“You’ll move on,” he whispered to no one. It had to be no one because I wasn’t listening to a fucking word he said. The second I got the chance, I would leave. I would run. I would escape his hold. There was now no doubt in my mind he was a living, breathing monster—far worse than the ones you heard about in fairytales.
“I hate you.” I spat the words at him, hoping they would hit him with the intensity of my fist.
“Get in fucking line,” he spat back at me without remorse in his words.
“He was everything to me. He was my father. My fucking father. You killed the last living member of my family—for revenge? Do you feel better? Does hurting me make your heart red again?” I screamed these words across the center console, tears streaming down my face so heavily I couldn’t see anything. There was a fist-sized hole punched through my chest by the very man I loved.
Eventually the car settled into silence, but I refused to shut up. I refused to be anything but angry and sad. I was hurting. I was breaking and it was his fault. All his fucking fault.
Wiping away the tears so I could see the face of the monster, I stared into a pair of warm honey-colored eyes. “When I look at you, I see a small boy out on a mission to bring the world to its knees. To take anyone and everything out—anything undeserving of your attention. But maybe, just fucking maybe, it’s you who’s undeserving of the rest of us. Maybe it’s you who needs to take a look around and realize the world owes you nothing. And killing people like my father gets you nothing. It doesn’t make you feel better. It causes you to lose the most important person in the world to you—me.”
I watched as his knuckles gripped the steering wheel with strength I had never seen before. Was he going to kill me next, too? Would it even matter? I wasn’t sure I would care at this point.
“This is the life of the Mafia, Bree. This is what happens when someone betrays someone. You knew I was on the hunt for someone. You knew if I found him, I would kill him. It just so happened to be bad luck it turned out to be your father.”
My eyes felt as if they were about to roll out of my head as I listened to him. He wasn’t even sorry. It sounded more like a I’m-sorry-I-Killed-Your-Dad-But-It-Had-To-Happen thing.
“Do you hear yourself?”
“Do you?” he screamed back, his face growing red with anger.
“Let me go.”
“Fuck you, Bree,” he growled, ignoring my comment as he turned the car on, threw it into reverse, and pulled out of my driveway. We hadn’t even talked about what had happened to him, to me. Hours ago, I would’ve been glad to know he was alive and wanted to save me, but now—now I wanted to be the one to put the bullet in his head and bury him six feet under.
“I will never love you again. You’re the dirt beneath my feet,” I whispered my voice dark and unsettling.
For a moment, I didn’t think he heard me, but then a sigh escaped his lips. I directed my attention to the road while I allowed the tears desperately wanting to fall to build inside of me. I would rather drown myself than look weak in the face of someone like him.
“The funny thing about it is you love me anyway.” I could practically see the smile on his face, and it made me sick. It made my insides twist into a hateful rush of anger.
Seething, I refused to say anything else, allowing myself to think more about my father. I wasn’t even given a chance to say goodbye. My heart ached. How could I move on from this?
Pushing myself further into my seat, I heard Zerro’s phone ring. My mind wondered who it could be. Had he already called someone to bury my father?
“What?” Zerro growled his face contorted in anger as he switched his hands on the steering wheel so he could talk and drive. I could hear the person on the other end yelling.
“I told you I was going out,” Zerro mumbled focusing on the road and ignoring me. More talking on the other end and then a loud sigh filled the car. “Yeah, because I already killed him. I have her in the car with me.”
Turning, I narrowed my eyes at him. Who else had known about this plan? Were there more people? There were a lot of questions unanswered. I really wish I could’ve asked my dad why he did it. Why he caused this big huge blowout. I wish Zerro would’ve let him talk.
“What the fuck?”
I listened as intently as I could and watched Zerro’s face go white as a sheet. Whatever was being said on the other end wasn’t something I wanted to hear I was sure. I had suffered enough heartache for the day. For a lifetime.
More talking on the other end and my mind began to wonder. What could be going on? Zerro’s eyes looked worried, and from a single look, I knew whatever was being said would shake the already unstable ground we were standing on.