“Do you?”
The raw pain in his voice makes me frown. I did everything to ensure she was safe. I’m about to ask him to kill me, deliver mefrom torment. I can’t protect her if I’m alive, I’m sure of it now. The only way to safety is if I die.
Yet, she did something to me. Despite everything, I still hold on to the very tiny hope that I will see her again. I didn’t realise it until her kin showed up, talked about her, anger and hate for me making me feel alive for the first time in weeks.
Doubt makes me ask, “Is she safe?”
The barrel of the gun presses to my forehead harder, his rage pulling tight at the strings of his restraint. He wants to kill me but something is holding him back.
“She was attacked tonight,” he says. “She barely managed to kill the man sent to kill her. Because of you.”
I thought my heart couldn’t break. My body has been abused but nothing compares to the numbness spreading through me now.
“What?”
My brain assaults me with visions of Lucie, white as a sheet, blood pouring out of her mouth, eyes unseeing. She lays in a pool of her own blood and I crawl to her, but I can’t reach her. No matter how strong I am. I’m too late.
“Is she…” I can’t finish my sentence.
“Who do you think she is? I raised her better than any of you, scum. She’s alive.”
My frozen limbs slowly awaken, a rage like I’ve never felt before growing inside me. It razes everything on its path. It breaks through the despair, the pain, the guilt, and regrets.
My girl was attacked.
He dared to go after her.
Despite turning me into his puppet.
Why did I think he would honour his promise? Everything Petar has shown me is hate, disdain. Lies upon lies. That’s who he is.
Everything I thought I knew about how to protect Lucie changes as her father debates how much he wants to kill me. My brother’s word means nothing.
It never did.
It never will.
The people he made me hurt died for nothing. I suffered for nothing.
My nostrils flare. The monster inside of me finally opens his eyes. And growls, ready for blood.
I stand, ignoring the gun pointed at my head. Bruno isn’t going to kill me. He’d have done already if he really wanted to.
“My brother needs to die.”
“Yeah, no shit, Sherlock,” Michel scoffs, then withers when I send him a dark look.
Before I can form a plan to get rid of the man who’s made my life a living hell, a loud commotion resounds from the main house, my brother’s booming voice loud over the rest of them.
“You need to leave,” I tell them.
“They’re coming,” Bruno says and I frown. “Lucie’s managed to convince a fucking rescue party for you. The only reason you aren’t laying in a pool of your own blood, Kovac, is because she forbade it. Remember that. You owe her your life.”
I always have but I don’t tell him that. I was dead inside before I met Lucie and even if I can never hear the sound of her laughter again, I’ll never stop thanking her for seeing me and loving her with all the strength of my pathetic heart. I don’t deserve her.
“We end this. Tonight,” I say.
All three of them nod.
