Scandalous Prince (Mafia Royals 2)

Shit.

Did he know?

I stopped and crossed my arms.

“Give me your eyes,” he snapped in a harsh voice that demanded respect even though I wanted to knee him in the balls and hold a knife to his throat.

Slowly, I pulled off my Ray-Bans and gave him a cold, unfeeling stare back, one I’d never given any of the bosses because it required something Breaker’d never had.

Defiance.

Arrogance.

Emptiness.

Abandonment.

The mask fell for one brief moment as the wind picked up around us like the universe was trying to give them a warning while welcoming me back into the darkness.

Andrei started making his way toward us.

“Better?” I said in a hollow voice. “Or do you want a kidney too?”

His blue eyes flickered. “You’ve protected my daughter since you could walk—don’t make me regret it by putting you in a wheelchair.”

I rolled my eyes. “You’ve got nothing to worry about. I’m not into spoiled princesses, and even if I was, I highly doubt she’d satisfy how dirty I would want to get.”

“Breaker,” Andrei said my name like a warning.

Chase was fuming.

I patted him twice on the shoulder. “Chill out, old man, we don’t want our favorite senator having a stroke at forty-four.”

He lunged, but I jerked back just in time.

And then he forgot all about me because the sound of the gates opening again announced Junior and Serena.

Without looking back, I made my way into the kitchen, my eyes searching for Violet.

She shot me a pleading look.

I didn’t know what to do.

I couldn’t pull her into my arms.

And I couldn’t push her away for her own good.

So I just stood there, like a powerless idiot, while chaos raged around me. Fists were thrown the minute Junior and Serena made it inside.

Nixon was yelling for Serena to choose.

And a cold feeling settled over me as I watched her pick Junior, as she chose the man she loved, and as Ash gave me a look of horror while we numbly walked them both down to the basement where they would die.

Where their love would die with them as they took their very last breaths.

With each step, I lost a little more of Breaker Campisi. Bitterness pounded inside my skull because how dare they? How fucking dare they tell us who to love? When every other choice had already been taken?

They would take the one thing that might save us from damnation?

My blood roared with the need to spill more, again and again, and then again until my face was wet with it until my nose was numb with the metallic smell.

Hands shaking, I kept walking behind Ash as the rest of the cousins followed, all except the ones too young to see the horrors that Ash would release upon someone who had always been closer than a brother.

Junior Nicolasi.

A king among mortals.

And now he would die.

“This is wrong,” Maksim said as Ash started tying both Junior and Serena to chairs, back to back, first rope, and then chains. “You know it! So stop it! Stop it!”

I had never seen Maksim lose his cool.

There was a first for everything as his chest heaved like he was minutes away from holding a gun to Ash’s head, but what he didn’t see was that Ash had no choice. If he defied the families, he died, and it was a kindness that he was the one doing this so that the blood wouldn’t be on Maksim’s hands, or King’s, even though I somehow felt like it would still be on mine for not preventing it, for not giving them something else to argue about.

Someone else to kill.

My head shot up.

That was it.

They needed someone else to kill.

Violet grabbed my arm like she could read my mind. I shoved her behind me and shook my head slowly.

“Don’t worry,” Junior gave me a sad smile. “If it were anyone else, they’d probably just get a warning shot in the leg, nothing fatal.”

My eyes narrowed.

He shrugged. “Chase knew anyway—”

“What?” Ash stopped grabbing the chain.

We all lunged forward.

And then Junior slowly locked eyes with me as if to say, does it really matter, man? I’m in fucking chains.

“Let’s go.” My voice was hollow as I ushered the cousins out of the dark room full of death and took my own walk toward hell back up the stairs.

I released Violet’s hand and approached the bosses. Nixon didn’t get up; he had his hands on his head. Trace was sobbing next to him, begging him to do something.

My dad, the great Tex Campisi, was pacing a hole through the floor while Phoenix just stared me down across the table like he knew what I was about to do.

“I have something to say.” God, they were going to kill me.

Phoenix stood like he was going to jump across the table while Andrei started stalking toward me and then stomping like he was going to knock me out to keep me from talking.