“Now I understand why your father put her in charge,” Warren said with a chuckle. “But I’m tired of this. Take her by whatever means necessary.”
I heard a lot more feet in the hallway and knew I was greatly outnumbered. It was probably twelve to one. I shut the door, locked it, and started to barricade it like I had before. I didn’t actually expect to win this, but I just needed to drain the clock until Wolfe could get here and kill all these motherfuckers.
I moved one dresser in front of the door and tried to push the four-poster bed over, but it was too heavy for me to move. I grabbed one of the nightstands and started to drag it across the hardwood floor when they sprayed the door with bullets, piercing everything with their automatic weapons.
All I could do was cower and cover my ears until it was finished.
Wolfe, where are you?
The gunfire stopped, and the door and furniture were destroyed, so they shoved it aside and entered the room.
I had my knife ready when they pushed through the debris and made it inside.
My back was to the wall, and I gripped the hilt of the blade in preparation to slice mouths off faces. One pointed the pistol at my head while the group of men converged on me. It was a short-lived fight, and I only managed to slice one of them before my hands were forced behind my back and the knife was taken away.
I was manhandled out of the room and down the hallway.
It felt like the longest walk of my life, dragging my feet all the way there, seeing my father on his knees, a gun pointed to his head…and my brother beside Warren.
He couldn’t hold my stare for long, his eyes shifting to the floor when my ferocity became too much.
They forced me in front of Warren, but I didn’t look at him, my rage reserved for my brother.
“Look. At. Me.”
Warren must have been entertained by the exchange because he allowed it to continue.
“I said, look at me.”
My brother fought the order, eyes on the floor at my feet and then at the side of my head, like he could fool me into thinking our eyes were locked.
“Come on, you fucking coward.”
He still avoided me.
“You turned your back on your family, but you don’t have the balls to look me in the eye as you do it?”
He worked his jaw like he was ashamed and mad at the same time. The cords in his neck were taut like a tightrope. He released a strangled breath before he finally looked me in the eye.
The second we looked at each other, I spat on his face. “Figgh’i buttana.”
He closed his eyes when the spit hit him in the face, and he just stood there while it dripped down his cheek.
The man holding me tightened his grip on my hands like I might try to kill my brother.
And he was absolutely right.
“So, it was either you or nobody?” I asked. “You would rather destroy your family legacy?”
“I didn’t destroy it,” he said quietly. “I took it.”
My father had been silent through this whole exchange, but he finally spoke, his eyes down the hallway like he refused to look at his son. “You really are an idiot.”
I turned to my father.
Leo did too.
“You think Warren helped you do this for apartnership?” My father worked his jaw before he turned and looked at Leo, and the expression on his face…was as hot as the lava inside Mount Etna. “No. He used you like a puppet, and now he’ll kill me and your sister, and probably you, and take this business for himself.”
