Page 1 of Blood & Heartache

Chapter 1

Please read author's note - this book has many dark undertones

The sound of rain as it hit the tent they’d erected over the burial site was so loud it almost drowned out the priest’s voice. It didn’t matter. I wasn’t listening to the words he was saying—they meant nothing. How could a person who’d only seen my father five times in his life say anything meaningful? Daddy wasn’t a religious man. He believed in making his own path and wealth. He was god and king over the Caprioni Family, so what use did he have of a poor man’s deity?

A chilled hand grasped mine, and I almost flinched at the foreign feeling of it. Casimira’s hand held onto mine so tightly that even if I wanted to remove it, I couldn’t without a scene. Her handkerchief was clutched in her other hand, covering her mouth as she tried not to burst into tears.

Today was the first day she wasn’t drugged with tranquilizers, numbing herself to the pain. Four days—had it only been four hellish days since that fateful meeting with two long-term business partners and supposed friends? Four days since I returned to my childhood home with my father’s lifeless body? I’d already lost one parent to those seeking to destroy us. Now, now I have lost the other, the last thread of family I had in this world.

Flora, my father’s legal wife, scoffed under her breath as she sat next to me, glaring at Casimira from the corner of her eye. The frigid bitch had graced us with her presence just last night, claiming her grief made it impossible for her to return any sooner from her mountain retreat. The ice witch hadn’t seen my father in years, only using his money to fund her life and fuck whatever pool boy was serving her that day. I’d always known their marriage was a sham, but for fuck’s sake, she could put a little effort in when her husband had died.

“Any last words before we lower our dearly departed Colmazio Caprioni into his final resting place?” Father Kendall asked those of us who had gathered under the tent.

While the church service and the visitation the night before had been beyond overwhelming with people paying their respects, this, this moment right here, this was for us—his family—to say goodbye in peace. Casimira got up first and walked to the casket, placing a red rose on top before she dropped to her knees sobbing.

“No, no, no,” she wailed. “You can’t be gone. Mazi, please come back. Don’t leave me like this. We finally got our family back together.”

When it didn’t seem that Casimira would come to her senses, Jamison, my half-brother, and Liu, my adoptive brother, picked her up gently and escorted her to the limo. Her personal doctor was standing there to give her the drugs to make this pain go away.

“Thank God, that woman was shaming us all carrying on like that,” Flora muttered.

The last strand of the fuck I’d been clinging to having to deal with her today snapped. “At least no one would ever question the fact she loved my father dearly. Not sure why you even bothered to show up, or did someone cut off your credit card?”

“Now, Astin, is that any way to speak to a woman who’s just lost her husband?” Flora asked, clutching a hand to her chest in mock horror.

Shoving to my feet, I planned to explain how she was a lying sack of shit, but I forgot to use my cane. Pain shot through my leg up the right side of my body, making me grit my teeth as my leg refused to hold my weight. Strong arms grabbed hold and pulled me to their chest before I could crumble to the ground. The pain mixed with the anger I had swirling in my chest sent me back to that horrible day.

Braxton’s hands were covered in blood as he held someone’s shirt to my leg after he’d cinched his belt tight around my thigh. “Hold on, Astin, we’re almost to the hospital.”

“No, we can’t go to the hospital. They’ll know Daddy is dead,” I argued. “That can’t get out before we’ve told everyone back home.”

“Astin,” Jace snapped. “Your leg is bleeding far more than it should if it was just through the muscle. We lost the boss… we can’t risk anything happening to you too. Now you’re just gonna have to trust us to do what’s best, and that’s you going to the hospital. End of discussion.”

My temper flared as my alter ego was still far too close to the surface to make me reasonable. Grabbing Jace by the throat, I dug my fingers in. “I’m the boss now, and if I say we’re going back to the house, that’s what we’re doing. Don’t make me add you to the body count I’ve already racked up today.”

Jace’s dark blue eyes never wavered as he held my gaze. He didn’t fight back even when I knew I was cutting off the air to his lungs with how tight my grip was. All he did was utter one word in challenge, “No.”

“You would let me kill you right here, right now? For what?” I snarled.

Then someone was grabbing my face, and I was looking into Atticus’s lighter blue eyes behind his round-rimmed glasses. “Astin, you told us to stand our ground if we thought you were wrong. That’s what we’re doing now, and you must listen. You’re hurt, in pain, and your mind isn’t clear. Release Jace. You’ve been depriving him of air to the point he will pass out in the next minute or so.”

At his words, my hand relaxed, and the sound of Jace gasping for air filled the space around us. No one moved or spoke as Atticus continued to hold me as if he knew his touch was grounding me in a way I desperately needed.

“Atty,” I croaked. “Don’t let me fuck this up. I can’t let Daddy down.”

“I won’t, Astin,” he promised, his thumb stroking my cheek ever so gently. “You just need to listen to me for me to do that, okay?”

Nodding in his grasp, I shut my eyes and let them drive me to the hospital even though I wanted to be anywhere but there.

“Whoa, easy, I got you, Tin-Tin,” Ryker whispered as he steadied me, his voice bringing me back to the present. “Here, this should help.”

Without making a scene, he pressed my cane into my hand, and once I was steady, I took a step back. Not letting this momentary display of weakness quell my anger, I faced off with my stepmother once and for all.

“Flora, because of the contract agreed upon when you married my father, I can’t cut you off financially. What I can do is tell you that you’re stripped of the Caprioni name and the protection it offers. You’ll get a lump sum each year on this date, and that’s the only money you’ll get from me. I don’t ever want to see your face again, which shouldn’t be hard since you’re so good at ignoring anyone else but your own reflection,” I informed her, my voice cold.

Some might think now wasn’t the right time to say this to her, but I knew I’d never let her step foot in my home again. She’d take another limo by herself to wherever she desired as long as it wasn’t to the manor. Flora married my father as part of a business deal, and thankfully, the contract kept them from changing that with his death. Daddy might have made mistakes along the way, but no one would ever say he wasn’t a shrewd dealmaker.

“How dare you,” Flora raged, shooting to her feet and made to slap me.