Total pages in book: 161
Estimated words: 151410 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 757(@200wpm)___ 606(@250wpm)___ 505(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 151410 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 757(@200wpm)___ 606(@250wpm)___ 505(@300wpm)
Steps rang out, and the first officer came rushing into the corridor.
I kicked the door to my cell shut with a high kick and the lock clicked in place. Two more officers came rushing in. The first fumbled with his keys as I grabbed Bernie once more and wrapped the taser wire around his throat. I pulled it tight, but after a few seconds of gasping from Bernie, the wire tore apart again. “Shame,” I drawled. He spluttered and clawed at my hands.
I smiled at him and smashed my forehead against his nose, causing blood to surge out of his nostrils. He cried hoarsely.
Guns pointed my way, and one nervous finger pulled the trigger. I used Bernie as a shield, and the bullet hit him in the thigh. He screamed again.
“That was close to his artery.” I tsked. “If you want to kill Bernie, you’ll have to give this another try.”
Finally, the door to my cell opened, and another officer staggered in. I shoved poor Bernie toward him. They collided, and I jumped at them with another kick, sending them both flying to the floor. I landed beside them, and within a flash, I held their guns and pointed them at their heads. The prison was filled with more and more officers, and all of them worried that my trigger finger was better than theirs—for good reason. I bared my teeth at the officers at my feet. “Next time, you better listen to your colleagues, Bernie.”
“Enough,” someone roared.
I froze when Dad, Nino, and Savio walked in. The police officers parted. “Down with all of the guns,” Dad ordered.
The police officers didn’t hesitate, and I followed suit.
Slowly, I straightened and tossed the guns away.
“He comes with me. Don’t mess with my family.”
Neither Dad nor my uncles said a word when they led me to their car. I suddenly felt exhausted. I leaned my head against the window and must have dozed off because when I looked around again, I was in a bare-walled room without windows. Nino leaned against the wall across from me, straight in my line of vision. He regarded me from head to toe without a word. His expression was blank, and sometimes even I got goose bumps because of my uncle. “You are lacking control,” he drawled.
“He’s lacking more than that,” Savio muttered who appeared at Nino’s side. “Empathy, restraint, reason. The only thing he’s got an abundance of is craziness.”
I flashed him a grin. He shook his head, for once not in the mood for jokes.
“I’ll talk to him alone,” Dad said in a low voice. My eyes sought him. He leaned against the wall to my right.
Nino touched Dad’s shoulder, and they exchanged a look that reminded me of Massimo and Alessio. Something passed between them that I wasn’t supposed to be privy to.
“Get a grip, man,” Savio muttered as he came toward me, his fingers digging into my shoulder, his eyes imploring.
I bared my teeth. “You never saw me lose control.”
“That’s what we fear,” Nino said. He searched my eyes, then he only nodded and walked out with Savio.
I glanced around, realizing where we were. This was where enemies and traitors were taken to be tortured and killed.
I cocked an eyebrow at Dad. “Do you really think you can?” It was meant as a provocation and a joke.
Dad stared into my eyes, and my grin died. I chuckled, then nodded. He stalked toward me and gripped my face, resting our foreheads against each other, his eyes burning into mine. Sometimes I saw the same insanity and hunger for destruction in them that always burned inside me. “I love you more than my life. But sometimes I think you are punishment for my sins, a way to throw my own faults back at me. I never knew what Nino had to put up with until you came into my life.”
I wasn’t hurt by his words. Very few things in my life hurt me, physically or emotionally. They were true. “Greta got everything good Mom and you got to give, and I inherited all the bad. It’s the way it is. That’s yin and yang for you.”
“It’s not funny,” he roared.
“No, it’s my life,” I growled. “It’s who I am, Dad. You, unlike the others, never asked me to change or to control myself. You only asked me to channel it.”
“Because I know you can’t control it.”
I smiled bitterly.
Dad dragged a chair across the room and sat down across from me, regarding me like a rabid dog that his owner couldn’t put down even though he knew the monster would kill again. “Las Vegas is under my control. The West Coast is. But at some point, even my control won’t be enough. Even the strongest empire can fall if the king doesn’t make sure his subjects feel safe.” His voice shook with restraint. He wanted to kill me, and he knew he should.