Chapter Thirty-Four Larissa #2
“You see, I was born into this,” I explain to the man standing opposite me, as well as who ever else is watching, “so I had no fucking choice but to become a successor. The irony is that men are such fucking fools when they reach a certain level of power that they believe that there should be some test of legacy to bestow on any inheriting heir, birthright or none. But at the end of the day, all this is, Papa, is a transference of power. And in our world, there’s one thing you did teach me, that I made sure to take into my inherited black heart—you have to take that power.
” I grin wickedly at Ciro as my last omission spills from my lips.
“I was already donna before I fucking got here.”
Ciro’s eyes widen as I tilt my head, briefly absorbing his misery.
“See, hypothetically,” I continue, my tone void of all life, “if I were a normal girl with a crush who grew into a woman worthy of being loved by a man like that, that’s how I’d have played it.
But as it turns out, this part isn’t hypothetical”—I lift my gun to my father’s forehead—“because a normal girl wouldn’t have to do so much to prove herself. ”
Pressing the barrel painfully into Ciro’s skull, I barely register the frantic call of my name by the man standing feet away. “Questo è per mia madre, bastardo.” This is for my mother, you bastard!
Tyler flinches as the shot ricochets between us, releasing me and every one of Ciro’s victims as my father’s reign of terror ends.
Release floods me as his lifeless body falls to the ground, and I allow it to fuel me further.
Turning the screen toward me, I spot his blood splatter dotting my neck and chest, making sure anyone watching has a clear view of my expression before powering it off.
Dropping the screen at my feet, I fire two shots into the glass, making sure to kill the signal.
It’s when I glance back up that I see the bewilderment on the face of the man I’ve loved from afar since I was seventeen.
Staring through me, he continues to search himself and our time together.
Retracing every step, every minute since I knocked on his door, utterly motionless as I give him the last of my truth.
“I couldn’t tell you about the filth covering my skin, because I wanted so much for you to touch it and not be revulsed by me.
But if a woman who went to such lengths can be so viciously used, betrayed, and discarded by the man she hoped could see beyond it”—I lift my chin—“then I can understand why you have no use for ever feeling this way again.”
A strangled grunt escapes him as I drop my gun at his boots. “I’ll only ask you once more to spare my brother, because he deserves the chance I never had. I’m the last one, Tyler. Pull the fucking trigger.”
“Tyler, don’t!” a voice shouts through the trees.
“Larissa!” Daniello booms as Tyler’s chest starts to heave, his eyes frantically searching for deception that was never there.
“I’m the last one, Tyler,” I remind him. “Finish your mission.”
Pieces of his deception click into place.
Smoke and mirrors. Isolation. Manipulation.
He used everything I gave him to uncover my secrets, to eradicate any threat to his club and himself.
And I let him because I loved him. Even after suspecting his deception, I fed the illusion and hope of that teenage girl.
Candy from a baby. I deserve to fucking die.
“Thank God I’m not that normal girl, that this was all hypothetical. We played a good game, don’t you think? End it,” I snap.
“Don’t you fucking dare!” Daniello shouts, and it’s then that I know they all heard our full exchange, bearing witness to my humiliation. Their screams and mixed shouts rise around us as I stare Tyler down, allowing the pain fueling me to keep me upright, my chin lifted.
“Your move, if you want your vengeance, you better hurry.”
“Larissa, no!” Tula shouts as I take another step toward him and lift my chin in taunt.
“End this!”
“Peter is alive!” Russell shouts the truth I’ve purposely kept mute since I saw that empty bottle in my palm. A truth that rings clear now, along with the mixed confessions ricocheting between us. Offsetting everything he believed with what he now knows.
Tyler blinks as it settles in, the metal in his eyes dissolving entirely as his lips slowly part on my name.
“Obey your own orders and finish your mission!” I yell.
When his eyes drop, I take a step closer, refusing him the retreat.
“We both know you never lose, Gunnery Sergeant Jennings, never disobey a direct order, especially your own. Finish it!” I roar as he searches and searches for his obvious miscalculation.
The one thing he refused to factor into his strategy, never once truly believing it for what it was for me—love.
