They stepped in front of me as the two Demons at the bottom of the stairs took their place behind us, masks on and guns at the ready.
Spade and Kellan took off the moment the two Demons at the doors pulled them wide. My two men slammed their blades into the necks of the two nearest guards, and I took aim at one behind them. My bullet pierced the skin between his eyes before he raised his gun. The fourth slumped to the floor less than a second later as one of the men behind me pumped a few shots into his chest.
Most of the room was up on their feet as we turned to the crowd, reaching for their hidden weapon—an eventuality we’d planned for since it wouldn’t be a Barone event if the majority of the attendees weren’t armed to the teeth.
“Hold your fire!” Angelo bellowed over the shouts, sending the entire room into silence as he stood, revealing the four lasers aimed at his chest.
“Thanks for the invite,” I drawled, and shrugged off my rain jacket. One of the men behind me took it and placed a remote in my palm. The other man at the door passed me a black rose next, the thorns pricking into my skin. Blood moistened my palm, but I didn’t loosen my grip, needing the bite of pain to keepme focused as adrenaline spiked through my veins. I could feel Kellan undoing the train at the back of my scarlet gown.
“It’s a shame you started without me.” I mock-pouted at Angelo, tossing my curls over one shoulder. I strode down the aisle, the train of my scarlet gown rippling behind me like a river of blood.
The silk gown caressed my curves as I made my way to the closed casket, held on a pedestal at the front of the room like he was some sort of saint who deserved to be mourned and not the monster everyone in this room knew he was.
“Oh, and don’t even think about taking us out.” I grinned at Angelo in the first row of pews.
“And why is that?” he gritted out, his jaw ticking as he fisted his hands at his sides, his entire body trembling roughly.
“You should really get some more thorough men, Angelo.” I sighed and waved the remote for him to see. “They didn’t even check the basement for explosives.”
Curses flew from his lips along with some sprays of spittle. Thankfully I was standing far enough away from him. Otherwise I would’ve been in the splash zone.
“What the fuck do you want?” He finally composed himself long enough to seethe at me.
“To pay my condolences to my almost-in-laws, of course.” I pinned him with a saccharine smile, too sweet to be believed, before scanning the rest of the pew.
Rosa sat beside her husband. Mascara-tinged tears rolled down her cheeks, and her bottom lip wobbled. I honestly wasn’t sure if she was crying over her son’s death, or out of fear of what we might do to them. Lorenzo bracketed her other side, not offering her any comfort as intrigue flashed in his keen eyes. I only held his gaze for a moment, my stomach twisting at the familiar mahogany orbs flashing back at me.
“And to say goodbye to my beloved fiancé, of course.” I clasped the rose to my chest in mock sympathy, ignoring the smear of blood against my skin.
Angelo’s lips curled into a sneer, but he didn’t argue as I climbed the stairs to the closed casket. The priest edged away from me as if standing too close to me would hand him a death sentence—which it just might.
My pulse thudded with each step I took. The casket shone as though it had been freshly polished and wouldn’t be covered with dirt in a few hours.
“Oh, Tommaso, you would have loved seeing me in this dress.” I placed the black, shriveled rose on top of the closed, lacquered black casket. Tiny drops of crimson dripped off the thorns. “Silk alwayswasyour favorite.”
Every time I wore the silk dresses, shirts, or lingerie he’d picked out for me, I cringed at its smooth glide against my skin. It was like his hands were all over me, caressing, taking, claiming, and reminding me that I was his. I waited for the familiar sour taste of bile to rise in my throat, but it didn’t come. It was only fabric now, not a symbol of Tommaso’s ownership over me.
He was dead. I felt his life flee his rigid, cold form on the penthouse floor. I saw the light leave his eyes, his expression slackening. But I had to make sure.
A thought had niggled at the back of my mind for the last week. What if he hadn’t died? What if someone got to him in time to revive him? He was a cockroach after all. Those fuckers can survive almost anything.
This was my only chance to put those thoughts to rest.
I swiped up the rose in a swift motion and reached for the lid of the coffin before anyone could try to stop me.
“No!” Rosa cried before a smack rang out through the silent room.
I couldn’t pay attention to that right now, not with my eyes focused on the charred form before me. They must have gotten to him soon after Kellan got me out of there since I could still make out his features. The slight bump in his nose his father had broken when he was a child. The mouth that took more than coaxed, that spoke such lovely lies, I almost let myself believe them a time or two before he’d do something else to remind me of the monster lurking beneath his skin.
Tommaso was dead. If I hadn’t killed him, the fire he’d started would’ve finished the job. His hair had burned away, as well as the skin beneath his collar, from what I could make out. There was no warmth to him, no subtle rise and fall of his chest.
Just to make sure, I placed the black, shriveled rose under his burned hand, letting the icy skin reassure me as I placed them both back to rest against his heart.
“I chose the rose for you too,” I murmured as though we were sharing a secret. “Dead and desiccated, just like your heart—well, like all of you now, I guess.”
I exhaled a long breath, my body buoyant with relief as I slammed the lid shut with a crack of finality that echoed through the walls of the cavernous stone cathedral.
Trailing my fingers over the keys of the ornate pipe organ, I let the shrill notes ring out ominously over the silent crowd, letting their helplessness sink in. The people who’d kept me under their thumbs for so long, who had watched my suffering and did nothing, were now at my mercy.
