“Oh, no, motherfucker. No. You. Don't.”
I reached into his wretched mouth and held his jaw open like a dog. He tried to bite my fingers off as I wrestled around for five obscene seconds, pulling the little glass capsule outta his mouth. It rolled on the floor next to my foot and I slammed my heel down on it.
He hadn't bitten into the cyanide, or else he'd be seizing in my arms. Good. The asshole howled, screamed, despair setting in as he realized I'd just slammed his last escape hatch shut.
My fists went to work. I pistol whipped him near the temple for my old man, remembering the way the fucked up hit tore papa up, reliving the night I found his body bloodied and dead.
Three more blows on both sides of his head for the girls he'd enslaved and pimped to those sick motherfuckers. Didn't know how the fuck we'd set them free, but we'd find a way once his crew was in chaos. Daniel and Lev promised me they'd do it.
I didn't know how many women he'd trafficked. Probably dozens. Unfortunately, those three blows had to make do for all of them. Anything more, and his old skull might shatter underneath my fists.
I clenched my gun like a heavy rock, and stopped just short of pounding it right through the top of his head, into his sadistic brain.
Shit, shit. Hold on. Just a little while longer.
I froze my killer instinct, shaking from the effort. The fear in Gioulio's eyes faded as they rolled, went white, and the last resistance in his muscles faded like a balloon losing its helium.
He was out cold. I grabbed him by the neck and dragged him up those stairs, quickly as I could. It wasn't easy. Every muscle in my body strained to haul his ass up. He'd been a muscular man in his younger years, but he'd clearly let it go, packing on fat while his strength faded like a bloated fucking guard dog in retirement.
Soon as I burst through the door, D and Lev were on me, helping me haul him to the main floor. Daniel aimed his gun at the ceiling and fired a few shots, screaming at the cowering servants. “Go! Get your asses out of here! And don't you think once about calling your boys outside or the goddamned cops.”
The servants took off in all directions, screaming up the stairs and into the kitchen. Who could blame them after they'd spent the last five minutes wondering if it was their last?
Five minutes. Fuck!
Time was running out. My brothers and I hauled ass through the house, heading for the spa and gigantic pool in the back. We saw dark shapes lingering near the hill. My gun was drawn, ready to shoot our way out, even though we'd be fucked if we took any more delays. We were too fucking close.
Then one of the shadows signaled. Smoke seethed out my nostrils.
Vlad and our boys were waiting, right next to the SUV parked conveniently in the back for our escape. They helped us all over the gate. I got in the back with Gioulio, sat on his worthless carcass like a sack of potatoes, and we were off.
Just in time too.
Three police choppers descended on the mansion with their searchlights going the instant we were about a mile away. Soon, the ashes of Gioulio's empire were bathed in cherry red, glacier blue, and blinding white lights, dead and haunted to the authorities as the ruins in ancient Rome.
9
One More Reckoning (Sabrina)
I woke up weak and sweaty. The pain was all gone. Amazingly, inexplicably vanished. I thought I was going to die, and I had to check myself several times to make sure I hadn't.
No ghost would ever feel she'd just survived a direct hit from a freight train.
I floated on a steamy high, thick and hot and invincible, the way you feel after getting over a bad illness. My memory took a few more seconds to follow.
My heart remembered everything that happened, and soon gave me some new pain to chew on.
Jesus. I'd really tried to kill him, hadn't I?
I'd saved him from swallowing the crap in the bottle and poisoned myself. I hadn't meant to, but as I slumped into the comfortable silk sheets, I wondered if I deserved it.
Everything feels like a distant dream when you're coming off a serious fever. But right now, the only thing I had to reach and hold onto was this weird and wonderful thing I'd built with Anton. I smiled when I thought about it, marveled at how it must've been unbreakable.
Somehow, I survived. We survived.
I couldn't understand it. Nothing made any sense, but my brain didn't lie. He hadn't squandered a second when he realized what was happening with the poison. Anton rushed me to the bathroom, kept me from dying until the doctor came.
It was more than lust, more than using me as a tool. I saw his love, his kindness. I felt his truth every time I took a new breath.
We'd both made mistakes. Our hearts were cruel, and they needed to be to survive the savagery constantly hammering away all around us.