34. ~Nico~
34
~Nico~
She was unusually quiet.
As we traveled down the back roads toward the college town of Stonewell where Levi was currently located, I looked out at Caterina staring down at the ravine over by the passenger side, zoning out it seemed.
I reached out and grasped her hand and she squeezed it affectionately, then finally turned her head toward me.
She looked fucking exhausted, and not just because of the late hour.
Before I could get a word into the talk I’d wanted to have with her once I’d given her some time to decompress in the car after the emotional goodbye with Milo and Julian, she asked me suddenly, “Does being able to kill without remorse make me a true monster?”
I jolted at the question and what it also meant to me, how it fucking cut at me more than I liked to admit.
The fact that I actually did think about that more than anyone was aware.
“Not in this case. Not when it comes to your father.”
“No?” she asked, so worried about it.
“After what he did to you, all the abuse, every fucking thing, he didn’t qualify as human anyway. He was the true monster. The world is undoubtedly better off without him in it.”
She slipped her hand from mine. “But you don’t… feel it, do you? So you can’t really know that. You’re just saying it to make me feel better, aren’t you?”
“When have I ever done that? We’re always challenging each other.”
“No. You have. You do that for me.”
I looked away and dug my fingertips into the steering wheel as I forced my next words out. “I do actually feel it.”
“What?”
“Remorse. Guilt.”
“You do?”
I nodded. “There are times when I let it back in, when the strain becomes too much and I don’t have much of a choice.” I looked at her again, finding her staring at me with a whole lot of intrigue. “But with the things I’ve done, they haven’t just been to protect myself or due to Marchetti Syndicate orders. I… over the years, it became a part of who I am and I grew to… like it. To get off on it, in fact. There’s no forgiveness for that, is there? So, you see, it’s different for you. You’re not me, thankfully. And once this war is done, you won’t find yourself in a position like that again.”
“I like it too. The power of it.”
“But the acts to achieve that are just a means to that end, yes?”
She thought for a moment. “Yeah, I guess that’s a good way to put it.”
“Then it’s different. I like the actual bloodletting.”
“Well, everybody has their passions, Nico.”
“Hilarious.”
She chuckled. “I thought we could do with some levity , as Julian is fond of calling it.”
I reached out and stroked her hair. “I love you. You know that?”
“I do. I love you too.”
“My principessa.” I slid my hand down to her belly. “And I’m going to love this little baby just as much.”
“Knowing that’s possible, that you can actually love like that, it sounds like there’s hope for you being redeemed after all, huh?” She ran her fingers over my jaw. “And, just so you know, you already are to me. I love you just the way you are. And so will our child. You don’t need to change a thing.”
How had this turned into her giving me a pep talk?
I was supposed to be counseling her on the issues involved in unleashing like she had.
This woman… the way she could impact me… I’d never known anything like it.
I smiled to myself.
She was so fucking perfect for us.
Headlights in my rearview mirror drew my attention.
They’d come out of nowhere.
I hadn’t seen them seconds ago.
There’d been no through road that they could have come from either.
That meant they’d either been parked or… lying in wait.
Adrenaline sparked, and I picked up speed.
The vehicle behind did too.
Then it turned on its high beams, preventing me from making them out and fucking blinding me for a good few seconds.
“What the hell?” Caterina exclaimed, twisting in her seat, only to look away and rub her eyes a moment later.
The car jolted as the fucker behind us rammed into it.
I pulled my gun and cocked it, while keeping the car steady.
But then they came up on my side.
I swung my head to see a black RAM truck with tinted windows.
Just as I went to roll down mine to fire off a shot, they beat me to it.
And then I was looking at that piece of shit, Angelo Simone.
“You killed him!” he screamed across to us. He looked past me at Caterina. “That fucking cunt killed him!”
Fuck.
I fired off a shot, but at this speed and trying to keep the car steady, it only winged him.
“You don’t get to live while he’s fucking gone!” he roared, rolling up his window, then dropping back behind us just as a car zoomed down, headed straight for him, horn blaring deafeningly out into the night.
Not moments later, he rammed me again.
I looked over at Caterina, my gaze dropping to her stomach, as she pulled her own gun, then went to fire.
No. This whole thing was too fucking dangerous.
I couldn’t risk it.
Couldn’t risk her.
Couldn’t risk our child.
“I’m gonna pull over,” I told her. “It’s gonna be a rough ride. Hold on tight. We’ll take him on solid ground.”
“Okay,” she uttered, readying herself.
The word was barely out there when Angelo came up on my side again and veered into the car, jolting it.
I shot a look over at Caterina’s side, seeing the drop of the ravine below, mostly blanketed in darkness.
He kept coming then, slamming into us again and again.
We hit a rough patch of ground as he forced the car over to the edge and my wheels screeched in protest, fighting to find traction.
I just needed a second to regain it.
But he didn’t give us that.
He smashed into us again, and the car lurched.
And then it was too late.
There was no stopping it.
Caterina screamed and grabbed my hand as we hurtled over the edge, tumbling down into the ravine, everything a violent blur as the car flipped and careened down the hundred foot drop, jostling us violently from all angles.
The last thing I was aware of was my head smacking into the window.
Lights out.
To be continued in THEY MAKE MONSTERS