Dangerous Beauty: Part Two: A Mafia Princess (31 page)

Deep chuckles filled the room.

“We didn’t, Ms. Stone,” one of the men spoke up. “You didn’t fool us for a second.”

Many voiced their agreement with smiles on their faces. They became silent when Carter spoke again.

Carter laughed softly. “I’m glad you all had faith in me.” She lifted herself up onto the table behind her, and smoothed her flared black pants before crossing her legs. “Reno, dear. Bring me my gun.” Reno obediently came forward with Carter’s weapon.

Carter unstrapped one of her two gold knives, moving it to the holster around her hips. She attached her gun as she talked to the crowd.

“It wasn’t an easy recovery, but I made it with the support and care of my loved ones. My husband— yes, I said husband— and I took a little time off.”

She heard the whispers start, and she chuckled.

“Yes, I’m a Salerno now. I married the underboss.” She looked at Nathan. “And we’re deliriously happy.”

Nathan leaned forward and kissed her. The men ‘ooo-ed’ and ‘ahh-ed’. Nathan laughed, and Carter turned to them, holding up her middle finger.

“All right, silence now,” she commanded softly. “We need to get to business. First of all, I know you’ve noticed the presence of someone you were not expecting to be present here … ever. That person is my mother, Anastacia Stone. You will be seeing a lot of her. I advise you to treat her with respect. She will accept nothing less. Stay on her good side, and you won’t get your ass killed.” She paused for a moment to let that sink in. “Now, as for why we’re in the sanctuary … We have a handful of men who need to be punished today.”

Carter expected the looks of confusion she received, and she was ready to explain. She didn’t have a specific plan. Basically, she was just going to wing it.

Nathan watched his wife closely, her actions thus far sparking his curiosity. He wanted to see her handle this situation, like she’d handled many situations for the Salerno organization. At first, her long silence made him think she had gotten too nervous, that the information they’d found out today had finally gotten to her. But she was doing well. To be honest, he had no idea when he’d have a reaction to the information— he could barely think about that when he was too busy worrying about his wife.

The sound of Carter standing up from the table interrupted Nathan’s thoughts and forced him to tune in to her making her way across the sanctuary. Her heels clicked against the stone floor as she walked over to one of her men standing near the third large screen. She handed him the cell phone with the incriminating footage, and then she entered the crowd of men. They parted to make way for her with every step she took until she found— and stood directly in front of— Giovanni Mancini, twin brother of the late Gianni Mancini.

Nathan shifted a little. He didn’t know if he liked this particular move. Giovanni looked close to the edge when they had walked in. Nathan was sure the man thought Carter had died that day along with his brother.

“Giovanni …” Carter said his name softly.

Nathan stood up straight, ready to attack if the man dare put one finger on his wife. Then Carter surprised him.

She reached out and wrapped her arms around him, pulling him into a warm embrace. Giovanni visibly hesitated at first before slowly wrapping his arms around her and hugging her back. The hug lasted a little too long for Nathan’s liking, but he couldn’t say anything. All he could do was watch. Carter knew exactly what Giovanni had done, yet she was hugging him, running her hand up and down his back. Comforting him the way one would comfort a grieving friend. Nathan saw all hesitation leave Giovanni at once, and he sort of melted into her warm embrace. He lifted her small body from the floor and hugged her tighter. When he held her closer, Carter tilted her head and put her lips very close to his ear. She looked to be … whispering?

It was an interesting sight. Nathan knew for a fact that Carter hated Giovanni. She’d ranted and screamed and had even broken a few pricey vases when she found out what he’d done. Now she was hugging him? Nathan tightened his fists at his sides. He was about three seconds from pulling them apart and shooting Giovanni in his head. But then hug ended.

“She hugged that bitch too long …” Kyle whispered tensely to Nathan.

Nathan nodded his agreement. “I was two seconds from killing him.”

Kyle chuckled. “Not the jealous type, huh?” he asked sarcastically.

Suddenly the atmosphere changed, forcing Nathan to tune back into what Carter was doing.

“Come,” she commanded Giovanni in the exact tone one would use when commanding a dog. Giovanni obediently followed her.

