Chapter 21
Alexander
I barely slept last night. I checked in with Halo at least a dozen fucking times to see if Omen was back from looking for Tate. The last message I received from that dipshit was a picture of her and Omen asleep against a tree in the south pasture. I nearly crushed my phone at the sight of her head resting in his lap. I have no right to feel the way I do. My head needs to be clear and all she is doing is distracting me from what’s important and I can’t afford that shit right now, not when we are on the brink of an all-out war against Desire and the psycho twins.
I drag my tired ass out of my house and head toward the main one. Just as I’m rounding the bend I spot Tatum and Omen walking toward the house. I remain where I am, out of their sight and listen to their conversation.
“I promise,” she says.
Omen nods and shoots her a look that brokers on respect. “He has some explaining to do this morning, maybe that might fill in the gaps of my story,” he mumbles.
She purses her lips then stops walking and grabs his arm, the sight of her hands on another male has fire searing my veins. It’s an irrational reaction but nothing about my situation with her is rational.
“If he shuts me out or pulls any of the shit he did last night, you swear to keep your word?”
Omen hesitates for a second then nods. “You have my word, if he fucks up I’ll be here.” I’ve heard enough. I round the bend and Tatum instantly spots me, whatever she sees on my face has her dropping Omen’s arm and clutching the blanket tighter against her chest. It’s only now I notice she is wearing his hoodie not mine.
“Well, don’t you look cozy, Bambi,” I sneer. Omen glares at me.
“Cut your shit, dumbass. It’s not what it looks like,” he defends.
“Don’t explain yourself to that asshole, he can assume what he likes,” she snaps.
“Oh, so I kick your vulgar ass out and you have my woman-hating brother falling at your feet for a taste of your pussy?” Tate gasps. Omen launches at me and clocks me across the jaw. I stumble back a step and grip my jaw, then meet his angry stare.
“You want to come at me, then do it… but don’t be a bitch about it and use her, you fucking idiot,” Omen snarls, then shoves me once more before storming toward the main house. When he slams the door behind himself, I turn to Tatum. She storms toward me and without warning the little shit strikes out and slaps me!
I slowly turn back to face her with murder in my eyes. She doesn’t cower or take a step back when I snarl at her. “That was fucking low! After everything he went through, you go and throw that shit in his face? Shame on you, asshole.”
My face slackens. “He told you?” My words are laced with surprise.
She scoffs. “Grow the fuck up, Alex. For someone who claims he is a twenty-seven-year-old man who can control himself, you sure have a piss poor way of showing it.” For the second time this morning another person turns their back on me and storms off. I grind my teeth and follow after her. When I set foot inside the house, I fight not to roll my eyes at the sight of all the guys waiting for me in the living room. I cut a glance toward the hallway to see Tatum disappearing into Omen’s room. I snap my head back to him.
He shakes his head. “Her bags are in there, she’s taking a shower,” he forces out through clenched teeth. Halo, Carnage, Vat and Pope keep looking between the both of us, trying to work out where the tension is coming from.
“I need a drink,” I mutter.
“The fuck you do,” Halo snaps.
I wave the idiot off. “I meant coffee, dumbass,” I snarl as I stalk into the kitchen. I gave up alcohol when I went to prison, liquor became a crutch for me after Ellie died, I used it to dull the pain and help me get through each day. I swore I would never touch a drop of it again after I got out and these guys have made sure to hold me to my word. I appreciate that shit more than they know because since meeting Tatum, the urge to drink has been ever present. She fucks my head up and I hate being out of control.
“You good?” Carnage asks as he enters the kitchen. I keep my back to him as I pour me a cup.
“You suddenly care?” I throw back as I turn and face him. His eyes darken.
“You gonna be an asshole all day?”
“You gonna keep pissing me off?” I fire back.
“Pull your thong out of your ass and calm the fuck down and I might just fill you in on what Devon sent me this morning.”
I work my jaw side to side and inhale a deep breath then answer. “Tell me.”
“He says she hasn’t called a meeting or anything, she hasn’t changed a rotation of guards.”
My brows draw in. “She isn’t making a move?”
He shakes his head. “My sister is a twisted bitch but I don’t need to tell you that. She’s up to something but she’s being tight lipped about it.”
“I’m calling all my men in today for a meeting, I want them all strapped and ready for anything.”
