Total pages in book: 35
Estimated words: 32295 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 161(@200wpm)___ 129(@250wpm)___ 108(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 32295 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 161(@200wpm)___ 129(@250wpm)___ 108(@300wpm)
I don't knock. I don't announce myself.
The door swings open, and my heart shatters into a million jagged pieces.
She looks so fucking small and broken in the bed. Scratches and bruises mar her perfect skin. A bandage covers her forehead, hiding God only knows what sort of damage. Dried blood streaks her face.
Something primal rises in me as I stare at her, a dark wave of rage threatening to wash away all reason. She shouldn't be here. Not her. Not like this.
If I find the motherfucker who hit her, I'm going to kill him.
She lifts her gaze as if sensing me. Those gray eyes that have haunted my every waking moment now swim with pain. The sight claws at my heart.
"Coda." Her bottom lip quivers, and tears spill over.
I feel every single one like a knife in my fucking heart.
"Karina," I breathe, closing the distance between us. The monster inside me claws at its chains, desperate to break free and kill in her name. I battle it back, ruthlessly slamming the doors of its cage. Right now, she needs me, and that's what matters.
"Coda," she whimpers again.
"Shh," I whisper, reaching out as gently as possible to lift her out of the bed and into my arms. "You're safe now, angioletta. I'm here."
She clings to me, her fingers wrapped in the fabric of my jacket as if she intends to anchor us together. "I'm sorry, Coda. I-I s-shouldn't have gone. He was s-so m-mean. I just w-wanted to get away. I was d-driving too f-fast to stop." Her words are muffled against my chest, but I understand enough.
She was at her father's. My blood turns to ice. "You were trying to get away from your father, cara? That's what caused the accident?"
Mattia and Domani shift restlessly.
"Cazzo," Mattia mutters. He knows me well enough to know this isn't going to endear the bastard to me.
Karina nods, trembling in my arms. "We got into an a-argument. H-he called me…" She trails off, but I don't need to hear it. Cold fury settles over me. That motherfucker had the audacity to call her names? His own daughter? He's the reason she's in this bed right now? The reason I could have lost her today?
"W-whore," she finally whispers.
The word rips through the room like a bullet, hitting me right in the heart. And I fucking bleed.
He called her a whore. The fiery little angel who lights up the dark. He had the nerve to twist his lips and call her anything other than perfect?
He's crossed a line no man should ever cross.
"Listen to me, Karina," I say, my voice deadly quiet as I hold her to my chest, rage pounding through me with every jolt of my heart. "He'll never speak to you that way again."
I meet Mattia's gaze over her head. He simply nods, already knowing that my decision is made and nothing anyone says will change my mind now.
Her father had no mercy for her; I'll have none for him.
For her, I'll burn his fucking world to the ground.
I crouch in the shadows outside of Alessepo's house, the familiar weight of the gun cold in my hand. It's pitch-black out, the moon hiding behind a thick blanket of clouds. I take it as a sign—even the heavens are aligning to help ensure this motherfucker pays tonight.
I move silently, every step calculated, every breath measured. Finding an unlocked window takes only moments. Alessepo's too fucking sure of himself, confident of his safety in his own little kingdom. It'll be his downfall.
I don't make a sound as I slip through it into an office, pulling the window closed behind me. My boots make no sound as I slip down the hallway, a ghost haunting the threshold between justice and vengeance.
I don't bother looking around. There's nothing here that interests me except the motherfucker I came to handle. The stairs are silent under my feet, the only sound the pounding of my heart and the ticking of a clock somewhere below.
The door to his room is open, a sliver of moonlight beckoning me forward. I pause on the threshold, listening to the quiet rhythm of his breath. Every few seconds, he grunts through a snore. Even from across the room, I smell the alcohol on him.
My fingers tighten around the grip of my gun as I battle back rage. It would be easy, so fucking easy, to end his life with a single squeeze of the trigger right here and now. To watch the life bleed from him.
I step into the room, keeping to the shadows. For a moment, I simply watch him, the twisted look of peace on his face fueling my rage. How dare he sleep peacefully when he's turned her world into a living hell?
The prick didn't even try to show up at the hospital today. His daughter could have died because of him, and he couldn't even be bothered to act like he cared. He was too fucking drunk to notice.