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That’s what you got when your famiglia wanted to ensure your loyalty.
Jesus fucking Christ.
Bile rose up my throat. I hadn’t allowed myself to think about that day in a long, long time.
I’d shot him, right there on the cliffs, and watched him plummet into the sea.
And all I got for taking a life was a tap on the shoulder from my dad, a proud nod from my uncles, and a sick grin from the uncle who chose the “traitor.”
I’d held it together until all of them had left.
And then I’d puked my guts out and cried until I’d almost passed out.
When Hawk found me—his weapon drawn—I was a sobbing heap on the ground.
He’d taken one look at me and asked me if I wanted out. We never talked about what happened, though I knew he knew what I’d just done.
Instead, he took me to his house—a fort more like it—then flew me out of Aruba and to America. He gave me a place on his team and a new life. And somehow, he convinced my family to let me go.
I owed him my life.
Owed him everything.
To this day.
“What has my family got to do with this?” I pointed at the hangar.
Hawk shuffled one foot. Then looked down on the ground, then back at the airplane which was taxiing toward us.
Not good.
“Who are these men; why are they meeting? And why am I here?”
“You’re the rightful heir of the Falcone family.”
I narrowed my brows and stared Hawk down. I hated when he didn’t answer my questions. “Don’t forget a traitor who turned his back on his family when he couldn’t hack it.”
“That was a long time ago.”
“My father would’ve disagreed.”
“So?” Hawk shrugged. “You’re not that boy anymore. You would need to be ruthless, brutal, and lethal to take back what’s rightfully yours.” Hawk grinned. “So basically, just be yourself, and you’re golden.”
I shook my head. I never thought I would hear those words from Hawk. He’d been my moral compass, my mentor. He never compromised his values, not for money, not for power. He was the complete opposite of what I’d been groomed to be for the first eighteen years of my life. “And kill a lot of people fighting my way back in.”
Hawk shrugged. “Probably.”
“You saved me from that life.”
He pulled his brows in and looked down. “Did I? Maybe you just needed to grow up some more, and now, it’s time.”
“Time?”
“Time to step up for your family. Time to stop running.”
The last thirteen years hadn’t felt like running at all.
The shame after breaking down after my first kill, when all I ever wanted was my father’s approval and all I was groomed for was stepping into his footsteps, had been my constant companion. But I hadn’t been running.