“I have some men inside the Cosa Nostra that are loyal to me, I can get them to turn.”
I eye him warily for a second. “What happened to you never turning against her?”
His features pull taut and his eyes bore into mine. “That changed when I found out she’s working with the cunt who hurt Ellie.”
I mull over his words for a minute. “Why do you care so much about my sister?”
Carnage swallows and turns away from me. “I just do.”
“Why?” I yell. His eyes close as he slowly turns back to face me, when he opens them again I see it. “It was your drugs,” I say barely above a whisper. Guilt burns bright in his blue eyes. I drop my mug and charge him, tackling the son of a cunt to the ground and begin pummeling his face. The guys rush over and try to pull me off him. I fight them off as I keep attacking Carnage, the cunt doesn’t even fight back.
“Alex!” I freeze at the sound of her voice. The red haze slowly clears as I lift my head and lock eyes with her. She stands there, staring at me with pity and that sight has me clenching my teeth as I push off Carnage and stand. I stare at his bloody face and feel nothing but disgust and self-loathing for ever considering him as my brother.
“You killed my sister.” Carn flinches and pushes into a sitting position. He swipes the blood from his nose with the back of his hand, then pushes to his feet. It gives me great satisfaction when he flinches.
His dead eyes meet mine. “I wasn’t the one that sold them to those idiots. That was your ex, you fucking idiot.”
“Fuck you!” I roar. I storm toward the back door needing to escape, but Tatum darts in front of me, forcing me to slam to a halt. I shoot her a warning look. “Now isn’t the time for your shit?—”
She places a hand flat on my chest and stares up at me with sadness. “Stop running, don’t let your emotions sabotage this for you. Tell them the truth and it may give you answers to what really happened three years ago.”
“None of them were there,” I yell.
She nods. “I know. But, you just heard from Halo 2 that his piss flap of a sister is somehow connected to what happened to… Ellie.” Hearing my sister's name has the fight draining from me.
“There is only one of me!” I hear Halo growl but no one pays him any mind.
“She’s my breaking point.”
She smiles sadly and nods. “I know. Just don’t let her memory be what destroys you. You owe her that much.” I jerk back and suck in a sharp inhale. Tatum grabs my hand and leads me toward the sofas and I let her push me down into one of the seats. It’s only then I notice she has showered and changed into a loose off the shoulder navy blue top and black jeans. “You girls joining us or what?” she barks. The guys all snicker but follow her order and claim the spare seats. When she moves to sit next to Omen, he spreads his legs and shoots her a scowl.
“You can sit your ass on his lap, everything happens in threes and so far that’s only strike two.” She cringes and shoots him a sheepish smile.
“Ah, well, you see, that was actually the third hit of the morning.”
Omen scrunches his face. “Who else did he hit?” he says as he looks around the room. I cross my arms over my chest and roll my eyes.
“No one.” All eyes turn back to her. “I may have kind of… sort of…” She huffs out a breath then straightens before continuing. “I hit him, okay?” The guys faces slacken.
“You… hit him?” Vat asks, laughter thick in his fucking tone.
She stomps her foot like a spoiled brat. “Yes. He pissed me off when he said something to Omen so I… lashed out.” All five of the cock suckers begin laughing. I run my gaze over each of them and make sure they can see the promise of pain in my eyes, but they all ignore it which only serves to piss me off further.
“Sit your ass down on his lap before he comes at us,” Pope rasps out through his laughter. Tatum huffs, then stomps back toward me, looking just as displeased about this as I am. She rolls her eyes, then drops into my lap. I hiss and grip her waist in a punishing hold.
“Ouch!” she whines and tries to pry my hands free. I shift her off my dick and shoot her a scowl.
“Next time you drop your ass on me, try not to crush my cock.” Her jaw slackens.
“I’ll break it next time,” she mutters beneath her breath. I pinch her side and she yelps.
“I heard that,” I growl.
“You were supposed to,” she fires back.
“Enough!” Vat shouts. “I don’t want to sit here and watch your brand of foreplay.” I grind my teeth and take a deep breath as Tatum swivels on my lap and throws her legs over the arm of the recliner and rests her cheek against my chest. I’m tense as fuck knowing that she is up to something and if I am right, I will throw her ass off me.
