Total pages in book: 100
Estimated words: 96742 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 484(@200wpm)___ 387(@250wpm)___ 322(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96742 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 484(@200wpm)___ 387(@250wpm)___ 322(@300wpm)
Justice must be done.
“Sophia Kazan. Anissa Kazan. You are traitors to your family.” My voice breaks the tense silence as I stare at the women on their knees.
My family.
Dead to me now.
“Not guilty,” Anissa says primly.
“This isn’t a fucking trial,” I say, my voice a growl. “This is a dictatorship. I am the lord in this room, and my will is the word of god as far as you’re concerned. Aunt Anissa, I have tolerated your disobedience for long enough. You’ve done nothing but conspire with the captains behind my back—”
“I have done nothing but work for my family,” Anissa says.
I nod to Alonzo. He kicks her hard between the shoulder blades, knocking her face-first onto the floor.
“Speak again and I’ll have him stand on the back of your skull,” I say.
Aunt Anissa groans as she struggles to right herself. Alonzo drags her up by her hair, but I wave him off before he can do more.
“There’s no need to be cruel, Evander,” Mother says softly from my elbow. “They know what they did.”
“Maybe they do, but my captains need to hear it.” I stare at her. “Do you deny that Sophia tried to murder my wife?”
“I don’t,” Mother says.
“Do you deny that Anissa and Sophia worked with Zale to have Camille kidnaped and sent back to the Italians?”
“I don’t,” Mother says. “I know it was them.”
“Then be silent.” I work my jaw, not happy about talking to my mother like that, but I can’t accept anyone undermining me right now. This is too important. I turn back to Anissa and Sophia, and both women are staring at me with fear in their eyes. I come around the desk, pausing only to kiss Camille on the forehead. She smiles at me, pain in her expression.
I stand in front of my cousin and my aunt.
“I know you both hate me,” I say, looking from one to the other. Anissa shows nothing, though a thin trickle of blood rolls down from her nose. Sophia, however, stares death at me, like a caged, rabid fox. “You both have good reason. I killed the former lord of this family, your husband and father, for murdering my father. I killed his son and heir, your child and your brother, when he tried to stop me. I did what I felt was necessary and right, but I understand why you both still hold that against me. That is the only reason you have both been tolerated for this long.”
“I don’t need a murderer to tolerate me,” Sophia hisses.
I hold up a hand to keep Lycus from silencing her. “You have been my punishment,” I say softly, staring at the pathetic rage flowing from Sophia like a river. I hate my cousin, my half-sister, as much as she hates me. But she’s a pathetic creature, twisted by grief and revenge. “I killed my uncle. I killed my lord and his son. Though I did it for good reasons, I still felt as though I owed the world something. You two were that something. You two were the price I paid to remember the terrible things that I did.”
“That’s a shame,” Anissa says. “If you felt so bad, you could’ve just killed yourself and saved us all the trouble.”
I let out a long breath and look from face to face. The captains watch me with rapt attention. Mother seems distraught, but she’s doing a good job holding it back. Camille looks exhausted and sick.
This nightmare is never going to end.
Violence only brings more violence.
I kill, and I kill, and there are always more people that want to hurt those I care about.
Death isn’t an answer. It’s only an invitation for more death.
“The pair of you are banished to our home on the Upper Peninsula.” My mother’s shocked gasp is the only sound. “You will both be confined there for the rest of your lives. If I hear either of you have left the grounds, you will both die. You will both be stripped of the Kazan name. You will receive a paltry stipend to afford food. There will be no internet. There will be no phones. You will exist in limbo until your final days, and may God have mercy on your souls.”
“I don’t need mercy,” Sophia hisses and spits on my carpet. “I need your blood. I need your wife lying dead at my feet. I need—”
Lycus slams his gun into the back of her head. She grunts and topples forward, not quite knocked out, but stunned.
I nod at my men. Lycus lifts groaning Sophia, and Alonzo pulls Anissa to her feet. My aunt stares at me with an expression caught between surprise and hate but I turn my back on them and walk over to my mother.
Tears roll down her face. I take her hands in mine and hold them tightly as Anissa and Sophia are led from the room. The remaining captains are staring, not speaking. I don’t know what they’re thinking. A betrayal like what Sophia did normally that would end in an execution. I’m guessing they don’t know what to think.