“Where is she?”
He leaned on the banister, showing off the gun he held in his hand.Stupid fuck. He didn’t scare me.
“She’s no longer yours, brother. She never was.”
I moved, and he straightened, holding out his gun. I paused then started to slowly make my way up the stairs, indicating for the rest of the men to stay put.
“The way I see it, you can either tell me where she is and then I kill you, or you can tell me where she is, and then I kill you.”
He let out a mocking laugh. “Very funny. You’ve always been the stupid one, haven’t you?”
Step by step, slowly moving closer to my brother. “I really don’t give a shit that you, Vico, and Mother lied to me. Plotted against me. I don’t even care that you’re not really dead. All I care about is her, and I will slit the throat of every man inside this goddamn house in order to find her.”
Carlo stood at the edge of the stairs, never taking his eyes off me. “Is that a threat?”
“You can bet your resurrected ass it is.”
He crossed his arms in front of his chest, the muzzle of his gun sticking out from under his armpit. It was just a way to show me he didn’t fear me or the two guns I held in my hands.Well, fuck you, motherfucker, you don’t scare me either.
I reached the top of the stairs, and my brother and I came within inches from each other.
He cocked an eyebrow. “I always knew it would one day come down to me or you. It was enough that we shared a womb together. There was no way we would have been able to share this world as well.”
“Where is she?” I didn’t care about anything else.
Then he smiled. “I’ll take you to her. But I can guarantee you you’re not leaving here with her. In fact, you won’t be leaving here at all.”
“Shut the fuck up and lead the way.”
He smirked then turned his back to me. Just another way to show me that he thought his balls were bigger than mine, that he didn’t think I had it in me to kill him. Fucker should go have a chat with Giovanni.
I followed him as we walked down the familiar halls of what once was my home. I never took my eyes off him, alert and anticipating anything and everything.
When we stopped in front of the door I recognized immediately, he grinned. “She was less than…thrilled to be back.”
“Just open the fucking door.”
“You know, I really thought our reunion would have been a lot more pleasant.”
My hand itched, the gun begging me to pull the fucking trigger. “Open the door.”
He opened the door and gestured for me to walk first. I did. I figured if he wanted to kill me I would have been dead already. And knowing him and Vico, they probably had a big masquerade planned before they put a bullet in my brain.
I walked straight across the room and pressed the red button on the wall. It was the same button I had pushed when I held Tatum prisoner. Just thinking about what she had to have gone through just by being back here made my insides churn, and my head feel like it wanted to explode.
Air swooshed, and the door opened.
Even though I came prepared with knives and ammo, unfortunately I didn’t come prepared to see the picture in front of me.
Blood. So much blood.
I stopped breathing as I stared at the crimson seeping through the sheets. On the inside the monster roared, my blood searing my veins as it turned into liquid fire. My soul screamed in anger, and I was suddenly demon-possessed. I grabbed Carlo’s arm, twisted it behind his back, and shoved his face straight into the goddamn wall.
“What the fuck did you do to her?”
Vico appeared out of fucking nowhere. Or he was there, I just didn’t see him as I stared at the red-tainted sheets. The fucker aimed his gun, but before he could pull the trigger a shot went off, and I jerked my head to the side, only to see Uncle Gino holding the gun.
Carlo cursed, and Vico fell to his knees clutching his chest, blood seeping through his fingers. I felt nothing. I felt absolutely nothing as I watched him fall face first to the floor. Dead. Not exactly the way I envisioned ending this war. I thought I would have at least gotten a decent fight out of it. But it just proved I was right about my little brother. He was all bark and no bite.