by Fawn Bailey
"Take it," I begged him. "Defend yourself."
"I can't," he admitted brokenly, a shaky smile lighting up his face. "This is how it was always meant to be, right? I would die for you, brother."
"I would die for..." I started, but the words faded and turned into an almighty scream as I tried to stop the drug from working its way on my body.
But there was no helping it. No way of stopping it.
The anger was back, the red mist descending again. I wanted to kill. I wanted to hurt.
I shifted my attention back to Jasper, breathing fast, shallow breaths.
With a scream, I threw myself at him and his eyes closed for the very last time.
I hit him until my fist hit the floor. Hit his face until it turned into mush beneath my knuckles, hit and screamed and punched and kicked at him until he was nothing but a bloody mess without a heartbeat.
Once I was done, my hands covered in blood and cuts, I staggered back. I raised my eyes to the window where the men were watching wordlessly, even my father surprised by what I'd done.
A lesser man would have cried.
I, on the other hand, was ready for the revenge.
Suddenly, I was showered in ice cold water, the sound of my father's laugh ringing through the window.
The shower he had promised me was coming through the sprinklers on the ceiling, rinsing the blood off my body and cleansing me from all my mistakes.
The effects of the drug were still there, but I did my best to stop them, or at least channel them into hurting the other men including my father.
The room was misty from all the water, and I kicked the now useless gun away from me as I threw myself at the window.
There were about eight men in that room, but the only one I cared about was my father. He was the one I wanted dead most of all.
I drove my shoulder into the window, the glass bending under my weight. I watched the color fade from those men's eyes, watched them asking my father whether they were safe. Watched my father nod and assure them they were, then made an excuse to leave the room.
I saw him lock the door behind him, causing the others to panic.
My father was gone, but there were still eight men that could pay for what he'd done to me.
I stared at them for a long time, letting the drug work its magic yet again. I stopped trying to make the smile go away, and grinned at the helpless men in front of me.
Eight to one, but I was young and strong, hopped up on the fucking drugs my father had given me. They didn't stand a goddamned chance.
As the artificial rain washed away the blood off me, I threw myself against the window again, causing panic on the other side of the glass.
Now they would pay.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Ryker
Ophelia sat next to me in the car, nervously twisting her hands in her lap as we drove towards our destination.
After finding out my father had been working with my head of security behind my back, I took some precautions of my own.
I contacted a man who'd been working for my father for years, though I knew he never agreed with Dad's more extreme practices. Somehow, I managed to convince him to work for me instead, and this time, what I'd done proved to be fruitful.
Nicolas told me where they were, that my father was keeping Kain at an old derelict factory we used to use ages ago, along with some more of his associates.
He also told me we needed to hurry. He wasn't a hundred percent certain what my father's intentions were, but he knew Kain wasn't going to survive for much longer.
Now that I finally knew what had prompted our truce, I was filled with anger and barely concealed rage for how my father had played me yet again. And more than anything else, I was worried by what Dad had done to Kain.
I could barely manage to look at Ophelia, knowing that she would never forgive me if something happened to him.
A part of me had started to accept that she would never be mine again.
Strangely, it hadn't happened overnight. Perhaps the realization itself had been sudden, but I'd had a nagging feeling about her loyalties since she'd stared out of that backdoor window in the car, watching Kain's figure fade into the landscape. It had taken me a long time to accept the truth, but I was ready.
Ready to say goodbye.
"Ophelia," I said, and she raised her eyes to me.
She looked pretty in a sapphire blue satin dress, even though I thought she should've dressed more sensibly. At least she wasn't barefoot. She wore dainty pink ballerinas with bows on top of them.
"Whatever happens today," I began. "I need to know something."
Her eyes widened and I realized she knew what I was talking about.
"You need to pick," I managed to get out. "You need to finally make a choice."
I had thought about the words so many times before, it should have been easy for them to come out, but they almost got lodged in my throat.
"Me or Kain, Ophelia?" I asked her, my voice barely above a whisper. "You need to pick between the two of us."
She was quiet, staring at me with her eyes wide open and her mouth set in a thin line.
"Speak," I hissed at her. "Look, Ophelia, I know you're not going to pick me. But you need to tell me. I need to hear it from your lips. I can't manage your lies anymore. I can't keep my eyes closed, pretending to ignore the truth."
She kept staring at me, not acknowledging my words apart from the tremble of her lower lip.
"Just say it," I begged her. "Tell me you pick him. Fucking... put me out of my misery."
She stared ahead stubbornly and I started to lose my patience.
I couldn't take it. I needed to get the fuck away from her.
I started to motion for the driver to stop when she leaned forward, grabbed my lapel and pulled me in close.
"I pick him," she said, the sweet scent of her breath a whisper against my lips. "Kain. I pick Kain."
She let me go and I sank back in my chair, unable to so much as move a single inch.
Despite having expected the words, I couldn't make sense of them.
