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Looking around, I realize a new club is joining them.
My eyes pause when they land on Sienna sitting next to herhusband. I have to step closer to make sure. I killed the fucker, hadn’t I? I try thinking back to that night and I can’t remember if I checked for a pulse. It normally doesn’t matter because I burn everyone, but I left him as a warning to those who dare to touch what’s mine.
My heart stills seeing Sienna with a fake smile plastered on her face. This is all I wanted. I got my look, I can go, but my feet refuse to listen to reason. They stay firmly in place. It takes an hour before my muscles allow me to tear them away from this place.
“Wherehaveyoubeen?”Romeo tosses a paper in front of me. “Listen, I know you’re going through something right now, but you have to stop.”
“Stop what?”
“The butchering. Damn it, Maximus. I thought you were trying to slow down.”
I scratch at my ear, the smell of fresh meat from the store wafting all around me. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
My brother levels me with the same look our father used to give us, his eyes going from me to the paper. I pick it up and read the headlines.
My jaw locks, my molars grinding against each other. “This isn’t me,” I spit out, annoyed that my brother would even question me.
“It has all of your call signs,” he bites, frustration coloring his face.
“From twenty years ago. I burn everyone now.”
He scoffs, giving me an exaggerated pointed glare. “No, you burn the ones you don’t want anyone to find. This is still what you do when you are cocky enough to leave a message.”
“It’s a copycat. The cop held me for twenty-four hours and he knew I wasn’t Dante.”
“You’re getting out of control. Dante said you’ve grown obsessed with his bartender, Sienna.”Out of control?The condescension rolling off my brother’s gaze tells me he thinksI’mthe problem. To piss him off as much as he’s infuriating me, I lean back, giving him a nice, sweet smile.
“He’s just pissed that she left and he had to go get a new bartender.”
“Max, don’t you see how sloppy you have become? Leave that poor girl alone.”
“Sienna is mine,” I growl, baring my teeth like a rabid dog. A knot forms in my throat, braiding its way down until it twists at my heart.
“But are you hers, Max?” He waits a few beats. The silence causes me to breathe harder. “Keep this crazy up and we’re going to have the cops sniffing around. We can’t afford the heat right now.” Our father’s voice comes out of him and it’s like I’m twelve years old again.
I walk out, my shoulder hitting the doorway. My head spins, my breathing forced yet little comes in and out. My hand slams into the entrance door, its glass cracking at the force before I’m out in the fresh air. The butcher smell is lodged in my nose, refusing to let me breathe anything else in.
“You’re a worthless heir. You can’t even help feed your family. This meat is worthless. I can’t sell it. We can’t eat it.”
My father grabs the back of my neck, drawing me to the saw we used to butcher the meat. My face is an inch away and he still pushes harder. I close my eyes, feeling my head go closer, the wind from the table on my forehead. I draw in a breath, unwilling to breathe or move until the force is gone. I almost fall into the saw at the absence of his grip, but my hands catch me and I fall down to the floor.
“You’re pathetic, boy, a waste of an heir.”
My hand touches my eyebrow and red coats my fingertips.
I push the memory out, trying to remember the last equation I was working on.
Slowly, I’m able to breathe properly.
Chapter 29: Sienna
Sincebeingescortedbackto my father’s club, I’ve been banished to my new room. Someone stands guard at my door at all times and I’ve hardly seen my husband.Something is off.
My door opens and a guard walks in. “Your husband has requested your presence.”
I walk toward the room I’ve been summoned to. It’s the shitty conference room where they hold church.
“We’re throwing a party tonight,” my father tells me once I’m seated. Jack beams at me with a creepy smile.