“Aww, Vat, don’t you want Mommy and Daddy to teach you all about the birds and the bees?” she coos. Vatican’s face pales. “You see, the man sticks his penis inside the woman’s vagina—” I clamp my hand over her mouth to silence her stupid ass remark. Her eyes are brewing a storm in them.
“Everyone in this fucking room is aware that my penis has been inside your vagina .” Her eyes fill with laughter and I narrow my own in warning. “Now, can you shut your vulgar ass mouth and let us get on with it?”
She pries my hand off her mouth. “They’ve also seen you finger my pussy.” I inhale and try to latch onto my patience. “But, we won’t talk about that,” she says in a mock whisper, then crosses her arms over her chest and stares at me expectantly. “Please, continue.”
I’m gonna kill her!
I’m going to wrap my hands around her perfect little neck and watch the air leave her lungs.
“Alex, you aren’t going to hurt her,” Omen hisses. I flick my gaze to him and frown.
“You just told us all how you plan to kill me,” Tatum whispers. I close my eyes and take a calming breath, choosing to ignore her and the itch to harm her. Killing her would be bad but the silence, fuck the silence would be bliss.
“What do you all want to know?” I ask after I get myself under control.
“For starters, why did you kill Roberto?” Pope asks.
The air rushes out of me. I knew one day they would figure it out and ask questions about their father’s death but I didn’t expect it to happen this soon.
“Six years ago I came back to the house with Carnage after a meeting we had in New Jersey with Carlito Vatel. When I went upstairs to my bedroom, I found her.” I may hate the vile bitch but even I can show empathy for what she went through.
“Who?” Halo pushes.
“Desire. She was in my room. At first I ignored her and told her I wasn’t in the mood for her bullshit. I locked myself in the bathroom, thinking she would be gone by the time I finished my shower. When I came out the lights were off, I thought she was playing one of her games. She wasn’t. I went to turn the lights on but she told me to leave them off, then asked me if I stood by the vow I made to her father.”
“What the fuck does she have to do with any of this?” Vat asks.
“Shut the fuck up and let him finish!” Carnage snaps.
“I told her to piss off and go find another one of your father’s men to screw.” They all scrunch their faces in disgust.
“Wait, she was cheating on you?” Tatum does nothing to hide the hatred in her tone.
I ignore Tate’s question and carry on. “Desire told me she loved me and asked me if I loved her.” I feel Tate stiffen in my hold. I skate my fingers through hers trying to get her to relax, the more worked up she gets I know I will mirror it so I try and calm her. “I couldn’t lie any longer. In my head I didn’t need to marry her anymore because Roberto trusted me, so I told her the truth.”
“Which was…” Tatum pushes. The guys snicker but I ignore them as I lock eyes with her and answer.
“That I cared about her but I didn’t love her, I never did. I thought she would pitch a fit but she didn’t. She just asked me to focus on the part that cared about her and to try and believe what she was about to tell me. I agreed. She turned the lights on and everything changed.”
“How?” Omen hedges.
“She was beaten, her clothes were torn and… I knew her, I can tell when she is plotting, lying or faking shit and I saw none of that in her eyes. For the first time since meeting that cold bitch, all I saw was terror.”
“Some cunt hurt my sister?” Carnage rages as he stands and stares at me expectantly. I nod stiffly.
“Everyone thought Omen was the only one to be used by that sick bitch but it turns out, your father was doing the same to your sister.” The five of them all start shouting and cursing. Tatum has fallen silent at my declaration. They may all hate her, but each one of them can’t stand the thought of what happened to her at the hands of their father.
“So that’s why you killed him?” Halo asks.
I nod. “Yes. Now take a fucking seat because I’m not done.” The anger in my tone has them all listening. “She asked me to help her get free of her father. I agreed, thinking she meant smuggling her out of the city or something but no, she wanted him dead.”
“Something isn’t adding up. You didn’t kill him because she asked, you had a different reason, what was it?” I bite my cheek to keep from smiling, Tatum is smarter then I gave her credit for.
“I’m getting to that,” I answer. “I told her I needed time. She agreed to give me a week before she tried to do it herself. I hated Roberto for what he did to all of you, I made no secret of that. You want the real reason I killed your father? That’s it. I wanted the punishments to stop so I agreed to help your sister.” All their faces are pictures of shock. “We agreed to make it look like a hit from the Vatel family. I was the one who shot him out front of the restaurant he was meeting the Pakhan of the Volkov Bratva at.”
