Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 89772 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 449(@200wpm)___ 359(@250wpm)___ 299(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 89772 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 449(@200wpm)___ 359(@250wpm)___ 299(@300wpm)
I failed to protect her.
I was supposed to protect her at all costs.
It wasn’t until he informed me, “I’m sorry, Cruz. She’s been taken.”
That I felt like I died.
And the Devil inside of me…
Was born.
Chapter 7
—Cruz—
I once read that our minds are our most powerful tools, capable of just about anything. Especially when it involved trauma. The truth hid within itself.
What did you do, Cruz? What did you fucking do?
My eyes closed on their own, as I slid down what felt like a wall. Slowly, crumbling to the cold, hard ground beneath me.
I couldn’t move.
I couldn’t breathe.
I couldn’t utter a sound.
Not one word.
All I could do was feel…
I was there, but I wasn’t. Time stood still while the whole world continued on without me. I willingly surrendered, allowing one of the last memories I had of my sister to play out in front of me. As if it was happening right then and there.
“Cruz,” Adriana exclaimed. “Must you always babysit me everywhere we go?”
“It’s my job to protect you.”
“Then whose job is it to protect you?”
“I don’t need any protection.”
“That’s where you’re wrong, brother. You need protecting more than anyone else. The devil doesn’t come to you as a demon. The fiend presents itself to you as everything you ever wanted. So tell me, Cruz? What is it you want?”
“For you to be safe.”
“Interesting.” She smiled in that carefree, jaded sort of way I had grown accustomed to. “Considering that’s all I’ve ever wanted for you.”
“Ari, how many times do I have to tell you, I’ll protect you with my last breath if I have to.”
“Yeah, I know. Trust me, it’s my worst nightmare. You dying to save me.”
“Ari—”
“Don’t, Cruz. Don’t make promises you can’t keep.”
“I don’t know what you want me to say. There is no right or wrong answer.”
“I know in my heart that’s not true. I want freedom. It’s not fair that I’m almost twenty-three-years-old and I’ve never been in love. I want what our parents have. Don’t you?”
“I’ve never given it any thought.”
“That makes me sad for you. You know the life we’ve led isn’t normal, Cruz. We’ve known it all our lives. We just pretend like our father isn’t a man most people fear. I know the truth, and it’s not that he was… is… El Diablo. It’s that you want to be just like him.”
“And why is that so bad, Adriana?”
“Because you’ll lose yourself in the process, and I can’t stand by and not do something about it.”
“Is that a threat, Ari?”
“No.” She shook her head and peered deep into my eyes. “It’s a promise.”
I shook my head, silently praying this was just another nightmare I’d soon wake up from.
One step.
Five steps.
Fifteen steps.
Twenty.
Was I walking?
Was I running?
Where was I going?
I blinked, and I was suddenly walking down a hallway, hearing faint voices in the distance. Failing miserably at maintaining a steady pace.
Cloudy.
Disoriented.
Confused as fuck.
One foot in front of the other, I swayed back and forth. Nothing calmed my nerves. The anxiety for what was to come, lived and breathed in my blood. It pumped in my veins, producing a deafening vibration throughout my body.
I couldn’t tell what was real, or what was fake. It all blended together, forming more facts, more deceits, more goddamn demons I didn’t know I had.
“I’m not here to ask you what to do. I’m here to tell you what needs to be done. I want all video surveillance from here to a thirty-mile radius. Now.”
Was that my father?
“You heard him,” another familiar voice demanded. “Go! Now!”
Was that Sienna’s father?
A handful of guards rushed out of the room I was a few feet away from. My confusion spiraled with each passing second, feeling as though I was walking through a dream within a dream. Desperately trying to navigate my footing through the dark space and voices surrounding me.
The closer I got, the louder they became.
“Show me the footage from the ballroom. I want to see my son. Where is Crucifixio?”
The weight of my name on his tongue sounded like a judge slamming his gavel, sentencing me to life in an unbearable hell. Reality slammed into me at full force, knocking all the truth into me, and making me dizzy but lucid all at once.
What did I do? What the fuck did I do?
My heart began beating its way up to my throat until there were no more steps to take, no more lies to believe, no more illusions to consume me. There was no escaping what I’d done.
As soon as I walked into what appeared to be Luciano’s office, I came face-to-face with the consequences of my actions. There would be no coming back from this, and I knew that from the second I stood behind my father. Who was closely scrutinizing the security surveillance in front of him.
His calm exterior belied the storm I knew was brewing deep inside of his soul.