Children of Ambition (Children of Vice 2)

I couldn’t reply; I was too angry. All I could think of was beating the shit of him, of taking off my heels and gouging out his eyes!

Prince, my fucking foot.

GABRIEL

I could feel the anger rolling off her.

I knew very well if I said one more thing she’d resort to violence and may very well kill me before we could reach her brothers.

However, I need to hold her feet to the fire.

I wasn’t sure where her mind was. This morning she’d asked to be alone for the most part and didn’t really speak. It was like she was playing chess with herself mentally. She didn’t at all act like she was shaken with the idea of leaving home. However, she wasn’t that cold or dead inside. In fact, she was the opposite. She didn’t care about everyone, not even most people or things. She had a list. A very small list of people and things she cared about. Those things she loved and defended passionately. Everything else was meaningless to her.

I needed to be at the top of the list…where her brothers were.

I was using her ambition for now but in time, after she was isolated from them, I could be there. It wasn’t a good thing. I knew that.

However, I didn’t come this far for nothing. I was already isolated. She’d understand soon. But in this war, I needed one strong ally. It needed to be just me and her against everyone else.

They may love her.

They may miss her.

They may even think they needed her.

But the truth was that I needed her more.

BOOM!

Jumping and turning back, I watched the black ranger behind us combust into a raging inferno before swerving into oncoming traffic, the cars around it swerving, trying to avoid it.

“He wouldn’t dare…” Donatella muttered under breath, almost in awe as a large black suburban, the windows tinted so dark it would be impossible to see who was inside if not for the man pointing a motherfucking rocket-propelled grenade launcher at the bloody fucking car!

“Sir, get down!” Sebastian yelled, putting together a semi-automatic machine gun as our driver swerved off the highway into a single-lane road. They spun out of control right past us, crashing into tree. The blast from explosion was so strong that the car spun around several times. I tried to reach for Dona, but she was already moving to the front of the car.

“Ma’am! GET DOWN!” Sebastian yelled at her between firing out the window.

She ignored him and focused on the man behind the wheel “Take a left—”

“There’s no road—”

“Do I look like an idiot? I know that! Make one and take a left!” she snapped at him, holding on to the headrest of the driver’s seat. “…left! Another one now!”

The driver jerked to the left violently and she would have fallen had I not grabbed on to her legs, holding her steady. She glanced back at me, surprised. “Glad you’re doing something—”

“DONA!” I hollered, pulling her as hard as I could towards me and wrapping my arms around her, pinning her under me. No sooner had I thrown myself over her than the whole car jerked forward violently, throwing us down. The glass shattered around us, flying in every direction. However, nothing compared to the heat steaming in from the front.

I glanced down at her and she stared up at me.

“Are you alright?” I could feel myself yelling but I couldn’t hear myself. The ringing in my ears just seemed to get louder and louder.

Reaching up, she touched the side of my face, and I didn’t know why until she showed me her fingers…my blood on them.

“I should be asking—” was all I could read of her lips before I felt hands on me then someone pulling me out.

Damn, it’s sunny. It was such random thought, but given the pain I was in, that was all I could think as I stared up at the sky through squinted eyes. Rolling on to my side and pushing myself up from the twigs and grass, I wobbled as I tried to stand up. Around me, it was like a scene out of a bad action movie. There was at least a dozen men…some of them were mine. Men who’d stood with me just moment ago. It was one of my cars that had purposely slammed into us.

Us. Glancing back towards my car, I saw her; dark brown hair covered in glass, her dressed ripped, and a few cuts, but otherwise alright. The leader, who had a large discolored birth mark under his left eye held her arm tightly with one hand and pointed a gun at me with the other. Dona, of course, wasn’t afraid, the look on her face a mixture of annoyance and astonishment as she shook her head, blowing a few strands from her face. Seeing her so calm seemed to calm me down. As if this was nothing but a dream.