Tyler’s gun slips from his grip, thudding at his boot just as a dozen or more people breach the trees. My name falls in a broken croak from his lips as he gets his first clear view of me. A view I’ve been begging him to see since the night we met and he started our war.
An instant later, we’re surrounded. Raised guns pointed in all directions as Ravens and DiGiovannis begin screaming at one another at the top of their lungs.
Within the commotion, Tula makes a beeline straight for Tyler, slapping him viciously the second she reaches him. His eyes remain on mine as he easily absorbs the blow while venom spews freely from her lips. “You goddamned fool! You couldn’t believe a word she said!? Not one!?”
“You touch him again and you’ll deal with me!” a woman I recognize as Cecelia screams as Tobias restrains her from charging Tula.
“Tula, step back!” Daniello snaps, twin Glocks raised at two Ravens who start to close in, their own guns at the ready.
“Stand down!” Tobias orders them both. “Right fucking now! Tula, stop this!” Tobias implores her as her rage overtakes her.
“You all have no honor!” she thunders in a rare outburst. One I’m certain her captains have never seen. “We told you we were sincere! We kept our word! Alonzo shot first because no trust was given!”
“Tula, I told you, Peter acted on his own!” Tobias shouts in an attempt to reason with her.
“That does not justify this fool’s actions.” She points a damning finger at Tyler, though her next threat is for him and everyone within earshot. “When you discover what a fool you are, stay the fuck away or I’ll start a war you’ve never experienced!”
“Don’t you dare threaten us!” Cecelia shouts. “You have no idea what we’re—”
“There are two sides to that,” Tula warns Cecelia, “and you have no idea how narrow-minded you are in that respect, girl.”
“Trésor, please take a breath,” Tobias pleads. “Tula, this is a fucking misunderstanding.”
“I don’t give a fuck!” she shouts, finally turning in his direction. “You drag us into this, offering alliance, and this is how you treat your allies?”
“None of us could have anticipated this!” Cecelia shouts. “No one, which makes you the one being unreasonable!”
“Cecelia,” Tobias intercepts, pulling her protectively behind him as Russell helplessly lifts his hands while stepping into the direct line of crossfire. A blond Raven—whose name evades me—does the same, his eyes heavy on my profile.
“Stop! We’re all on the same fucking side, stop!” Russell implores as violence continues pulsing in the air surrounding us.
“You’re delusional, boy,” Tula snaps to Russell. Utterly unfazed by the possibility of flying bullets, she keeps her lethal glare on Tobias. “Your failure has cost you, King.”
“It was a rogue mistake,” he reasons again, “we had no way of knowing the truth of this!”
“Which only proves no trust was given!” Turning, she begins stalking toward me, and the Marine she left in her wake keeps his eyes bolted to me, utterly unmoving.
“We’re leaving,” Tula announces as Tommaso lowers his guns, falling in stride behind her as the rest of her captains cover her back while she stalks toward me. Her threat trailing her. “And don’t even think to follow us, or you’ll never recover the consequences!”
“Good riddance,” Cecelia spits icily from behind Tobias, who whirls on her.
“Goddamnit, Cecelia, stop!”
The two of them begin to fight as Tobias yanks her away from the bulk of the crowd, barking his order at his back. “Let them go … Denny. I said stand the fuck down!”
Lowering his gun as ordered, he gets lost in the crowd of bodies as Tyler’s penetrating gaze clutches mine. Scouring the man standing feet away one last time in a thorough sweep, I rip my gaze away just as Tula grips me and pulls me firmly to her side.
“Don’t you dare look back. You were in love with a figment of your fucking imagination!”
“He didn’t know!” Russell shouts in reply. “Larissa, you know he didn’t know! How could he?”
“Russell, stop,” Tobias interjects. “There’s no point, brother,” he utters in defeat. “Let them go.”
Let them go.
Let him go.
Game over.
It dawns on me as I stalk away from the man I ran toward for nearly a decade of my life—that in the wake of his declared war on me, he did grant my freedom.
And though Ciro’s gone, the darkness I’ve evaded for the entirety of my life, the very void I kept at bay, beckons me now, promising asylum. Recognizing the numbing sanctuary it offers, I allow its tendril-black whispers to engulf me just as my newly gained freedom starts to ring.