𝐕𝐄𝐗𝐄𝐃 ❷

𝟑𝟎. ✭ 𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐄𝐘 ✭

I close the door behind me to the room I had never known existed until recently. My parents had shown it to me just in case this exact scenario came up. When I round on the man tied to a metal chair and gagged his eyes widen exponentially. The fear in them is a sight that I have missed entirely more than I should. It gives me a sick and twisted sort of pleasure that I had once thought would leave me when I stopped being undercover. Turns out I was wrong.

"Albano Bano. How the hell are you? Oh, where are my manners?" I rip the gag out of his mouth before backhanding him across the face with everything in me. The action has him spitting out a piece of tooth. "How long has it been since we've last seen each other?" He doesn't answer me but his eyes go to my stomach. "Ah, that's right. The last time we saw each other you were jamming a knife into me and then, what happened after that?" I tap my chin as I pretend to remember. I snap my fingers together with, "you dropped my body like a sack of potatoes on the ground then proceeded to drag away Dani and my son as they screamed and cried." The last of my words had venom dripping all over them.

"You... How?" He stuttered the words out. "You... you should be dead."

"Yeah, I should be. After you did this." I take my shirt off and throw it on the ground and point to my abdomen. His eyes widen even more as the go from one scar to the other. "Do you remember what the men used to call me?" When he doesn't respond automatically I give him another backhand. "I know you haven't forgotten. It hasn't been that long."

"Tradhtar." Traitor. He spits a wad of blood on my shoes.

I grab ahold of his shirt and then land two solid punches directly to his face. The second leaves me with a smile of satisfaction because the crunch sound let me know that I broke his nose. I pull him closer to me and go directly to his ear. "What did they used to call me?"

"Zemërimi i djallit." He sucks in a ragged breath. "The devil's wrath."

"That's right. The devil's wrath." I pull away from him with a sinister grin.

"But you were never really that man. You were just a coward hiding. A tradhtar."

A sardonic laugh falls from my lips. "I was never really that man? Was I not? Your broken nose would suggest otherwise." I pull a pack of cigarettes from my pocket and light one up. There's a chair in the corner of the room that I grab, spinning it around so I can sit backward in. "Do you remember disposing of the bodies after I was done with them?" His throat bobs as he swallows in discomfort, probably tasting his own blood as he does. "Do you remember how they were covered in the stench of piss, vomit, and shit from their terror?" I take a long drag of my cigarette before blowing it in his face. "You broke into my family's home. You held my sister's naked body at gunpoint, exposing her to multiple people against her will." Another drag and blow of smoke. "What the fuck do you think I'm going to do to you?"

✩✩✩

I wipe my hands on a rag as I look over Albano's body. It is beat to absolute shit. His face is unrecognizable. He's currently got a litany of stab wounds. He's sitting in a puddle of his own urine. I can't remember the last time I felt this satisfied or had this sense of catharsis. It should disturb me the peace and euphoria riding through me but it doesn't. For the first time in a while I feel like myself.

When I walk out of the room several men look at me with a face I had missed seeing— absolute horror. It makes me laugh, loudly, which has them looking anywhere but me. I probably look mildly insane. I'd say a little more than mildly since I'm still shirtless and covered in another man's blood. These men are just security, after all. Some had seen active duty but most had not seen or heard the level of torture I'd just provided.