Chapter 53
CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE
MASSIO
“Veronica was behind the wheel, Massio.” Miko’s words take a moment to register. “She tried to kill her.” My mouth becomes dry. Veronica tried to kill her. Her own daughter? “Do you hear me?” he snaps.
“Yeah.”
“She’s in the hospital somewhere. I hacked the cameras,” he grinds out.
Something settles in my veins: anger, horror, and a savage need for retribution fills my veins.
“Send backup!” I snap.
“Already on it,” Miko says, and I end the call.
I open the waiting room door, and the heavy footsteps of Ford rushing after me echo like background noise as I scan the names on the patient board.
The moment I see hers, my heart skips a beat.
Theodora Marino, room ten.
My wife.
My everything.
I race down the corridor, my veins filling with trepidation with each step.
The psycho bitch is in here somewhere, so my first instinct is to make sure Thea is safe.
I throw open the door to her room, and the sight almost brings me to my knees.
The one woman who should always protect her is trying to steal the life from her and her unborn grandchild. She holds a pillow over Thea’s face, and my girl remains still.
The small amount of control I had snaps, and I erupt in a brutal fury. Grabbing onto the back of Veronica’s head, I yank her away from Thea. She howls, bucking and kicking against my ferocious hold on her.
Thea’s lips have turned a deep shade of purple, but when she releases a burst of air from her lips and her eyes flutter open, I exhale and throw her mother to the floor behind me.
She closes her eyes again, and I caress her cheek, careful of the cuts on her face left from the tarmac. “Wake up, Little Brat. I need you.” I kiss her cold lips, hoping to breathe warmth back into her.
Something settles inside me. This is where I’m meant to be, to taste her, touch her for an eternity.
Her soft hand pushes at my chest, and I smirk into the kiss, delighting in the sudden strength behind her.
“You bastard! I’m going to kill you both!” her mother hisses, and I growl. Dealing with her and breaking the kiss of a lifetime is not something I want to do.
Ford steps into the room, his eyes bounce over Thea, then onto the pillow, and finally down to the floor where his wife scurries toward her purse. A gun protrudes from the zipper, but before I have a chance to warn him, he kicks it out of the way beneath the bed.
“Ahhh! I hate you all!” Veronica screams like a banshee. “She’s yours, Massio! She’s your biological daughter.”
I throw my head back on a deep chuckle, and Thea flinches. “Do you really think I didn’t have a test drawn eighteen years ago? I’m a lot of things, Veronica, but I’m not stupid. There was no way in hell I’d allow you to take my baby from me if she had been mine.”
Her eyes turn to slits, and she bares her teeth like a rabid dog.
“We’ve had enough of the lies, Veronica.
” Ford crosses his arms over his chest, and a pained look falls over his face.
“Thea isn’t mine either, and it’s time she knew that.
I’m fed up with your threats of blackmail to take her away from me.
” I roll my lip into my mouth as Thea jolts and a soft sob leaves her.
“The games are over, Veronica. I can’t take this anymore.
I’m divorcing you. You can’t hold Thea over me to stay married to you any longer.
So, do the decent thing and tell me, who is Thea’s biological father? ”
A spiteful laugh bubbles from her, and she slumps against the side of the bed. “I arranged the assault on her because you arranged for her to marry her biological father, you idiot! It’s all your fault,” she says to Ford, and his jaw practically hits the floor. “I had to do something.” She shrugs.
A high-pitched wail leaves Thea, and I take her hand in mine, but she doesn’t grasp onto me how I wanted. Instead of forcing it, I bring her hand to my lips, hoping she can take some strength from my support.
I side-eye my woman. My beautiful, strong, resilient woman. This revelation is one of many we will get through, together. “I love you, Little Brat,” I say, hoping it gives her reassurance through everything she’s enduring
Ford rears back. “Davis?” His gaze ping-pongs over Veronica’s face. “Harrison Davis?” he clarifies.
My heart drops.
“Jesus,” I rasp, running my hand over the top of my head on an exhale.
Harrison Davis is a man as old as Ford; he’s also the police commissioner.
Not only were they forging an alliance with the enemy, but he’s an old divorcee with ties to the criminal underworld and not the kind with any morals.
He’s rumored to be linked to a human trafficking ring.
A sick bastard through and through, and for once, I’m grateful for Veronica’s intervention.
My innocent girl in someone like Harrison’s hands is unbearable to think about.
Out of the corner of my eye, Veronica moves, but Ford is quicker. She lifts the gun to Thea, and I move in front of her, but Ford grips Veronica’s wrist, twisting it backward.
It all happens in slow motion.
The bang.
Followed swiftly by another.
The spray.
The blood.