The girl who had been hopelessly in love with me since we were children was turning me down, picking a fucking psychopath over me.
She had chosen wrong.
I would've made her happy.
"Fine," I replied smoothly, running a hand through my hair. "I will do everything in my power to help you save him. For you, Ophelia."
I wasn't hoping to change her mind, but the glimmer of hope she set off by touching her fingers to mine surprised me.
"Thank you," she said sweetly, and I returned her smile.
We spent the rest of the ride there in silence until we started driving down a sketchier part of town. The car sure as hell stood out there, although I couldn't even pretend to give a shit about that.
My mind was preoccupied with Ophelia.
The girl I would have done anything for, my life, my world.
First promised to my brother, then taken by another, and now ripped from my arms forever...
I needed to respect her choice, as many mental reminders as it took. When she looked at me with those big wet eyes, I knew she wasn't lying. The tears were never for show with Ophelia.
"Do you have your gun?" I asked her, and she lifted her dress to show me the gun tucked inside her lace panties.
My breath hitched, but I tried to play it off. She gave me a knowing smile.
Fucking tease.
Not only had she turned me down, she was trying to make my life even more difficult.
She'd never reminded me of the girl she used to be before Kain took her then right at that moment.
The car pulled to a stop, and we filed out of there along with two guards - the only two I trusted enough for this, Luca and Alessandro.
"We're getting word from up ahead," Alessandro told me. "Apparently there are just two men on watch. Everyone else has disappeared into the factory."
"You can take them down," I nodde
d at him and he agreed. "You, you're coming with us."
The other guy, Luca, walked in front of us, ushering us behind him.
We watched in silence as Alessandro took down both of the guards, and motioned for us to follow him.
I realized just how much of a mistake it had been to let Ophelia come with us, and I turned to her with a desperate expression.
In moments, she was shaking her head no.
"Please, Ophelia," I asked her. "This is going to be fucking dangerous. We're outnumbered. We'll get him out safely, just wait in the car."
She shook her head vehemently, but Luca seemed to see our argument and approached us.
"You don't want to take her in there," he said, shaking his head. "She'll be the first target. Let me wait outside with her."
I gave him a once-over, then looked at Ophelia.
"Yes," I finally nodded. "Take care of her."
She attempted to launch herself at me, but Luca caught her easily and pulled her back. I followed Alessandro down and into the belly of the building.
The factory was old and derelict, filthy as fuck.
We followed the barely-there sound of voices inside, coming closer and closer until we appeared in front of a glass wall.
I noticed him first - Kain, covered in blood, fucking enraged and snapping a man's neck in half before tossing his body to the ground. His hair was gone, but the stubble was still there. He turned his bloodthirsty eyes to mine, and as he stared into the depths of my soul, I realized our father had done something to him, something to turn him into a monster.
With a cry of rage, Kain threw himself to the window separating us from him.
Alessandro cursed, taking a protective stance in front of me as Kain cracked the window and let it shatter, giving no caution to the numerous cuts covering his arms and legs.
"Where is she?" she snarled as the glass broke all around. "Where is Ophelia?"
"Outside," I managed to get out. "What... what the fuck happened-"
"Shut the hell up," Kain growled at me. "Your father, he's still in there. Finish him off."
He stormed past me like a madman, and Alessandro and I stumbled into the other room.
Bodies of men I had known my whole life littered the floor, and I swallowed thickly, knowing one of them would have to be my father.
"Mr. Marino!" Alessandro called out. "Over-"
A gunshot rang out, and suddenly, my guard was on the ground.
I turned sharply in the direction of the sound, staring down the barrel of a gun held by my father.
"It always had to end like this," he smirked at me. "Father against son."
"Are you hurt?" I barked at him before I was able to stop myself.
He laughed bitterly.
"A bullet grazed my shoulder," he grinned. "I've taken worse. But the one in my stomach... Fuck me, that one hurts a whole fucking lot."
Regret and sadness filled my mind, and I turned to the side so my father wouldn't notice I still sympathized with him.
I'd always had trouble resisting the fatherly affection he sometimes offered me.
Daddy issues.
Max and me both.
"You're going to die down here unless I help you," I told him, and he glared at me.
"I'm well aware of that," he hissed.
"Are you going to ask me to help you?" I asked, and he shook his head, refusing to meet my eye. "So what you're saying is that I should just kill you now, is that it?"
"If you want to break your mother's heart," he said, making me glare.
"That's been broken a long time," I retorted.
"As far as I remember," Dad went on. "I'm still the one with the fucking gun. So why don't you come a little closer and fucking listen to what I have to say."
I took a step forward and he lowered his gun. His threatening voice changed in moments, speaking to me the way he used to when Max and I were children.
"Your man Luca?" he said, making me tense up. "Yeah, you should be worried. He works for me."
"He has been with me for ten years," I growled. "There's no fucking way. You're bluffing. He would never betray me."
