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CHAPTER SEVEN
DAMON
Noonespeaksfora full five minutes as we speed back to the Valachi mansion. Shock still ricochets through each of us, keeping us quiet. Lulu is the one to break the silence, shouting at me.
“Stop the car!”
I slam on the brakes. What the hell is wrong? Was she shot? Did I miss something?
Dear God, no.I mumble to myself as I pull to the curb. Please be okay…
She unbuckles her belt. “I need to be with Vivi,” she explains as she jumps out and gets into the back. Vivi hasn’t stopped crying, and Angel is doing nothing to comfort his sister. His focus is on his leg. He had better not bleed out before I can kill him.
Once Lulu is resettled in the back of the SUV, squatting in the floorboard because there’s no space to sit, I pull back out onto the road. I watch as she takes Vivi’s cheeks in her palms, whispering something fiercely to her. Whatever she says, it makes Vivi settle back into the seat and work on curbing her tears.
Lulu turns to Angel next, who’s stretched as much as he can be across the back seat.
“Where is it, Angel?” she asks. He gestures with a limp hand to his thigh, and she begins probing with delicate fingers at the site.
“How bad is it,bella?” I ask.
Her worried gaze meets mine in the rearview mirror. “I think it’s just a heavy graze, but it’s hard to tell.”
“Hurts like fucking hell,” Angel says. His voice wobbles, and I wonder if it’s the first time he’s been shot.
Lulu uses Angel’s belt to tourniquet the wound and then squeezes in beside her sister on the seat, pushing her closer to their brother. He hisses as they jar his leg, but he doesn’t say anything else. I divide my gaze between the road before me and Lulu in the rearview mirror. Her skin is flushed, and she fidgets with her hands. Her gaze darts out the various windows like she’s looking for a threat.
“You’re safe,” I inform her.
Her gaze snaps to mine. The pulse of fear flickers in her neck. I keep eye contact as long as I can before I have to revert my attention to the road. I tighten my hands on the steering wheel, my knuckles turning white.
Vivi starts to cry again and is shushed by Lulu. I risk another peek to see Lulu embrace her sister, giving her comfort by stroking her hair. I can’t bring myself to look at Angel again. He’s some bastard for putting them in danger like that. I already hated him, but this brought his worth to a new low in my books.
“We’re nearly there,” I say out loud. I’m not sure what I’m trying to calm, my raging need for bloodshed or Vivi’s constant, soft weeping.
The wrought iron gates to the mansion come into view, and I slow the vehicle down. The gates seem slower today, and I’m tempted to rev the engine in warning for them to move faster. Instead, I exercise the control my father instilled in me.
The gates finally grant me enough access to the driveway, and I press down on the accelerator, yanking pebbles from their slumber as I tear up the drive. The moment I’m at the door, I’m out of the vehicle. I should get the girls inside, but my control is slipping as I round the car to Angel’s door.
He’s cowering in the backseat. The air rushes in and stirs Lulu’s long locks, sending some strands across her flushed cheeks. Through her hair, I see the terror still lurking like a bad dream in her eyes.
Unacceptable.
Reaching in, I grip Angel by the scruff of the neck and drag him from the car. His feet don’t quite land, and I’m dragging him toward the mansion. He manages to right his footing and is hobbling with his injured leg by the time Lulu busts from the car.
“Damon, what are you doing?” Her panic has her running until she’s in front of me. She pushes long tendrils out of her face and straightens to her full height. “Let him go! He’s been shot!”
“Not now,bella.” I don’t have the patience for this. Angel will answer to his father for putting Vivi and Lulu in danger, and if Lorenzo doesn’t take care of matters, I will. This won’t happen again.
“Let me go.” Angel’s protest is weak, like a man who knows he’s rightly fucked.
I tighten my hold on his neck and shake him, hoping he can feel the anger I’m withholding for Lulu’s sake. No one else’s.
“Move,bella,” I say, as Lulu stays rooted to the spot in front of me. I could walk around her, but I’m giving her a chance. “I won’t harm him. But he has to answer to your father.”
I want to beat him within an inch of his life, but I will refrain from exercising my true wants.
“Lulu!” Vivi bursts from the car, released from her state of shock. She rushes past me and slams her shaking frame into Lulu’s arms.
