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That’s when I hear commotion coming from outside
“There he is,” Lucas says, the Joker-like tone back, the madman. He switches the monitor on my father’s desk on. We watch the men gathered outside. Tobias and Damian walk to the front door and open it.
I’m surprised Lucas’s men are gone.
“Leave your weapons at the door,” he yells loudly. “And you come in alone, Brother. Alone or she swings,” he calls out. “I’m watching.” He’s behind me keeping the chair from rolling.
“I’m coming alone. Do not hurt her.”
“Aww. He does care,” Lucas says to me, making a face that makes me want to punch him or kick my foot into his nose. But if I do either, I’m dead. He lets go of that chair and I will swing.
The door opens a moment later and I take in Damian’s face, his eyes, as he sees me. As he sees the only reason I’m not dead is because his brother has his foot on the leg of the chair so it doesn’t slip out from under me.
“Cut her down and let her go.” He sounds calm, but I hear the tension in his voice. I’m learning Damian. “She has absolutely nothing to do with this.”
I want to tell him to run. To get out. It’s a trap. He must know it. He must smell the gasoline. Lucas is going to kill him. He’s going to kill us all. But every breath is torture, and it’s taking all I have to remain as still as possible.
“Don’t move, Cristina,” Damian tells me. He must see my struggle.
“When did you buy the house? I had no idea,” Lucas asks.
“Let her go, Lucas. I’m here. You have what you want.”
“No, not really. Actually, I don’t have anything I want.”
“Then tell me what the hell it is. Tell me and I’ll give it to you!”
Lucas stops, and I see the change in expression, like something’s dawning on him. And then I see that grin, the Joker-like one.
“You already are, Brother. Everything ends tonight. We all end tonight.”
I hear it before I smell it. A whoosh.
Fire.
Fire catching.
Fire racing to devour the gasoline.
Damian takes two urgent steps closer.
“Stay where you are. You come closer, and I let go of the chair.”
Damian puts his hands up and stops.
“You have to admit, it will be a poetic end, don’t you think? Everything back to where it all started. Sorta. I mean, I can’t take you back to the train tracks, but she hangs like her father did. Like she should have eight years ago. And you and me and Father, we all burn. Like we should have. But only after you watch her die.”
“You are not this person, Lucas,” Damian says.
Do I feel the heat of the fire already? Is that possible? I hear it coming closer. It’s raging.
“I’m exactly this person, Damian. Dad was right to choose me. I am what he wanted. I am exactly that. He must have seen it, too. Recognized himself in me.”
“You’re not like him.”
“I’m more like him than you’ll ever let yourself believe.”
“She’s innocent. Let her go. I’ll burn. If that’s what you want, I’ll burn. I don’t care. Let her go before it’s too late.”
“There’s the answer I was looking for. My brother’s in love.” Lucas turns his face up to mine. “Isn’t it sweet? He loves you. If you had any doubt, now you know. He’ll die for you. That’s the truest test, isn’t it? He wouldn’t die for me or for his sister or his mother, but he’ll die for you.”
Damian lunges for him then.
I would scream if I could as something explodes inside the house, and when the study door blows open, I feel the enormous heat of the fire on my face.
I see Damian’s hands around his brother’s throat, know the moment they go down because that’s the instant the chair rolls out from under me.
My feet race to find purchase, but there’s nothing beneath me, only air. I claw at the rope at my neck, but I can’t get under it. I’m choking, slowly strangling.
Is this how they did it to my father? That’s what he’d said, isn’t it? Benedict Di Santo had choked him slowly. Only snapped his neck after he’d had his fun.
Fire licks the walls, devouring wood. The drapes along the windows catch, and I’m fighting, spinning, and they’re still on the ground. My arms fall away as I wheeze the tiniest breath in.
Not enough, though. Not enough.
I feel myself slip away. As I stop fighting, my legs twitching as I take in my last smoke-filled gasp of breath and hang.29Damian“You goddamn piece of shit!” I charge my brother, slamming him hard against the back wall.
Glass shatters in the other room, exploding in the fire.
“She has nothing to do with this. Nothing. This is you and me!” He doesn’t fight me, not right away. He’s laughing. He’s fucking laughing the laugh of a lunatic.
