Chapter Sixty-Eight

Chapter Sixty- Eight

Theo

I reel, mind spinning a thousand miles a minute as he drops this bomb on me. Brother? What the actual fuck? I shake my head again, this time, truly out of confusion, and Tony laughs maniacally.

“ Eduardo , well. He apparently hated his little brother. Tried every chance he could to knock him down a peg, show him who was in charge. But Dante remained the favorite one, the better man, in their father’s eyes. Dante was rewarded for his obedience with a beautiful bride, someone quiet and kind. My mother was never fit for the life she was born into.”

Tony’s voice quiets as if remembering the woman who raised him. “But Eduardo ? Well, he had expectations set on him. He was the first born, meant to lead the family into another era of greatness. His marriage was less. . . satisfactory I guess?”

He laughs bitterly, beginning to pace agitatedly in front of me, waving the knife around in crazed circles as he continues to speak. “How could it not be when the woman he was tied to for the sake of familial alliances was in love with his younger brother?”

What? Shock hits me like a ton of bricks. Ma and Dante? “I don’t understand.”

“Of course you don’t, you pathetic bastard. You never understood. Never bothered to look past the surface. Just focused on your own perceived problems, ‘woe is me. Poor little prince, raised to take over a kingdom he never wanted.” He stops abruptly, turning on his heel and pointing at me with the knife .

“Dante was madly in love with your mother. Had been since they were children, but she was always intended to be Eduardo ’s bride. Their father thought that once the marriage was set, and Dante had a bride of his own that everyone could go on with their lives and everyone would fall into line in their predetermined ranks.”

“But Dante? That fucking bastard who promised to cherish my mother and keep her safe?” He screams this, spittle flying with his words. “He just couldn’t leave your mother alone. And when Eduardo found out, boy did he see red. But he couldn’t kill your whore of a mother without risking the alliance, and he couldn’t kill his brother without risking the wrath of his father since he wasn’t fully in charge yet and men were still loyal to the Don. So, what did he do? He fucking raped my mother. And she became pregnant with me.”

His tone is bitter, resigned to the events that could never be changed, and through the pain, and blood dripping to the floor, his words register on a deep level that I never knew existed. It was all coming together, making sense where there had been only chaos in my past. Eduardo always hated my mother, and treated me like shit as the child she birthed. But I was his heir and he couldn’t kill either one of us, because he needed us in his own sick way.

Tony continues, not caring if I am even paying attention, too lost in his own history and the torment it apparently caused him. “Dante, well, when he found out, he wanted to do right by my mother, he said. Didn’t want to risk Eduardo finding out the truth, because Eduardo would have killed me for being an unwanted complication, then killed my mother out of spite for the inconvenience she caused in getting pregnant after he raped her.

So, Dante did what he thought was best, and sent us away. And here we rotted in exile for years . Only gracing us with the occasional visits and the annual birthday card filled with cash. Just what every little boy wants, right? Who needs a father when he can have a stupid little card?” He laughs bitterly.

“No, it wasn’t until my mother lay on her deathbed that I finally learned the truth. And it all made sense, why the man I had known to be my father couldn’t stand to look me in the eyes, why he wanted nothing to do with me growing up. Why I was meant to rot over here while you took everything from me.” He screams again, making a wild swipe across my chest, and the pain is searing, the cut deeper than those previous.

“Drop the knife, Tony. ”

We both freeze. Danica steps out of the shadows, gun raised with steady aim at the center of Tony’s chest.

Shit.

“You shouldn’t be here!”

“Well, well, well. Look who’s come to play.” My frantic shout is drowned out by my cousin, well I guess my half-brother’s, crazed voice as he cackles loudly, quickly stepping behind me and holding the blade to my throat. “Let go of the gun, you little bitch, if you want any chance of your plaything walking free from here.”

Danica ignores him, shaking her head slowly as she confidently takes a step forward.

“I mean it! I’ll slit his goddamn throat, don’t test me!” He presses the knife in further, and I feel a small trickle of blood as it slides down my neck. I shift slightly, lifting my head to look my girl in the eyes, trying to will her to run, to go find help, to at least save herself. I can’t do anything as long as I’m restrained as tightly as I am. While Tony has been going off on his rant, I have been silently trying to loosen my bindings, to no avail.

“You’re not going to kill him. Diane wanted him alive, so he would have to live through the pain of watching me die the way Bradley did. I heard her speaking earlier. She needs Theo alive.” She cautiously takes another step forward.

“You think I care what that bitch wants? Her revenge is a drop in the bucket compared to the wrath I have built over decades. Theo’s torment in watching you die will only buy him a few more minutes. In the end, you’re both dead anyway so she’ll get the retribution she wants so badly. No, I will slit his goddamn throat, right here, right now. Don’t test me.”

Danica looks at me directly, as if asking for permission. Tony and Diane may have underestimated her, with the years of training she has put her through. But her experiences with Bradley have made her resilient, and her training thereafter made her a force to be reckoned with. I have witnessed my girl and what she can do firsthand. I believe in her. And well, if I’m going to die here anyway, I may as well die giving her a fighting chance.

