I pull the extra ammo and guns we always keep in the G Wagon from the hidden compartment and begin to push clips into my pockets.
No fear.
No mercy.
I’m coming, amore mio.
ELENA
My mother slams the gun against my father’s head again. “I’ve waited so long for this moment,” she sneers. “The mighty Valentino Lucas has fallen.”
My eyes dart around the room, searching for a weapon or a way to get out.
You have to do something, Elena. Before Lucian gets here.
My gaze falls on the letter opener on my father's desk, and as soon as I move, a shot rings through the air. A bullet slams into the wall behind me, tearing a shriek out of me as I bounce back with fright.
“Don’t move,” my mother yells. “I just need you alive, not in one piece,” she threatens.
Shaking like a leaf, I sit frozen.
She glances between my father and me, her features tight with her thirst for revenge. “I’m surprised she’s still alive. I didn’t think you’d let her live.”
My father remains quiet, his eyes not showing any emotions.
“You see,” she goes on as she leans back against the oak desk, “Valentino wanted a son. He had no use for a daughter. It took me seventeen hours to give birth to you, and then he beat me to within an inch of my life because I pushed a girl out.”
Her words hurt, each one ripping at my heart. For a moment, I begin to feel compassion for her.
“I was left for dead on the side of a road,” my mother gestures to the guard next to me, “where Zeus found me. He took care of me and then taught me everything I needed to know, so I could take my revenge.”
God.
Horrified, my eyes fall on my father.
I can’t believe I come from such cruelty.
Conscious that Lucian can be here at any moment, I ask, “Why did you kill Mr. Cotroni? Why are you going after Lucian?”
My mother lets out a bitter chuckle. “I was engaged to Luca. I was in love and happy, and then he met Dorothy, and I was handed down to Valentino. Discarded like trash.”
She pushes away from the desk, her hate-filled eyes landing hard on my father. “If Luca had kept his promise to me, I wouldn’t have been repeatedly raped by this monster.” She hits my father again until blood flows freely from his nose and mouth.
“Lucian is innocent,” I argue, just wanting to save his life. I don’t care what she does to my father.
Another bitter chuckle escapes her. “What little innocence there is in this world is destroyed by men like the Cotronis and your father.”
“Why did you wait twenty-one years?” I cry. “You just left me with them, knowing what they were capable of!”
“You’re nothing but a reminder of the torment I suffered.” Her face turns to stone. “I only had one goal, and that was to create an army from nothing to take them down. The Mafia falls today.”
I stare at the two monsters who created me in hate, and it strips my soul bare.
Would this have been my future if I had been forced to marry Dante?
Part of me understands my mother’s pain, and I try to reason with her. “Lucian saved me from suffering the same fate as you. I love him.”
“There’s no such thing as love,” she spits out.
“Did you kill Cabello?” my father suddenly asks.
My mother laughs. “He was the easiest to get to. I drowned him in a tub of acid.”
He levels her with an enraged look, and it earns him another blow to the head. Then my mother holds her hand out to Zeus, and he moves to place a knife in her hand.
Without giving it another thought, I jump up and run out of the room, moving as fast as I can.
“Get her!” my mother screams.
My heart explodes into a rampant beat as I dart down the stairs. Knowing my mother’s men are outside, I turn into the living room, but then Zeus' fingers claw at my shoulder, and I’m yanked back against his body. Instantly the cold steel of a gun presses against my head.
My eyes dart around wildly, looking for a weapon I can use, while I struggle against his hold, and then there’s a loud explosion at the front of the property.
“Gamo!” Zeus mutters in Greek as he drags me out of the living room.
Gunfire erupts with more explosions vibrating the air.
Lucian.
Roars of pain come from upstairs, and I try to elbow and head-butt Zeus like I did with Dante, but nothing I do helps. I’m thrown into the study, landing on my hands and knees. When I lift my head, I’m sickened by what I see.
My mother’s stabbing my father in his groin area. He begins to convulse with shock, and it makes hysterical laughter bust from my mother.