"Oh, but he did," my father grinned slyly. "At the mere cost of his little sister... Wanted to protect her after what we did to the first one, you see."
I fought back the urge to throw myself at him, knocking him the fuck out in the process.
"And he has Ophelia, in case you forgot," he reminded me cruelly. "Now, he's going to bring her here, and we're going to play a little game."
"What about-" I started, then forced myself to stop.
He didn't have to know Kain was still out there.
"What about what?" he asked, and I shook my head.
"Is there anyone else here?" I asked, and he narrowed his eyes at me.
"The less you know, the better," he barked at me. "Now help me up."
He motioned for me to hurry up with his gun, and I hated myself for watching the way I helped him up. Blood spilled from his stomach and he groaned heavily as I helped him up. But there he was, still fucking alive, still as cruel as ever despite everything his famiglia had done to him. You had to give it to the man, he was fucking resilient.
"I don't usually come to parties without weapons," I told him, grabbing my waist. "I didn't make an exception today."
I pulled out my gun just as my father clicked the safety on his off.
We stared at one another, my father at the end of the barrel of my gun, and me at the end of his.
"Is this what it comes down to," he laughed bitterly. "My favorite son is going to kill me?"
"Might as well," I told him darkly. "If I don't, aren't you going to kill me?"
He hesitated before answering and I spat on the ground, fucking angrier with him than I'd ever been.
I needed to hope to fucking God Kain would get there before Luca did.
I needed to stall.
"I know what you're thinking," Dad said, and I froze. "But it's too fucking late to run."
With those words, he shot me.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Kain
I found Ophelia being led at gunpoint down the hallway.
Her eyes connected with mine, but the guard was checking if anyone was following them and didn't notice me as I slipped into a hallway, motioning for Ophelia to stay quiet. She gave a barely perceptible nod of her head, and as the guard roughly pushed her forward, I waited for them to pass me, and grabbed the guy by the throat when they did.
He choked on my grasp, and I slammed him against the wall.
"And now you fucking die," I told him in my best sing-song voice, grabbing his own gun and firing it at his head.
"NO!" Ophelia begged.
I turned my attention to her, the man dangling helplessly from my grasp.
"No?" I repeated. "You learned how to speak again, dolly?"
She glared at me, and then seemed to notice just how fucking terrible I looked.
She raised her little palms to her lips as I sat the sniveling guard down.
He didn't look eighteen to me.
"Run," I told him. "Fucking go."
He didn't need to be told twice, running off into the distance before I could change my mind.
Then, I turned my attention to Ophelia, not missing the tears that made her eyes look even wider than usual.
"Nothing that won't heal," I told her dismissively, and she bit her bottom lip, in a move I knew as well as the back of my own hand.
She was trying not to cry.
"Dolly," I whispered. "I fucking missed you."
"I..." The words lodged in her throat, but her eyes remained on mine, and I could handle it for much longer.
I grabbed her by the hand and pulled her against me, my lips finding hers.
She grabbed my hips, and for a second I was convinced she'd pull away, but as I started to kiss her, she stopped, her body sagging against mine and her mouth latching onto mine, kissing me deeply, like I was her life substance.
"Master," she whispered.
Even though I was fucked up as ever, I felt my heart soar, never having been happier than at that moment.
"We need to get out of here," I told her, pulling her in the direction of the exit.
"No," she said again, angrily shaking her head. "Ryker."
I groaned and ran a hand through my hair, realizing I'd lost all of it during Michael's torture. I hoped I'd killed that bastard.
"Fine," I hissed at her. "But I might just kill him afterward. Come on, I don't want you out there alone."
She followed me inside the building, and we heard voices coming closer and closer as we got deeper into the factory.
Ryker and our father seemed to be where I'd left them, and we entered the room to the sound of confusion.
"Where the fuck is that bastard," Michael growled.
"In the fucking ground where he belongs," I said. "And now you're going to fucking follow him."
"You can't kill me," he said, laughing out loud. "I have people everywhere. I can find an accomplice in any fucking room."
"Try us," I growled, and he gave me an angry gaze before turning his attention to Ryker and Ophelia.
"Did you know these two had a little secret?" he asked, and I smirked at the mention of it.
"Stop lying," I said. "I don't believe a word coming out of your fucking mouth."
"No?" he smirked. "Then you'd better ask them. So what will it be, little princess Ophelia? Are you hiding something from your one and only?"
She stared at me and I stared back.
There was something.
There had to be.
My eyes darted back to Ryker, and I felt the remnants of the drug working their course again.
"You slept with her?" I growled at him, and he shook his head.
But he was serious. There was something. Not quite as bad...
"I fucked Ginger," he told me.
"Of-fucking-course," I laughed bitterly. "You couldn't keep your pathetic, tiny little dick in your-"
"I watched."
I turned my attention to Ophelia, my heart beating loudly.
"You what?" I asked her incredulously. "When?"
"A few days ago," she admitted, and Ryker shuffled nervously behind her.
