“Your blood runs through her veins Seamus. Don’t sit there and act like you haven’t done the same. You’ve killed someone’s son. Their father. Their brother. And casualties along the way mean nothing in your pursuit to regain control. Your methods aren’t any different. You’re just as monstrous as the rest of us.”
Pa silently fumes. I know he’s biting down on his tongue. “Constantine had my boy killed and you think you’re the one to be making demands? He killed my son! He’s the one I should be speaking to. Not you.”
Rico flashes him a cold smile. It’s unnatural. Unnerving. Unease blooms in my gut. “You want to speak to the man who killed your son?”
“Yes, out of fuckin’ respect,” pa spits through clenched teeth.
Rico spreads his arms out wide. The fabric of his shirt strains against his lats and hugs his biceps.“You are speaking to him.”
The blood drains from my face. Lead sits at the pit of my stomach. Bile burns at the back of my throat. I break out in a cold sweat.
Through bleary eyes I watch the devastation fall over ma. She holds her head in her trembling hands as she silently screams.
It’s palpable. Her pain. Pa’s fury.
And all I can feel is. . .numb.
Pa rises from the couch and gets his face in front of the camera. “You shouldn’t be fuckin’ standing! Let alone fuckin’ breathing!”
“Yet here I am doing both,” Rico says coolly. “And now I have your daughter Seamus. The only child you have left. What are you willing to do to get her back?”
“I will avenge my son,” he darkly promises.
“All this talk of your son while it’s your daughter who is being held captive. Tell me Seamus, what’s more important to you?”
Pa smiles coldly. “You think I’m just going to give in to your demands that easily?”
“For your daughter - yes.”
There’s too long of a pause on pa’s end. And I see it. I see the vengeance in his eyes. The blood thirst. It kills me. Breaks my heart all over again. Worse damage than the night before my arranged marriage. This face he wears, the face he’s worn since Niall’s death makes him unrecognizable to me.
And ma is just too heartbroken to say anything. It’s like she’s in a state of comatose. The trauma paralyzes her.
“Do you even care if she dies, Seamus?” I hear it. There’s a harsh infliction in Rico’s tone. If I didn’t know any better I would think he’s furious upon my behalf. “Does her life have no value to you?”
“I will not concede. Not to you fuckin’ Italians,” he spits.
The muscle in Rico’s jaw feathers with tension. A coldness emits from him. Any sane person would run and hide.
“Perhaps we up the ante,” Pietro chirps in mischievously. I see him behind the camera with a smile a tad too wide. Whateverit is he has planned, it's not looking good for me. I test my restraints once more but the damn things won’t budge.
Damn it all to hell.
Pietro gives one thunderous clap and masses move from the shadows.
One by one they appear. Soldiers of The Donati Famiglia.
They circle me. Great white sharks that have sniffed blood and are hankering for a bite.
I eye them as apprehension fills me. It spreads like a damn poison. My tongue lays thick and heavy in my mouth.
“You don’t worry what will happen to her?” Pietro presses. He claps his hand once more and each soldier pulls out their gun and points it at me. My nails claw against the metal chair.
“Pietro,” I hear Rico mutter his name under his breath in warning. Pietro only winks at him. Rico’s hand flexes.
“You kill her and what do you have against me?” Pa argues with hardened eyes. “You have fuckin’ nothing.”
“Seamus,” ma admonishes him with horror lacing her tone. “Do something! That’s our daughter!”
