Chapter 29
CHIARA
He left an hour ago, leaving me alone with the darkness and even darker thoughts. I should be comfortable in the embrace of the shadowy void that’s been a constant in my life, but I don’t feel at home right now. Instead, I’m filled with worry for Brian.
My father has many at his disposal who wouldn’t hesitate to kill for him, even when it means their own untimely death.
Every person in his life is nothing but a stepping-stone to his next plan. He cares for no one, and killing Brian, his enemy, would be something he’d take great pleasure in.
Unable to sleep, I slip out of Brian’s bed and head for the door. Maybe I can find a late-night snack and watch some TV until he returns. I’ll wait all night if I have to.
Opening the door, I find Miles there, guarding me. Brian insisted.
“Hey. Any word?” I ask, knowing he’d have information if there was any.
“None at this time, ma’am.” He shakes his head, his body towering over me. “If I hear anything, I will let you know.”
“Thanks. I’m getting something to eat. I’ll be back.”
He nods as I head for the stairs. When I reach down, I flip the light on, walking aimlessly around the house, passing guard after guard. When I walk by a room that looks like an office, I freeze in place, wondering if it’s Brian’s office.
Finding no guards in this hallway, I march inside, quietly closing the door behind me before heading for his desk.
There’s still so much to know about him, so much he won’t tell me.
I need to know everything before I decide whether I’ll stay or go.
I open the first drawer, finding nothing but office supplies.
Next, I pull open the larger one below, finding manila folders neatly aligned inside. I take one out, scanning some financial documents for a company called Vendetta Corp. I don’t see his name on anything here, but I’ll be looking up that company as soon as I have access to the Internet.
I open another file and the same shit. More stuff on the same company.
Come on! Give me your true identity.
I’m running out of time before Miles comes looking for me, knowing Brian will have his head if something happens on his watch.
I check another file, and my heart immediately races. My father’s name is written on the side. Opening it with a shaky hand, my skin crawls with tiny ants when I find surveillance photos of not only him, but me too.
There are a ton of photos of me coming out of my house, going to and leaving work, even some of me and my cousin out to lunch.
He’s the one that’s been following me all this time.
Oh my God.
A tremor runs down my spine.
I scan photo after photo, still not having many answers about who this man I’ve let into my heart is. Closing the file, I start to slip it back, but it won’t go in all the way.
“What the hell?” I pull it out, reaching inside to see what’s blocking it.
That’s when I feel it: something hard and rectangular. And as I take it out, I find a small tape recorder.
A sinking feeling hits my stomach, and I swallow against the thread of anxiety rushing up my throat. I know there’s something bad on that tape. I know it has something to do with me. Brian put it all the way on the bottom for a reason. He didn’t want anyone to find it.
Clenching it tightly within my palm, I give my furious heartbeats a few moments to calm, but it’s no use. The nerves have completely taken over and they won’t be going anywhere.
I shut my eyes, pulling in a long, weighty inhale, and press play.
“My, my how far you’ve come.” My father’s voice rips through the silence. “I admire that you made yourself into what you are now. A real made man.”
“Why the fuck are you calling me, Faro?” Brian asks, his anger evident in the sharp tone.
“You and your brothers have done one hell of a job hiding from me all those years. I couldn’t even find you. I gave up looking after three years, and I’m not the type to give up easily. Bravo.”
Brian remains silent. If it weren’t for the recording, I’d think he hung up.
“I’ve called to discuss a business proposition,” my father continues. “We’re both businessmen now, are we not?”
He waits seconds for an answer that never comes.
“I get it. You’re still angry over the past, but I think we can come to a mutually beneficial agreement to end all this bloodshed.”
“Get to the point, Faro.”
“You’ve destroyed two of my places of business. Killed men I needed. But I’m willing to let it all go, and even throw in something I know you’ll want.”
My skin crawls. My breathing turns erratic, my heart beating so fast, it may rip through my chest. I don’t want to listen anymore. But I do anyway, needing to know everything I can.
“What’s that?” Brian asks with complete disinterest.
It takes him only a second to answer. “My daughter. Take her. I know you want to.”
My mouth falls open and I stop the recording, tears slamming behind my eyes, some slipping past my defenses.
My father did this to me?
The man who should protect me had me taken by his enemy?
Bile curls in my stomach. I’m going to be sick. A palm falls across my mouth as I continue to listen, tears dripping down my cheeks like a steady rainfall.
