Chapter Seventeen
Sergio
I was out of the car before the driver even stopped. My mind was a blur of nothing but worst-case scenarios. However, the only image that kept replaying in my head was Seraphina bleeding out, her breath so shallow that I didn’t know how long she had left.
It had happened before.
When my father’s men stormed her home looking for our nephew, I almost lost my mind. It was my fault he even knew where they were staying, and she paid the price for my mistake. By the time I arrived, Giancarlo was gone, and she was fighting for her life.
Even though she married that motherfucker and she hadn’t forgiven me for what I had done, I promised I would always keep her safe. No matter where I was in life or where she was, her safety was my top priority. And it was a promise I planned to keep.
The front door was open, swinging like someone had just gone through it or maybe from the light breeze.
I didn’t slow down or think as my pulse pounded inside my ears.
“Stop!” Finley shouted behind me. “Sergio!”
But I didn’t. If someone was inside armed, I’d just have to take that bullet. I’d crawl through the fire for Seraphina. And if I was too late, I wouldn’t survive.
“Seraphina!” I pushed open the door then rushed inside. “Seraphina!”
A creak sounded from the second floor, and I took the stairs two at a time.
“Fuck!” Finley shouted, his footsteps sounding behind me. “Goddamn it, Sergio! Are you trying to get yourself killed!”
No, but dying wasn’t at the forefront of my mind at the moment. Only Seraphina mattered.
When I reached the bedroom she’d been staying in, Kai was inside leaning against the wall with a gunshot wound to the shoulder, and Dr. Vlahos was sprawled across the floor.
“Where’s Seraphina?” I asked.
Kai glared at me, holding his hand against his wound. “Is that all you’re fucking worried about! I’m sitting here fucking bleeding.”
“It’s a fucking shot to the shoulder. Stop crying like a little bitch and tell me where Seraphina is!”
I was losing my patience. The longer I stood here trying to get information out of Kai, the longer it would take to find her.
“I can just check the footage,” Finley said from behind me.
I whirled around. “What footage?”
“I had the place wired since we weren’t going to be here all the time just to keep an eye out. But we’ve been so busy, I haven’t had the time to go through the recordings. I thought I told you.”
“I want to see the cameras now.”
I heard grunts, and I turned my attention to Kai as he walked towards me. I couldn’t decipher the look in his eyes, but it looked like fear. “I need a doctor,” he said.
“Finley will patch you up.” I turned back to Finley. “Show it to me.”
Kai grabbed my arm, forcing me to focus back on him.
“You need to let her go, Sergio,” Kai said.
“That bitch tried to kill me. She’s proven she doesn’t want to be here with you.
What’s it going to take for you to see you don’t need her?
What’s it going to take to see you have everything you need right in front of you? ”
“This isn’t a conversation I’m having with you, Kai. And if she wanted to kill you, you’d be fucking dead. I taught her how to shoot a gun when she was sixteen fucking years old. Trust me, she wouldn’t have missed.”
I yanked my arm away, but he grabbed me again which made me suspicious. It was like he wanted to stop me from going after her. He should know by now, I’d never stop until she was with me.
“What are you hiding?” I asked.
“Really, Sergio?”
“Yes, Kai. You’ve had an issue with Seraphina for a long time, and I’ve dismissed it because you’re my brother. Even when she told me I shouldn’t trust you, I have.”
“That bitch doesn’t deserve you,” he said, looking me straight in my eyes.
“You have one more time to call her a bitch Kai, and I won’t be responsible for what happens to you.”
“What the fuck?” Finley mumbled as he stared at his phone.
“What is it?” I asked.
He glared at Kai, and I looked between them.
“What?” I asked again, and Finley shoved the phone into my hands.
The second the video started, rage exploded inside my chest. I gripped the phone so tight I thought I might crack the screen.
My pulse roared in my ears as I watched the man I called my brother, the man I’d known since I was a kid, wrap his hands around Seraphina’s throat.
The woman I love gasped for air as she clawed and fought for her life, but he didn’t stop. He tried to kill her.
She should’ve died, but Dr. Vlahos came into the room. Her aim was off, and she hit his shoulder, but it was enough to break the hold he had on her. It was enough to give her a chance.
Then my heart sank to my gut as a figure stepped into the room.
He was calm and calculated as he looked around, saw Seraphina crumpled on the floor unconscious and took her while my so-called brother didn’t move.
Didn’t speak. Didn’t lift a goddamn finger to keep the motherfucker from walking out of the room with the woman I loved.
I shoved the phone into Finley’s chest, my body shaking with fury, then turned on the man I once trusted with my life.
“Sergio…”
That was all he said before my fist connected with his jaw. He staggered back, crashing into the wall. Blood bloomed at the corner of his mouth. His eyes were wide with fear and anger. No longer was the man standing in front of me my brother. He was the enemy.
“You tried to kill her,” I snarled, my voice shaking from all the anger swirling inside me. “You let him take her.”
He tried to speak, but I was already stepping forward, fists clenched, and my heart breaking with every step I took toward him.
“I love you!” Kai shouted, his arms raised like that would stop me. “She doesn’t deserve you! I wanted us to be together, but that would never happen if she was in the picture.”
The words hit harder than a punch to the gut. Then it clicked. All the times he talked shit about her. The looks of hate aimed her way. It was because he was jealous. And the knowledge made me both angry and sad for him. I loved Kai, but it would never be in that way.
“I will never love you like that,” I said, anger still pulsing through my veins.
Heartache blanketed his face. “But…”
“There would have never been anything between us other than friendship and brotherhood. I can’t believe you did this to her.”
His face was no longer marked by sorrow but filled with pure rage. “But she doesn’t love you, Sergio. She married someone else! And you chased her like a damn dog in heat!”
“I don’t give a fuck who she married,” I growled. “What we share no one can come between, not even you.”
“Sergio, we got to go,” Finley said from behind me, his voice somber because he knew how this would end.
I can’t trust Kai anymore. I should have never trusted him.
I pulled my gun from inside the waistband of my slacks and aimed it at one of the closest friends I’d ever had. I thought one day our kids would grow up together just like we had. We’d be best men at each other’s weddings. What a fucking idiot I’d been. He played me for a damn fool.
“Finley man, you can’t let him do this,” Kai pleaded. “We’re brothers!”
Finley just shook his head and walked out of the room. This was going to hit him hard too, but this needed to be done. Kai had crossed the line by trying to kill the only woman I’d ever loved.
“I once told you don’t make me choose between you and her, Kai.”
My heart broke for the years of friendship and brotherhood that would end like this.
“Sergio…please,” he begged, tears filled in his eyes and for a moment I wavered in my decision. “Please don’t do this.”
But my indecision was only brief because I thought about all the times he’d been with her alone.
I could only imagine how he treated her, the hell he put her through.
I had to stand firm in my decision because the man in front of me wasn’t who I thought he was.
He was everything she tried to warn me about.
“This is me choosing.”
I squeezed the trigger.