Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 77066 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 385(@200wpm)___ 308(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77066 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 385(@200wpm)___ 308(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
I don’t say a word. The man doesn’t need confirmation. He seems more than a little informed.
I look back to Mads, wondering how much information she gave him, and how much effort it took to pull it out of her. My hope would be she talked before he had to cause her any harm. I’d never want her to suffer to defend me. She’s not supposed to be the protector. I am, and I’ve failed her.
Her tears are a constant stream down her face, and I have to look away from her. It pains me too much to see her so broken, both of us so close to our end.
“Seth here,” Alessio says, pointing at the guard with the gun to Donavan’s head. “Got a speeding ticket. Patrick Baker, the shithead cop that pulled him over was kind of an asshole.”
My blood runs cold. The reasoning Patrick tried to convince the district attorney’s office can’t possibly be the reason, but Alessio confirms it is.
“He needed to be taught that discretion is best used when anyone connected to the Severino family is concerned,” Alessio continues. “I let Seth fuck her first. She screamed for her daddy when he stuck his cock in her. She begged for mercy when I took her ass. She was silent by the time the fifth guard got a hold of her.”
“That was a great night, boss,” Seth says, making my stomach turn.
“I can still hear her screams, the whimpering and whining. Even after all this time. I guess it’s true,” Alessio says, stepping closer to Mads and running the tip of his blade across her shoulder. I can’t tell if he cut her or if the tiny red stain now marking her skin was from the wound on his own hand. “You never forget your first.”
He takes a step away, but his proximity is still too fucking close to her.
“Maybe I’ll test that,” he says, looking at her. “How do you feel about doing the honor with lover boy over there?”
“Alessio, please,” Mads begs, but it’s not in a way that she’s asking for the opportunity. She looks like she’s seconds away from puking.
“Oh sweetheart. I’ll let you kill Elio over there also,” Alessio says. “But honestly, he’s been one foot out of the grave since Marcello had fun with his girl.”
Donavan stiffens which is a feat, considering how rigid the man already was.
“Do it,” Seth says, moving his finger from the side of his handgun to the trigger when Donavan clenches his fists. “I fucking dare you.”
Alessio chuckles when Donavan remains still.
“He won’t risk it,” Alessio tells Seth. “You remember how much he cried, not saying a word, the night we watched Marcello cut his unborn baby from that bitch’s stomach?”
Madelene gasps, her eyes darting to her brother. She didn’t have a clue about an unborn baby. I have to presume he’s referring to Maya who she believed was Marcello’s first kill. But for a man to be able to do that, he had to have had prior experience.
“The way—”
Alessio’s words halt at the sound of gunfire.
Chapter 34
Madelene
I scream although I know it won’t help the situation at all. I’m no stranger to gunfire, but the echo of it fills the room unexpectantly.
I can’t bear to look over at Hollis, knowing I’m going to find him dead in a heap on the floor. Pain, unlike anything I’ve ever felt before, grips my chest, my eyes squeezed tight as if it won’t be real if I keep them shut forever.
“Goddamn it, Alessia! He was one of my favorite men!”
I snap my eyes open just as a feminine laugh fills the room.
Hollis is still glaring, his eyes filled with a little more shock and less fury than before as Alessia, my betrothed’s twin sister, walks from the doorway to join our group.
Alessio doesn’t seem bothered by the gun in his sister’s hand, her eyes locked on Seth’s crumpled body next to Elio’s still-kneeling form.
“He’s been with the family for decades. Do you know how hard it is to find really good help?”
She points her gun at Nash, the man that barged into Hollis’s little hideaway home and forced us to Angel’s office several days ago. It seems like a lifetime has passed since then.
“He killed Arnold,” Alessia informs everyone.
Alessio glares at the accused man. “Are you fucking kidding me?”
“Shot him right between the eyes,” the woman confirms.
Arnold didn’t do much more than run errands for Lucian, but he was a fucking creep. His eyes tracked me every time I walked into a room and not in a grandfatherly way one would expect from a man of his age.
Nash looks smug as Alessio points his knife at him, as if challenging the man to attempt his revenge for Arnold’s death.
“Dad’s going to be pissed,” Alessio says.
“Your father is dead,” Elio snaps.