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I walk to the end of the hallway which has a window that overlooks the sea and my burning boat. Seeing it again with clear and awake eyes fills me with rage, not fear, but a fury to seek revenge. Although, I’m also not one to act fast and on emotion. Will I make Bryant pay for this? Most certainly, but on my own terms. Not by brute force. My revenge will be far more painful than just putting a bullet between his eyes.
“Why are you keeping her from Bryant Morelli?” Harrison asks. “I’m not following your logic.”
“There is no logic. I want to keep her. That’s it.”
“Too late.” Harrison stands right beside me and watches the commotion down below. “She’s a fucking Morelli and is going to have to deal with what that means. Poison blood or not, it flows in her veins.”
“I’m not going to let some scare tactics of Morelli force my hand to do something I don’t want to do,” I say, my fists clenching, my jaw tightening, and my anger growing.
“Then you’re going to end up a dead man. You know this.” Harrison points to the window. “He torched your boat rather than you out of respect for the friendship you’ve always had with the Morellis. But if you don’t hand over his daughter, he won’t be so generous the next time.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Lyriope
My entire life I’ve wanted nothing more than to be wanted by my real father. I’ve craved his attention, wanted to be acknowledged, brought into the fold of the Morellis, and accepted by all.
But not like this.
I don’t want to be the pawn in this game any longer.
I press my ear to the door, grateful that Nick left it slightly ajar when he walked out into the hallway with Harrison. I can’t believe all this commotion is over me.
Me.
There’s a burning boat all because of me.
I’ve never been wanted my entire life, and now I have people making threats and arson all over… me.
“You keep me around to give you advice, correct?” I hear Harrison ask on the other side of the door.
“And you’ve given me an earful,” Nick says.
“I get it. Turning over Lyriope will feel like you’re losing. Or that you’re weaker than the Morellis. I understand why you don’t want those optics out there.”
“I’ve never been afraid of Bryant Morelli.”
“No, but you’ve always respected him. You’ve respected the entire family as they have you. But you walked into a huge pile of shit when you decided to help that girl.”
“I’ll hand her over when I’m ready. Not because someone threatens me to do so. And if Morelli wants a war, then I’ll fucking give him one.” I can tell by the tone of Nick’s voice that he’s growing angrier by the minute.
“And risk everything you’ve spent your entire life building?”
My heart drops at the idea of Nick suffering due to me. Based on what he’s told me, he’s worked harder than anyone I know to get to where he is. I can’t have him throw it all away. If it wasn’t for me being so stubborn and full of pride in keeping myself secret from the Morellis, we wouldn’t be in this situation. He wouldn’t be in this situation.
I can see the red and orange of the fire reflect off the pane of glass, and wish I wasn’t the cause of it. I should have never turned to Nick for help. I should have never brought someone else into my mess.
This is my disaster. Not his.
There’s a long pause, and then Nick says, “I’m going to go get dressed. We need to get down there and help security before we’re flooded with authorities poking around. I want to keep this off the record.”
I quickly run back to the bed, crawl in, close my eyes, and try to even my breathing to appear that I’m still asleep. I hear Nick moving about the room quietly as he dresses and puts on shoes. He then walks over to the edge of the bed and pulls the blanket up higher over my shoulder as if he’s tucking me in for the night. I then hear footsteps to the door, it opening and closing, and I wait a few moments before getting out of the bed myself.
Being completely naked, I run down the hallway to my bedroom and dress as quickly as I can and find my new cell phone that Nick gave me.
Dialing the number, I know exactly what I must do.
“Sasha?” I say into the phone the minute my cousin picks up. “Is your offer of helping me still on the table?”
“Yes, of course,” she says. I hear her yawn. “What’s going on? It’s late.”
Listening to Harrison try to talk some sense into Nick made me realize that Nick’s stubborn pride could get him killed. And I’m not going to have him risk everything over me.
