My gun kicked back in my hand as the first shot struck the lead man between the eyes. He dropped to the floor like a sack of meat, leaving the two others behind him vulnerable as I shot them in rapid succession.

Three shots, three men. With them dead and no longer my concern, I turned my attention back to Leonid where he cowered with his back to the wall. He hadn't bothered to stand, only holding out two hands as if he thought he could reason with El Diablo. But there was no absolution from the Devil.

Only an eternity of suffering.

I grabbed the bodies one by one, dragging them inside the apartment so I could close the door. I didn't expect any more of Leonid or Pavel's men to come so quickly, but only a fool would leave himself entirely vulnerable. Even though the door didn't latch, it would still buy me an invaluable moment of time if someone did manage to come and try to interfere with my fun.

"Ibarra," Leonid rasped out. "What are you doing in Rome?"

"I should think that's obvious," I warned. "I have never appreciated your father's fondness for games and small talk, Leonid. I won't start with you."

"What do you want?" he asked with a grimace. "You've already killed my men. Surely that's enough retaliation for whatever you think my father did to you."

"Not hardly. Your father won't miss your men in the slightest. He will, however, miss you," I said with a dark smile. I turned my attention to the girl tied up at the table, tearing the duct tape off her mouth and untying her quickly. She moved to stretch her limbs, staring up at me hopefully as I dropped a wad of cash from my pocket onto the table. "Get out of Rome for a while," I ordered, nodding my head to the door and dismissing her as I turned my attention back to Leonid. He'd started attempting to shift his way closer to the door when he thought me distracted, to the armed men and the weapons he could use to defend himself.

It shocked me to think that Pavel's son wouldn't always carry his piece on him, but his offspring had never been the brightest bunch. They were often too reliant on the allegiance of men who could easily be bought or swayed with a threat to the people they cared about.

I trusted no one more than myself.

The woman stood on shaky legs, the bruises on her skin a deep purple as she blinked her swollen eyes up at me. "Thank you," she murmured when I didn't give her my attention.

As much as I would have liked to say she was a unique case, Pavel and his sons left a trail of women just like her wherever they went. She was just another victim in their string of rapes and trafficking, and sadly she was one of the luckier ones.

She'd walk away alive and free.

She scurried for the door when I kept my eyes on Leonid and closed the distance between us. Squatting down in front of him, I stared him in the eye and silently dared him to say something to contradict everything I already knew. He was as big a piece of shit as his father. As my father had been.

"Did you rape her?" I asked, tilting my head to the side as I studied him. He clenched his jaw, not saying the words we both knew were true. Even if he hadn't yet, he would have had I not come to kill him. "Or did I take away your new toy before you got a chance to break her in?"

"I fucked her last night," he spat, snarling in my face. "But you can't rape a whore like that. You should have heard her scream for me."

Patting my knees, I rose to stand over him. My eyes fell to his suit clad legs, the memory of his father's knee cap snapping filling my head with a sudden burst of pleasure. "It's fortunate for you that I have a wife to get home to," I said. "Otherwise I might be inclined to call in some of my friends who enjoy fucking men like you in the ass."

"Wife?" he huffed a laugh. "Fucking Christ almighty, you married that American cunt? My father was right. You really have gone soft."

I slammed my foot down on his kneecap, crushing it in the same way I had his father's not long ago. He screamed his pain, clutching at it as I twisted it back and forth and ground the shattered bones into dust. "Fuck!"

"I'm not soft for you," I said, leaning forward to pat his cheek harshly and turning back to the kitchen. Grabbing the entire butcher block of knives, I went back to where he sobbed against the wall in his pain.