Chapter 18
Chapter Eighteen
Kira
“What are you doing?” I gasp. Enzo doesn’t waver. His eyes are narrowed and they’re pointed right at my father.
“He’s trying to take you from me. I can’t let that happen.”
Gregor raises his hands in surrender. “She is my daughter, Enzo. I have the right.”
“You don’t have the right,” he seethes. “Not when you gave your daughter to me. You don’t get to just go back on your deal.”
“And neither do you. I agreed to this marriage because it was supposed to lead to peace. It was supposed to keep my daughter safe. But you couldn’t keep her safe.”
“She’s safe now, isn’t she? Standing right before you. You’re making a problem where there doesn’t need to be one. So leave, Gregor.”
He huffs. “Before what? Before you shoot me right before my daughter’s eyes? It’s clear that you care for my daughter. You wouldn’t be fighting so hard to keep her otherwise. So how do you think she will feel if you kill her own father?”
Enzo’s hand tightens on the gun. “I have no other choice if you try and take her from me. Matteo took her from me and now he’s dead. Don’t test me, Gregor. Just leave. We can still keep peace with our families. Just move on.”
“Not when it comes to my daughter.” Gregor grabs my arm, pulling me into him. “You won’t shoot me. Not when Kira is right next to me. I am taking her home where I can keep her safe. That is final.”
“Dad,” I say, trying to tug my arm free but his hold is too tight. “I don’t want to go with you. I’m… happy here with Enzo.” The moment I say the words, I know their true.
“That doesn’t matter when you’re not safe.”
“Don’t I have a say in my own life?”
My father stares at me like he didn’t even hear me. “Kira, I have always had a say in your life. I still do. Now, come.”
“I’m a grown woman, Dad.”
“And yet, you act reckless. You’ve always been reckless. Sneaking out to parties. Getting drunk. You need someone to take care of you because you’re incapable of it. I am your father, Kira. I will do that.”
“No. I want to make my own choices in life. I always have. You don’t get to take that away from me.”
“You’re being ridiculous,” he says with a sigh. “Come along.”
“Dad, no.”
“She said no,” Enzo growls, stepping forward, his gun still aimed at my dad’s head. “Let her go, Gregor.”
“You’re not going to kill me. So step aside.”
In one fast motion, Enzo whips his gun against the side of my dad’s head, knocking him to the ground. I watch in horror as Enzo bends down and grabs my father’s shirt and begins to punch his face over and over and over, leaving my dad’s face a bloody mess.
I’m in such a state of shock that it takes me a moment to move.
“Stop!” I scream at Enzo, grabbing his arm. “Enzo, stop. Don’t kill him.”
As if he’s waking up from a dream, Enzo stumbles back from my dad. His knuckles are bloody. My dad’s face is covered in red welts but he’s alive. Hurt but alive.
“Dad?” I ask, bending down to touch him.
He pushes himself to his feet, ignoring me. “You want a war, Enzo?”
“You are not taking Kira. So go.”
Gregor looks between my husband and myself before storming out of the house.
Enzo reaches out to me but I back away.
“Don’t,” I warn. “You almost killed my father.”
“Because he was trying to take you from me.”
“He’s still my father, Enzo. You need to make it work with him.”
“He’s the one being impossible.”
“Then I’ll go stay with him if I have to. If it means keeping peace between our families. I did my duty with you and I’ll do it again if I have to.”
Enzo cups my face before I can stop him. “But he will snuff your light out. Your father wants to control you.”
“At one point, you wanted to control me too.”
“I know. But not any longer. I don’t want you to be anyone but yourself. Your father is trying to control you. I can’t let that happen.”
I look into the eyes of my husband. The one I thought I was falling in love with and now? Now I don’t know how to feel. “I just need space,” I say, pulling away from him.
His eyes tighten. “Kira.”
“I just need to get out of this house for a moment. I’m not going to get hurt. You killed Matteo. Who else wants to hurt me?”
“I have other enemies. Marco Amato being one of them. He doesn’t want me working with the Bratva and you are the daughter of one. You are not safe out there on your own, Kira.”
“You sound like my father. If you truly trust me, you’ll give me this space to think about things.” I brush past him before he can stop me and leave the house.
I take one of his cars – the Ferrari – into the city and drive around. The old me would have gone for a drink and it’s tempting still but I wasn’t happy with my old self, drowning in alcohol and parties. I need to find the new me.
I end back up at Central Park but this time, I make sure to stay in heavily public areas where I can’t get hurt. Facing what Matteo tried to do to me here is the best way I can heal.
Enzo is someone I know I care for, especially after we had sex. He killed Matteo to save my life. He willingly put himself in danger for me. He’s the kind of man I can fall in love with.
