“All I wanted was my sister back, and do you know what the Serra Mafia did?” I asked.
She shook her head.
“When they realized who I was, and what I was doing, they sent a couple of men to hurt my parents. They killed our dogs and burned down their home. They went to my home and did the same. They destroyed my father’s business. While the debt was running up, they made sure the insurance couldn’t cover the hospital bills. No one was coming to help my parents. They were a law unto themselves. Only, they made the biggest mistake of all. My sister’s body was discovered in the river, naked, and before they could destroy the true autopsy report, I was there. The abuse my sister suffered went on for months, long before they slipped her a drug overdose and dumped her in the river. That was their first mistake. They killed my dogs, that was their second, and when it came to my parents, they said it was an accident. An explosion in the hospital that happened to kill both Kemp parents. They took everything from me, and in doing so, I realized I had nothing left to lose.”
“I’m so sorry,” Alba said.
“The Serra Mafia have not even begun to pay for what they did. My sister is in a long line of victims. Some older, a lot younger. I am going to destroy every single person in the Serra Mafia, and I am going to make them pay for what they did.”
“I’m Serra,” she said.
“No, in all things there are exceptions to the rule, and the one constant in the people I have saved from them, is you,” I said.
“Me?”
“Because you are good. Possibly the only good thing that came from evil,” I said. “You’re the only person I am willing to save. You’re the only one who attempted to be good and kind, when others treated them like dirt.”
I moved toward her and didn’t say a word as I stared at her.
“That is why I chose you. If there was one person I could save, it’s you. The others will go down in flames.”
“But anyone who has ever gone against the Serra Mafia has failed,” she said. “They might kill you.”
“I’ve got nothing left to lose, and I’m where I am now without them even realizing it.” I smiled at her, and I knew it wasn’t nice. “So, you better make your decision. Stand by me, be loyal to me. Or burn with them.”
She had a short time to make her decision, because I was not going to back down.
My sister and my parents died at their hands. I was not going to rest until every one of them had died. I finally found the footage from when the men took my sister. I watched as she fought and struggled to get away, but they overpowered her and shoved her into a black van. All those men that had been there were going to die. Just as Alba’s parents were going to die.
Her father had held my sister captive until it was time to sell her. Payback was going to be a fucking bitch.
Chapter Four
Alba
After what Odin told me, going out to the Black Rose seemed like a bad idea. I was in shock, but that didn’t stop me from wearing a black dress. It didn’t seem appropriate to dress in anything but this after this afternoon’s revelations. My mind felt like it was spinning.
Odin lost his sister and his family, all because of my own family and the Serra Mafia. I knew they were not perfect. Most of them were monsters, dressed to look innocent. He’d lost everything. I tried to think of the first time I heard Odin’s name. It had been at a function. Once again, I’d been locked away in some corner while my family was off mingling.
Most of the time, the members of the Serra Mafia were congratulating themselves on jobs well done and all that crap. I would tune them out, but they’d talk too loud. Also, I liked that I got to listen and know things that others did not.
Odin’s name had been said like a curse—real fear that made me tune in. All this time, I figured he was just a man competing with the Serra Mafia for turf. More often than not, there were turf wars, but this was something more. This was revenge. A deep-seated hatred that couldn’t be denied. I was a little shocked by the level of hatred, but at the same time, I felt it. They had no one, while the Serra Mafia tore apart their family. They killed his parents, his sisters, ruined their business, and even killed his dogs. What kind of monster hurt innocent animals?
Stepping out of Odin’s car, I kept replaying everything in my mind, and it was hard to not think about the fact he was giving me a choice. A choice to be by his side after everything, or to go home to a family that didn’t care about me.
There were no texts or any contact to see how I was doing. Odin could be beating me, torturing me, and all they wanted was information for the Serra Mafia. They expected me to help bring him down.
For the first time, a man dared to defy the status quo. Odin had been an ordinary man, just working and loving life. He was a man who loved his family and lost them.
There was a long line to get into the Black Rose, but since this was Odin’s club, we were able to go in right away. He’d told me to text this location to my father. I have no idea what Odin’s plan was. I was still reeling from everything. I knew about the servants, but what Odin told me went deeper. His sister had been abused and tortured.
Odin held my hand and walked us up to the VIP section. The music was a heavy beat, but I didn’t pay attention to anyone or anything. My mind was rushing through everything. All I could see were nightmares and monsters. Only, they had the faces of my parents and my brothers. I know my sisters hadn’t been kind to the servants. I did walk into a room to find my sister slapping one of the servants, and I intervened. I never interfered with anything, but I stopped her from hurting anyone else. It was the first time I ever threatened my sister. My threat to stop her from hurting anyone else was that I would tell our father who her secret love interest was. I didn’t know if it would work, but it had.
Odin allowed me to slide into a booth, and he sat down beside me. Our seats allowed us to look down at the dance floor. It was writhing with bodies, and I stared across the crowd.
This was part of being married to him—going to nightclubs. People would approach, and Odin would talk to them. If he did need to leave, a guard would stand with me. He built all of this up from nothing. When I asked him how he wasable to get the money, he said it was from Serra’s hands. He went back to fighting and saved every penny he made.
It was kind of ironic that the one man who gave them all a headache was rewarded for his fighting skill.
