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 jerked back, blown away. I was at a loss for words. Ever since I could remember, I wanted to hear his truths. Though it was a hard reality to swallow, I waited on a baited breath for him to continue.
“Your entire life I’ve prayed to the lord above you wouldn’t pay for my sins. All you had to do was stay with her, Cruz. Just fucking stay with her. Did you not think I had a reason for you to be her protector? Do you have any idea what you’ve done? How could you betray me?”
When I didn’t reply fast enough, he demanded, “Answer me! I want to know why you betrayed me?”
“I thought…” I shook my head, unable to explain myself correctly. I couldn’t think clearly with him still holding a fucking gun to my head. “I just…I thought…Luciano’s daughter was in danger. I couldn’t just ignore—”
“Danger? In a mansion filled to the brim with cameras?”
“It didn’t protect my sister.”
“You didn’t protect your sister. Let’s make that crystal fucking clear.”
“I know. And I have to live with that, but I promise you we’ll find her.”
“Your promises mean shit to me. The next time you start to think you are man enough to make decisions about what is best for my family, think again, that is if you ever find your way into earning my trust again, Crucifixio.” He roughly jammed his gun into my temple. “You wanted to know who I am, right? Well, here I am, son. Do you have any idea what I’ve done to people I can’t trust?”
I shut my eyes, I had to. The floor felt like it was crumbling beneath my body, and I began to fall. Deeper and deeper into the surface, faster and faster into the hole where I couldn’t breathe again. The impact of his truths tortured my soul.
“No, no, no, you look me in the eyes when I’m fucking talking to you.”
I did, despising The Devil staring back at me with an icy, calculated stare. He rammed his gun firmly into my temple, but I couldn’t feel anything other than my pounding heart. I sank further and further, closer to Hell.
The irony was not lost on me.
“You better pray we find her before they have the chance to harm one hair on her head, or I swear on my mother’s grave, Cruz.” He leaned forward, close to my face. “I will fucking end you.”
“Oh my God, Alejandro!”
My eyes snapped over to my mother’s voice near the doorway. She stood there with a petrified expression on her face as if this was her worst nightmare, unfolding right in front of her panic-ridden stare.
“What are you doing!” she shouted, standing frozen in shock. Paralyzed by fear. Not moving one fucking inch.
My father didn’t look at her, he simply cocked his gun.
“Alejandro, nooooo!” she screamed with everything inside of her.
It all happened so fast. I shut my eyes, preparing for the wrath of his vengeance.
Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned was my last thought, before I felt him move his gun from my forehead. My eyes shot open as he was swinging his arm behind his back.
The rest proceeded in slow motion.
BANG.
BANG.
My mother yelled, “Alejandro! No!” Right as another shot was fired.
BANG.
He blasted the last of his three security guards who were supposed to be protecting Adriana right between the eyes. Blowing their brains out the back of his head, splattering the floor and the walls.
No one moved.
No one breathed.
Including me.
The guards body collapsed to the floor with a loud, hard thud. My father didn’t even bother to turn around to see what he’d done. He killed his men point-blank, executing them, ending their lives without any hesitation whatsoever.
No warning.
No remorse.
No shame.
Silence.
The smell of burnt flesh lingered in the air, a scent that would forever haunt me. Witnessing someone get murdered for the first time was a memory I’d take to my grave. It was now a part of me, whether I wanted it to be or not.
Seared into my senses.
Ingrained into my body.
Branded into my soul.
“Oh my God, Alejandro…what have you done?” my mother exclaimed, her voice laced with nothing but distress.
He didn’t answer her. Instead he simply stood, hovering above me with an expression of pure disdain. It reeked off of him.
“I say what I mean, and I mean what I say, Cruz. We better find your sister alive and unharmed, or it will be your blood on my hands.”
I nodded, knowing he meant it. Loud and fucking clear.
Kill or be killed.
Fear or be feared.
Angel or demon.
I learned that night that it all went together.
Like heaven and hell.
Chapter 9
—Cruz—
“What have you done, Alejandro?”
“I took care of business, Lexi. That’s what I did.”
She frantically shook her head, staring back and forth from the bodies to him.
“Don’t look at them,” he ordered, making his way over to her. “Look at me.”