“Kieran and Romeo killed your father.”
My sassy attitude slips from my face, and I feel cold. Instead of my heart beating harder, I don’t feel like it’s beating at all.
“Excuse me?” Dominic stands.
“I’m afraid so. Buried him alive,” Emilio informs softly, his eyes fixated on the candles sitting in the middle of the table. My mother gasps in horror, and my heart sinks for her. I want to comfort her, to run to her side, but I can’t let Emilio see us like that. I want him to see me as a warrior, one not to be messed with.
“Why are you telling us this, it goes against your family and your son?” I ask, my voice cracking with the urge to cry.
“Because, I’m doing the right thing here, yeah?” He silently chuckles looking around the table, but I don’t buy it. It makes no sense.
“Try again,” I clip. He licks his lips and raises his hand. One of his men handing him a cigar, he chomps down on it. I’m really pissing him off, good. I want him to do something about it so Dominic can shoot him in the head. A tear escapes my right eye and slips down my cheek, I quickly wipe it away not wanting anyone to see how upset I am. You never want your enemies to see your weakness. Kieran had the nerve to ask about my father lying in bed next to me and he knew the whole time what happened to him. He lied to my face, he can’t be trusted. My eyes pop to my mother. She was right all along. Kieran is a fucking monster, my heart nothing but a toy for him to play with.
“He’s out of control and may be suited for a different position. Eh, I won’t bore you with semantics,” he says, but I can’t hear a word. My father is dead. That little hope of him coming back is gone, and it was by the hands of the first man I could have loved.KieranRunning up the steps to Leona’s place, I barge in, the door slamming against the wall.
“Where the fuck is she?” I shout, my voice echoing through the hall.
Going in further I look left finding a table full of people, including my father. Striding inside, I rear my hand back and punch him in the face. His fat face splitting beneath my knuckles. One of his soldiers takes me to the ground, and I punch him in the nose. Blood pours onto my suit, and I wrestle my gun from my pants and aim it at his head. He freezes.
“Get the fuck off me,” I growl, and he does so.
Just as I climb to my feet Leona is standing a foot away from me, her face red, eyes narrowed. She purses her lips and slaps me across the face. Snatching her wrist, I push her onto the table causing her mother to scream.
Dominic points a gun at me, and I aim mine right back at him.
“You fucking lied to me, you were just trying to get witness protection?” I grit through my teeth. She raises her head off the table inches from my face.
“And you killed my father!” Her voice cracks with emotion and I feel as if I was just slapped again.
“What? No, I didn’t.” My muscles tense, a sudden onset of betrayal heavy in my chest. Why the hell would she think I did something like that?
“Don’t lie to her son, tell her the truth,” my father says, sitting in the chair like nothing is going on. Meanwhile, her mother looks like she’s about to have a stroke, Dominic is about to shoot me, and her grandmother is pressed up against the wall with fear written all over her face.
“I don’t know what he’s talking about, but it doesn’t stride from the fact you’ve been talking to the authorities, Leona. We took an oath, all of us!” I shove her before standing straight.
Pulling herself to a sitting position, her nostrils flaring and tears streaming down her face, she looks at me through wet lashes.
“Get him out of here. I want them all out,” she clips dryly, and Dominic is on me in seconds, men rushing from the side of the house grabbing all of us DeAngelos and ushering us out the front door.
“Leona!” I shout over a man’s shoulder, trying to get through so I can talk to her. She stares at me from across the way, eyes of hurt and betrayal stabbing in my soul.
“Leona!” I aim my gun at a man’s head, my finger heavy on the trigger but before I pull it back. It’s taken from my hand and slammed against my face. Hot rushing pain surrounds my lip and chin just as we’re all put on the front doorstep. Three men stand in front of the door, guns in their hands, eyes leering.