Chapter 2
Fifteen years later…
Fallon
“You’re such a little slut.”
His voice was grating and I glared at the bastard standing in front of me. Crowding my space, he extended his arm and my reaction was immediate. I slapped him across the face. Memories rushed into my mind, images of my sweet mother’s face the last time I’d seen her.
And her voice.
Oh, God, my mother was dead.
“If anything happens to me or your stepfather, your brother is to blame. Just remember, my beautiful daughter, that you are royalty. Never forget how special you are and how much I love you.”
They’d been my mother’s last words, said with a shaky voice as she’d left me the phone message.
Another ache formed in my heart as I thought about them.
She’d tried so hard to protect me after all the tragedies, working her fingers to the bone believing in her heart she’d found someone who loved her.
Only Luis Esposito, her knight in shining armor, had turned out to be evil.
But his spawn was worse.
Antonio wasn’t my brother.
He was a monster.
Royalty. I had no idea what she meant, but it no longer mattered. I’d lost everyone who mattered to me. My little world had finally been crushed and I was all alone.
No aunts or uncles, no grandparents to watch out over me. No one to run to who would keep me safe.
All I had was my mother’s anguished voice from words left in a phone message I hadn’t received until after I’d learned about her death.
“I’m sorry, Ms. Zimmerman. Your mother and father were killed.” The call had come in the middle of the night, disrupting a nightmare only to drop me into sheer hell. The detective’s tone had been appropriately haunted, even angry. As if he would do everything in his power to discover the killer.
Only Luis wasn’t my father, even though he’d pretended to care long ago when I’d been a child still mourning the loss of my real father.
He was just the bastard who’d destroyed her life.
Now I’d lost everything that mattered, every family member.
I felt so lonely, so full of despair. My father. My mother. My sister. All gone.
What was I left with?
A horrible man who was determined to continue in his father’s footsteps.
I could still hear the terror in her voice. As soon as I’d gotten off the plane after the news of her death, I’d still tried calling her, praying that somehow the news was all just some horrible joke.
Only to have my call go immediately to voicemail.
A sob resonated in my chest, but I refused to allow the bastard to use my despair as a weakness. Fuck him.
I’d tried to warn her. I’d begged her to leave the man she’d married, an abusive son of a bitch she’d hoped I could see as a father figure.
He’d failed in my eyes, although no man would ever compare to my father.
I would never forgive myself. Never. She’d trusted Luis.
After everything she’d been through in her life, she’d placed her trust in the horrible man.
Now, because she’d done everything in her power to bring me a better life, she was dead, murdered by the hands of an evil man.
My stepbrother.
Antonio stood in front of me, licking his lips as he undressed me with his eyes. He’d done so a dozen times, his cold stares turning into leers as I’d gone from being a child to a woman.
“You can’t run anymore, Fallon.” He grabbed my arm, yanking me closer.
“Leave me the fuck alone,” I demanded for the second time, finally able to jerk my arm free. The bastard continued to glare at me with a smug expression, his jaw clenched to the point I hoped the position hurt like hell.
With only self-preservation in mind, I threw a brutal punch. As I held my breath, I was gleeful seeing blood oozing from the cut on his lip.
Antonio took a deep breath, shifting his jaw from one side to the other as he rubbed his chin.
I moved from foot to foot, my fingers clenched into tight fists, just waiting for him to retaliate. This wasn’t the first time he’d gotten physical, but there was more of an urgency in his actions.
I guess the big boss had told him to cage me like a wild animal. That wasn’t going to happen.
He caught me by surprise, the force and strength used knocking the wind from my lungs.
The brutal slap pitched me against the wall. Immediately, stars floated in front of my eyes and I tasted blood from where I’d bitten my tongue.
“You will learn to obey, you little slut.” His voice was the same as I’d remembered and the one that had created waves of fear years before when I’d been so young. “And I will enjoy spending days and weeks breaking you. Preparing you.”
“For… what?” I hissed, spitting blood.
“For your destiny. The past will always repeat itself. Years of this bullshit. Now, I’m taking control.”
What the fuck did that mean?
My God, the man was sick if he believed I’d ever allow him to touch me. He had no idea what I was capable of.
“You killed your own father, your flesh and blood.”
He laughed. “He was weak. Useless.”
My God.
Now that I was older, I wasn’t afraid of him or his connections. I was simply repulsed by everything he’d become.
A soul-sucking monster.
Yet I also knew I had to be very careful. He was dangerous, more so now that his father was dead and he’d been promoted.
“Get out of my house.” I skirted around him, throwing open the door.
“The last time I checked, this house didn’t belong to you.”
“Something else you’re dead wrong about. It became mine the moment you murdered my mother and your father.” The thought almost brought tears to my eyes, but this son of bitch would never see me cry.