Once they’d arrived at the table, Carter took her seat and Giovanni stood by her like a good dog. Nathan smirked. The motherfucker kept his eyes forward, too afraid to look at the men standing to his side.

Nathan leaned back on the table to enjoy the show.

“About four months ago, there was a security breach in the Salerno Organization building,” Carter informed them. “Mitchell Romano was able to obtain the code— without the knowledge of the boss or the underboss— and set up an attack on the 27th floor. In all, he hired five hit men to help him kill me and my husband that day. I killed two, Nathan killed two, and the boss killed the last one while I was in the hospital. Mitchell nearly killed my husband and me, but my mother stabbed him in the throat— I envy her for that sweet pleasure. I would have enjoyed dissecting Mitchell alive, but hey …” she shrugged. “We can’t always get what we want.” She cleared her throat. “Anyway, Mitchell is also the man who hired six hit men to kill my … my … fa-father …”

An emotion flashed through Carter’s eyes, but it was gone before Nathan could identify it. It didn’t go unnoticed by Nathan that Carter stuttered through that particular part of her presentation. He wished they could talk about it later, but Nathan wasn’t stupid. He knew it wouldn’t be that easy with Carter— the revelation was too heavy.

Carter dropped her head forward and groaned. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry … I …” she yawned.

Nathan frowned.
What the hell?
he thought.

She lifted her head with a bored sigh. “I apologize. I have so much shit on my mind today. There’s a lot more I should say, but the truth is, I don’t really give a fuck about any of it.”

Nathan’s eyebrows shot up.
Huh?

“Look, everyone. Since I’m running shit in this meeting, we’re going to do it my way.”

She jumped from the table and turned to her new dog, Giovanni.

“Sit, Giovanni. Don’t move until I say so.”

He obeyed.

Good, dog, thought Nathan.

“
Ten men
!” Carter shouted the words. She slowly walked down the long aisle between the men. “Ten men in this room decided it was a good idea to betray this family. For money.
My
money.”

Then she did something no one expected. She called out every traitor’s name— except one— and she told everyone else to clear the floor.

The men and women scrambled to obey her orders as her tone acquired a deadly edge. Nathan watched as they lined the walls of the sanctuary, leaving the traitorous men exposed in the middle of the floor with pale, terror-stricken faces. They had absolutely nowhere to go.

“
Reno
!” Carter called sharply.

Reno ran forward, a rectangular wooden box tucked under his arm.

“Play the video!” she ordered the man standing next to the large, white screen.

And just like that, the video from Giovanni’s cell phone exploded in living color on the massive screen.

“This is your proof, men and women of the Salerno crime family!” she spoke over the men talking in the video. “All nine of the men are in it accepting
my
money— to kill my husband and me!” She laughed humorlessly. “I can see all of you begging pathetically with your eyes, and I’m sorry to tell you but …” she shrugged, “… there will be no mercy. All of you
will
die. I hope you kissed your fucking mothers before you brought your asses to work today,” she spat.

She snatched the box from Reno and stormed back to the table. She turned her back on the terrified men and opened her box.

The nine traitors stood still in the middle of the sanctuary floor, frantically looking to each other, searching for a plan to escape their inevitable deaths. Abruptly, one them yelled “Fuck it!” and ran for the sanctuary doors.

Waiting ever so patiently, Mickey yanked the idiot forward by his shirt, lifted his body in the air, and slammed him on the stone floor. With a sadistic grin, he reached behind him and grabbed a large hunting knife from his holster. Raising it high above his head, he slammed it down into the man’s chest then slowly sliced downward, effectively cutting his chest open.

A shrill scream of agony exploded from the man’s throat, and blood spilled from the side of his mouth and from his chest. The screaming lasted sixty seconds before he died.

Casually wiping his blade on the man’s pants and then standing, Mickey slid his knife back into its holster and stood again in front of the door, his hands clasped in front of him.

“No running,” Carter said coolly as she continued to focus on what she was doing with her box.

Nathan chuckled, and she looked at him with a wicked smile.

Another traitor snapped. “This is bullshit!” he yelled.

“Fuck you,” she replied calmly, turning back to her task.

“You’re a sick bitch!”

Bitch?
Nathan was incensed.

