Reign of a Billionaire : A Dark Mafia Enemies-to-Lovers Romance

Chapter 25Liana

Giovanni had parked his Land Rover in front of the Georgetown manor that was bought on the backs of human trafficking victims. Literally.

“Stop smiling,” Giovanni reprimanded.

I rolled my eyes, raising my bound hands. “Relax, freak. This will work.”

His eyes blazed with annoyance. “Not if you’re smiling like you’re happy to be here,” he growled.

“Would you rather I cried?”

“No. But at least act scared so he’s not suspicious.”

My “captor” didn’t seem to have a rich imagination. Giovanni liked my plan but didn’t want me executing it. As if he could ever be the one to do it. First, he had a dick. Second, Santiago was his uncle.

Case closed.

“Just get me in,” I muttered. “I have a knife tucked under my shirt. Once I’m alone with him in the bedroom, you get rid of the guards.”

He shook his head. “I cannot risk him⁠—”

I cut him off with an exasperated breath. “He won’t rape me. I’ll never let it get that far.”

My voice betrayed none of the anxiety I felt inside. I’d gotten good at hiding my emotions. From the looks of it, Giovanni was an expert too. I could practically see his mask slide into place, his face all harsh lines and hard angles.

“Once you end him, take the servants’ stairs. There’s a door underneath that will lead you to the side street. Wait for me there.”

I rolled my eyes again. “You’ve got to learn to say please.”

Without answering, he exited the car, slammed the door, then came around. I bit the inside of my cheek, my heart reeling with so many emotions. Santiago Tijuana was the last man to see my sister alive. He owed me an answer and a life.

Today, we’d settle the score. I only wished I could take my time and make him wail like a pig for days on end.

The passenger door opened, Giovanni’s body hiding me, and I opened my mouth so he could gag me. There’s a first, I thought drily. He was lucky I was desperate to get my hands on his uncle.

“This better work,” he muttered under his breath, barely moving his lips while securing the gag.

I blinked, communicating to him that it would. It had to.

Giovanni threw me over his shoulder—the man had some serious caveman energy—then made his way to the gate that surrounded a charming little mansion with a monster inside.

There had been guards all around, but nobody reacted to seeing me manhandled. It would seem this was a regular occurrence.

Showtime.

I started kicking, my muffled protest barely audible as I fought against the man who was delivering me to the cartel that killed my sister. God knew my mother played the video enough times while torturing me.

As my phony captor made his way into the manor, my half-assed attempt to struggle against Giovanni convinced the guards that I wasn’t here of my own free will.

This plan would work.

“Boss’s nephew is here,” one of the guards spoke into his earpiece. “Alert him.”

Yes, alert him, I thought smugly while adrenaline pumped through my veins. We needed the fucker present and accounted for.

Giovanni strolled inside, up the staircase, and through the hallway until a voice shattered through my erratic heartbeat. A set of doors opened with a loud bang, and I twisted around, seeing my target at the threshold of his bedroom suite.

He looked like a twisted ’70s porn star, wearing a robe and slippers with a gold chain around his neck. I decided, right there and then, I’d strangle him with it.

“You brought her to me.” Fuck, even his voice was putrid. “I thought you might still be mad at me. That you’d want to keep her for⁠—”

Giovanni cut him off. “I told you that was water under the bridge, Uncle.”

My eyebrows hit my hairline. What was Giovanni mad at his uncle about? Aside from human trafficking, obviously. But before I could ponder it further, Giovanni was inside the ridiculously gaudy suite of Santiago Tijuana, throwing me on the mattress. For the second time in one night.

Motherfucker.

He turned his back to me and stood there, blocking me from his uncle’s view and giving me a chance to grab my knife. I hid it between my bound wrists and let the rope glide over the blade. Once. Twice. I left the third one for my final act.

“You can go,” the old fucker dismissed him. “I have to teach this one a lesson.”

I sensed more than saw Giovanni stiffen. Then, he strode out of there without a single objection. The door closed behind him, his footsteps fading with each second.

Dreadful silence, eerie and disturbing, filled the space like poison.

“You’re pretty.” His voice slid over me, but I remained still. “We’re going to play now,” Santiago purred, tracing his hand down my spine. I fought disgust at being touched, forcing myself not to react too soon. “You know why you’re here?”

