The ache that had been residing in my chest for the last few months was full blown pain. Heartbreaking, gut-wrenching pain. My skin was clammy, and sweat glistened across my forehead. My body was panicking, something I hadn’t felt since I was a small child.
“You failed me, Xander.”
His swollen eyes darted to the hammer and then back to me. “Do it, boss.”
Col, don’t…
My arms halted mid-swing. One. Centimeter. From. His Face. Karina’s voice echoed in my ear like the sweetest whisper. She was the angel on my shoulder, and she was telling me to stop—to showmercy.
“Just do it,” Xander said softly.
Don’t hurt him, Col. You are better than this. He trusts you.
God. Fucking. Damn.
Even in her absence, she controlled me.
With a low growl in my throat, I shoved him away. He fell back onto the ground with a grunt as I straightened my spine. The man looked up at me in question, but I turned my back on him, walking to the front of the building.
Here I was, back, in this God forsaken city to retrieve what belonged to me. Last time she was my prisoner and now, she was my enemy's.
Funny how things came full circle.
I shot a look at Deacon, who I'd given a second chance at life. He nodded once and pulled out his phone. Xander needed medical attention, but for now, he would go back to the island—to my basement of fun until I had a clear idea on what to do with him.
Kicking the front door of the hanger open and scaring the staff, I stepped into the late afternoon sun. After lighting a cigarette, the first one I'd in days, my back fell against the building. My body was still healing from the explosion earlier this week. This shit was supposed to be over, and things were supposed to be…dare I say normal?
A cruel smile found my lips. “Demons don’t get normal, Collin,” I murmured, tucking the lighter back into my pocket.
I sucked in a long inhale, the smoke stinging my insides as its toxins oozed into my bloodstream. If a bullet didn’t kill me, I found comfort in the fact that these cancer sticks would one day.
On exhaling, the smoke drifted through my nose, and I pulled out my phone. After allowing myself only one second to look at the devastatingly beautiful woman wrapped in my bed on my lock screen—a photo I took just this morning when things were lighter—I pulled up the one number I thought I would never have to call again.
A private number.
Used for emergencies only.
Time to phone dear olddad.
“Ah. My bastard returns to me,” he drawled, ending on a cough after picking up on the first ring.
Ray Romano never picked up on the first ring. I smirked.
“You have something of mine, Romano. I would like it back.”
“I missed the days when you feared me, boy.”
I chuckled on another exhale of smoke and shook my head. “Your first mistake was thinking I ever feared you. Your second mistake was taking something that'smine.”
Silence and then. “Why now? After all these years, why betray me now? When I was about to give you everything you could have ever wanted, boy?”
“I'm going to enjoy pulling you apart,sir,” I sneered. He didn’t deserve an explanation, even if I wanted to fucking give him one. This wasn’t a fucking therapy session.
“How about I just kill her right now, you little shit?” he growled. He coughed again. Hard to play the bad guy when you sounded like that. This shit was hilarious.
“I’ll burn your empire, just like I burned your island.” The words were out before I could process them. Everything I had been working for—the takeover, the mafia—nothing would matter if she was dead, and I would light the match to burn it all the second her soul left this world.
My father, the devil, the man who raped my mother, beat me, and lied to me…hesitated. “You wouldn’t dare, son. That is your legacy.”
