Chapter Twelve
Emma
Ijerk awake.
My body is on the cold, stone floor. My dress is wrinkled. And Leo is standing over me with worry in his eyes.
“Emma?” He helps me get to my feet. “I came down here and found you like this. What are you doing?”
I point at the torture table. “You’re going to use that on my mother, aren’t you?”
“If I have to, yes. But I would much prefer to use it on your father. I want him dead. I won’t deny that. But you shouldn’t have seen that. This wasn’t for your eyes.”
“Wasn’t for my eyes?” I ask, pulling away from him. “You locked me in that cage, right there. I think I’m allowed to see this place.”
“So then why were you on the floor?”
“I passed out,” I admit. “It scared me. Sometimes you still scare me. And other times…”
He quirks an eyebrow. “And other times?”
“Other times you make me feel good. Alive. I don’t understand it. How can I like a man who wants to torture people? Torture my parents?”
“You don’t even know your father.”
“No. But maybe I’d like to know him.”
Leo roughly shakes his head. “He will hurt you, Emma. I know it. He will use you how he wants. Why do you think your mother kept him from you?”
“My mother is not in her right mind. She never has been. Maybe I want to know my father. I’d like the chance.”
“In a dream world, you deserve that. But not in this one, I’m afraid. I am at war with your father. The moment I can kill him, I will. You promised to stay here with me. I won’t hurt you. But you can’t go to your father. Who knows what he’ll do to you?”
“I just don’t know if I can agree with you torturing my family. I don’t know. It’s all so… terrifying.”
He sighs, running his hand down his face. “This is the real me, Emma. I am a mafia man. You need to accept that.”
“I don’t need to accept anything,” I snap. “You forced me to be your prisoner. You deceived me. Tricked me. And now you’re being kind to me? How can I trust you?”
“Fine. You want to know what kind of man your father is? I’ve already told you.
He’s the kind who stands back and watches as his brother murders two people in front of their little boy.
That’s the kind of man he is. But if you don’t believe me, then I’ll have to make you see your father for who he really is.
I’ll find him. Bring him here. You’ll see.
” Leo storms out of the basement, leaving me feeling nothing but icy coldness.
Leo
Getting Alessandro is not going to be easy. He’s always surrounded by guards and is a good shot himself. But I need Emma to know why I am doing this. Why her father cannot be trusted. Why I took her in the first place. It was all to prevent a war.
If I want Emma to want me, she needs to let her parents go. I saw instantly how horrible her mother was to her. And I know Alessandro is no better. He will hurt her. I feel it in my gut.
“We need to get Alessandro,” I say to Gabriel, bursting into his home office.
“That’s what we’ve been doing.”
“No. I mean, we need to get him. I want to torture him. I need to do that.”
Gabriel sits back in his seat, staring at me calmly. “You’re angry, Leo. I can sense it.”
“And you’re not? That fucker is trying to go to war with us and you’re not even remotely angry about it?”
“Of course I’m angry. But I’m not reckless. We have to be smart about this.”
I pace around the room. “I say we break into his home, kidnap the fucker, torture him and then kill him. We can find out where he lives.”
“I’ve been trying to prevent a war. For us it would be better if Alessandro backs off instead of killing him.
It’s why you took Emma in the first place.
If we just go and kill him, it could plunge us deeper in this war.
Alessandro has contacts. Men he works with that might not appreciate us killing him.
The better option is for Alessandro to just cease coming after us. ”
“But he won’t and now he wants to go after Emma. He wants her back.”
“She’s his daughter. It makes sense.”
“She’s my wife,” I snap, slamming my hand onto the table. “I won’t give her to him.”
Gabriel raises one eyebrow. “Do you have feelings for the girl? Actual feelings?”
“No,” I grumble.
He huffs. “Ok. Tell yourself whatever you want. Just don’t be reckless, Leo. Don’t go after Alessandro. We’re keeping him at bay for now. That’s what’s important.”
“We can’t keep him at bay forever and you know it.” I storm out of Gabriel’s office and head back to my house.
The moment I pull into the driveway, I can tell something is wrong. Just a gut instinct.
I run into the house and before I can make it far, a man pistol whips me in the head, sending me to the ground.
I don’t know this man but he’s clearly out for blood.
He points his gun right at my head but I pull my gun out and shoot him in the leg.
It knocks him to the side, giving me the chance to get to my feet.
I shoot him in the head without thinking.
That’s when I hear a woman scream. Emma.
