“But she’s a little bitch who deserves what’s coming to her.” He clenched his jaw as if he hated her more than Ramon.
Now I looked at my father with new eyes. He was a psychopath like Kamikaze, just in his own way. “You did a really fucked-up thing when you went behind my back and told Kamikaze the marriage is bogus. If you ever want to make it up to me, you’ll help me kill him. Otherwise, I’ll never forgive you.”
He took another drink of his scotch, uninterested in what I’d said. “All I care about is putting that little bitch in the ground. I don’t care about your forgiveness, and I certainly don’t want it.”
Why couldn’t I just lift my gun and kill him on the spot? Was my father right when he called me weak? He was just as guilty as Kamikaze. He didn’t deserve a free pass just because of our relationship. He wouldn’t hesitate to kill me, so I should do the same. But when I looked at that man, I still saw childhood memories. I still saw birthday parties and afternoons when he taught me how to kick a ball. I still remembered Christmas and every other beautiful moment we had.
So I couldn’t do it.
I was livid that he’d risked my wife.
I was livid that he was a terrible father.
I was livid that he became such a piece of shit.
But I still couldn’t do it.
Maybe I was weak.
I turned around and left the dining room, unable to stare at his arrogant expression a moment longer. I turned around at the threshold and barely made eye contact when I said my final words. “If Mother is watching down on us right now…she’s so disappointed in you.”
“I have a show tonight, but I don’t know what to do. After what happened the other night…I’m not sure I want to go back.” She stared at her dress with her back turned to me, her arms crossed over her chest. Her perfect frame was beautiful in just the black thong she wore, her curves so enticing, I was practically salivating.
I wanted to throw her onto the bed and fuck her.
But it would be insensitive to rush into things. I’d heard her whimpers and cries over the phone when Kamikaze had her pinned. I heard him threaten to rape her right in the open. I didn’t have a visual on the moment, but the mental picture was enough to haunt me. She was the one who actually lived it. “I’ll send my men with you. They’ll keep you safe.”
“No.” She eyed a black dress hanging in front of her, but she didn’t take it. “I don’t trust anyone.”
“You can’t give up your part in the opera. Don’t let some asshole make you change your life.”
“It’s a small compromise not to be raped.” She shut the closet doors and turned back to me, her perfect tits on display.
It was hard to have a serious conversation with her when she looked like that. I kept my eyes locked on to hers and resisted the temptation to stare at her hard nipples and beautiful curves. “I’ll go with you.”
She tightened her arms across her chest, blocking her tits from view. “You will?”
I nodded. “I’ll sit in the audience. And then I’ll walk you to your car.” I wasn’t much better than a group of men assigned to the job, but she obviously felt more comfortable with me than anyone else. I had other things to do, like plotting my revenge against Kamikaze, but I couldn’t let Arwen give up all her joys because of her fear.
“You’d do that?”
“You must know by now that I would do anything for you.” When I drove to Florence to rescue her from Kamikaze, I was putting my life on the line. Anytime I went head-to-head with that man, it was a dangerous game. He didn’t play by the rules like everyone else, so you never knew what trick he might pull. He didn’t exactly have a code of ethics like most people. That was probably why he’d survived so many decades.
Arwen’s father’s cancer was a bit of unexpected luck, if you asked me. He’d died on a morphine drip in the hospital, holding his daughter’s hand as he passed peacefully in his sleep. If Kamikaze had gotten his hands on him, his death would have been excruciating.
“I just know you’re busy…”
“This isn’t forever.” I opened the doors of her closet and grabbed the black dress off the hanger. “I’ll take care of him eventually, and you’ll have your freedom back. You’ll have more freedom than you’ve ever had before.”
“When are you going to kill him?” She unzipped the back of the dress and began to step into it.
“Not sure yet.” How did you kill a monster like that without losing too many men in the process? If nuclear weapons weren’t so destructive, that would be a good option. “But let me worry about that.”