I clung to him. “Dad, I’m fine; I’m here.”
“I would send you away,” he rasped. “If I knew it wouldn’t bring down an entire kingdom.”
I relaxed against him, then drew back. “Don’t take away my only purpose in life, Dad. I’m good at this; you made me good at this. I’m not your princess anymore, I’m your assassin, I’m your right hand, and I was born to be ruthless, just like my dad.”
His expression softened. “You’re right; you’d be a horrible doctor; you’d probably just let patients bleed out because you’d be annoyed they got shot in the first place.”
I burst out laughing. “That’s why Violet gets to practice pre-med, and Izzy law, and me, well…” I grinned. “I’m more comfortable with a gun than I am with a scalpel.”
“God help us all.” He winked. “Promise me you’ll come to me when it gets dark, Serena, and know it will, but know I’m never going to leave your side. I would burn the world, cut out my own heart, and give it to you if I knew it would make you happy. You, Dom, Bella, your mother—you’re my world.”
I leaned up and kissed his cheek. “Shh, I won’t tell Bella I’m your favorite.”
“Odd how you inherited both my arrogance and my love of violence.”
I shrugged. “I’m just special, I guess.”
“You are,” he deadpanned. “You’re everything.”
“Stop.” I felt my eyes starting to fill with tears. “You’ll make me cry, and mafia princesses don’t cry, we fight.”
“Yeah, well, by the looks of what’s going on downstairs, you may be fresh out of sparring partners for a while.”
My stomach sank. “Junior getting his ass kicked?”
He frowned. “Seems sort of even to me at this point, though I saw a tooth go flying, so let’s hope it’s not the front one.”
I winced. “All right, on that note, I’m going to go see if they need a sub.”
Dad sighed. “They break you in any way, I break them. Make sure they get the message.”
“Dad, you cut off someone’s hand and mailed it to their family as a warning. Trust me, they know you mean business.”
“Hey, I was proving a point.”
“Yeah, pretty sure they got it!” I laughed and made my way down the stairs.
The sound of Rage Against the Machine filled the gym, Killing in The Name was one of Ash’s go-to songs. Usually, I ignored his taste in music, but today it held a certain death factor that was hard to ignore.
Both guys had been down there for two hours.
An empty bottle of whiskey was sitting on the bench, and another empty one was completely shattered against one of the walls on the far side of the gym.
My heart pounded as blood flowed over Junior’s face, dripped down his chest. His left eye was already bruising, and blood was caked to his upper arms as he ducked, barely missing another blow from Ash.
Both of them were shirtless angry gods among men throwing punches like they hadn’t been taking shots every time someone scored a point.
I knew the game well.
It was angry.
It was necessary.
It was also a hell of a lot of alcohol by the way they were both staggering around each other. Then again, they were bleeding profusely so it could have been the numerous flesh wounds.
I felt hands wrap around me from behind, and then Breaker was resting his drunken chin on my shoulder, though he looked stone-cold sober again. He smelled like gin.
He sighed against me. “They’re alive, so that’s good.”
I clung to his muscled arms and jerked when Ash landed a blow to Junior’s gut only to have Junior take Ash’s legs out from underneath him as he slammed him to the ground and landed a punch across his face.
Breaker whistled under his breath. “That’s gonna be a bitch tomorrow morning.”
I smiled despite the fact that they were beating the shit out of each other. “Can I ask you something?”
“Depends, do I get to see you naked if I answer right?”
I rolled my eyes even though he couldn’t see me. Breaker had always been a flirt, but we’d never crossed that line, and he was very aware that I’d crossed it with Junior when Ash had drunkenly told him.
Cousins.
Basically, he was fishing for information in the only way he knew how—offering up his godlike body in exchange.
But I had another god I worshipped.
And it wasn’t the bronze one holding me against his muscled chest.
It was the one with blood dripping from his chin.
The one with vengeance in his eyes.
“You don’t want to see me naked,” I answered truthfully, finally taking my eyes away from Junior and looking over my shoulder. “It will seriously ruin all women for you.”
He barked out a laugh. I’d always loved Breaker’s laugh, even though he was part of this dark world, he still laughed like he was able to find a bit of light, where the hell did this guy come from anyway? “This is why you’re one of my favorite people, and don’t worry, I won’t catch feelings…” He was quiet as his lips brushed my ear. “Sometimes, I don’t think I have them.”