He ignores me and continues sawing through the twine.
“Dad, please, no!! Don’t kill me,” I cry.
A wicked look washes over his face as the twine pulls apart. Just a few more, and I’ll fall right to my death. I’ll die.
Tears blind me as I look up at the man who’s supposed to be my protector. My father. He really evil incarnate.
I scream when the rope jerks, and now I truly feel like this is my end. I see parts of the rope snap away. Then a roar pieces through me.
Massimo comes launching through the air, hurtling himself at my father. His foot connects with his jaw, snapping his head back with a bone-crunching sound. While Massimo grabs the rope, Dad falls backwards, screaming as he tumbles past me. Falling, falling to his death.
At the same time, the rope snaps and I fall too, but Massimo catches me.
With a strangled cry, he lifts me and secures an arm around me. I don’t know where or how he finds the strength, but he manages to lift us both back up onto the platform and move us away from the shaky track.
I throw my arms around him and hold him, crying and shaking.
“I got you. I got you,” he says, hugging me hard.
“Oh, Massimo,” I cry into his chest. I never thought I’d have this moment again when we’d be holding each other like this. “Thank you so much.”
“Don’t thank me. God, Emelia.” He cups the back of my head and holds me close to him.
Turning my head, I look at the dark abyss my father fell into, and that’s when I see Andreas stepping out from the path with his gun aimed at us.
Chapter Forty-Two
Massimo
It’s not fucking over yet. Not by a long shot. I see him too. Andreas. But not quickly enough. My brother managed to pull his gun on me first.
“Stand the fuck up,” he demands. Emelia and I stand. I push her behind me. “How noble of you. Always thinking of pussy first.”
“Fuck you. Fuck you, Andreas, and everything you are. You have no justification for what you’ve done. I split the empire four ways so we could all be equal.”
He shakes his head. “I don’t want equality. I want it all. I would have had it all if not for you.”
Everything about him shocks me to the core. I wonder how it was I missed these changes in a man I’m supposed to be close to. These changes didn’t happen overnight. They existed long before Grandfather died. They would have had to for him to become like this.
“What happened to you? How did you become like this? Why didn’t you tell me you found out Riccardo was your father?”
“What can I say? I must take after our dearest mother. She kept me a secret in her diary. My origins locked away. I only happened upon it after Grandfather’s death. You don’t know what it’s like to be me, Massimo. So, fuck no to this conversation. Sign over everything, and I’ll let the two of you walk out of here.”
That’s not happening. I won’t do it, and it’s not because I’m a selfish bastard and want it all for myself. It’s because there’s no way I trust him to let us go. Let Emelia go. He wouldn’t do it.
I rub my finger over Emelia’s hand on my waistband. I’m going to have to hurt her to save her.
“What’s it gonna be?” he demands.
Whatever I’m gonna do has to happen now, or it won’t at all. He’s unstable. His ticket to reach his goals just fell into the abyss of hell, exactly where Riccardo belonged, and now I’m all he’s got.
The longer I take to answer, the more agitated he gets. The tick in his jaw is a tell.
On three. I need to move. One. Two. Three.
I shove Emelia out of the way, and he fires the bullet. Thank fuck, I dodge and she scrambles out of the way and covers herself in the crevice of the cave.
I throw myself on him with the rage of a wild animal spawned from the depths of hell. Consumed by the fury over what he’s done. I manage to knock the gun out of his