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“You fucking asshole.”
I snatch my gun and point it at him.
“You had your chance. Now it’s time to pay the consequences.”
I squeeze the trigger, and the bullet rips through his forehead. His head flies back, blood and brain matter splattering the wall behind him. I stare at his lifeless body, feeling nothing but boredom.
Rule number one: never show how desperate you are by coming into enemy territory willingly. He was weak; I am not.
“Send someone to clean up in here. We’re going to be away for a while.”
My enemies will say I’ve lost my mind, my friends will say I am eager to go on a killing spree. I just want to get that damn crown already.
It’s done, I text Kieran and Cameron.
Having to move quickly, I take my brother, cousin, and fifteen of my best men with me.
I need just them. Cocky, sure, but I have the skill and the team to come out as the victor. Strength is in unity, and that is something New Jersey lacks.
In black-tinted Escalades, we speed toward my new kingdom.
Let this be a lesson to all other families. When you come for us, we’ll take everything from you.
Chapter 7
When the door to my bedroom opens and my father steps inside, trepidation kicks my pulse into my ears. I place my phone on the nightstand and stand up. My insides might tremble in fear, but on the outside, I am a mask of strength.
He sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose. “What am I going to do with you, Chiara?”
My eyebrows draw together. I was so deep in my mind, going through various punishment scenarios, I failed to catch the tiredness transforming his features.
“Come with me.”
The dreadful feeling that I am walking to my execution blares at the forefront of my mind. I follow him, my hand gripping the gold and black railing. Works of art decorate the walls as I take the stairs down. We pass some guards in the hallway. He continues on toward the basement, descending the stairs. This is bad. I swallow the lump tightening my throat, forcing my legs not to give out on me.
The door opens with his retina and fingertip scan, and a soundproof, steel chamber awaits. Memories rush back to me. He forbade us from coming in here when we were little, but I was curious. One night, I followed him and hid behind a counter. I saw my father kill two men. I screamed so loud, squeezing my eyes shut and covering my ears when he yanked me by my elbow, dragging my trembling body up. I remember that even with terror gripping me and realizing what my father is, I wanted him to comfort me. Yet he couldn’t even look at me. That night it was the first time he slapped me for disobeying him. And our relationship was never the same.
His breaths boom around with an echo, or perhaps all the souls he has taken amplify his voice with their whispers of despair.
He steps inside the sterile room and looks around.
“I’ve killed over fifty men in this room alone.”
A chill runs through me at his words but also because it’s cold in here.
“I enjoyed every one of their screams, their pleas, watching the life draining from their bodies, knowing it was at my hands. It’s both powerful and humbling.”
I drop on my knees, the air whooshing out of me. “You’re a monster.”
“I am, Chiara, and you have to come to accept that this is your life.”
I shake my head. “Never.”
“I sheltered your mother. Cato doesn’t strike me as a man who’d do that, and I’d rather be the one to rip your heart apart than the man you have to spend your life with.”
“Stop.”
“I made my first kill when I was fifteen.”
