The Butcher's Wife Read online

  Published by EVERNIGHT PUBLISHING ® at Smashwords

  www.evernightpublishing.com

  Copyright© 2022 Sam Crescent

  ISBN: 978-0-3695-0654-2

  Cover Artist: Jay Aheer

  Editor: Audrey Bobak

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this book may be used or reproduced electronically or in print without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.

  This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, and places are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  THE BUTCHER’S WIFE

  Sam Crescent

  Copyright © 2022

  Chapter One

  Everyone was staring at her like they pitied her. Valentina Berlusconi—no, that wasn’t her name anymore, she was Valentina Romano now—held the stem of her champagne glass and forced a smile to her lips so people would stop pointing and whispering. It was no secret that Giovanni Romano, also known as The Butcher within their circles, had picked her out of all the women within the Rossi circle.

  Her father was one of the capos in the Rossi line, and she was part of the selection process. From what her brother had told her, Giovanni hadn’t even hesitated.

  Rossi had asked him what he wanted, and Giovanni had said her name, not even taking the time to look at all the candidates. There were so many single young women, not broken or damaged ones he could have picked from. Yet, he chose her. Why?

  This had made her the talk of their circle for the second time in her life. The wedding itself had been a whirlwind, and if she was honest, terrifying. Having people stare at her all day wasn’t something Valentina was used to. She much preferred to be ignored.

  Like now, she stood on her own as her “husband” talked with her father. She was left to stand alone, and she had no problem with that. She’d never fit in with the inner circle of the women. Women were not seen as valuable in their world. Just pawns in the endless business contracts and bringing families together to avoid bloodshed and rival wars. All her life, she’d been told to not draw attention, to not be seen, and certainly not to be heard.

  Why did the Butcher want her? It made no sense. She’d never even met him, unless… She closed off the memory and tried not to think of that time. It was the worst moment of her life. What happened to her had made her another social pariah within their fold. It was why she couldn’t wear the backless wedding dress her mother had wanted her to. Her mother had even wanted her to undergo plastic surgery to have the damage covered up or changed. That was her answer to everything.

  She had to keep her scars hidden.

  At least her mother had long stopped nagging her about her weight. She had that.

  Giovanni was a scary-looking man. She couldn’t help but steal another glance at him now.

  He stood out from all of the men there. So much larger, covered in ink. She saw the start of it just teasing at his neck, and she had to wonder if he was covered all over. According to rumors, he was. Not that she ever listened to idle gossip and rumors. If she did, then she was pretty much a monster. The people who kidnapped her a few years ago had gouged out her eyes, sealed her mouth shut with string, and torn her limb from limb, but she was a breathing and talking zombie.

  She couldn’t help but smile, which was so out of place. Women rarely smiled at their weddings, especially within a mafia family, like she was. Married off. So close to being an arranged marriage.

  She’d been part of one of those before she was taken—an arranged marriage to the eldest son of Rossi. It had been a big deal. Her father had been so proud. Her mother had been petrified that she’d lose that kind of standing within the community, and so she’d forced her to go on a diet and an extreme weight-loss program. That was how the kidnappers had gotten to her. They’d recognized the tight schedule her mother had organized, and they saw how weak her protection was.

  So, they took her, and then they hurt her so damn badly. No one had wanted her when she returned. Rossi turned his back on her, their marriage was canceled, and he married a different woman instead, a slender blonde with no damage.

  In fact, Valentina saw them now, looking like the perfect couple, which made no sense, seeing as she had raven hair. Ignoring them, she turned back toward her husband and tensed up as Giovanni was already on his way toward her.

  She hadn’t drunk a single drop of her champagne.

  He stopped in front of her and offered a simple nod of the head. In the few occasions she’d seen him, she couldn’t honestly recall him ever even giving her a single hint of a smile. She had to wonder if he even possessed the ability to do so.

  This man, her husband, was a total mystery to her.

  She tilted her head back and offered him a smile.

  “I think it is time for us to dance.”

  Valentina had hoped to refuse this request. She hated being the center of attention and currently, at her own wedding, it was starting to become a little irksome.

  “Yes, of course,” she said, the lie spilling from her lips with total ease.

  Her heart raced as she put the champagne glass down on the nearest table. She’d never been a drinker. One time when she was sixteen, she had witnessed what happened to one of their women, and their tongues became too loose. The multiple backhands and slaps she’d gotten, within company, had been enough to terrify her.

  Valentina recalled her mother had told her to take note and to never allow herself to lose focus at such an event.

  All the women had judged the woman. None had looked to the man as the one in the wrong. That was the difference in her world. Men could treat their women however they chose, just so long as they didn’t break them too much.

  She had lost count of the number of times she’d seen black eyes, bandaged limbs, casts even. All in the name of marriage.

  No love. Nothing but pain. Still, the women put up with it because that was their life, and none of them could do anything about it.

