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It had been three months since I’d left the coffee shop and Emma behind. Three months since I’d heard her voice. Inhaled her scent. Touched her light.
And each day, the tension grew. The need to see her was overwhelming. A dozen times, I’d made it halfway to her before turning around. But it wasn’t the only chaos around me. The war with the Vancinis had reached new heights.
My sister had ended up in the hospital the last day I’d been with Emma. But when I tried to rescue her from her husband’s clutches, she’d revealed something I’d never seen coming. A betrayal that ran so deep it shifted my entire world. A rumor that couldn’t possibly be true.
And not only that, but she wasn’t coming home. She’d fallen in love with her husband, our enemy’s son. She’d chosen him over her family. But if the rumors were true, then I didn’t blame her.
It was those rumors that brought me here. Standing in my uncle’s office, waiting to hear the truth. The door behind me burst open. My uncle blew into the room with rage and authority.
“What’s going on?” I grunted as soon as he took a seat behind his desk.
His eyes narrowed as I continued to stand. It was considered disrespectful to stand over the boss and even worse, not to kiss his ring in greeting. But I didn’t have a lot of respect for my uncle right now.
“We’re moving forward with an attack on Leif.” He relaxed back in his seat. “I’ve got information that he’ll be on the boardwalk tonight. Underprepared and vulnerable.”
“What information? From who?” I tapped the bat anxiously against the ground as I waited, but he didn’t answer. “What about Mila? Will she be there?”
“No.” The exhale shuddered from my chest, but my relief came too quickly. “We’ll have to deal with her later.”
“Deal with her?” My jaw clenched as he stared at me impassively like we were talking about any other person instead of the girl he’d raised beside me. “She’s family.”
“She no longer has our last name.” I saw it then. The gleam in his eyes. The truth I’d been hiding from for years. Especially these last few when he’d started this war for seemingly no reason. He was a monster.
“So it’s true.” I rested the bat against his desk as I stepped forward. Not because I was putting my weapon away but to make it easier to grab my gun. That was the only chance I had if it was true. “You tried to kill Mila?”
His eyes were cold black pits as he stared at me. Completely devoid of emotion. Soulless.
My guts twisted painfully as he gave a single nod. Guilt clawed at my chest. I should’ve been there that morning. The day she’d come to tell us she couldn’t kill Leif. But I wasn’t, and he’d beaten her almost to death. I’d been too busy finger fucking Emma in a coffee shop to protect my sister.
I stared at him, giving no visible sign of the turmoil inside. I was stoic, just like he trained me to be. I completely detached myself from my emotions. Cut away any good or soft feelings so I could ask the next question. Confirm the rumors Mila had told me.
“And my parents?” My voice didn’t waver, but he did.
A tiny flinch near his eyes. I saw it because he’d taught me to. Because my father hadn’t been there to teach me himself. Because the man I was staring at, my uncle, had killed him.
“I did what was necessary.” He growled as he stood from his desk. I stayed still as his hand slapped the wood, spit flying from his mouth as he tried to reason away his betrayal. “He was weak. We were never going to rise under his rule. We would always be second to the Vancinis.”
Bile rose in my throat. My whole world tilted on its axis. Everything I’d known to be true slid until it shattered on the floor.
My uncle had stolen my father’s legacy. Taken his life and his position for what? Money. Power. Greed.
Mila had discovered the truth of what my uncle had done. For years we’d thought it had been the Vancinis who killed my parents, but it was only part of the truth. My uncle had struck a deal, paying Leonardo to do what he couldn’t kill his own brother to gain a little more status. It made me question everything I’d ever known. Every person who claimed loyalty.
His shoulder smacked mine as he shoved past me. “Where are you going?”
My voice sounded like steel. Like a knife ready to cut through bone. It was the only sign of my rage. I wasn’t stupid enough to let anything else out. Not if I wanted to leave this room alive.
“To do what needs to be done.” He sneered. “To kill them all.”
“What about Mila?” My heart smacked my ribs as he rounded on me, knife in hand.
He gripped my neck, shoving it against my carotid artery before I could even blink. He might be old, but he was ruthless. I no longer doubted he’d kill me.
“She made her choice.” He scraped the stubble off my jaw with the blade as he spoke in a low lethal tone. “Now you have to decide. Are you your father’s son or the man I raised you to be?”
He made it sound nicer than it was. But what it came down to was power over family. Money over blood. What was important to me? What would my legacy be?
Would I choose my sister over the Gallo name? My twin over all the men we were in charge of?
