Keeping my cool was impossible, but I knew I had to. One wrong move, even one wrong look, and he would catch on to my plan.
And that was the last thing I wanted.
The men I had left outside knew what they had to do. And it wasn’t just my men as well. It was amazing how much his own men hated Gio, especially when they were told the truth.
He was the one who had killed their parents, and now he was going to kill his sister and niece.
Bad men we might be, but family was family.
That had been Gio’s first mistake…not taking men with him. I didn’t even know why he had come here alone, but I hadn’t.
The job was simple: get Sophia and Lily out. If things went bad and they were going to go bad, as soon as they heard gunshots, they were to get my family out and to safety.
That was my only objective.
Killing my old best friend was just going to be a bonus.
“Let them go, Gio. You have what you wanted. You have power,” Isaid finally, tearing my eyes away from Sophia and the small crying figure of my daughter behind her.
It was hard, though. I wanted to rush to them and bundle them into my arms so I could personally get them to safety.
Except Gio stood between me and them, so I leveled my eyes at him instead and took a deep breath.
“I’ll only give you this one warning, old friend.” It took everything I had to keep my voice level and not reach for my gun.
My fingers itched to grab it and put a bullet in his brain.
Almost like he could read my mind, he swung the gun toward Sophia again, aiming it at her chest.
“Just try it, Matteo. A gut shot might not kill her, but if I aim just right, it will blow her uterus to shreds.” He shook his head. “I should have had her womb ripped out when she had the bastard.”
“She isn’t…” I stopped mid-sentence. He was trying to goad me.
“Maybe if I had killed her first. My sister, that is. None of this would happened and I wouldn’t have had to…”
“Kill your parents for power and try to blame it on me?”
From across the room, Sophia hissed. “That’s who you killed that you loved? You killed Mom and Dad?” Sophia’s voice rose with anger.
It was justified, but it wouldn’t help now. I willed her to rein it in, and in true Sophia fashion she did the exact opposite.
Rushing forward, she began to batter at him with her hands. Her small hands were flying like she didn’t see the gun pointed at her.
“You son of a bitch,” she screamed at him. Her hands were making contact with his shoulders and head over and over again. “Why kill them? They loved you. You were their son. Their oldest child. It would have been all yours anyway. You just had to wait.”
Brave, stupid, beautiful Sophia.
He pressed the gun into her stomach, and at point-blank range, it would be a kill shot. I wouldn’t be able to get to them in time.
Sophia fell silent. Her eyes widened in the darkness, so all I could see was white.
“Gio,” she whispered, and her voice broke.
Did she think she could reason with him?
“Why Gio?” There were tears in her voice now, a hitch to it that said she was trying not to cry.
“Because,” I said evenly. “Your parents wanted us to marry.”
