Luca let go of his hair, and Mario's head fell back onto his chest. "I was saving him for you, amore."
"And what the fuck do you expect me to do with him?" My stomach rolled, and I thought I was going to be sick.
"Whatever you'd like."
I stared at what was left of the man who'd made my life hell ever since Luca had brought me into their game. "I don't want to do anything with him," I told him. "Can I go home now?"
Luca's mouth twisted and he turned to look down at his brother. "This pezzo di merda-this asshole!-killed your sister." His eyes, black in the shadows of his face, caught mine. "He tried to kill your parents. He would've killed you. And me. And you want me to what? Let him go?"
As the shock of his appearance began to wear off, something stirred in my gut. He was right. The son of a bitch didn't deserve to be let off easy. But this wasn't me. "Do what you want with him, Luca. But I don't want any part of it."
He swiftly closed the distance between us and grabbed my chin in his bloody hand, forcing me to look at him. "That's not what you want."
I met him look for look. "You don't know what I want."
"Yes. I do."
Something cold and hard touched my hip as he let go of my face. Without thinking, I automatically wrapped my hand around it, feeling cold metal against my palm. I looked down. It was a gun. I shook my head and tried to hand it back to him. "No, Luca. Take it back."
Holding his hands up in front of him, palms toward me, he backed away.
I held it out to him. "I'm not shooting anyone. I can't. Especially not someone who's unconscious."
Luca spun around on his heel and stalked to the back of the garage, where there was a large sink. Turning on the faucet, he filled a bucket full of water and took it back over to his brother, dumping it over his head.
Mario came awake with a jerk, spitting and sputtering. The eye that wasn't swollen shut squinted at me, much like my mother did, then dropped down to the gun in my hand. He burst out laughing, but it was cut off with a groan as he leaned forward and coughed. I would guess he had a few broken ribs. For my father's ribs his men had broken? An eye for an eye, perhaps. When he sat up, his tongue licked at his busted lip before he grinned at me. The same smile he'd given me after he'd sliced his initial into my flesh. My fingers tightened around the pistol in my hand.
He glanced over at his brother. "What the hell do you expect her to do with that?" He jerked his chin at me. "That one doesn't have the balls. She's not near the woman her sister was." He turned his one good eye back to me, then spit a mouthful of blood onto the floor.
"Shut your mouth."
At my words, he gave me a bloody grin. "Why? What are you gonna do? Are you gonna cry? Like you did when I shoved my cock down your throat?"
His head snapped back as Luca's fist connected with his jaw in a burst of violence.
"Luca."
At the sound of my voice, he backed off.
Mario stretched his head on his neck from side to side. "You're just pissed because she liked it," he told Luca.
The letter on my chest began to burn as tears of rage filled my eyes. I was right. I knew it even if I couldn't act on it. Mario would never leave me alone unless he was dead.
"God. You look so much like her, though," he went on as he turned his attention back to me. "But she didn't have your fight. My Nicole was a good girl, right up until I had my gun pointed at her head."
Bile rose in my throat, and my hands began to shake. I didn't want to hear this. He was goading me. Trying to see what I would do. I knew it, but I couldn't force my legs to move.
"Even when I told her to walk away and turn around, so I could see her pretty face, so I could remember her just like that. Her mascara running down her face and her lipstick smeared from my cock." He paused, waiting for a reaction. But he didn't get one. I was frozen. My eyes glued to the bloody mess that used to be his face. "She didn't argue with me. Didn't complain. Didn't beg my forgiveness. She just did whatever the fuck I told her to do." He gazed past me, like he was looking into the past. "She would've been a great wife if she could've just kept her fucking mouth shut."
His eyes snapped back to me so fast I jumped. "But I know where you get your fight from." He spit blood on the floor and smiled. "Your mother. That one has fire. One of these days, I'm going back for her," he told me. His tongue protruded from between his swollen lips, moistening them.
