“What is this place?” she asked as I stopped the boat by the half-destroyed dock.
“This is where my beloved father kidnapped my bride and convinced us both it was the Lanzas who did it while he kept herprotectedfor the both of us.”
Her eyes widened at the island where screams died and so much blood was shed. “This is where it happened?” Then she glared at me. “This is where you tried to kill my sister?”
“This is where Sebastiano Bellomo took what didn’t belong to him. This is where he should have died.” The aches swarming through my body echoed the endless hurt in my soul. “This is where I lost everything.”
“Why did you bring me here?”
“You’ll see.” I tied the boat and shuffled out. Then I helped her on the dock.
“Is there anybody here? Guards?”
I got the gun ready. “A couple.” I’d heard Domenico say Tino no longer used the island after what happened. He only left a couple of guards here to maintain territory so no rivals could use it for storage or gaining turf.
“What?”
The suits emerged from around the house. They weren’t shooting, though.
“Are you completely out of your mind? They’re gonna capture us and tell Tino,” she shouted.
“Oh, I’m counting on it. The telling Tino part.” I pushed her in front of me, gun in hand, while they carefully approached, yelling in Italian for me to stop moving.
“Please, don’t shoot,” Nicky gasped, the sound of her fear new to me and unpleasant. I thought she was tougher than that, but having a baby changed you. Losing one changed you more. The sacrifices you’d be willing to make in order for that not to happen, the humiliation, the risks. I knew there was nothing I wouldn’t have given for my mamma and my baby sister to stay alive.
The black suits reached the dock, pointing their guns at me, prowling slowly, yelling for me to drop the gun and surrender.Not today, boys.
I bent my head, my mouth to Nicky’s ear. “Count to three and then duck.”
She gasped again, and I fired the gun, landing a bullet in the chest of the soldier on the right. Nicky didn’t argue and ducked, and I fired the second bullet at the other soldier a split-second before he pulled his trigger.
I shot them both again in the head just to be sure and collected their guns through Nicky’s flaring swears. Then she started crying.
I pushed the bodies in the sea. “Is this your new hormones doing? I’m not used to your crying.”
“You fucking killed them in cold blood!”
“Would you rather they killed us?”
“They wouldn’t have. Tino wouldn’t have let them.”
“But they would have captured us and wait for him to come and do it himself, duh.” I pushed her in front of me again, heading for the house.
“It doesn’t make killing them any less brutal. You must have known these guys for years. Don’t you feel any kind of remorse? How could you just murder them and dumb them in the sea?”
“Didn’t you shoot Domenico’s men when we ran?”
“I was only trying to stop them and protect us. I didn’t kill them.”
“You should have. These are soldiers. Dying in abrutalmurder is part of the job. Besides, killing isn’t as hard as you think, Nicole. It’s stopping yourself from taking a life that needs real willpower and control.” One Don Bellomo had learned to master, and I had yet to learn. That was why he was always winning, and I was damned. “Andiamo. We don’t have much time.”
I texted the fisherman to release Ravenna as we entered the house. My chest hurt as if a hand punched through my ribs and squeezed my heart when I stood in the place where my own wife told me she didn’t want me. The memory was so vivid I could hear her pleas to save him and smell the blood oozing out of his chest.
My gaze lifted upstairs, to where my father’s bedroom was located, where he must have—
Wrath simmered my blood, and I needed to hurt someone, anyone.Kill her. Kill Nicky. It’s the perfect payback. Everybody will know the Lanzas couldn’t protect their own. Lina would never forgive your father if her sister died. You’ll win. You’ll finally win against them all. Do it. Kill Nicky. Kill her.
“Why are you looking at me like that? Leo…”