  She hated it.

  Despised it.

  Nibbling on her lip, she tried not to think about who she was with as Giovanni slowly walked her onto the dance floor. His arm wrapped around her waist, and he pulled her close. Not too close so that it was indecent, but close enough to feel his warmth. Their bodies barely touched.

  “You look very … handsome,” she said.

  Her mother had told her to constantly congratulate him on how he looked. He was handsome in a scary kind of way. That was wrong. She always felt that he had this edge about him that no one else had, not even Leonardo Rossi, her ex-fiancé.

  “And you look stunning, just as I knew you would. The perfect bride.”

  She wanted to ask him why he’d picked her. This man had been given the rare choice of picking any woman for himself, and yet, he picked her. Why? She still didn’t get it.

  The scars on her back were very real, as well as the few across her stomach and thighs. For a long time, she had lived in fear. There were some nights where she still experienced the nightmares. They never went away.

  She’d wanted to go talk to someone, a therapist, anyone who would be willing to listen, but her father had declined. There was no way she was talking about family business with anyone.

  This wasn’t about family business. To her, it was to deal with the fact she was kidnapped and tortured by strange men who had wanted to know every single little detail of her life. It had just been too much for her to handle. She had wanted it to all stop.

  Rather than talk to someone, she had guards placed outside her doors. Extra protection. The nightmares continued for several months, until finally, it seemed that they abated. Valentina only hoped they didn’t start back tonight, her wedding night.

  Her mother had told her she was to give herself to Giovanni willingly. She wasn’t to fight. As a wife, it was her duty to serve her husband, and that she shouldn’t worry as he’d find other women. Whores and mistresses to deal with his basic urges, and then she’d be left alone, only having to deal with him when he wanted children or to have more.

  The life her mother painted for her filled her with fear. What fun was there to be had in that kind of life? None. There was nothing good about it.

  The very thought of it filled her with regret.

  Staring up into her husband’s face, Valentina didn’t want a loveless marriage, or to resent him or fear him. She’d lived in fear for too long, but this man, known as The Butcher, how could it be possible to have a good marriage full of love? She didn’t love him, nor did she know him.

  Could it be possible to find love with him?

  ****

  Giovanni considered himself the luckiest son of a bitch alive right at that moment. Holding his wife in his arms, finally feeling her close.

  The past few months had been nothing but pure torture of watching her, being close but never allowed to touch. He didn’t know how he was able to cope.

  All eyes were on them, and what he wanted to do was to take her away from their gawking. They didn’t have a right to look, or to even be in her presence. None of them knew what this woman had gone through, but he knew. At eighteen years old, she was betrothed to Leonardo, the son of the Rossi empire, the Boss of the Rossi mafia. He was a soon-to-be leader with a bad temper and wayward dick.

  Poor Valentina had been taken.

  Rossi had contacted Giovanni to find her, to save
her, and to bring her back for his son. Giovanni had done that. It had taken him three days to locate her. She’d been hidden in a small, crumbling ranch house, chained up, and her back cut up so bad from being whipped. They had also tried to hit her stomach and her thighs.

  She was still a virgin. No one had stolen that from her, but they’d cut her beautiful long raven hair, and the wounds they’d inflicted had become infected.

  They had pissed on her as well, some kind of sick and twisted game.

  The three men who’d been at the ranch had died at his hand, and after rescuing her, taking her to the hospital, and hearing about her fight to survive, he’d gone and killed every single person associated with the men who’d taken her.

  She’d been taken because of drug money. Rossi had refused to pay for a shipment, and as a consequence, they had taken someone of importance to him. Valentina paid the price.

  When he heard Leonardo had canceled the wedding and taken back his wedding band, Giovanni had been furious. He overheard the asshole saying he didn’t want a defective wife, and the doctors had said the scars would be there permanently.

  Leonardo wanted arm candy. A trophy.

  Rossi had caused this, but they had turned their back on her.

  He kept an eye on the idle gossip. Listening to what people were saying about the Berlusconi family, he hated it. For the past three years, he’d kept an eye on her. Watched her from afar. Seen her suffer in silence.

  As with all things in their world, she didn’t have anyone to turn to. No one to hear her. Even her screams had been confined to another wing of her home, with just a couple of guards to listen. She had been tossed aside like trash.

  Rossi gave him this rare opportunity to choose his bride. Giovanni had shown his loyalty and dedication for nearly twenty years. At forty years old, he’d been in Rossi’s constant service.

  It hadn’t taken long after his family had been killed for him to earn the reputation as The Butcher. The title served him well, and as a young man, it had been apt. He hadn’t handled his torture well back then.

  The cuts hadn’t been clean, nor the bruising lasting.

  Over the years, he’d learned how to perfect his craft, and as such, he was far more skilled, but still, The Butcher remained, and he relished the title.

