Page 24 of Fatal Scheme

“You did amazing, baby girl. I’m so proud of you,” Ty says softly, taking her hair in his hands, tying it off with a loose band from her wrist.

“Everything hurts,” she whimpers, spinning around to face me as bright red marks stand out against her tan skin, the places where we claimed her as ours.

Tucking her delicate body under my chest, I rest my chin on top of her head, allowing the comfort that I can give her fill the space between us.

After the rollercoaster of a day we’ve had, all I want is to feel closer to Carter, to let her know that I’m not going anywhere, but even though we crossed new lines, I still feel a wall up between us.

The trust is there, but something is stopping her and I from connecting fully, but I’m determined to decode the issue and break down that final barrier.

THIRTEEN

TYSON

Carter snores.

Loudly.

Maybe it’s because she was fucked into oblivion and her body is exhausted, but I never sleep.

I may rest my eyes, or doze off for a few hours, but I’m almost always woken up in a cold sweat by a nightmare, flashback, or a too realistic dream sequence about the lives we’ve taken in the name of a family oath.

Tonight is no different, and with Carter beside me, I’m still wide awake, even with Massi here too, as they’re both spent, dead asleep in the center of my bed.

Their bodies are tangled together, him holding her as sobs turned into labored breaths, and finally, her body relaxed under his.

Rather than force myself to sleep, I quietly slip out of the bed, finding Carter’s dinner order and placing it in the fridge, knowing that she’ll be starving when she wakes up.

Sitting at the kitchen table, I pull out my phone, the light illuminating through the darkness, and the first thing I see is enough to completely ruin the high I was on.

An email briefing from Massi’s father highlights our suspicions that the war is on the brink of exploding, the violence landing right on our front door.

Over the last twenty-four hours, three more men from the Masseria family were found executed, stamped and delivered to the boss himself, and he’s out for vengeance.

Of course, our missions are becoming bloodier, the need to match their attacks only growing as the days pass, but just reading our next assignment makes my stomach queasy.

For as long as I can remember, my own father has tried to get us out of this life, literally giving up the Kelly family to the Masseria’s, what he thought would be our way out, but ended up being our death sentence, the payoff to be delivered once our bodies actually go six feet deep in the ground.

Massi’s father rules with an iron fist, ensuring that once you’re in the family, there’s no getting out, the only glimmer of hope given to you is the fact that one day, you’ll die.

It’s grim, morbid even, but that’s the life you either sign up for, or are born into, and unfortunately, I wasn’t given a choice in the way I’m forced to live.

Arguably, I’m not living, at least I haven’t been until Carter strutted into our school, stealing every death wish I’d saved in my heart, replacing those thoughts with a devious obsession.

Everything about her reawakens the parts of me I once thought were lost forever, and after one night with her, I finally feel something.

What that is remains to be seen, but it’s more than I’ve had in years, and because of that alone, I know she was meant for me – for us.

Suddenly, the quiet I was enveloped in is interrupted, soft footsteps treading down the stairs, and right away, I know it’s her.

Massi and I have these two top floors all to ourselves, and he walks like a baby elephant who just earned their sea legs.

“Tyson?” She whispers, and I click on the ceiling fan lamp above my head.

“What’re you doing up, baby girl?” I ask, watching as her eyes adjust to the light, and her bare naked skin shines from the sudden illumination.

“Jasper talks in his sleep. Something about murdering kittens and nuns,” she jokes, and I tap my thigh, encouraging her to sit with me.

“Those chairs work, don’t they?” She rolls her eyes, and I snatch her by the arm, forcing her onto my lap.