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Prologue
Cedric
Three Months Ago . . .
“Tell me,” I demand, slamming my fist into the bastard’s face—I’m beyond pissed. Why men like this feel the need to beat up on women is beyond me.
Mara-Lee went out to run an errand only to come back and call me outside, because of these men I’ve brought down to the basement. They were standing over a beaten woman.
Stepping fully into the massive basement, I’m met with the sight of four men. Three of them are bound to the wall farthest away from the middle, while the fourth man is strung up by a meat hook. Halton is standing off to the side, struggling to keep his temper in check from the looks of it.
“Started the party without me?” Finley asks, making her presence known.
“Just getting the party started, boss,” I grunt, keeping my eyes on the fucker in front of me.
“Step back, Cedric. While you’re at it, tell me who these fuckers are and why they beat the fuck out of that girl,” Finley commands. If she were any other woman, I’d tell her to fuck off, but I value my life. She’s not just my best friend, but my boss, and she’s not one for bullshit.
“These men brutalized her,” I say, finally turning to meet Finley’s gaze. A fury like no other flows through my veins. Seeing that girl beaten the way she was brought back memories of my little sister. Though she might not have been beaten, she was killed because of men like the one in front of me. “They haven’t said why they did it. Only that their boss was leaving a gift for us. For me in general.”
Finley’s brows crease, and she glances over to the men. “Why would they want to send you a message?” she asks.
When it comes to my past, she knows everything about me and the family that I come from.
The Gheata Family.
Thanks to my father not being able to keep it in his pants, he had made my mother his mistress and he visited when he felt like it. They ended up having me, and then two years later, dear ol’ Dad’s wife fell pregnant, giving him another son, my half-brother, Cesare. Under his wife’s demand, he cast my mother and me aside when she promised to give him more children. But yet, he still expected me to become part of the family business once I became old enough to work for him. This is something I refused to do. I’m not about to work for them. He didn’t want me and he shamed my mother in the eyes of her own family. I had decided to make a statement by going against him, one that’s worked well over the years. By these men being here, it shows my father’s not pleased with his eldest son. He simply needs to accept the fact I won’t bend to his will like my half-siblings.
“Cedric,” Finley quips.
“I know,” I snarl. “Fuckers are working for my father. What I want to know is who the woman is?”
The man strung up by the hook sneers. “You should know who she is.”
Taking a step forward, I glide my knife across the asshole’s stomach. Not deep enough to gut him, but enough to cause him immense pain. The man struggles to keep his composure. Having grown up with the same training these men probably went through, I’m working my way to getting them to break.
“Tell me,” I snarl.
“You tell him, or I step in,” Finley snaps, stepping closer.
“What the fuck can you do? You’re nothing but a whore running a whorehouse,” the asshole grinds out through clenched teeth.
Dumbass just fucked up by saying that shit. Finley eyes the knife in my hand and holds out her hand. “We want answers, and I’m not going to wait for them.”
Nodding, I flip the knife in my hand, giving her the handle. Finley turns to the asshole who’s smirking at us. Finley steps around the man I’ve been working on and looks to the others. She stops in front of one and presses the tip of the blade to the man’s throat.
“Go to hell, whore,” he spits brazenly.
“Wrong answer.” Finley grins, pulls the blade away from the man’s throat and shoves it straight into his stomach. “Now, answer me. Who is the girl?”
“Fuck you,” he grinds out, but I sense he’s going to cave.
Finley yanks the blade from his stomach and slams it in once again to the hilt, closer to his sternum.
“Tell me, and I might kill you faster,” Finley commands. She’s not holding back at this point, and I’m sure she saw the girl’s beaten body.
“He doesn’t know shit,” the man chained next to the one Finley’s working on yells.
That doesn’t stop the one Finley’s stuck the knife in from blathering, “She was supposed to marry Cedric. Their marriage was planned from the day Cedric was born. Bastards alike but connect families.”
