“This ends here,” I seethe.
“Zeek, wait,” he begs. “Please, have mercy, nephew. Understand where I am coming from as your uncle. I was just trying to make you the man I know you’re capable of being.” I snort, and check the clip, making sure it’s loaded with bullets.
Then I aim the gun at him, and his face stills, the act that he has been performing everything for my own good falling into what he really is. A ruthless outlaw. A Deluca.
His act fades when he realizes he’s going to die, his true demeanor forming his face with an edge.
“I should have killed you along with your snitching father.” His tone dripping with malicious intent. “You know why I set you up to kill him? Because I knew you’d be weak and vulnerable afterwards, and you were. It was so easy to manipulate you into doing whatever I needed.” He chuckles, his head falling back before his dead eyes pin me where I stand. “But, see, I failed to mention one crucial part of information. That wasn’t your father. Your bitch of a mother slept with Cross when she found out her husband was getting his dick wet with her club whore of a best friend. Cross is your father. Do you hear me? You. Are. Cross’s. Son.”
“That’s not true,” Lip shouts behind me. I’m not surprised he’d defend our mother so quickly. It makes sense though, as much as I don’t want it to be, it all makes perfect fucking sense.
I look over at Cross’s body lying there bleeding out and try to see if I feel anything. A tether to him, a bond, or a simple connection that will tell me this man was indeed the man who fathered me. But I feel nothing. Just like I had been taught to feel for as long as I could remember. There’s no warmth swelling my heart like when I look at Jillian—the light that grounds me, the one person in this world who has guided me into seeing that there is more to me than a beast incapable of emotion.
The only thing I feel for Cross is nothingness. He wasn’t my father, I tell myself. He was a coward, no matter how big and bad he was in the streets of Vegas. He was a coward within this circle of lies for letting another man raise me as his.
“It is very much true.” Frank continues to laugh, bringing my attention back to him. “Why do you think your mother hated you so much, Zeek? You were your mother’s one mistake, the one fuck up your ‘father’ held over her head. The mistake I was fortunate enough to use to my leverage, Zeeky Boy. You were the Deluca’s best kept dirty little secret that kept everyone—”
Leaning down in Frank’s face, my nose nearly touching his, my nostrils flare. My eyes flicking back and forth between his, seeing something very familiar. Frank and I aren’t so different, or at least we weren’t before I met Jillian. Before her, I was a man with one goal—power. I wanted to be on top, and rule the streets no matter the cost. Power is more addicting than sex, drugs, or money. It clouds your mind and reaps your soul, and before you know it, you’re not living, and you’re just surviving. Frank taught me that, he injected that drug into my veins when he set me up to kill my father. My father. At least the man I perceived as my father. The man who gave me the dirty needle of the constant craving to be the guy who deserves respect from such a young age. Because of that I’ve lost not only people I love but I lost who I could have been.
“Save a spot for me in Hell,” I seethe through clenched teeth. I turn, trying to decide how I want to go forward.
“After everything I have given you, you’d think a little mercy and understanding would come a bit more freely from you.” Just as the condescending words leave Frank’s mouth I turn back around.
“Delucas don’t have mercy.” I kick him in the throat, a roar ripping through my entire body. Frank flies into the bullet riddled glass, crashing through it and free falling twenty floors down. Wind blasts into the hotel room, and Jillian screams behind me. Stepping to the edge of the glass, I look down, finding Frank nothing but the size of a bloody speck. His arms and head dismantled as he lie there in pieces. The fall so great his limbs snapped off from the impressive impact.
People are running around screaming. Complete fucking mayhem breaking out. I rub at my chin. I’m going to have to use a lot of brownie points to get out of this one.
“Zeek?” A scared voice grabs my attention. Turning, I focus on Jillian who is standing much closer than before, her arms holding her stomach in a protective manner, and one of her arms is bleeding. My eyes fall to her stomach, and I exhale a breath I didn’t realize I had been holding. One I have been withholding since Frank took her. Reaching for her, I tangle my fingers into her hair and bring her chest flush with mine. Needing to feel her heart beat against mine.
“Are you okay?” My eyes look deep into hers, and she shakes her head. Tugging her bottom lip in between her teeth, tears fall from her eyes.