The timing is too perfect to mean anything else, and the realization is like a dagger to the heart.
It feels as though the ground has fallen out from under me, the one truth that drove my choice to abandon my family like sand shifting beneath my feet.
If I knew how this would end, I never would have abandoned my position as don. I never would have left my brothers to sort out this mess alone.
With Sora, I could finally see a different path for my future. Without her, the world suddenly feels cold and empty of meaning.
“On your knees,Don Leonardo,” Kenji sneers, dragging my thoughts from my pit of despair back to my harsh reality. “And hands where I can see them.”
It won’t matter that Sora ripped my heart out if I’m dead. It won’t matter that I’ve completely failed my family. They’ll suffer all the same. The thought awakens a fury inside me that fills me with the burning desire to destroy Kenji—whatever it takes. I don’t need to survive what comes next. I only need him dead.
Releasing the gun sitting in the open drawer of my desk, I lower myself to do as he says.
My hands hover near my shoulders, my knees finding the floor as cold steel meets my temple.
The survival instinct is a powerful one, and the fresh rush of adrenaline that floods my veins only stokes the burning desire to spill Kenji’s blood.
Sora’s brother lets out an amused hum as he stands over me. “I don’t know how the Chiaroscuro family has stayed on top for so long. The other families took a lot more convincing than I thought they would because they’re all scared of you, scared of the violence you could bring down on their heads. But your family has grown weak, lulled into a false sense of security after too many years on top. And now it’s my pleasure to inform you that your time is over, hotshot. It’s my turn now.”
The words echo strangely in my mind, too similar to what I said to my father this morning for comfort.
And once again, it reminds me of the never-ending violent cycle that makes the wheels of our world turn. There will never be a final resolution.
But I refuse to let Kenji win.
“I’ll tell my sister you said goodbye,” he says coldly.
And with the split-second warning that this is the end, I move like lightning, spinning on my knees, dropping my head, and bringing my hands up against Kenji’s wrists to redirect his gun.
A deafening report fills the room as the gun goes off mere inches from me.
The bullet lodges itself in the ceiling of my study as I slam my shoulder into Kenji’s solar plexus, knocking him off his feet.
I can see the flash of fear in his eyes as my hands close around the gun to wrestle it from his hands. But he’s not letting go that easily.
We roll across the ground, slamming into furniture as we trade the upper hand in rapid succession.
Implementing all my years of combat training, I use my elbows, knees, and even my head to target any weak points on his body, but Kenji’s a skilled fighter as well.
Blow after blow, we fight, the gun pinned between us as I work to keep it aimed away from me.
I know if I give him even an inch, I’ll be dead. But if I can shift its position—even a little—all I’ll have to do is pull the trigger.
“Kusotare, die!” Kenji snarls, his composure gone, his face red as a vein pulses in his temple.
Then the gun fires.
33
SORA
The window creaks as I force it open, the warm summer air rushing in like freedom. My hands shake, not from the chill, but from the terror slamming through me with every heartbeat.
If I get caught, they’ll lock me away again. If I don’t leave now, Leo will die.
I glance behind me one last time—the guards are still stationed outside the hallway. My mother thought she’d broken me. That locking me in this room, taking away my phone, would be enough to stop me from trying to warn him.
But she doesn’t understand who I am. She doesn’t know what matters to me more than anything. The baby. Leo. Even if he used me, even if he never truly cared, Idocare. And I won’t let him die. I can’t.
