Ruthless Prince (Dark Syndicate 1)

And… how did she get everything together so quickly? Her fucking phone.

Betrayal.

I’ve killed for less than this, but this woman has my heart and my love. But she doesn’t know that. She doesn’t know I would never hurt her. That I can’t.

Doc continues to check her out, but she looks at me as tears roll down her cheeks. I have to walk out when I see that. I can’t stay. I have one more thing to attend to, and it’s not going to be nice. I walk past Tristan and Dominic in the hall. They both rush to me when they see me turn the corner and must know I’m heading for Candace’s room.

“Don’t,” Tristan says, grabbing my arm. “Don’t you fucking hurt her, Massimo.”

He shakes his head. Dominic glares at me too, his eyes pleading with me.

“She betrayed me, and look what could have happened,” I snap.

“It’s Candace,” Dominic hisses. Instantly, I think of the painting Ma made of the five of us playing in the meadow.

Us four brothers and the little girl who used to play with us. We treated her like a sister.

“Calm down, Massimo,” Tristan says. I wrench my arm free of his grasp.

They won’t do more than that. Out of respect, they won’t do shit because I’m boss, and regardless of who and what we are, they know what crossing me as boss could mean.

I head down to the room and all but break the door to get inside.

She’s sitting on the bed with her head hanging down, hands in her lap. She hasn’t flinched from my rage.

“How dare you do this to me?” I demand.

“Just kill me,” she says. “Just kill me. I won’t speak to you like this, so I won’t speak at all.”

She raises her head, stands up, and walks up to me.

“Go on, Ruthless Prince, take out your gun and end me. It would be easier if you did that. It’s always easy if a stranger takes your life over someone you know.”

My hands are fisted at my sides.

“We’ve known each other since we were kids,” I bark.

“And yet I don’t recognize you. I look at you, and I don’t know you. I don’t know this version of you, who you’ve become. You’re not the boy I used to play with in the meadows. You’re not the boy who promised to take care of me after my family was killed. So, please just kill me. Don’t I already owe you my life? So, take it.” As the last word leaves her lips, her eyes water.

She looks at me like she really thinks I’m going to do it. The look is expected, and I can’t believe I’m not, but her words halt me.

Her family was killed. She would be dead too if I hadn’t killed the fiend who came to kill her mother and father.

She was fifteen years old when it happened. I came in and saved her before he could rape and kill her. He was my

first kill. I chopped his head off when I saw him on top of her naked body. Her mother lay just across from her, half burned, and her father with his head paces away from his body. Somebody put a hit on their family. We’ve never been able to find out who it was.

She’s the oldest friend I have. To hear her say she doesn’t know me grips me to the core.

“Why did you do it?” I hear myself say.

“Because what you did was wrong. Regardless of what you feel for Emelia, you went after Riccardo through his daughter. You held her captive like an animal locked in her room. She didn’t deserve that. She was innocent in your game of vengeance, and I couldn’t stand by and allow her to not have a choice,” she answers.

I gaze back at her and press my lips together.

She’s… right.

“I didn’t know when she was going to do it, and I don’t know why she chose today. We spoke about it months ago,” Candace adds.