My blood burned in my veins and my vision went red. "You leave my mother the fuck alone!"
"No." He shook his head. "I don't think so. She needs a real man between her legs. Not your pussy of a father. I know my brother has them here. He thinks he can protect them. But I'll find her again. Just like I'll find you." His eyes dropped to my chest. "Mmm. Maybe I'll finish the artwork I started. Carve my entire fucking name into that soft skin of yours. Maybe then you'll know who you belong to."
"I don't belong to anyone but myself," I gritted out. Raising the gun, I pointed it at his head. My hand began to shake.
"You don't have the guts," he sneered.
My finger rested on the trigger. Red hot rage boiled in my blood. I knew if I did this, there was no coming back from it. Mario would be dead, and I'd never be the same.
My sister's ghostly white face floated in the air before me, her lively blue eyes dull in death. Memories of my father, beaten and broken. And of my mother, spewing her hate at me like it was my fault Mario had gone after them. If it wasn't for this piece of shit in front of me, my sister would still be alive, ordering me around and my parents would be home. Safe.
And I never would've been taken. I would still be the girl I was before I'd been forced into this sick game.
I took a deep breath. And when I released it, I tightened my finger on the trigger. The gun went off, and the bullet grazed the side of his face.
Mario's eye widened in shock. And then he laughed, loud and crazy.
Hot, angry tears filled my eyes until I couldn't see. I pulled the trigger again. And again. I pulled it over and over until the laughter stopped and Mario's head fell back, his mouth hanging open as his dead eyes stared up at the ceiling. There wasn't much left of his face, although a few shots had hit him in the chest.
I stared at him for a long time, the gun still pointed at his face, until my arm began to tremble violently, and I couldn't hold it up anymore. I dropped the gun to my side and bent at the waist, screaming at the dead body in front of me. I screamed with all of the rage and sorrow inside of me. I screamed in horror. And I screamed in triumph.
And when I was done, when there was nothing left but a comfortable numbness, I breathed. Just breathed. Straightening up, my eyes found Luca and my stomach rolled. I was going to be sick.
Walking over to me, he lifted one hand and cupped my face in his palm. I thought he would take the gun from me then, but he didn't. Instead, he lowered himself to his knees on the blood-covered cement floor.
"What are you doing?" My voice was hoarse from screaming. Tears and snot ran down my face as my entire body trembled with the gravity of what I'd just done.
"I'm giving you a chance, amore."
I stared down at him, confused.
Enzo appeared beside me. I hadn't even realized he was still here. "Luca, what are you doing?"
"What I should've done all along," Luca told him. His blue eyes never left me. "I'm giving Veda a choice."
"Luca, stop it." But even as I said the words, my finger twitched on the trigger.
"If you want to be rid of me, amore, this is the only way that's ever going to fucking happen. You can pull that fucking trigger, and you'll be free. Or you can put down the gun. But if you choose the second option, you'll never be able to escape me. I'll hunt you down to the last corners of this fucking earth, and I'll rip apart anyone who tries to keep you from me. So, my vita, you have a choice. And this is the only time I'll give it to you." Then he sat back on his heels, placed his palms on his hard thighs, and waited.
Fucking hell, he was offering me a way out.
There was a burning knot in my chest that rose to clog my throat as ragged sobs tore through me. All I'd wanted these last few weeks was to get away from this man and everything he stood for. Yes, he'd fucked me like I'd never been fucked before. He'd protected me. He'd loved me.
But he'd also ripped me from my life. He'd used me, He'd played me. He'd sucked me into his fucking game and tore me open, just to patch me back together again and send me sprawling back out into a world I no longer knew. And I was so fucking done.
Lifting the gun, I pressed the barrel against his forehead. There wouldn't be any missing this time. "I love you," I whispered brokenly.
"I know," he whispered back.
The last thing I heard was Enzo's shout.
And then I pulled the trigger.