CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
KAGE
“I’ll leave you alone with your girl for a bit.”
I nod, and Psycho walks to the door, before he stops and looks at me with a smirk.
“Any preferences?”
I shake my head in confusion.
“On what?”
“Body part when I stab you. I’m getting excited just thinking about it.”
I groan in irritation.
“Preferably nothing vital. Fucking Psycho.”
He grins like his name is an award, one he wears proudly.
“That’s my name.”
After he leaves, I go sit in the chair beside Raina’s bed and watch her closely. The machine beeps, reassuring me that her heart is beating in a regular pattern. She has a breathing tube under her nose, as well as the tube in her chest, an IV in her arm, and if I’m honest with myself, she doesn’t look alive. The machines are the only thing convincing me that she is. Seeing her like this causes my stomach to knot with guilt. Her words echo in my brain.
“Every time we were together, he made me happy. Something you could never do!”
I take her hand in mine, her skin too cool, and I talk to her, even though I have no fucking idea if she’ll hear a word I say.
“Raina, I know I did some fucked up shit. Things normal men don’t do, but I’m not normal. I’m not sure that I’m even capable of giving you the things you need. I know how to do three things. Fucking, killing, and causing tremendous suffering. If I were capable of more, I’d do the right thing and let you go. I know that’s what you really want. Part of me wants to, so you can be happy, but, baby, I can’t. I can’t promise you much, but I’ll try to be less of an asshole.”
I kiss the back of her hand, and she stirs, but she doesn’t wake up.
“I knew it.” I hear from behind me, and the second I realize it’s Bones, I jump up out of the chair ready for a fight.
He holds his hands up, trying to calm me.
“I came to talk. I’m not here to hurt anyone.”
Against my better judgement, I point to the second chair beside her bed.
“Sit, but I’m warning you, Bones. I don’t give a fuck who the head of this family is. If you hurt her, poor Athena will have to bury her husband.”
He rubs his thumb across his jaw as he sits.
“And I’m warning you, Lorenzo, you will speak to me with respect. I’m going to forget what you just said to me, because I know you’re upset and, hearing what you just said to Raina, I understand why.”
I stare at him with confusion, because I don’t know what he’s talking about, and he chuckles softly.
“Well, shit. You don’t even know why you’re so upset, do you?”
Shrugging my shoulders, I don’t respond, because what am I supposed to say?
“You’re in love with her, Kage.”
I keep watching Raina for some signs of life, while I talk to my brother, but so far there are none.
“I don’t know what I am, Bones, but I’m not you. It’s something I’m not sure I’m capable of, and I haven’t even known her for that long.”
He sits back in his chair, and crosses one leg over the other, as he continues rubbing his thumb along his jaw.
“I think I fell in love with Athena the night I found her, hanging upside down from my barbed wire. I didn’t know it immediately, but the first time I saw her. Fuck. I was blown away.”
Cocking my head, I stare at him while I think out loud.
“That’s what it was the first time I saw her. We see beautiful women all the time. Perfect face, perfect body, but with Raina, it was different. Like some force outside myself I couldn’t control pulled me to her. Like a goddamn powerful magnet. You know I almost killed her.”
“What?” He says in a state of shock.
I shake my head at the painful memory.
“Yeah. I got the bed in one of the guest bedrooms prepared with plastic. She knew she was going to die. I promised to make it quick, and she laid there as I held the gun to her beautiful forehead, and pulled the trigger. Fucking misfire.”
“Jesus, Kage. Why? You clearly love her. Why would you kill her?”
I shrug my shoulders.
“I had orders. I was following them.”
“Fuck,” he says, as he drags a hand down his face.
“I said all Abruzzos had to die. If I had known you weren’t just fucking her, like you normally are with women, I would’ve handled it differently. What happened after?”
I sigh heavily.
“I threw the gun in a fit of anger and it discharged, killing her mother. And then I fucked her.”
Bones arches an eyebrow.
“I didn’t find out she was dead until afterward. That’s when I told you.”
We both sit quietly as she begins to stir again, and don’t speak until she settles. The doctor did say she’d be in and out of it. Maybe this is what he meant.
“That’s why she said you kill everything she loves? Or did she mean her father and brothers?”
I groan as I cover my face.
“No, she was talking about her best friend. I killed him earlier, and then you told her about her mom, so that was what she was referring to.”
“Jesus, Kage. Women can get over a lot, but that’s, I don’t even know what the fuck you call it, more than a lot.”
I nod in agreement.
“Maybe Athena and Bella can sweeten her up toward you. I know Athena helped Bella before.”
Rolling my eyes, I chuckle.
“I don’t know if I want Bella anywhere near Raina. She might turn her into a serial killer, and I’m positive I’d be her first kill.”
She whimpers in her sleep, and Bones squeezes my shoulder.
“I’m going to go and let you have some time with her. It looks like she might wake up soon, and I don’t need to be the first ugly face she sees.”
Raina’s eyes flutter slightly, but then they stop again, like she was waking up but fell back asleep.
Nurses come and go. The hours on the clock tick by and there’s no change. I dig her phone out of my pocket when I feel it vibrate.
Satan: Principessa, I miss you.
I text Psycho the number, and ask him to find out who this fucker is. I have my suspicions, but I need confirmation to be certain.