But not when my father is causing problems. I have to get my dad to back off. But how?
It’s then that I see someone familiar sitting on the edge of the Bethesda Fountain. Gianna.
She’s out here by herself. No annoying aunt. No guards.
“Gianna?” I ask, approaching her. She startles and quickly drops her gaze. “Hey. I’m not going to get you in trouble. What are you doing here?”
“I needed some space,” she admits as I sit down beside her. “My aunt is driving me crazy. She keeps going on and on about you and how terrible you are. But you were the first person to ever give me a day out by myself.”
“How did you get here?”
“I snuck out. I took the train to New York and came here. I didn’t know where else to go.”
“Enzo won’t be happy.”
“I know. But I need something of my own.”
I place my hand over hers. “I get it. I completely get it.”
She offers me a small smile and pats my hand. “Thank you. You’re the only one who does. I don’t know how you stand my brother. He’s always been good to me but he’s so controlling. And so is my aunt. I don’t know what to do.”
“Enzo is controlling. But… I think it comes from a place of love,” I realize right as I say it.
“And I’ve never had anyone fight for me the way Enzo has who wasn’t just my dad or brother.
And honestly, my dad and brother haven’t always fought for me as hard as I think they should have. But Enzo has.”
“You love him,” she states, looking right into my eyes. I startle, pulling away.
“I’m not sure about that.”
“I can see it on your face. You love my brother. And I’m glad. He needs someone in his life. After our parents died, he was so alone. I was too young to understand it. I want that for him and I want that for you. I think we all just want to be free.”
“I think you’re right. I want to be free.” But can I find it with Enzo? It’s in this moment that I realize I want to return to him. I want to talk with him. I want to kiss him again. I want to make a life with him.
When my father came to get me, I could have returned with him. I could have left Enzo behind like I had wanted to do when I first married him. But when my dad tried making me leave, I realized I didn’t want to leave Enzo. I still don’t.
I just don’t know how to make my dad see reason.
“You should probably go home,” I say. “Unless you want to live with Enzo and I.”
“Enzo would never allow it. He wants me in Connecticut where I’ll be safer.”
“Well, if you ever need a place away from your aunt, you can always come stay with us.”
She looks into the distance as the sun shines down on her, giving her a glow. “I hope I find my own place someday.”
“I hope so too.”
“I think I’m going to stay here a little longer.”
I leave Gianna alone, since I can tell it’s what she needs and I return home to Enzo… only to find the front door wide open.
My gut tells me something is wrong.
Stepping inside, the first thing I see is blood on the white marble floor. Maybe it’s leftover blood from when Enzo beat my father’s face. But I’m not sure.
Slowly, I make my way through the house only to find it empty. Enzo is nowhere to be seen. No one else is here.
With shaky fingers, I call Maksim. “Something has happened. Enzo isn’t here. The house is empty and there’s blood. I need help.”
Maksim sighs on the other end. “Kira.”
“I don’t like your tone of voice.” It’s his ‘I have something bad to tell you’ voice.
“Listen.”
My heart rate spikes. “What do you mean ‘listen?’ What’s happened?”
“Dad is angry. Enzo beat his face in. We’re all angry. So…”
“So what?”
“So, Dad came back to Enzo’s house, with me, and we took Enzo. You weren’t there. Thankfully.”
“I was only gone a few hours.”
“It was long enough.”
“You have Enzo now? Where? Is he…”
“He’s alive,” Maksim says with a sigh. “But it’s taking everything out of Nikolai to keep him alive. Dad wants him dead no matter what.”
“And you? What do you want?”
“I wanted him dead after he shot me in the back. It doesn’t matter to me. But what does matter is that you’re safe and I believe keeping Enzo alive will help with that. But Dad never listens to me. You know that. I’m sorry.”
“Where are you?” I ask through gritted teeth.
“Kira.”
“Where are you?”
“We’re at Dad’s house.”
I hang up and rush right over there. My dad is crazy if he thinks I’m going to let Enzo die. No one is doing this for my actual safety. They’re fighting over me like I’m property and this has to end.
I make it to my dad’s house within twenty minutes. Using my old key, I let myself inside. The house is eerily quiet. Until I hear a male scream come from the basement.
The basement that I was never allowed in to growing up. The basement that my father used for his business. Now I see what it’s used for.
The door isn’t locked, giving me the chance to run down the stairs. I stop when I reach the bottom to see Enzo strapped to a table and my dad hovering over him with a knife. Maksim and Nikolai are here. Both of them are trying to reason with my dad but he’s not listening.
Enzo’s shirt is ripped open and blood covers his chest.
He’s going to die if I don’t do something.
Taking a deep breath, I scream, “Stop!”