I shook my head, my fingers closing around the knife and gripping it hard. The old Santiago ground against me, his blunt bulge rubbing against the curve of my ass. Bile rose in my throat, feeling his hands on my body. Anticipation wrapped around my throat like a vise, cutting off my air.

But my mind remained clear. It was amazing what years of training could do.

“Fuck, how is it that you’re prettier than your sister?” Lead settled in my gut. I wanted to lash out. Slice him into tiny pieces while he was still alive, so he could feel the pain. Instead, I waited. “She fought like a wild cat. Bled like a pig.”

Blinding fury roared to life, causing my chest to heave and blood to rush in my ears. No more waiting. It was time to avenge my twin. It was time to make this bastard pay.

I shifted around, and with the last glide of the blade against the ropes that bound me, I was free. In one swift move, I twisted myself up to straddle him and brought my blade to his throat.

“Scream and I’ll bleed you like a pig.” Gripping a fistful of his hair, I shoved his face against the mattress. “Now let’s play, old man.”

“You stupid bitch,” he spat. “You’ll never get out of this alive.”

“Oh, but I will,” I drawled. “You though, old fucker, you’re going to die.” I dragged the tip of my blade, cutting the skin on his neck enough to bleed but not enough to slice into his artery.

The bastard didn’t know how far I was willing to go.

“Even if you escape me, you won’t escape him.” He attempted to fight me, gasping for air. “Perez will end you. Just like he ended your sister.”

I froze, my heart stopping before jumpstarting into turbo mode. Santiago shifted his bulky form, but I tightened my grip on him. First, I needed answers. His death would come soon enough.

“You ended my sister,” I hissed. “I’ve seen the video.”

He attempted to fight me off, but the fucker was too out of shape and too old to stand a chance. “It wasn’t me.”

Blood dripped against his crisp white sheets. He bucked against me, and I moved the blade to the base of his neck. “Utter one more lie,” I gritted, “and I’ll make you bleed, nice and slow, so you can feel every drop of blood as it leaves your body.”

He stilled, fear clouding around him like a disease.

“It’s true. She didn’t die while under my care. Perez took her, then sold her using one of his Marabella Mobster arrangements.”

Images flashed through my mind. The video of her screaming while her body dissolved in a tub.

“Liar!” Fury surged through me, the room suddenly enveloped in a red haze. “I saw her body disintegrate with my own eyes. The video originated from your compound.”

The man laughed. “Stupid bitch.” I shivered from the fear and hope invading my entire being. Should I wish my twin alive or dead, I didn’t know. “It was doctored.”

My eyes welled up with confusion, but also hope.

“So she’s alive?” I ignored the way my voice cracked. It had nothing on the way my heart splintered. He laughed again, making my rage burn hotter. “Is. She. Alive?”

“Maybe. Maybe not.”

Hope and despair were at war in my chest. All these years, I’d never envisioned the possibility of her being alive.

“My mother…” My voice betrayed none of the turmoil inside of me. Unshed tears burned in my eyes, but I refused to let them fall. “What does she know?”

He shrugged. “Why don’t you ask her?”

Mother lied to me, I realized with a new level of hatred. I always knew she was twisted, but this… this was a new low, even for her. My twin had a chance at being saved, and Mother did nothing. Fucking nothing!

Fury, hotter than ever, burned through me, making me see red.

Clenching my teeth, I pressed the blade farther into his flesh. “I’m asking you, suka.”

“My guess is she knows it all,” he gritted.

“You’re lying,” I said, desperation leaking into my voice.

He turned his head and smirked. “Am I?” Through the fog of pain, I knew he had to be taunting me. Stalling. “Your best bet is Perez if you want to find out where she is.” Is! Present tense. Before my hope could ignite further, he added, “Dead or alive.”

A tight band of anger wrapped around my ribs, turning my breaths shallow. This fury was directed at my mother. At the entire shitty underworld that used and abused innocent women.

In a sudden and precise move, I sliced his neck wide open. I slid off of him, careful not to get his blood on me. Instinctively, he reached up to stop the bleeding, but the gash in his neck was too deep. I took a step back, watching him gasp for air.

Blood soaked through his fingers, turning them crimson.

I didn’t move, not until the last flicker of life faded from his eyes.

As I stood there and took in my work, I decided that I would never go back to my mother. I’d find my twin—dead or alive—and take her where she always wanted to go.