Up until five seconds ago, I would have denied his comment. Now, I can’t. Even if our child had all my features and my last name, he or she would have still had Petretti DNA. That alone makes me a Petretti.
I’m drawn from my thoughts by a furious growl. “Fuck!” Rocco grunts out with a roar when the obvious can’t be denied for a second longer. We walked straight into India’s trap.” She played us like a fucking fiddle.”
“Triedto play us,” I correct, aware of what I now need to do.
India can’t pit the Petrettis against the Popovs if she’s dead.
“Pack up and go.”
“No,” Rocco immediately fires back. “If we leave, you’ll be trapped here. We had the Range Rover towed.”
The concern in his voice exposes he trusts Agent Machini’s claim that the Bureau is only minutes away. It also reveals he is the man Demi believed he was.
It makes my decision to go it alone even easier.
“I’ll do what needs to be done. You have my word.”
“I don’t give a shit about the mission, Ox. It can fuckin’ wait. Although I want India to pay for what she’s done, taking her down won’t bring Demi back.”
“I don’t want to bring her back,” I confess. “I want to go to her.”
“Ox—”
“Just fucking go!” I scream when the anger in his voice switches to worry. “We don’t have time for this shit now, Rocco. If you stay, weallgo down, then where will that leave Dimitri’s family?” I almost have him, so I’m certain my next question will get him over the line. “And what about your girl, Rocco? How do you think she’d cope seeing you locked up again?”
“Don’t bring her into this,” he breathes out slowly, his tone undeniably protective even with the sound of police sirens wailing through the air.
“Why? Because you know it will devastate her as much as it did Demi when I took the decision out of her hands. I fucked up that day, Rocco. I don’t want to see you do the same, so go home to your family before you lose them altogether.”
He curses under his breath two times before he demands Smith to pack on the fly. “We’re going to talk about this, Ox. This ain’t the fucking end of this conversation. Do you hear me?” When I hum out an agreeing murmur, he adds, “But if you’re going down, can you take that bitch down with you?”
“It’ll be my pleasure,” I reply, smiling.
I wait for their frantic stomps to be drowned out by distance before checking that the safety on my gun is off.
Once I’m confident everything is ready to go, I re-enter the room India, Trey, K, and Eight are in. India appears shocked that I’m minus a bullet wound, but she plays it cool, confident in her ruse. “I don’t want anything from you. You’ve done enough, now you can leave the rest up to us.”
With a smile as hideous as her ugly insides, she nudges her head to me, hopeful Trey’s tirade will end by him popping a bullet between my eyes. “You fuckin’ piece of shit,” he growls, convinced he’s facing a rival instead of a comrade. “Not even your sister will save you from this. Do you hear me? You’re a dead man walking.”
While the stomp of Smith and Rocco’s boots continue booming through the earpiece in my ear, I try to hint to Trey that I’m not his enemy. “Blood isn’t always thicker than water, Trey. I thought you’d know that better than anyone.” My gun is aimed at his chest, but he should pay attention to the words I speak the most. “I heard lots of stories during my time in lockup. Failed takeover bids. Men being brought back from the brink of death. Duchesses so desperate for a crown, they fucked with the wrong family over and over again.”
I realize my act is up when India snaps out, “Wraith.”
I don’t mind. The sound of tires spinning over asphalt has overtaken the frantic beat of my heart. Rocco and Smith are in the clear, meaning I can now shift my focus to India. “I don’t know what shocks me more, the fact you think I didn’t scan the face ofeveryperson surrounding the cage my sister was mauled in, or that I didn’t hear your disappointed sigh when Col agreed with the barter of my life for Justine’s.”
India’s vindictive insides are displayed in the worst light when she compresses the trigger of her gun. The shock on her face when it dawns on her that the bullet chamber is empty is priceless. She was so hell-bent on seeking vengeance, she didn’t bother to check if the gun she stole from me was loaded.
Shame on her.
The fact she tried to kill a pregnant woman without the slightest bit of remorse on her face sees me lifting the scope of my assault rifle from her chest to her forehead. You can’t kill a heartless woman by firing at her chest. She’d need a heart for that method to work.
“You were so fucking desperate to be top dog, you didn’t consider who you were taking down in the process.”
She has hurt so many people—Demi, Justine, Trey, Dimitri, and me. She trampled us all because, unlike Demi, she didn’t try to find her way out of the dark.
She let it consume her.
My finger stops shuddering around the trigger when Smith’s breathless voice breaks through the drumming of my pulse in my ears. “What did you say that Agent’s name was? Macy…”
