39

Carmine
It took everything I had not to inflict pain on Delilah’s father, but here I am, trying to be soft like Gianni suggested. His advice plays in my mind a hundred times a day.
Soft.
Stay soft.
Be softer.
So instead of putting a bullet through anyone’s head that makes Delilah unhappy, I think about her and how she’d feel.
Well, I think about how much she’d hate me if I killed anyone she cared about, and that right there makes me want to be soft. So, it’s progress. On the inside, I’m still a raging killer with a hotter temper than flames, but Delilah helps with that. She cools the anger constantly flowing through me.
There’s a small coffee cart in the science building, and Gianni is there ordering coffee for everyone.
“Ryan, I didn’t know what you wanted, so I got you a caramel…something.”
“Thank you,” Ryan says in a small, fragile voice, as if he’s wary of Gianni possibly tossing the hot coffee on him.
Delilah gets hot chocolate, and the rest of us get plain black coffee.
“Are we ready?” She chirps nervously. “What if he says no? I don’t want him to say no. I need this exam to graduate and attend medical school.”
“I think the whole being kidnapped thing will be reason enough, but if he doesn’t say yes, I have this to change his mind.” Carmine flashes his gun that’s tucked in his pants. “No one says no to me, and no one will say no to my wife. Ever.”
“I want to throw up,” she groans, taking my hand as she leads me down the hall and then up the stairs where her class is. Everyone follows behind us, and Ryan looks spooked. He looks like he’s going to run any second.
When we get to the top of the stairs, Ari whistles when a college student with long red hair walks by. She gives him a flirtatious grin, and he tries to go after her but Gianni stops him with a hand on his chest.
“We are here for something else. Don’t lose focus.”
“Right. Sorry.”
”
The woman you want one day; I hope she gives you a run for your money,” Delilah says over her shoulder.
Ari scoffs. “Please. I’ll never be tied down.”
“Yeah, I can’t wait to see your downfall.” Delilah takes a left down another hallway, and we come to a closed door with her professor’s name on it.
Matias, Gianni, and Ari have their hands on their weapons. Ryan is leaning against the wall, staring at the floor, not wanting confrontation. Delilah takes a breath and knocks, waiting for the professor to say something.
“Get back,” Gianni whispers, lifting his gun when he points to the floor.
We all look down, and Delilah gasps when blood pools from underneath the door.
I wrap my arms around Delilah and spin her until she’s beside Ryan. “You two stay together. Do you understand me?”
“Carmine.”
“Do you understand me?” I repeat.
Her eyes are round, but she nods vigorously, taking hold of Ryan’s hand.
“Good.” I take out my gun, and Ryan turns three shades of white.
“Ready?” I mouth to my men. They all nod. I lift my leg and kick the door open, letting out a string of curses at what I see inside.
Impossible.
There’s no way I could have missed this. Caleb, Christy’s boyfriend, has Delilah’s professor on the ground, gripping his head by his hair and a bloody knife in his hand. The professor isn’t dead, though. He’s barely alive, but he won’t be for long.
“Caleb!” Delilah sees him from behind me. “Oh my, God, what are you doing? What did you do!”
“Oh, shut the fuck up, Delilah.” He wipes the blood on his jeans, dropping the professor to the ground. “I can’t stand you. I can’t stand him either.” He lifts the knife and points it at Carmine. “Is it nice to have the life I deserve? Is it everything you thought it would be? Do you know how exhausting it is to try to ruin your fucking life? You’re like a cockroach that won’t die. You keep coming back. I hired the kidnapper, but he goes off the rails. I tried to kill your professor so you couldn’t take your test, yet here you are. You’re fucking everywhere!” he shouts at her.
I cock my gun, and Caleb maniacally laughs.
“You aren’t going to want to do that. I know something you don’t,” he sings.
“Why would you do this? What did I do to you?” Delilah cries. “And what about Christy?”
“What about her? She’s so fucking needy.”
“You better shut your fucking mouth,” Gianni steps forward, aiming his gun at Caleb’s head. “Don’t talk about her like that.”
“Why not? Do you want to fuck her too? I’ll let you have a shot. She’s a prude, though. She won’t give it up. So good luck with that.”
Gianni goes to pull the trigger, but I place my hand on his arm to stop him.
“What do you want, Caleb?”
“My name isn’t Caleb. It’s Caleb Milazzo.”
The room becomes dead silent. I can hear the blood dripping from the professor’s throat onto the floor and his gurgles as he struggles to breathe. I want to help him, but as long as Caleb stands over him with a knife I can’t.
If he can just hold on a little longer.
“That’s impossible,” Ari spits venomously. “We would know if we had a brother, and we wouldn’t have left you alone.”
“Your dad fucked around, cast me out, and sold me to Romano when I was just a baby. A fucking baby!” He roars. “You don’t know what it was like growing up in that household.”
“I do,” Ryan steps forward, putting on a brave face.
“I don’t know you. I would know you if we ran in the same circle,” Caleb, whatever he calls himself, says.
“You wouldn’t have. He kept me locked away. I escaped, and I came here. These aren’t the bad guys, Caleb. They would have taken you in if they had known.”
“I grew up in violence and pain, and I was constantly unwanted. I want everything you have, Carmine. I want to bring down the empire you’ve built, and to do that I started with Delilah-the only person you seem to give a damn about other than yourself.”
He’s obviously lost his mind.
“Romano had nothing to do with any of this. It’s been you the entire time?”
Caleb tosses his head back and laughs. “Romano hates you. He doesn’t give a fuck about what I do, but since I made a mess of things, he’s gone quiet. I don’t know where he is.” He sniffs, rubbing a hand under his nose.
I’m sick of this. Obviously, my father was a real piece of shit, but I won’t allow anyone to come near Delilah.
I lift my gun, sick of the game Caleb is playing.