My body doesn’t stop as I run to her bedroom and find her in the arms of her father. Alessandro has a death grip on her arms and is yanking her towards the door. He stops when he sees me.
“Leo,” he grits out, struggling with Emma as she fights against him.
I raise my gun. “Let her go.”
“I came for my daughter. She is mine. Her mother kept her from me, that bitch. But I will have what’s mine.”
“Leo,” Emma gasps, her eyes pleading with me to help. The pure terror on her face breaks my cold fucking heart.
“Let her go,” I growl.
Alessandro puts Emma in front of him so I can’t shoot. “You married her to hurt me. You took my daughter from me. The daughter I never got to know. Will you shoot her, Leo? Do you care for her? Or are you just using her?”
“Let her go,” I repeat.
“I am taking my daughter back. She is mine and no one else’s. You won’t shoot.” He drags Emma towards the door and I step out of the way. I can’t risk firing my gun and hurting Emma.
“Leo, help,” she pleads.
“I am your father, girl,” Alessandro barks at her. “He’s just the man who kidnapped you. Why do you want his help?”
“I don’t know you,” she says. “I don’t know what you want to do with me.”
Alessandro drags her down the hallway, backing away from me so I still can’t fire my gun. My only choice is to follow them.
Emma manages to elbow Alessandro in the face, making him jerk back. That gives me the advantage. I point my gun at his shoulder and fire. The bullet lands, knocking him against the wall. Emma runs away from him.
And right to me.
I put myself in front of her and aim my gun at Alessandro’s head. But then an idea hits me. I lower my gun and use it to hit Alessandro in the head, knocking him out cold.
“What are you doing?” Emma asks as I drag Alessandro down the stairs. His head bumps against each step, making me laugh. “Leo? Leo!”
“I am going to show you what kind of man your father really is. I promised, didn’t I? This is my chance.” I bring him down to the basement and set him on my torture table. Emma hovers behind, clearly uncomfortable by this but she stands there, trying to look brave.
I strap Alessandro to the table. “There. Now I can torture him. Make him pay for what he and his brother did to Gabriel’s family.”
“Why do you care so much?” she whispers. “Gabriel’s family is not your own.”
“Because Gabriel is like a brother to me. What hurts him, hurts me. I will get revenge for him even if he can’t see that. But it’s for the best. Besides, I can get more information out of Alessandro.”
“What kind of information?”
“The kind where he tells us where all of his men are stationed. Then me and Gabriel can attack, killing off his followers. That will prevent a war. No one will mess with us then.” I slap Alessandro’s face, waking him back up.
“Hi there. You fucker. You thought you could come into my home and steal my wife from me?”
Alessandro spits in my face. I don’t let it faze me. “She is my daughter.”
“The daughter you didn’t help raise. You really didn’t know about her?”
“I knew Valentina had kept something from me when she ran away. She disappeared. But I never knew it was my own daughter. I have a right to her.”
I turn to Emma. “You hear that, Emma? He thinks he has a right to you. I think you can tell that your father is not a good man. You didn’t want to go with him. Why?”
She hesitates before speaking. “He came in and grabbed me. It didn’t feel right.” She looks into her father’s eyes. “Why didn’t you just ask me to go with you? You’re my father. If you had promised to keep me safe, I would have gone. You didn’t need to use force.”
“See?” I say. “That’s the kind of man your father is. He only wants what he wants. He doesn’t care about anyone else. He doesn’t care about you, Emma. You’re just a prize to him because his wife denied you him.”
“Your mother never should have kept you from me,” he snaps.
“What were you going to do to me?” Emma whispers. “When you took me.”
“I was going to bring you to my home where you belong.”
“And keep me safe?”
“Of course,” Alessandro says.
“Lies,” I snap. “It’s all lies.” I grab Alessandro’s face, forcing him to look at me. “What were you going to do to Emma? When you took her. What were you going to do?”
“You really want to know? Fine. I was going to punish her for her mother’s mistake. That bitch took my own daughter and ran away. I was going to make Emma pay for it.”
I can hear Emma gasp behind me but I keep my eyes glued to Alessandro. “How? How were you going to make her pay?”
“I want her dead,” he snaps. “If she’s dead, then you can’t use her against me. Her own mother would feel the misery of keeping her from me.”
“You wanted to kill your own daughter? You’re an evil fucker, aren’t you?”
Alessandro laughs before spitting in my face. “I have nothing left to lose. You have me strapped to this table. You’re going to kill me.”
