Black

“Why kill Cami?” I ask. “If you were pissed that my dad had an affair with Isabella, why kill an innocent kid?”

“I don’t think you understand how this works. I don’t give you answers, you give them to me. What else did your father do?”

“Oh, I understand how this works. But what you don’t understand is I have nothing to lose. You want an answer? First you give me what I want.”

His beady eyes narrow, a malicious grin tilting his mouth. “You’re a brave young woman, talking to me like that. Or stupid.”

I blink, refusing to play his evil game.

“You want answers? Fine. You and your sister were collateral damage. You got lucky because Rex was a fat fucker and couldn’t catch you.”

Everything cell inside of me burns with hate for this man. “Don’t talk about your son like that.”

“Aww, look at that, Isa,” he taunts. “She’s in love with our son.”

I grit my teeth, refusing to respond.

“Don’t worry, relationships can withstand just about anything, if you want it bad enough. Look at me and Isabella. We came to an understanding after her affair.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I see Isabella look away, and there isn’t a doubt in my mind that she was forced—or maybe threatened—to stay married to Sal. Either that or risk her own life.

And all this talk about relationships and Rex is making me second-guess coming here. I can practically hear him begging me not to do this, and I wonder… If I walked away now, could we move past this? Could we forgive and forget? I’m not sure. And then Sal opens his evil fucking mouth and the weakness dissipates, making room for a new wave of anger, and I know I’ve lost that opportunity—if it ever existed—because there’s no way in hell he’s letting me walk out of here.

“I never told Isabella I killed Luca. I didn’t even tell her I killed your mother.” His words are spoken with malice, his cruel eyes watching for my reaction, and he gets it.

My mouth falls open, and I jerk back as his words rip through my heart like a jagged knife. “Wh-what?” I stammer. “You…” I shake my head, unable to find words. “It was you? You killed my mother, you sick fucker?” I scream, bending at the waist. Bile rushes up my throat and I heave, but nothing comes out.

“Sal, no,” Isabella gasps.

“I wanted your father to feel the sort of pain I felt when I saw him fucking my wife. Isabella may think Luca loved her, but he didn’t. Luca’s loyalty was with your mother, so I hit him where it hurt the most. I took the most important person in his life—aside from you girls. But that backfired, didn’t it, Isabella? Because you two started seeing each other again. You just couldn’t get enough of him, could you? It’s your fault I killed her family,” he seethes.

Isabella shakes her head.

“There was one way to get Luca out of your life, and, well, you know how that story ends.”

Coldness washes over me, consuming my body, filtering through my veins, and settling around my heart as his words repeat in my head.

Hit him where it hurt.

Sal was obviously bothered by his wife’s indiscretions. What man wouldn’t be? For Sal it was worse because he was the head of the Salamanca crime family. How embarrassing that his wife screwed around with the head of the DiMarco crime family.

I can’t imagine how he’s going to react to the news that he’s been raising my father’s son as his own.

It’ll destroy him.

Hit him where it’ll hurt.

“Tell him, Isabella.”

Isabella’s breath catches as Sal’s eyes narrow on mine.

“Please, Shae, don’t do this,” she pleads.

“You don’t want to tell him? Fine, I will.”

Lips pinched in a tight line, I turn a malicious smile toward Sal. Isabella is screaming at me to keep my mouth shut, but I refuse to let her influence me. This is my time. My moment

to exact revenge on the man who killed my family, and I’ll be damned if I’m going to pass it up.