I smirked eyeing his confused expression with glee. “You seem to be forgetting things, Nicolae.”
“What are you talking about? And I said fucking kill them. What are you waiting for?”
“They don’t take orders from you,” Nathaniel said as he stood walking over to help Justine to her feet.
Nicolae looked at each of us while I slid the gun across the table toward Nathan who grinned. He picked it up and looked back at his father who quickly reached for his own off the table. “Don’t.” Was all Nathan said before he cocked the gun aiming it at his father. “Or I add another hole to your face.”
He instantly dropped the gun with a look of annoyance. “What the fuck is happening here? What happened to my men?”
“You mean my men? You forgot as head of security I fired—or killed your men and hired my own,” I said watching the light in his eyes dim with the realization. I looked toward the guards and spoke my next command. “Guys, aim your guns at Mr. Versalie.” At my command the guns were drawn all aimed at Nicolae’s head.
“This is fucking bullshit.” He roared looking around at each and every one of us before his eyes landed on me. “How dare you. And you”—his eyes found Costas.— “you were supposed to be on my side.”
Costas shrugged with an uncaring expression on his face. “Never underestimate the power of us Donatellas,” he said strolling toward the door. “We may be dysfunctional, but we’re family, and family always stick together.”
I moved around the table and took Justine from Nathaniel who had been holding her up throughout the exchange. She gazed up at me with tired eyes when I moved my hand across her cheek. “You okay?” I whispered.
She glanced at Nicolae who was cursing at two guards who were now restraining him. “What the hell is going on?” she asked flicking her gaze back to me.
“Long story, but are you okay?”
She hit me with an annoyed stare. “I’m not made of glass, Andrea. I’m fine.”
“I didn’t say—”
I was cut short by Costas who strolled back into the room .“Nathaniel, either your little girlfriend is one of us, or somebody else is in this house.”
Nathaniel grew ridged with his brows drew together, before he stormed past and out the door.
Curious as to what Costas was talking about I glanced at Nathan who watched his brother leave before turning back to us.
“You good with that?” I nodded toward his father.
Nathan looked like a rabid animal as he slowly approached his father grinning from ear to ear. “I’ve been waiting for this all night. Nothing’s going to stop me from finishing it.”
With a curt nod I grabbed Justine by the hand and followed Nathaniel and Costas into the kitchen, but was surprised by what greeted me upon arrival.
The four of us moved around the room, blood and bodies everywhere but none of them were Izzy.
“Your girl did this?” I directed at Nathaniel who stood looking around with a sleeting expression on his face.
“No, Izzy wouldn’t do this. She wouldn’t kill Willow, the guards maybe but not Willow. This was someone else. I’m going to check the rest of the house.” He was gone before I even noticed.
“What the fuck is going on?” asked Justine eyeing the room before turning her angry gaze at me. “This entire thing was all planned?”
I smirked. “What can I say? I’m a sneaky bastard,” I said playfully trying to lighten the mood, but she wasn't having it, looking rather pissed. “What?”
“You knew I was FBI? You’re a fucking Donatella?”
I sighed. “Look, we can talk about this later, but as for right now.” I placed my arms around her, tilting her head up to look at me. “I’m just glad you’re okay.” I leaned in placing a tender kiss on her lips, that quickly became hungry when I tasted her mouth. God, this woman was my kryptonite, which made me sick to think what would have happened to her had the plan failed.
A clearing throat pulled me from my daze and we pulled apart. Costas stood with a stupid smirk on his lips as he leaned against the counter. “Always Andrea to take a fucked up situation and to try and seduce a woman.”
I scowled. “Fuck off.”
“So you two are really cousins?”
I sighed. “Sadly yes. The pain in my ass couldn’t belong to anyone else.”
“They love me. They're just afraid to admit it.”
Nathaniel returned with a pissed off look on his face while checking the bullets of a gun before tucking it into the back of his pants. “She’s not in the house. Which means whoever did this took her.”
“How do you know she didn’t just leave on her own?” asked Costas.
He glared at him with a harden jaw. “She wouldn’t. She would have waited for me—”
The sound of a ringing phone cut him off as the four of us looked at each other, before Costas pulled his phone from his pocket. “It’s Leo,” he said touching the screen and placing it against his ear.
“About fucking time,” cursed Nathaniel.
“Ciao fratello.” Costas who was grinning as he answered started pacing the room but paused for a few minutes while his face grew serious. “Si.” They exchanged a few more words and Costas nodded before hanging up, pocketing the phone.
He focused on Nathaniel with a grim expression on his face. “Nathaniel, Leo found Izzy.”
“Where is she?”
“We should go.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Izabella
I hated surrendering, but what choice did I have when he was dragging me with a gun pointed to my head? Pulling on my arm he forced me out of the house and into the pouring rain, which was where I discovered more bodies scattered across the yard. Christopher had killed them all and suddenly it was as if I was seeing him in another new light. All that he’d revealed, all that he’d done to me, and all that I’d seen of him made him an enemy. A very dangerous one. There was no reasoning with him, and when he pulled me into his car that was parked all the way out by the road, and slammed the door, I knew what I had to do.