“Jesus, Alex!” Carnage snaps.
I ignore him as I push on. “When it was all done, the De Santis family needed a leader. At the meeting with the other families?—”
“What meeting?” Carnage snarls.
“Desire made sure none of you knew about the meeting. I agreed because you were a loose cannon, Car, you hated living in my shadow. Omen wanted nothing to do with the family and I thought I was making the right call, putting my bid in for Desire to be the leader. The other families agreed, thinking they would be able to fuck her over because she’s a woman. Jokes on them isn’t it, because she destroyed them all and now they work for her.”
“You’re not telling the full story,” Tatum says quietly.
“I stayed with her for twelve months, guiding her and trying to help her lead the family in the right direction. Carnage became her second, he loved the idea of being higher ranked than me.” The man himself glances away from me. “When Desire refused to close down the skin trade we fought. I argued it was wrong to sell women and children. She refused because it made the family the most money. It wasn’t until just over a year later I heard her talking to Wrath and Rage.” My breathing turns choppy and my anger soars. “Roberto never touched her.”
“What?” Omen shouts.
“She lied. I heard her telling the twins that she needed to come up with another plan to keep me in line. I had no idea that she was winning wars against the families with the threat of letting me loose on their loved ones. The twins were the ones who beat her that night. She was fucking your father’s men, hoping her pussy would keep them loyal to her.”
Tate snorts. “Must be good pussy then,” she snarks.
I purse my lips and refuse to take the bait. “Roberto never laid a hand on Desire. She knew how I felt about what happened to Omen and thought spinning me the same story about her would win me over. I confronted her. She tried to deny it until I told her I would tell you all the truth. She asked me what I wanted in exchange for silence… that’s when we struck the deal and I got us out. Well, except for her pussy loving brother,” I add just to be a prick.
Carnage snarls at me. “I have never fucked my sister. You cunts need to stop saying that shit.”
“Why the fuck else would you stay with that crazy bitch? She’s my twin and I hate her. She used to stand there and watch us get beaten and smile. She loved when Dad would hurt us, she got off on seeing us bleed,” Omen screams.
“Because I was tired of living in Alex’s shadow. Our own father preferred him to us because of how unhinged he was. I was angry and I thought with Desire in charge I would finally get my shot.”
“Did you?” Tate asks.
Carnage frowns. “Did I what?”
She sighs dramatically. “Did you get the shot you wanted?”
“Yes,” he grits out.
“Was it worth the cost of this family you turned your back on, just for her to turn out to be a lying bitch who used your own jealousy against you?” My brows raise at her question. I swing my gaze back to Carnage who deflates and shakes his head.
“Guess, not,” he mutters.
“Look, that wasn’t the only reason I wanted our freedom,” I admit. “Ellie asked me to come home because she missed me. I knew I could never be near her and be The Butcher, so I did what I had to.” Tate reaches up and cups my cheek pulling my focus back to her.
Her eyes are bright with understanding. “You did all of that for her?” I nod and her eyes turn sad. “What is the connection between her and my brother, Alex? None of this makes sense. You got out from under her thumb and then two years later your sister was murdered. I don’t believe in coincidences.”
“She’s right,” Vat agrees. I keep staring at Tate trying to work through everything in my head. She holds my gaze. When it hits me, my eyes widen and she smiles. I snap my head up to look at Halo.
“We’ve been looking at this all wrong, we’ve been trying to find the connection between Desire and Nexus but it's much simpler than that.”
“How so?” Pope queries.
I smirk. “Thomas and Roberto.” Pope reels back. “Think about it. There is no connection between her and Nexus but there could be one between Thomas and Roberto.”
“Thomas was a real estate tycoon. Could your father have needed to funnel money through buying properties?” Tate asks the guys. Halo stares at her for a minute before nodding.
“I’ll look into it,” he says, then stands.
But before they can all disappear I ask, “Are we good?” I don’t look at Carnage. I keep Vat, Omen, Pope and Halo in my sight, waiting to see their reactions.
“Yeah, brother, we’re good,” Vat answers. The other three nod. I know it's going to take some time for them to wrap their heads around what I did, and I'll weather whatever punishment they throw my way because they’re my family.