“What do you want?” I seethe between gritted teeth.
“Nothing more than to see you suffer.” Vance takes pleasure in my pain.
I want to pretend it doesn’t bother me, but Nova is my flesh and blood, my kin. Abandoning her isn’t in my DNA. “Why?” I ask.
Anger seeps through me, and I stomp in past the guards, shoving the barrel of my gun under Vance’s chin, pointing it upward.
All he’s ever done is cause me pain.
Two men are on me, one pistol on my back, the other at my head. None of it matters.
I need answers. “Why did you murder my wife?”
“Drop the gun, Moreno,” Rafael says.
I ignore him. “Answer me!” I demand Vance.
“Serene worked for me. I hired her to infiltrate your family, destroy you from the inside. I paid her to marry you.” The smug look on his face boils my blood.
Lies.
“I don’t believe you.” What is he going to say next, that he hired Paige to pretend to be a nanny?
“I killed Serene because she was supposed to abandon you and bring me Nova. When she refused, I shot her nanny as a warning, and when she didn’t come with me, I took care of the problem. I don’t want your brat. I only wanted to hurt you. Good thing Paige is a good listener.”
“Get out of my house,” Dante seethes.
Gunfire erupts upstairs.
Vance doesn’t so much as blink at the sound. Whether it’s his men under fire or doing the killing, it doesn’t seem to faze him.
“You better put that away,” Vance says, referring to the gun poised under his chin. “Assuming you want to see your daughter again.”
“Where’s Nova?”
“You don’t listen,” Vance says. “I told you, she’s with Paige, far away from here.” His eyes twinkle with mirth.
I swallow the bile that rises in my throat.
No.
He’s lying.
“Get out of my house!” Dante’s voice echoes throughout the room.
Vance holds up his hands in mock surrender and slowly stands.
It’s all mind games to him, manipulation, fucking with us any way he can to torture us. It takes everything inside of me to lower the gun and not shoot him in cold blood.
He murdered Serene but if I kill him, I may never see my daughter.