Cocking my brow at her, she gives a subtle nod. Tony doesn’t witness this though, too focused on her slow steps forward. He presses the blade in further, biting into my skin and I hiss at the pain, tilting my head up and away as much as possible. She raises her brow in return, and I take that as the only signal I need.

Without any further prompt, I throw all my weight backwards into my crazed cousin or brother or whatever the hell he is, and as I begin to fall, I hear a single shot ring out. The knife drops as Tony screams in pain, and my weight in the chair pins him down as Danica comes rushing over. Shoving the gun in the waist of her leggings, she grabs the knife, grunting under the effort of trying to roll my chair to the side.

I do my best to lean in that direction, giving what assistance I can to her efforts. My hands fucking hurt, crushed in-between the chair and a pinned-down Tony. He is curled up in a ball now, whimpering underneath me, and Danica kneels on his side, letting her full weight press into the gunshot wound in his side.

He screams again in agony as she begins slicing at the rope that binds my wrist. “Oh, shut the hell up, you big baby. I didn’t even hit you with a lethal shot. You’ll be fine.” But, from the corner of my eye, I catch the grin on her face as she says that and his screams become hysterical as she digs her knee in further. “You okay?”

One last slice and my wrists are free. “Yeah, I’ll be fine.” I bring my arms around and begin to rub some life back into my numb hands as she maneuvers to cut at the rope binding my legs. I catch movement from the corner of my eye.

“Danica, look out!” I shove her back, and she falls on her ass as a bullet hits the ground where she had just been, piercing into Tony and eliciting another pathetic scream from him.

“Here!” She tosses me the knife and then she is rolling backwards until she is sitting on her heels in a crouch, gun in hands once more. Another shot rings out in her direction when a shrill voice cuts through the chaos.

“Don’t shoot her, you idiot! We need her alive! Go get her!”

Roberts comes running out of the shadows, Diane close on his heels. He aims the gun at me instead, but Danica is ready, and shoots him first. He falls to the ground, lifeless.

“You little bitch!” Diane’s voice is a piercing screech as she runs forward, bending over to grab Roberts’ gun from his lifeless hands and shooting carelessly in our direction. Jesus! I duck, covering my head as Danica rolls out of the way before placing another careful shot, just barely missing Diane in the process.

“You were supposed to die! You took my son from me, my precious baby boy! I’m going to fucking kill you!” Her voice is shrill, face wild with rage and anguish as she moves in on Danica .

Finally free of my restraints, I struggle to stand, and falter slightly. Whatever Roberts used to knock me out with must still be in my system, and that along with all the shallow wounds seeping blood is doing a number on my equilibrium. I shake my head, trying to clear it before taking a step forward to chase after Diane.

“And you should have seen your son for the monster that he was! You were there, you know what he did to me. And you just stood by and let it happen, all of you! Your own husband arranged the whole thing, so really, he is just as much to blame as I am. Why aren’t you going after him?”

Danica shouts as she dodges another series of bullets, before carefully returning fire. A shout signals that she made a hit, but Diane doesn’t falter in her pursuit of my girl.

I’m almost to Diane when I am tackled from behind, sent to the ground with such force that it knocks the wind out of both of us. I roll, but Tony is on top of me, knife in hand and hatred fueling his need for revenge, giving him the strength and adrenaline to move beyond the pain of his wounds.

He swings the knife at my face, and I catch him by the arms, stopping him just before he stabs me in the face. As we struggle, I hear a shout from across the room. I roll, fighting for control over the knife and from the corner of my eye, see that Diane has tackled Danica to the ground, knocking her gun out of reach. The woman is wild as she swipes her talon-like nails, frantically trying to tear into my girl any way that she can.

My attention is forced back to the man underneath me as he bucks, throwing a punch to the side of my head and knocking me off him. I roll a few feet away and jump to my feet, circling around Tony with careful deliberation. All my focus should be on the man trying to stab me with his knife, but I can’t help stealing glances out of the corner of my eye.

Danica is fighting for her life with Diane. She blocks blow after blow as the woman consumed with rage tries to take advantage over my girl. Danica throws her off, and tries to roll away, but Diane grabs her from behind, wrapping an arm around her neck to try and cut off her air supply while she grabs a fistful of Danica’s curls and yanks her head back. “I’m going to fucking kill you, you stupid little whore. How dare you live while my precious boy was made to suffer because of you?” She rips at Danica’s hair, and I can see the pain cross her face as she tries to cry out, but it’s smothered by the lack of oxygen as she tries to pry away the arm crushing her windpipe .

Tony is on top of me again, throwing punch after punch. He may have his rage and his misguided need for vengeance, but he was right about one thing. I was groomed for this role, raised to be a cold-hearted killer. And I may hate the things I have done for the people that I love, but I sure as hell won’t let that stop me from doing what I have to continue protecting them. And Tony? While he was over here ‘wasting away,’ as he so poignantly put it, I have spent every day of my life training. His body is unfit for the demands of the job, and mine? Well, between years spent on the ice, and my time off the ice doing what needed to be done. . . my body is honed into that of a fine predator. And in this moment, I feel no guilt as I let the beast take over.