Chapter 36 Sandro
There’s a large commotion going on, but it doesn’t pique my interest. Instead, I stay sitting, desperately hoping for silence again. I glance around, and everything is muted. All the colors are bland, and there’s nothing to keep me tethered here. All I can do is wait for my time to come to an end.
I worry about Luca. He said his goodbye to me this morning, before leaving to meet with the Council.
I hope he didn’t ask for my life to be spared, but my friend is stubborn—he always has been.
It’s why I know, when he takes over my cousin’s organization, he’ll turn it into what it should be—not the perverted monstrosity it became.
Words wouldn’t leave my tongue though, the ones to tell him how proud and grateful I am for him.
I managed a thank you, but that’s it. I hope he knows that I love him, as I love all my former Boys.
The clock continues to tick as I sit here waiting.
Cristian tried to encourage me to join them, but I don’t see why the last moments of my life should include any comfort.
And fuck knows I have none to give Cristian.
We destroyed all that was good, and are left with the ruin of ashes, of dreams that became nightmares and merely taunt me in my sleep, and even when I’m awake at times.
The door bangs open, and I move my head to see who it is. I stiffen momentarily, but it’s not the Council. Hell, it’s not even a guard. Instead, Sarah stands there, pale and shaking. I swallow as fear suddenly destroys the numbness that has been wrapped around me for so long.
“What is it?” I rasp out, my eyes and soul begging for it to be nothing more than the deaths that should be handed down.
Sarah raises one hand, touching her hair as she glances out of the room. “I don’t have much time. But…you needed to know. You deserve to know. It’s what I can offer you as the man who saved my life twice over.”
I tilt my head and furrow my brow. The words don’t make sense to me at all. “There is nothing you owe me, Sarah.”
She shakes her head and draws in a deep breath, crossing the room toward me. She grasps my hand, and I can feel her trembling, even as I soak in her warmth, as I’ve gotten so used to coldness.
“The Council representatives were on their way here… Unfortunately, they were attacked. Right now, I need to help Doc out, and I don’t have time to talk, but you should know…Lio and Roman were taken.”
The air in my lungs crystalizes and I struggle to draw new breath. Shaking my head, I reject the possibility of my love being taken. My soul. The best part of me. And Roman? Fuck. Cristian must be going crazy.
All of a sudden, sound rushes in, colors explode, and everything becomes sharper. Every bit of numbness falls away—destroyed with the knowledge that the families are in danger, and the man I love was stolen.
Sarah withdraws her hand and hurries out, a guard stepping in instead. He watches me with cautious eyes, but I don’t pay him any attention. No, my mind is on one thing and one thing only. Vengeance.
I will burn the world down for Lio. I will gut any enemy and dance in their fucking blood.
Nobody, nobody takes Lio. Whoever did it is going to learn a very valuable lesson—there’s no mercy for our enemies, and touching my love?
Well, they poured gasoline on the embers of my soul, igniting my will to live.
I may not be Il Padrone anymore—but I’ll rise from the ashes to be the man Lio believed in.
His Master. His love. And his fucking avenging angel.