I immediately tried to open the door when I watched him move around the car to the other side. The stupid door wouldn’t budge and I couldn’t find the lock. He slid into the driver's seat and started the engine before pulling onto the dark secluded road.
“So I guess kidnapping is another thing to add to your long list of misdemeanours.”
He chuckled glancing at me before turning back to the road. “Wouldn’t be the first.”
“Oh, that’s right this is the second time. Tell me something, what are you hoping to gain from all this?” I turned to look at him. “Because I’m assuming the first time you took me was for yourself but somehow I ended up here.”
“The first time I took you, yes my intent was to keep you for myself but my father had other ideas. He was the one that sold you, not me.”
“Is that supposed to make me feel better?” I said bitterly.
“Just giving you the truth.”
“Well the truth kind of sucks either way. I mean can’t you understand that what you did and what you’re doing now is wrong?”
He glared at me briefly before looking back at the road. The lonely winding road stretched on for miles without any sign of life. We were so isolated that even if I did escape this car, the possibility of being found would take hours. Especially if everyone back at the house was dead.
A sadness gripped me at the thought of Nathaniel being back there. He would have been the first to notice I was gone, and in his mind he would have wanted me to escape even if he was still upset about the truth. I wondered if the others knew I was gone by now. Had everything blown up? Was everyone dead?
“What’s wrong, is you not believing me.”
I rolled my eyes annoyed that he was bringing up the same issue again. “Not this again.”
“Yes this again, Izzy.” He flicked his crazed gaze to me longer than before and I almost thought he wasn’t going to look at the road again.
The car swerved as my heart rate accelerated while I watched between him and the road.
“We’re going to have this conversation as many times as I like until you see the truth.” He turned back to the road.
“I have seen the truth and thanks to you I wish I didn’t.” I sighed. “What do you want me to say?”
“Say that there is a chance. I did all this for you. I got rid of your mother because she was poison. She took too much from you and there was no saving her, you have to see that. I got rid of her useless drug dealer too—”
My head snapped in his direction. “You killed Remy?”
“Yes, the guy was an asshole, Izzy. He was the reason your mother was always getting high.”
“So you killed him then my mother?” I mumbled staring out at the road still not believing what he was saying.
“They were poison—”
“She was my mother,” I said in a harsh tone. He was so disgusting to me at the moment that I truly had to force myself to look at him. “Don’t you understand? It doesn’t matter. She was my mother, mine— and you took her from me. Am I supposed to forgive you for that?” I turned away.
“Izzy—”
“Don’t. You’re selfish.”
“What?”
“I said you’re fucking selfish. All you care about is what you want. You take everything from me, you put me in the hands of that man and still expect me to forgive you. To take you back.”
“It doesn’t matter,” he said so soft I almost didn’t hear.
“What?”
“I said. It. Doesn’t. Matter.”
“And why is that?”
With a sideways glance, his eyes got darker and his grip on the staring wheel tightened. For a beat he said nothing grinding his teeth as the man I knew completely vanished and in his place was another monster about to plague my existence. I had to get away.
The car started accelerating, his fingers gripping the wheel until his knuckles were white. In the distance I noticed a light, it was faint and with the rain pounding on the windscreen from what I could tell it seemed so far away, that it almost didn't look real. Either fear was causing me to hallucinate, or something was fast approaching. I didn’t think Christopher noticed because he was so focused on me I doubted he even saw anything else.
“Because if you hadn’t noticed. I don’t care what you want. I have done everything for you,” he shouted incoherently glowering at me. “I have killed for you, and right now you’re being an ungrateful bitch. Do you think I like being this way? Constantly going fucking crazy over one girl who chose to spread her legs for every man but me.” He pounded on the steering wheel. “I love you, Izzy can’t you understand that—.”
His words faded in my head while the silent night and engine running took me into a trance. All I knew was that this was the end for one of us. If I let him take me there would be no coming back. I would be his, stuck being whatever he wanted me to be, stuck living a life I didn’t want, stuck being a prisoner all over again. I would be lost. Never being Izabella or Slick. Never seeing Nathaniel. Never feeling true love.
One of us had to die. And hopefully it wasn't me.
The light that was once so far got nearer and I gazed at it. It was approaching little by little until it was so close I could finally see what it was. It was then that I knew what I had to do. I rather be dead than be his forever.
In that moment I grabbed the steering wheel, pulling it in my direction as he yelled for me to let go, but I wouldn’t, I couldn’t. I had to end it, and I had to do it now if there was any chance for me at all.
There was a loud bang, and then we were spinning out of control before coming to a complete stop when the car wrapped around a tree.
The last thing I saw was that light, before everything went dark.
