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Every room looked like a tornado had touched down. It had never been a nice place, each time Anteros had visited had been marked with piles of trash and the smell of rot. It had never been this bad, though.
Was Frankie hurt? His chest constricted at the thought. It was so much blood, someone had to have died, but he couldn’t find a body. Levi sidled up next to him.
“Mind if I ask why you’re here?” As much as he wanted to pound Levi’s treacherous face into the dirt until it became muddy, he gave Levi a strained look and continued through the house.
“Research,” Anteros responded, walking into the kitchen. Then he stopped short so quickly Levi slammed into his back. The body of Gabriella De Luca was on the floor. Footprints led from the pool of blood, explaining why there’d been so many. It still didn’t explain what had happened to Frankie, which was all Anteros cared about.
The previously cold tension turned hot. Levi ran into the room, a pained scream erupting from his mouth. He fell to the floor, pulling Gabriella to his chest.
“Gabby,” Levi said, pulling her closer so blood stained his white dress shirt red. Frankie had said they were together, but now he saw there had been love between them. Deep love.
“I’m so sorry.” Levi tucked her lifeless, lobbing head under his chin. “I should have listened.” He cradled her there, rocking back and forth, knees sinking in a puddle of her blood. Tugging his bottom lip between two fingers, Anteros scanned the rest of the room. No sign of Frankie.
The fuck had gone down?
“You,” Levi growled, voice barely human. “You took everything from me.” Anteros’s head whipped back to Levi.
“Me?”
“My mother. Gabby. You took it all.”
“I didn’t do shit to your mother. I don’t know who the fuck she is,” Anteros said. “And I didn’t do this. I got here minutes before you.” But it was fresh, Anteros thought, noting the blood still pouring out of Gabby. Whatever had happened had gone down just minutes before Anteros arrived. If Frankie had been here, she wasn’t far.
“Tala. Tala was my mother,” Levi raged, holding Gabby to his chest like a doll. “She was taken and sent to The Institute to repay my father’s debt ten years ago.” Anteros paused for a split second after Levi’s explanation then laughed. Levi’s face grew crimson with anger.
“That wasn’t me,” Anteros said, chuckling. “I didn’t have the power to do that ten years ago. I was still climbing my way up from slave. Your beef isn’t with me, Luchessi. You want the Pavonis.” Anteros smirked, remembering what Frankie had said about who Luchessi was working with. “I hear you’re working for one.” He had to give it to Lucia, she was masterful at twisting people. The woman was an absolute architect at manipulation.
Levi screamed, dropping Gabby and lunging for him. Levi swung at him, a few punches actually landing on Anteros’s jaw. He might have been a formidable opponent once, but now he was filled with rage and sorrow. It blinded him, made him sloppy. He expended all his energy on uncalculated throws.
Anteros knew Levi’s life had been tragic, having lost his mother and then been consumed by the world that took her, but Anteros wasn’t sorry, and he wouldn’t show him mercy. Levi made his own decisions and a man had to acknowledge the consequences of his decisions or they’d do it for him. After Frankie left, Anteros finally fucking learned that.
When Levi was heaving and panting, Anteros swung. His fist collided with Levi’s cheek, both Anteros’s knuckles and Levi’s jaw crunching with the impact. Levi stumbled back and Anteros swung again, then again, and again until Levi’s face was a bloody, crumpled mess. He had Levi on the floor, about to punch him into silence and death, when Levi spoke.
“The princess will be a whore soon,” Levi rasped. “Just like my mother.”
“What did you say?” Anteros paused, arm raised and poised to strike.
“Why do you think this house is empty? Why do you think I’m here? Do you really think I could make a deal with The Institute?” Levi laughed through broken, bloody teeth. Eyes swollen shut, he laughed and laughed, like a broken Jack in a Box. “Gabby tried to warn her but Frankie signed her ticket the day she left Lucia. She’s probably on her way there now.” Levi laughed again but ended up choking on his blood. It was a disgusting, gurgling wet noise. Ice filled Anteros’s veins and he looked around the house as if Frankie would pop up any minute.
On her way.
To The Institute.
What he’d been trying to save her from since the very fucking beginning.
Fury, hopelessness, and powerlessness poisoned Anteros’s blood. He gripped Levi by the shirt, lifted his head, then slammed it into the tile. He did this over and over until brain matter spilled out, then Anteros dropped him. Levi’s head fell with a thud next to Gabriella’s, their blood mingling together on the kitchen floor.
Anteros stood back up, shaking out his bruised, bloody fist.
He would find Frankie. The Institute would not be her fate.
Sixteen
One day earlier
* * *
The windshield wipers swished back and forth but were worthless against the onslaught of rain. My tears didn’t help much, either. I’d kept it together in the garage and for the first mile, but now I cried with abandon. I couldn’t help it. I thought I’d found home, but now I drove a car I didn’t really know how to drive in the direction of only God knew where.
