Chapter 36 #2
“I wonder what has a fire under his ass.” Leon shifts the car into park, shutting off the engine before we both exit the vehicle. “You’d think he wouldn’t have much care for a woman who sold one of his daughters and didn’t do anything to protect the other.”
I shrug nonchalantly. It does not affect me. I am all for letting Kenzi and Ava shoot her. Kendra isn’t an innocent wife; she was complicit in everything. The two women deserve a little payback.
Raised voices and the sound of a gunshot going off catch our attention. Someone screams, and glass shatters. Leon and I exchange a quick look before we take off into the house, the soles of our shoes sliding on the slick tile floor.
Kenzi is standing over Kendra, who is huddled in a ball on the floor at her feet, the barrel of her gun pressed against the top of her head. My wife stands slightly behind her sister, eyes trained on Kendra, cold and unfeeling. Fuck, that makes me hot for her.
My little psycho queen.
“Put the gun down, Kenzi.” Dante approaches her from the right, his hands out in front of him as if he is surrendering. “You don’t want to do this.”
Kenzi lets out a sharp laugh. “I’ve killed plenty of people,” she hisses. “What’s one more?”
Well, the woman has a point. I stride up behind Ava, pulling her back into my chest. I don’t want this to get messy, but if it does, I will make sure she isn’t harmed.
“She’s your mother, Kenzi,” Dante tries to reason with her.
More power to him.
Kenzi snorts in disbelief. “She was never a mother to me,” she spits.
“She let him sell me. Let Christian kill Libby. She isn’t a mother.
Mothers care about their children. They love their children unconditionally.
I didn’t offer her anything, so she chucked me aside and pretended like he sent me off to college. ”
Her hand tightens on the gun, finger on the trigger inching infinitesimally.
“You won’t just be killing her, Kenzi,” Dante whispers urgently. “Kendra is pregnant.”
“Good riddance to that,” she snarls. “She and Elias don’t need another spawn.”
Except that math doesn’t add up. Kendra would be nearly five to six months pregnant, and she is barely showing, which means—
“It is Dante’s child, Kenzi,” I tell her. “Not Elias’s, and even if it was, you do not want to kill someone that innocent. That child is not at fault for the sins of its parent. Neither are you.”
Kenzi’s eyes turn to Dante, wide and expressive. It is the most emotion she shows in a long time. “How long have you two been…?” She trails off, her gun wavering slightly as she processes everything.
“Since before you were born, mio tesoro,” he admits.
Kenzi stares at him, stunned, her mouth parting slightly, gun dropping to her side. Kendra does not dare move from her spot on the floor. She is still sobbing, apologizing, but it is too late now. The damage is done.
“I’m only going to ask you this once.” Kenzi visibly swallows, her fingers clenching and unclenching on the gun. “And I want an honest answer.”
“Yes, mio tesoro,” he answers sadly. “I am your father.”
Kenzi takes in a deep breath before asking, “Christian?”
Dante shakes his head. “He belongs to Elias.”
“How long have you known?” Her brow furrows, eyes narrowing at the man before her. “How long have you known that you are our father and never said anything?”
“Since the day you were born and I held you in my arms.”
A choked sob leaves her lips, and her shoulders slump forward slightly. “You let him…” Kenzi pales slightly as dark thoughts swirl in her mind, unbidden. “Did you let him…”
Ava rushes forward, her arms going around Kenzi, hugging her tightly to her chest, front to back. “He didn’t know they sold you,” she assures her sister. “He was in the dark, just like me. He didn’t know. I promise. He didn’t know.”
The two sisters stand together, one behind the other, frozen in their own little world of quiet despair.
In the time I’ve come to know Kenzi, I’ve never seen her break down.
She hides behind her wit and charm. It cracks something inside me to see her utterly broken down, tears streaming in little rivulets down her face as Ava holds her, whispering words of love in her ear.
It has no doubt been a long time since Kenzi was held and loved.
I sneak a glance at Vas, who is standing a few paces to my right.
His eyes are pasted on Kenzi and washed with regret.
He is no doubt thinking of Libby. I cannot imagine how hard it must be for him to see Kenzi.
She is an exact copy of Libby on the surface, but if you look beneath the dewy pale skin and brown hair to her cold blue eyes and tight, angular features, she is nothing like her sweet, docile sister.
Pain tightens his features. His shoulders are tense, and his hands are clenched into fists at his side. If I have any doubt about how he felt about Libby before, there is none now.
Dante looks defeated from where he stands watching them. His normally proud stature slumps in defeat. He doesn’t cast a single glance at Kendra, who still sits sobbing on the floor, quietly now instead of the soap opera act she gave earlier.
We all stand there. For how long, I lose track, but soon the scene changes. Kenzi shakes her head, tears running dry, and she pulls herself from her sister’s embrace.
“I can’t,” she whispers sorrowfully. “I can’t do this.”
Ava releases a small sob of her own when her sister stalks away from her, back turned, gun still firmly in her grasp. She is a trained killer, after all.
A predator.
“Kenzi,” Ava hollers after her, but her feet remain planted in place. “Kenzi, please.”
But it is too late. Everyone has their breaking point, and even though I doubt Kenzi reached hers, the predator in her senses the oncoming weakness and does what a predator does best.
Squashes it.
Because a predator with a weakness easily becomes prey.