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I’m here, but I’m not. Much like the day in the seamstress’s office, I’m floating somewhere just beyond recognition, my mind protecting me, dimming the hurt…fading it into nothing but background noise.
Multiple men run past me, but the only thing I can concentrate on is the loud ringing in my ears. The noise begins to sound like a song, one I recognize but is just out of my reach.
I killed my brother. My flesh and blood.
And it felt so damn good.
The moment I pulled the trigger, the flashbacks floated back to front and center in my mind. Gabriel’s fingers wrapped around one of his many knives, digging the blade into my palms. The way he dug his fingers into my hips as he pinned me down and wrapped a bag over my head until I passed out. His beatings… The way he’d use me as a punching bag whenever our father pointed out his flaws.
He’s taken and taken and taken from me—and for years.
And now he’s paid for it with his life.
My only complaint is that I didn’t have the guts to do it sooner.
Part of me wishes my other brother, Niccolò, were here. Maybe he could have talked some sense into Gabriel. Maybe this could’ve been avoided.
But would I take this back if I could?
Never.
“Stand down!” Dante screams at the men surrounding us from where he’s perched on the floor, blood oozing out from around my hands.
I’m trying and failing to keep this man alive. He’s lost so much blood. So, so, so much blood. His usual olive skin is ashen, a sheen of white cast on his handsome face, and his breaths are shallower with each passing second.
Someone rips me off him, and I scream before I even fully know what’s happening.
“Get the fuck off me! Get off me, you bastard!” I yell, kicking and flailing my arms as someone much bigger than I am grabs me around the waist and hauls me away from this man, who only mere minutes ago was inside me, giving me the best experience of my life. “Dante!” I scream, reaching for him as terror burrows into my bones.
I have no idea what’s happening, how my brother got to be here, what Dante has to do with what’s unfolded, but I know this much… I deserve to hear the truth from him.
“Get off!” I kick the asshole away from me as I scratch at the floor, clawing my way on my hands and knees back to Dante.
Just as I reach him, the man grabs me again. Is he one of his men or one of my brother’s men? I can’t even tell because everything is blurry, and the adrenaline pumping through me is causing all my thoughts to jumble.
“Shut the fuck up, bitch!” The man whose hands are digging into my arms screams at me, his deep voice shaking me.
Dante coldcocks the guy with his good arm just before his body goes limp, and men rush to surround him.
“Dante!” I scream again, needing him to wake up, needing him to tell me what the fuck is happening. “You don’t get to die!” I yell at him, my voice cracking. “You have explaining to do, you bastard!”
I scream, but it’s no use. His eyes have fallen shut, his wound is gushing, and his chiseled chest is covered in his blood.
“Call Gabriel Amato,” someone says as I’m picked up and carried out the door. “Hold her somewhere and tell him to come get his daughter before I do something I don’t want to do.” The voice is deep and husky, and he sounds older. “Now!” the man sternly yells at the person carrying me.
“You better pray to your God that Dante isn’t dead,” the man carrying me mutters into my ear. “Because if he is, no one is going to be able to save you. Rules and code be damned.”
His threat is the last thing I hear before I finally give in to the pain shooting across my chest, the heavy, thundering heartbeat galloping in my throat, my temples, my ears.
I close my eyes and will whatever God this man is mentioning to take me right now.
Because that would be a much easier sentence than what I know I’m about to face.
* * *
“You stupid, selfish, naïve little girl.” My father’s voice is the first thing I hear when I come to.
Unmistakable, a voice I’d know anywhere. Calm and warm, but with a bite that could gnaw at you even in your sweetest of dreams. That’s Gabriel Amato for you.