“You should have died in that fucking elevator! I’m not dying like this! Do you hear me? I won’t—”

Nathan had heard enough. Pulling his gun, Nathan shot the fucker right between his eyes. His lifeless body fell to the floor.

“Keep the name calling to a minimum,” Nathan said, placing his gun back in its holster.

“All right!” Carter said with an eerie brightness in her tone. She turned, and in the blink of an eye, a series of knives were flying through the air. Seven to be exact. Seven knives, seven remaining men, and then seven dead bodies falling to the floor.

Carter sighed. “A shame to lose such young, able-bodied men all at once like this, isn’t it?”

She clasped her hands behind her back and walked to the middle of the room, careful to avoid stepping on the bodies.

“Giovanni,” she called. “Collect my knives from the bodies of these men. And each time you remove a knife … I want you to push it into your body.”

It was very clear that Nathan wasn’t the only one in the room shocked by Carter’s words. Who would obey such an order?

Giovanni stood up from the table, not uttering a word. He slowly walked over to the first man and bent forward. He gripped the knife and yanked it from the body.

Nathan glanced over at his father, and he saw everyone in the seated section scoot forward to the edge of their seats.

Giovanni stood up, and before everyone’s eyes— those physically present and those present via satellite— he jammed the knife in his stomach.

What-the-fucks and oh-my-Gods filled the room before everyone was silenced by Carter’s voice. Giovanni’s cries of anguish filled the sanctuary as he walked to the next body, prepared to remove its knife.

“I hope this is helping each of you to understand the purpose of this meeting. I hope to God that I’ve made myself quite clear. But just for kicks, I’ll go ahead and ask if you have any questions …” She paused, waiting for someone to speak. Daring someone to speak. No one said a word. Carter raised an eyebrow. “No questions? So I guess you got the meaning of this meeting?” Her tone had become sharper.

Nathan noticed her shoulders rising and falling with her deep, calming breaths. She took about three of them before surrendering to her rage— not normal anger, but extremely intense rage. Nathan had never seen her like this before.

She let out a dark, humorless laugh as Giovanni hesitated and then stabbed a third knife into his body. She took her gun from its holster and placed her free hand on her hip. She scanned the muzzle of the gun along the sea of people lined up against the walls. “Nobody has anything to say. You’re all afraid of me,” she stated, nodding her head. “You should be. You really should be because I’m pissed. Congratu-fuckin-lations motherfuckers, you all have the unfortunate pleasure of seeing me at my worst! I did not—” Giovanni jammed a fourth knife in his body and then fell to the floor.

Carter snapped.

“
Get up
!” she shouted, her face contorted with fury. “You get off that fucking floor, or I’ll make it worse for you. I swear to you, I will!” As quickly as his body would allow, Giovanni obeyed. “Now, as I was saying, I did not particularly enjoy being tied to a fucking chair while some fat piece of shit pounded my head in, or while said fat piece of shit tried to kill my goddamn husband! So let’s just cut the shit right now and avoid another meeting like this in the future.” She pointed to the floor. “They did it for a million dollars …” She raised her hand in the air. “Who will do it for two?” she yelled.

Confusion was on every face.

“Nobody? Well, what about four? Four million dollars to anyone with the balls to attempt killing my husband and me!”

Nathan smirked. He could see where she was going with this.

Jamming yet another knife in his body, Giovanni howled in pain.

“Nobody will do it for four either?” Carter said in mock amazement. “Well, I guess we’ll just have to up the ante. What about one-hundred million? Come on. Don’t think I don’t have it! I just found out I’m worth a shitload of money! So much so that motherfuckers who don’t even know me want me dead!”

And there it was— that was what was really causing Carter’s rage. Out of the corner of his eye, Nathan saw Anastacia flinch at Carter’s reference to the Stone family.

“Speak up!” Carter screamed. “One hundred million! Two, three, four, five? How much money would it take for any of you motherfuckers to
fuck with me
!” Carter had lost it. She pulled her hair loose from the bun holding it, and it cascaded violently down her back. She ran her fingers through it and angrily paced the floor, her gun still at her side.

Nathan didn’t do anything but watch her. Every bone in his body told him not to interfere, to let her be and let her work this out in her head— or he’d be caught on the wrong side of her mood. He didn’t want that, so he kept his mouth shut.