“Do whatever you want with her.” My father digs my wound in deeper.
“Anything I want?”
“Yes, why not? She’ll be your property, but only if you agree to end this battle before it turns into a full-blown war. I don’t want you to lose any more of your brothers, Dominic.”
“What?” I gasp, the recorder slipping from my fingers, rattling onto the floor with a loud bang.
I hold on to my chest with trembling hands. My lungs explode with my heavy breathing, disbelief clouding my teary vision.
It can’t be. I don’t believe it.
It must be a coincidence. The eye color isn’t Dom’s.
But that can be changed.
He wouldn’t. He couldn’t.
My body shivers from the icy cold blanket wrapping around the length of me, my pulse pummeling in my ears.
A whimper climbs from the depths of my despair as I lower to the ground to retrieve the recorder. It wobbles in my shaky hands, burning through the pads of my fingers.
I hit rewind, then press play, needing to hear his name again. Wanting to make sure I didn’t make it up.
“I don’t want you to lose any more of your brothers, Dominic.”
I play that part again and again. I play it so many times, I lose count. My chest tightens, my stomach pounding with its own pulse, knotting into the most unbearable pain.
But my heart, it bleeds.
Raw.
Agony.
I hurt everywhere.
If the man who’s been with me this entire time is the same boy I once trusted above anyone in the universe, I won’t survive the betrayal.
How could he do this? How could he not tell me who he is? How could he accept my father’s deal? The same man he knew would hurt me and my mother.
I continue playing the rest of the recording as I openly sob, unable to take two betrayals in one night. At least I always expected one man to hurt me, but I never expected Dom to be the one to break my heart.
“I’m sure you can find lots of things to do with her,” my father adds. “But if you don’t want her, kill her. Whatever you need to do to get over it.”
I sob louder now, the drumming in my tears like battering raindrops on a windowsill.
“You’d let me kill your daughter?” Brian—no, Dom—asks.
I don’t fucking know who he is anymore.
“I want this over with as soon as possible, so yeah. I can even sweeten the deal.”
“How?” Dom asks, the undercurrent of his tone as sharp as the blade he used on Cain.
“If you don’t want to kill her yourself, I’m willing to do it for you. My own kid. I’d do that as long as you promise to end it once and for all.”
My chin trembles with a heavy onslaught of tears, the back of my nose stinging, unable to take any more of this.
Nausea swirls in my stomach and the need to throw up hits me like an iron fist. I grab a garbage pail beside the chair and hurl into it for a few seconds before I realize nothing is coming out.
Snatching a tissue from the box on the desk, I wipe my mouth and toss it into the pail just as Dom continues.
“Give me a day.”
Click.
There’s nothing else after that.
With a trembling hand, I stuff the recorder back inside and place the file where it was. My entire body shivers, like I’m flailing through freezing waters of hell.
I can’t stay in this house another minute. I have to find a way out, but none of these men will let me go. Not unless I find a weapon of my own. They won’t want to hurt me. Brian—I mean Dom—would kill them if they dared. I know that much to be true.
Just the thought of him being Dom rips a new hole in my already bleeding heart.
I fall onto the floor, my body rocking from the heaviness of my sobs, not caring who hears.
A few minutes pass before I’m calm enough to rise, scouring his desk, looking through the other drawers for a weapon. He has to have one here. I open the lower one on the other side, lifting up a stack of files, and before I’ve given up hope, I find what I’ve been looking for.
I take out a black handgun, checking the chamber to make sure there are bullets in case I need them. Slipping the weapon into the waistband of my leggings, I conceal it with the oversized t-shirt I have on.
I turn the light off, my pulse still ravaging in my ears, and head back up. When I get there, I head toward my room instead of back to Dom’s, needing to pack just a few items for the road.
“Still no word, ma’am,” Miles says, anticipating my question.
I nod curtly with a small smile, my heart twisting within my chest. “Thanks for letting me know.”
I bet he can tell I’ve been crying, but I’m sure he’ll assume it’s because of my worry for Dom.
“I’ll be right out. I need to get something.”
“I’ll be here, ma’am.”
I enter the room in a hurry and lock the door.
Dashing toward the closet, I find the duffle Dom used to pack my things. Ripping off some of my clothes from the hangers, I hurriedly stuff them inside, followed by some water bottles and snacks from the fridge.