Chapter Thirty
Nathan
Oh how I longed for this moment. Since I was twenty-two and realized I had this crazy obsession with making my enemies scream, I'd always wondered what my father's scream would sound like. Most of the men I’d dealt with in the past were raging psychopaths and monsters, and not your everyday run of the mill boogie man. They were the ones that took you and tore you apart until there was nothing but flesh, blood and bone seeping from your skin. It gave me this sense of satisfaction knowing that underneath the money, power and pride, they were only human. Just like everyone else. They were only humans who had forgotten they were human, by thinking they were gods. How stupid they were.
“You think you could break me boy. I raised you. I made you who you are.” He was scared. Trying to use reverse psychology on me like he had done so many times in the past, but it wasn’t going to work. I wasn’t a kid any more. I was a man and the things I feared back then were only child’s play compared to now. He needed to fear me after what he’d done to Jovana. She was mine, and he destroyed her with one blow to the head. How could I forgive that? How could I forget? His days of destroying peoples lives were over. It was time for him to repent. I was in charge now.
The guards dragged him off to the basement. It wasn’t your average basement where you would store all the junk you never wanted to see again. My father's basement was one of his favourite places in the house. It was where he felt like a king, surrounded by the only subjects who would ever bow down to him. His slaves.
Dampness and darkness filled with metal walls and bars, this was his sanctuary. There was only one way in and one way out and it was through a handprint on a keypad by the door. Nathaniel had already deactivated our father's handprint long before this fiasco, since he hadn't been down here in months. There hadn't been slaves here for just as long, so he had no reason to be here, and now this was going to be his final destination before his permanent stay in hell.
One of the guards unlocked the door to an eight by ten cell and shoved him inside, closing and locking the door after I stepped in. Nicholae's hands were cuffed behind his back so he couldn't catch his balance and slammed into the wall. While he tried to stand upright, I approached him pointing the gun and his feet, and popping one bullet in each of his expensive shoes. He screamed, my fist connecting with his jaw before he even had time to look up. Another punch to the stomach had him grunting and crouching forward, and another to the face had him spitting blood. “Not so talkative now are you?” I sneered.
His back hit the wall, pain ridding his features before he glanced at me grinning wide with his teeth coated with blood. “Still a pussy I see. Why don't you uncuff me and let me fight back?”
I snorted a laugh. “Because this is not your show. You had your fun, played your little mind game. Took what was mine.” At the thought of Jovana's dead body upstairs, I attacked with a few more hits to the face which left him sliding down to the floor. There was a gash on his right cheek, his nose and lip were bleeding and his eye was beginning to swell, but that wasn't enough. He wasn't as nearly as unrecognizable as Jovana was, and we couldn't have that.
“You mean that bitch upstairs.” He laughed humourlessly while shaking his head and grunting from the pain in his feet as he stretched his legs out in front of him. “I did you a favor—”
I had been pacing withy hands behind my back, but paused cutting him off. “I didn't ask for your favors did I?”
He shrugged trying to push himself up. “I figured it was implied.”
With my jaw clenched I blinked at him. “Why did you really do it?”
He was looked at the floor, but tilted his head to find me. “I don't what you mean.”
“Lets cut the shit, you and I both know that there were other people at that table. You could have shot anyone, but you chose her to fuck with me. Why?”
“You were always my favorite, Nathan. I pushed you harder than your brother, because you had the potential to be just like me. You saw things the same way I did, I mean look at what you're doing to me. You think that given the chance your brother could have done this?” He grinned with half-lidded eyes. “He would quicker put a bullet in me than de
al with this song and dance, but not you, you want to skin me open and leave my organs out for some wild animal to feed on me, while I looked on.” He was right about that, and maybe I just might do that when this was all over.
“What's your point?”
“You were my favorite, but you also disappointed me the most. I had to teach you a lesson.”
Anger had me surging forward and grabbing him by his shirt before dragging him up against the wall. I hated that most of what he'd said was true. I was the most like him, I did want to be him, but not anymore. I refused to let him win, because this was where it ended.
I slammed his face into the wall before shoving my gun into his face. “I am nothing like you. I could end this right now if I wanted to, but that's exactly what you want isn't it? You're trying to get into my head, but not this time. Your death is going to be slow and painful.” I released him with a forceful shove in the other direction.
He landed on his side, laughing as if he was winning this game, so my foot connected with his ribs in a series of kicks before I stumbled back, breathing heavily and wiping the sweat from my nose. “You never give up do you?”
After a few deep breaths he opened his eyes. “You had to admit, I almost had you.”
“Almost being the key word. I'm not your puppet. Never was.” I turned away facing the door and taking a few deep breaths, trying to calm the need to empty my gun in his chest. The man was insufferable, and even nearing death his cockiness didn't dwindle.
“Don't fool yourself, Nathan. It's like I said, between you and your brother, you were the easiest to manipulate. Just like your mother.” At the mention of our mother I turned slowly watching his crumpled body on the floor with narrowed eyes. “What? Don't like me talking about her?”
I bared my teeth and rushed over, grabbing him up again and slamming him into the wall. “You're already on thin ice. Say something else, I dare you.” With his eyes closed, but teeth still showing, he remained silent, so I dropped him stepping back. I needed some air, because suddenly these walls were closing in faster than I'd expected.
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