“Why be reckless?” I ask. “Why come here and grab Emma?”
“Because you’re an arrogant fucker. You don’t have any security around your house, watching her. The moment you left, I made my move.”
I press my forehead to Alessandro’s. “She is mine. Not yours. Mine. And you will feel the pain of knowing you lost everything before you died.” I walk over to the table covered with knifes and pick one up. It’s a large, butcher knife.
“Emma?” I say, turning to her. “How do your father’s words make you feel?”
She frowns. “He wanted me dead. How could you want me dead?” she asks to her own father.
Alessandro huffs. “I am not sorry, Emma. You are a stranger to me. And I couldn’t let these men use you against me. You had to die for that to happen.”
She blinks, backing away. Stunned.
“I know this is hard to hear,” I say. “But you needed to hear it. Your father and mother are not good people. You’re safe here with me now, Emma. I promise you that. But your father needs to die. I will torture him. Get the information I need. I suggest you don’t see this.”
With a gasp, she runs from the basement and I turn back to Alessandro, not giving Emma another thought. Right now, I need to find out what Alessandro knows.
I place the knife to his arm and begin cutting. I smile when Alessandro screams.
Emma
I remain near the cage, listening to Leo torture my own father. And I feel… relieved.
When my father burst into my room, he grabbed me. He hurt me. I could see in his eyes that he wanted me dead. How could a father want his own daughter dead?
To my mother’s credit, she tried protecting me even if she went about it all wrong. But Alessandro meant nothing to me and now he means even less.
But hearing him scream and knowing Leo is responsible frightens me. Leo is capable of such a horrific act. So why, when my father came to take me, did I only want to be near Leo’s side?
None of it makes any sense.
Alessandro’s screaming suddenly stops and Leo appears in the doorway. “Emma. I was coming to get you. Come in here.”
Slowly, I move into the torture room. Alessandro is covered in small cuts everywhere on his body.
“He’s not going to give me what I want,” Leo explains. “I need to kill him. There’s no other option. He’ll keep coming for you.”
“Are you asking my permission?”
“No. I am asking if you want to be the one to kill him yourself.”
Leo’s question startles me to my core. “Do I want to kill my own father? How can you ask me that?”
“You’re a good girl. I like that about you.
Your innocence to my darkness. I am giving you this chance.
Your father was going to kill you once he kidnapped you.
He wanted to punish you for your mother’s actions.
He was not there for you. He did not save you from your mother. Don’t you want him dead?”
“I… I’ve never considered wanting someone dead before.”
“Not even me?” Leo’s lips quirk into a charming smile.
“Not even you,” I admit. “I can’t kill him. But… I won’t stop you from killing him.”
Alessandro’s eyes widen. “How can you say that? I am your father.”
“You wanted me dead,” I snap. “I just want to be safe. That’s all I’ve ever wanted. I wasn’t safe from my mother. You did not come for me. You never helped me.”
“I didn’t even know you were alive.”
“Bullshit,” Leo says. “Your brother knew about Emma. You knew your wife had a daughter. You knew.”
Alessandro averts his eyes, unable to admit that he’s in the wrong.
“Here.” Leo grabs my hand, placing the knife in it. “Just kill him. End this. You want some say in your own life, Emma? Then this is it. Take charge and kill your father.”
“Isn’t this dangerous?” I whisper. The moment I close my hand around the knife’s handle, I feel power. More power than I’ve ever felt in my entire life.
“It’s murder, yes.” Leo doesn’t sugarcoat it for me and I’m grateful. “But your father will keep coming for you. He needs to die. It’s the only way to make sure you’re safe.”
I turn to my father and look between him and the knife. Do I really have the ability to kill someone?
My mind turns to how my mother treated me. How she abused me all my life. How Leo deceived me. How my father only wanted to use me for his own gains. This world is a messed up place and I can only rely on myself.
I want to feel powerful.
I raise the knife over my father’s heart.
“Emma, no!” Alessandro screams. “I am your father. Don’t do this!”
“You’re not my father.” Before I can stop myself, I slam the knife down, right into his heart. Alessandro gurgles before blood seeps out of his mouth and the light in his eyes dims until he dies.
It’s only then that I realize what I have done.
With a gasp, I step away from the man I just killed.
“Emma,” Leo says, placing his hand on my arm. “You’re ok. You did the right thing. Your father can never hurt you now.”
I turn to Leo and without even thinking, I press my lips to his and after a beat, Leo kisses me back like we both might die without it.