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)
Our eyes stayed connected for several seconds. Fuck, it could have been hours. Time just sort of stood still. It wasn’t until my eyes lifted to the man holding them hostage with a gun in each hand, pointed at their heads.
I didn’t think twice about it.
I fell to my knees in front of him and begged for their lives, “Please.”
Tears escaped my eyes, there was no hiding them. I’d never felt devastation quite like this. It was ripping me apart, crushing my bones, tearing me to shreds.
One by one.
I was a pile of ash.
“Please,” I pleaded, unashamed. Willing to give him anything he asked for.
My life for theirs.
I thought I knew it all, seen it all, experienced it all.
I was wrong.
So. Very. Wrong.
The man seethed, “I brought you back to your house, to your home, motherfucker!” Solely glaring at my father who had nothing but shame and regret written across his face.
“This is where it all started. In this room. In this place. I was the good guy! The hero! Trying to warn her! I knew who and what you were! The fucking devil! I was right! All the women around you die! They all die! It’s a curse! You’re evil! No one deserves to live by your side, you piece of shit! But you couldn’t lose! You had to win! Sofia! Amari! Daisy! You destroyed them all! You killed your sister! How’s it feel to be in her room? Can you sense her? Feel her! Breathe her in? Tell me, motherfucker! Because I haven’t stopped thinking about her, feeling her in my heart, in my soul, since you took her from me! She was mine!”
Nothing I’d faced…
I’d done,
Come to terms with…
…Could have prepared me for what he shouted next. “She was my wife! My fucking wife! I loved her! And you killed her!”
“Michael—”
“Fuck you and your bullshit! I didn’t die, motherfucker! And I’ve been waiting! Oh God, have I been waiting! To find the right time to finally make you pay for what you did to me! Do you understand? Are you hearing me? It was never about you! Ever! You never gave a shit if you lived or you died until my baby girl, Lexi! I couldn’t kill my own flesh and blood! I’m not a monster like you! So I waited until I could take something from you that would truly destroy you!” His fury directed toward me.
“My revenge is through you. I wanted you. The spawn of Satan! And now you’re going to have to choose. Who lives and who dies?”
In the end, he didn’t have to kill me.
His words did when he roared…
“Your sister! Or your wife?”
Chapter 42
—Cruz—
“Oh…this is good,” Vitale celebrated, walking into the bedroom.
The vibration of his hands clapping together boomed off the old walls that held more memories of a young girl’s past.
“This is the best shit I’ve seen all year. Honestly, this is award-winning shit right here. Let’s roll out the red carpet. It just keeps getting better and better. I didn’t know all of this. You—” he pointed his gun at Michael “—have been keeping secrets. I thought we were partners? Fucking teammates? You see…” He waved his Glock all around, completely unstable. “This is why I have trust issues. Nothing is sacred anymore. Nothing!”
“Shut the fuck up,” Michael barked. “I gave you the girl. You had your fun. Now…it’s my turn.”
Vitale’s eyes connected with Ari’s. “Does this mean I get to keep her?”
“Over my dead fucking body,” Papá spewed.
His beady eyes shifted toward him. “I can arrange that.”
“Vitale!” Michael yelled. “This is between him and me. You’re not needed here anymore. You can go.”
“Huh. Imagine that. Here I thought this was a lifelong commitment.” He eyed Ari again, looking at her with a predatory regard. “You want me here, don’t you, baby?”
In less than a second, her gaze shot from his to mine, then landing on our fathers.
“Adriana’s been through enough,” Sienna spoke up with a strong, demanding voice. “She doesn’t need to answer anyone. Especially you.”
Vitale grinned at my wife with an ominous stare. She didn’t back down, holding her head high in a challenging defiance.
“You really are something else,” he rasped, taking her in.
It was too much, every second of this bullshit. I exploded.
It was loud.
Harsh.
Boom!
I charged him, ramming my shoulder as hard as I could into the man I fucking despised. Attacking him with everything I had left in me for what he’d done to my sister, and now to my wife.
Our family.
The women’s screams echoed off the ceiling.
His back hit the wall with so much force, it broke through the drywall into the next room. We tumbled to the ground, each of us trying to get the upper hand on the other.
Punch to his ribs.
Fist to my face.
Knee to his balls.
“Get the fuck up!” Michael ordered, shooting a bullet in our direction. It whizzed past our faces into a nearby television.