Huffing, he showered me with a heated leer.
He adjusted his suit jacket, smoothing his palms down the expensive linen, using the movement as a gesture of power. He’d changed over the years, becoming taller and wider, his fingers covered in scripted ink as a nod of respect to the gang he’d participated in and worshipped.
He’d gone from wearing jeans and muscle tee shirts to tailored Gucci.
As if that would disguise the murderous blood and savagery running through his veins.
I could see right through his facade to the cold-blooded killer. His eyes were soulless, his expressions icy, and his brutality well known throughout Chicago.
The main reason I’d left the city.
There was only one reason I’d returned.
The murder of my mother and stepfather.
While there was no evidence to prove my accusations, my instincts were never wrong. I’d seen the horrendous photographs of the crime scene. I’d been the one to identify their mutilated bodies.
I’d been the one to cry hysterically when questioned by the police.
Not him.
The graphic pictures detailing the horrific crime left no room for doubt as to the person responsible.
Carved flesh was his signature.
Even if I had proof, there was no one in law enforcement or the judicial system I could trust. Not even the detective who’d called me. They were owned, bought, and paid for by the Bruni Crime Syndicate.
His reaction should have been anticipated. He snapped his fingers around my neck, tossing me against the wall, peering down at me with a combination of fury and raging desire.
I’d never been so disgusted in my life.
“You mean our parents. Don’t you?”
“Fuck you,” I shot back. “One day you will suffer for your sins.”
His laugh was dark and dangerous. “I suggest you learn how to please me, or your return home will end up being unpleasant for you.” A strange look crossed his face, something so dark and evil I was momentarily at a loss for words.
Then he smashed his fist against the wall using such force, he dented the wallboard.
Gasping, I pressed my hand across my mouth. What the hell was wrong with him? I could sense frustration. Who cared? I hated him. I fucking hated him.
“Intimidation and threats don’t work on me, Antonio. Now, leave before it’s too late.”
He laughed and lowered his head while loosening his hold. Just before he tried to capture my mouth, I managed to turn my head. My stomach churned from the stench of him.
“They told me you belonged to me.” He glanced away almost as if in confusion. “You were mine. All fucking mine.”
I’d never seen him so unraveled.
I had no idea what the hell he was talking about, but I wasn’t going to entertain the thought of asking. I needed to get him the hell out of here.
When I jammed my fist against his chest, he chuckled and took a step away, turning his head and staring into the foyer and beyond.
This had once been my home, but now that seemed like a lifetime ago.
Once upon a time he’d been the quiet introvert.
But his eyes had always reflected the evil deep within.
I couldn’t stay here. The memories were too vivid, the ache of missing my mother too great.
She’d taught me so many things in my life, especially after my father had died.
She’d been my rock, infallible in her love and care of her tiny family, determined to keep stories of my daddy alive in the little girl who’d spent less than five years of her life in a happy, healthy home.
After my daddy’s death, she’d been forced to work two or three jobs just to make ends meet. But on her days off, she created worlds of magic, stories written in her mind, acted out with props found in thrift and dollar stores.
She’d made the world sound so beautiful, so inviting that when the plays had stopped, my love of reading had taken hold. She’d been my everything.
Now she was gone.
Anger boiled deep within. I would avenge her death. Somehow. Some way.
“Threatening me isn’t in your best interest,” he said so quietly I strained to hear.
The way he was hovering over me, acting as if he owned me kept my stomach in knots, bile in my throat. “I will make certain you’re arrested for murder, Antonio. You can’t get away with this.” I had no doubt why he’d taken the lives of my mother and his father.
He’d taken his father’s place within the syndicate, a position he’d talked about from close to the day I’d met him years before.
“You’re so beautiful, Fallon. You’ve grown into quite the stunning piece. You’re just so perfect. So… fucking… perfect. They won’t take you away from me. I won’t let that happen.”
“Get away from me, you pig.” My skin was prickled from the thought of him touching me.
To my surprise, he backed away and headed toward the door, stopping just inside. I noticed the huge ring on the middle finger of his left hand.
Another status symbol.
Another moment of proof that he’d sold what had been left of his soul.
“Be careful crossing me, Fallon. This is my last warning. Trust me. You won’t like what happens next.” I wasn’t expecting his reaction and didn’t have time to defend myself.
He lunged forward and issued a savage punch to my jaw, the force pitching me against the wall.
Dazed, I tried to claw my way to a standing position only to have him drive his fist into my face, catching me on the side of my lips.
With the taste of blood in my mouth, a horrible ringing in my ears, I slumped to the floor as anguish rushed into my head and neck.
He stood over me, laughing. “Just a taste of what I can do. When I come for you again, you won’t reject me. If you do, it’ll be the last thing you do on this earth.”