“Separate them,” Stella tells Nico. Quietly. Deadly.
Nico immediately lands a solid one to Cristian’s jaw, dropping the weasel to his knees before dragging him away a good distance. Cristian’s head lulls from side to side from the knock. Romanos are built tough. Ha! He wanted to spit on the fucking floor. If that’s the case, then Ariana is the only true Romano standing.
“Ari, I don’t care what you want to do with that asshole but this bitch and I have unfinished business,” Stella says.
“I’ll wait,” Ari merely says with a shrug. One that tugs and twitches his cock until it aches against his zipper.
“Isabitcha,” Stella says. “You touched my husband. You touched him without his permission. Without my permission.”
“You love him?” Isabella asks as if it’s something impossible.
“Fucking bitch,” Derrick hisses from next to him.
“I love him. Clearly, an impossible concept for you,” Stella answers.
“Love is a weakness in this business. If you’re really who you claim to be then you’d know that women aren’t raised to rule. We’re raised to please,” Isabella says. She moves and her eyes are searching for a way out.
“But then, I guess, you were content on being the meek housewife and not be in the business until now. Stella, if you want to step into this life, I can help you. We could be friends.”
“I don’t give a fuck about the power or the business. It does to me what last season’s Givenchy does. But you came to MY house and tried to tear my family apart. Love can be many things. Love can burn too,” Stella answers.
“And do you know what it’s like watching you touch my husband? Watching you with your filthy hands stroking his cock?” Stella asks. “It burned. It burned to the depths of my very being.”
“I wouldn’t know,” Isabella answers, trying to stand her ground.
“You’re about to find out,” Stella answers with the most innocent tone he’s ever heard coming from her.
“Fuck,” Rory says beneath a breath. “I’ve never seen Stell like this. This isn’t her. I-I don’t know if I can watch this.”
“Chase was right,” Derrick speaks up this time. “This goes beyond being pissed.”
Yet, Rory doesn’t move from where he stands either.
The clanking of metal on metal brings his attention back to Stella in time to see her with a metal pail in her hand. She tosses it and drenches Isabella with something liquid. Isabella immediately shrieks and wails as if being scorched by acid.
“Not yet, bitch.” Stella tosses the empty pail at Isabella. “I told you I liked playing with fire. It’s my favorite game.”
“Cousin,” Nico calls out.
When Stella turns, Nico tosses a zippo and Stella catches it with ease.
“Oh fuck.” It’s Chase who utters in shock this time. His younger brother’s hands are covering his mouth in disbelief. This definitely goes beyond being pissed.
Derrick steps even closer to the window now. Both of his hands up against the pane, watching Stella longingly.
Ariana stands stalk still.
His first reaction is to go to her. She didn’t need to see this. But seeing her and the way she’s clenching and unclenching her fist, he concludes that she’s anticipating what’s to come. As if years of the abuse she’s endured is finally about to get the justice she deserves.
“You burned me,” Stella says. “I’ll give you that. But you’ll burn for what you did to me. To my family. To Ariana. You’ll burn a hundred times hotter. And when you’re done burning here, you’ll burn in hell too. Good-bye, bitch.”
With that, Stella strikes the zippo and tosses it right where Isabella stands with a horrified look and her mouth open in a scream.
The warehouse fills with screams of what he imagines is excruciating pain and terror. The screams of immense torture feed into his own darkness.
His demons watch the growing flames with their hands rubbing together and grins of satisfaction. They haven’t put in the work tonight but they are more than pleased and appeased right this moment.
He tosses his head back and tries to breathe in more of the sickening scent of flesh burning. There’s a mere whiff of it that makes it in the room but it’s enough. The stench should have his stomach rolling but no, the smell of revenge is…satisfying.
When he looks through the window again, he watches his beautiful angel watching her sister flailing in the open space, screaming and burning as the flames grow redder and brighter. Hotter.
Ariana moves closer to Nico, where Cristian is watching in shock and horror on his knees. She takes the gun from Nico’s holster. Her hand trembled with the weight of it in her hand.
“No,” he says more to himself than any of his brothers. “She can’t carry that weight.” And it isn’t the weight of the gun that he’s worried about.
“Don’t you want to help end our sister’s misery?” Ariana asks Cristian through the screaming in the warehouse. “You can.”
“I-I can’t,” Cristian sobs.
“Fucking coward! You’re useless! The only time you have control is when you dope up your victims.”
She points the gun lower to Cristian’s knee and without hesitation, she pulls the trigger. Of course, nothing happens. She looks up at Nico in confusion.
Nico clears his throat before reaching for the gun for a second and then letting it go.
“Safety’s on,” Nico tells her with a shrug. “I kinda have too high a rank to go off shooting myself by accident,” he teases.
“Oh,” she simply says.
“Is she blushing?” Chase asks. “I think I got me a new crush to dream about at night. Don’t tell Stell I said that though.”
“Asshole,” he mumbles at his brother.
By now, Isabella isn’t screaming anymore. Her body isn’t flailing anymore but what’s left of her is still burning brightly in a heap on the cement flooring of the warehouse with Stella still watching.
Ariana has the gun pointed at Cristian’s head now. Her hands still shake.
“Ari, please?” Cristian begs, his hands held up to fend off a bullet he has no chance of slowing down should she pull that trigger.
“You don’t have to cross that line,” Stella tells her. The two women stand side by side now.
“She doesn’t,” he agrees. Not that they can hear him. “I need to be with her,” he says into the room but mainly to Brooks. “She needs me.”
“Doors not locked,” Brooks replies with understanding. Fucking asshole could have said that from the get.
Derrick fucking beats him to and through the door, of course. As his brother swings the door open, a single gunshot is heard. He steps through the threshold in time to see she’s put a bullet in the same knee she intended to before. He shoves Derrick out of the way and rushes to her side.
He pulls her into him, tucking her head into his shoulder while his other hand clamps over her trembling hand and the gun.
“You don’t have to do this,” he whispers over Cristian’s wails of pain. “If you want him dead, I can do this for you. I can carry that weight. He is nothing,” he tells her.