Warm My Bed, Brother-in-law Chapter 13: Chapter 13: The One Thing I Wanted Most.

Read chapter 13 of Warm My Bed, Brother-in-law by PayalSinghRajput on NovelPedia.

DAMIAN’S POV. The warehouse smells dirty and faintly of oil. It was a hellhole, with nothing polished or respectable about it. Alonzo was strapped into a steel chair in the centre of the room. His face was a goddamn mosaic of purple and red, and his silk tie was shredded, hanging around his neck like a noose. My fist clenched, and my jaw tightened the moment I saw him. The old pain from my fight with Marco flared in my knuckles, and my cheek throbbed, but I welcomed the sharp sting. It cleared my head and kept me focused. I didn't say a word as I stepped into the light and watched the bastard straining against the nylon zip-ties. When he finally spotted me, his eyes went wide. He’d been a fucking predator at the meeting, sneering at Elena, but now? Now he was just a rat in a trap. You piece of shit, I thought, my pulse hammering in my ears. I stared the motherfucker down as the memory of the way he'd looked at Elena made my blood boil. Those hungry eyes had been all over her, like he thought he had the right. Every time I remembered it, the urge to end him right there, to bury a wrench in his skull, almost took over. But I had to control my anger. This son of a bitch didn't realise who he was playing with, and I needed to make sure he learned his place without me tipping my hand. If I showed him my cards now, he'd know I was doing this for her. And in this city, a weakness like that is a death sentence for everyone involved. I had to make him believe this was about power, about the empire, about the disrespect he’d shown the Vitale name… not the obsessive hunger that was currently clawing at my insides. "Blackthorn," he wheezed, spitting a glob of blood onto the floor. "You’re making a mistake. You think you can just snatch me off the street? My lieutenants know exactly where I am. You'll be a corpse before the sun comes up." A corpse? Really? The fucking audacity of this arrogant prick was almost impressive. Does he really think if he says it confidently enough, I’ll just drop dead out of politeness? He was nothing more than a pathetic liability, a stain on the Vitale name. He couldn't even keep his own guts inside his body, let alone pose a real threat to me. Cute. I smirked, walking over to the workbench to pick up a heavy steel wrench. The metal felt cold, solid, and heavy in my hand. I tested its weight, realising just how dangerous it was. "Alonzo, darling," I said, my voice dripping with a playful sweetness that made him flinch. "If I were worried about my expiration date, I wouldn’t be standing here wasting my night listening to your empty threats." I walked over to his chair and began tapping the wrench against the metal frame. Clink, clink, clink. Alonzo flinched at every strike, his eyes locked onto the tool in my hand, terrified of the exact second I might stop tapping and start using it on him. Under the dim lights, I could clearly see that his face had turned pale, and sweat glistened on his brow. The arrogance he'd worn a few minutes ago was gone, replaced by fear he couldn't quite hide. "Your lieutenants are currently in the back office," I said, my voice barely a whisper. "And they're too busy losing their own goddamn teeth to worry about you. Marco is very thorough when it comes to people who don't know when to keep their mouths shut. So, let’s talk. Shall we?” Alonzo let out a wet, rattling laugh that broke into a cough. "Talk? If you dragged my men here to beat them into submission, you must be desperate. If Nikolai and the other captains find out you’re touching a high-ranking captain, imagine what’s going to happen to your pathetic little empire." The Vitale empire was an ancient, bloated beast built on decades of blood money and legitimate fronts. Blackthorn wasn't there yet, but we were faster and sharper. I didn't have their history, but I had every one of their vulnerabilities. I had every single secret they ever tried to bury in a database. I was moving up, sure, and my influence was deepening, but I