Ruthless Prince (Dark Syndicate 1)

“So, you betray us because I chose Massimo. I am your father!” Pa grits, sounding like he’s talking with his last breath.

“No,” Riccardo says, straightening up. “You aren’t. You aren’t his father. I am.”

I don’t know how many shocks I can take in this one spell of shit. I don’t know what door I walked through that landed me in this dimension. This can’t be real. None of it. None of this shit is real.

It can’t be.

“It’s not true.”

“But it is,” Andreas answers. “And now I’ll get everything.”

“How could you—” Pa doesn’t get to finish. Riccardo fires a bullet straight into his head, and as my father’s blood splatters all over me, a piece of me dies.

Inside, I’m screaming and shouting. The sound doesn’t escape though. I tremble and quiver from deep within, unable to believe that I’m holding my father dead in my arms.

Pa…

“I have an idea for this one,” Riccardo says. “He said I’d have to tie him up to beat him. Let’s do that.”

Andreas lunges at me. I try to block his moves, but I’m already too weak. He gets on top of both Pa and me then hits my temple hard twice with the back of his gun.

Helpless, powerless, useless. I go down.

Emelia is my last thought. They’re going to take her. I promised I’d protect her. I can’t.

Darkness surrounds me.

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Emelia

I’m starting to worry.

Massimo has been gone for hours, and I’m on edge again. Like a ghost, I roam the house from one room to the next trying to calm myself and find something to do to distract myself.

Painting usually does that for me, but I can’t even think of what I might paint to take my mind away. That never happens. I’ve never been in a situation before that painting couldn’t fix.

This is a first.

Maybe it’s because I’m about to lose another parent. One who is already dead to me in my heart. As I read that contract, all the love I had for my father died. It faded into the ether. I couldn’t believe how truly despicable he was.

I just wish Massimo were here.

The place is heavily guarded. Guards were stationed at the front door when we got back this morning.

I’m supposed to be safe here, but to me there’s nowhere safer than with him.

It’s strange how that happened. Oh, so strange.

Deciding to go see how Pricilla is doing, I make my way downstairs. Earlier, she invited me to bake cookies with her, but I wasn’t feeling up to it. I’ll gladly do it now to take my mind off what’s happening.

I enter the kitchen and stop in my tracks by the door when my gaze lands on Vlad sitting at the breakfast table, eating cookies.

Oh my God… what is he doing here? Inside the house?

His appearance gets to me the same as it did the night I first met him at the charity ball.

Little did I know then what was in store for me.