  He liked that Valentina wasn’t tense in his arms. The sweet smile she offered up to him was more than he could have asked for.

  Since he’d picked her, he’d not had the opportunity to be alone with her. Their traditions had to remain in place. As did her virginity—until tonight.

  He wanted to fuck her. To fill her full of his cum and get her pregnant with his child.

  When it came to Valentina, even before she was taken, he’d been enraptured by her. She was a beautiful woman. Curves in all the right places, especially on her thighs as well as her ass. She could take a nice, hard fuck. Her body had been designed for him, and he couldn’t wait to get his hands on her. To bring new memories to chase the darkness away.

  “I saw you looking at Leonardo,” he said, hating the bastard’s name on his lips.

  “I wasn’t,” she said.

  “You don’t have to lie. In fact, that is what I would like in our marriage. Complete and total honesty.”

  She tilted her head slightly to the side. “You do?”

  “Yes.”

  “That’s not … heard of.”

  He chuckled. “I know, right? I am a glutton for punishment.” He leaned in close and pressed his nose against her hair, inhaling her sweet strawberry scent.

  His mouth watered.

  After rescuing her and taking a chance to visit her in the hospital, he’d leaned in close and promised he would protect her. It was why he stayed close to home, never going too far, handling business where he could be close to her.

  Valentina had been taken because he’d taken his eye off the ball. He’d been in another country with Rossi, handling business. The moment they got the news, they had been on a plane back home, but the damage had already been done.

  “So, tell me what you are thinking about right this moment,” he said.

  “Are you sure you want to know the simple thoughts of your wife?” Valentina asked.

  “You will soon come to see, my sweet, that I don’t ask for anything I don’t want.”

  She licked her lips. He saw the tip of her tongue as it traced across her bottom lip, and he so wanted her mouth on his body, licking at him, sucking at him.

  “Er, I … I’m not a very good dancer,” she said.

  He chuckled. “Neither am I, but I did put in a few hours of practice so I didn’t stand on your toes.”

  “You did?” she asked.

  “Yes, does that surprise you?”

  “A little bit. I had to practice as well. With my brother and my mom. My dad didn’t want me to make him look like a fool.”

  “That would be impossible for you to do when your father looks like a fool with no help from anyone.”

  This made her gasp and then laugh.

  Good. He wanted her to be happy. Not afraid.

  “I can’t believe you just said that.”

  He leaned in close, pressing his lips against her ear. “Any man who is willing to allow his daughter to be overlooked and let go is a fool. Don’t even get me started on Leonardo. He doesn’t have the first fucking brain cell to even know who he gave up.”

  Giovanni pulled back and smiled at her. Her lips were slightly parted, and he wanted to do nothing more than kiss them, but he held himself back. Now was not the time to kiss those luscious lips.

  “He is happily married,” Valentina said.

  He doubted it. The couple hated each other. Victoria and Leonardo Rossi were perfect for each other because of their complete hatred and cruelty.

  He wasn’t going to allow Valentina to get close to either of them. The bastard hadn’t deserved her before, and the truth was, he’d been trying to find a reason for them not to marry. Valentina wasn’t like most women in their circle. She was sweet, kind, loyal, caring, everything their circle hated and saw as a weakness.

  Leonardo would have broken her. He put on the façade for people, but Giovanni knew of the women he’d attacked and nearly killed in his vile rage.

  Glancing over Valentina’s shoulder, he spotted Leonardo watching her. He had tried to convince his father not to allow this wedding to go through.

  The moment Giovanni had been given the opportunity to have any woman he wanted, he’d picked Valentina without a second’s hesitation. Leonardo had said his selection was absurd. That no one should have Valentina. She was defective and to even attempt to have her was a mockery.

  To get her, Giovanni had to question Rossi’s loyalty.

  Of course, he didn’t hold the same opinion as his son. Even though the older man had terminated the contract between his son and Valentina, that didn’t mean he had turned his back on the woman.

  He saw an opportunity, even if he didn’t completely understand Giovanni’s reasoning. It didn’t mean he was going to let her be out of favor any longer.

  As Leonardo watched, Giovanni ran his hands down her back, the tips of his fingers teasing at the edge of her ass. The line of her panties ruffled the dress she wore, but he didn’t care.

  Leonardo knew what he had lost.

  As long as he was alive, he was going to make sure Valentina was alive, and as The Butcher, no one had ever succeeded in killing him.

  No one had the stomach to face him.

  Not even Leonardo Rossi.

  Chapter Two

  The dance.

  The speeches.

  The cake.

  More dancing.

  All of it was now over, and the men hollered at Giovanni to take her, to claim her. The men who’d drunk too much and too freely called for him to pop her cherry. To fuck her.

  Valentina wasn’t a fool. She had learned what sex was. Her mother had made sure she understood what was required of her tonight.

  No one stopped them as they approached their bedroom for the night. As per tradition, they had to stay at her father’s home.