Chapter 68 His advice
Nico POV
“I’m not accusing you of anything, Nico. I know you acted on impulse and did what you thought was right. I don’t think killing your mother was something you did intentionally. But Damon does, and I’m trying to let you see why his sole purpose now would be to destroy you.”
I poured myself another drink and tossed the alcohol down my throat in one huge gulp. “If Damon thinks he has it in him to destroy me, he’s an even bigger idiot than I thought.”
“Do not underestimate your brother, Nico. He has already played one card by having the balls to approach a supplier this family has been working with for the last twenty years.”
“He won’t succeed in his endeavor by trying to discredit me, Uncle.”
He grabbed my shoulders, and I could see the resolve, the determination in his eyes as he stared at me. “Then you need to take what is rightfully yours. You need to make every member of this family see, including your little brother, that you are the rightful leader. Not Damon. Now think, boy, think about what you would have done if you were in Damon shoes. If you were the one who saw his own brother murder their mother, saving the woman he hated the most.”
It took me all of two seconds to realize that I would probably have felt exactly the same way Damon did. If it was me, I would have demanded revenge. I would have done everything in my power to destroy those I felt was guilty…like I did when I still blamed Lila for the loss of my twin brother.
The answer was simple. “I would destroy those responsible.”
“How?”
“By letting him feel pain worse than death. I would take from him that which he hold dearest.”
Uncle Lucas let go of my arms and stepped back. “And what do you hold dearest, Nico?”
Jesus. Deep down, I knew this all along.
Deep down, I knew that Damon would want Lila dead. But somehow I convinced myself that he would want to bury my corpse much more than hers. And I had silently hoped that Damon would be happy just by having half of the Moretti family under his command, following him. But now…now that I finally saw this entire situation through Damon eyes, there was no doubt in my mind that Lila would be his target. “I won’t let him touch her.”
“You did once.”
I narrowed my eyes, glaring at him. “That was different.”
“Was it?”
“Yes.”
He crossed his arms in front of his chest. “And how was it any different then than it is now?”
Anger started to simmer inside my gut, my vision slowly starting to turn into shades of red. The memory of Damon beating Lila, bound by chains and hanging naked from the ceiling, infested my mind.
It was all my doing. I started it. I was the one that hung her by those chains in the first place. And by God, I loved the sight. I loved how vulnerable she looked. How she stared at me with pleading eyes, knowing all too well that she was completely and utterly at my mercy. Right then, I already knew that fucking Lila was inevitable. I knew that my rage and my hunger for revenge weren’t nearly as strong as my desire to unleash the sexual dominance she so desperately craved. It was written all over her face, the evidence engraved with white scars on her body. She yearned for something more, something that stemmed from darkness, yet shamelessly bloomed in her soul.
I knew while I stared at her body being ripped apart by Damon belt that I would be the man that gave her the darkness she desired. And as I counted every lash, endured every scream that came out of her mouth, I knew that I would never allow another man to lay a single hand on her body ever again. She was mine. And she became mine the second she got carried through my front door and placed behind the prison walls I had specially made for her.
I gulped down the last of my drink. “Do you want to know what’s different, Uncle?” I poured myself another glass. “I’m different. I’m a different bastard now than I was that day.”
“And why is that, Nico?”
I snorted as I turned around to face him again. “Back then, I was the bastard who had a woman kidnapped, beaten, and humiliated for his own selfish needs. And now…now I’m the bastard who has that same woman locked in his bedroom, but for some entirely different selfish reasons.”
“You need to stop.”
I snorted. “Stop what? I already started this war between me and my little brother by choosing her above my own family. There’s no stopping it now.”
“Then you better man up and get that goddamn confused look off your face.”
I scowled. “Confused?”
He threw his empty glass across the room, pieces of glass shattering against the wall. “You walk around looking like a man that doesn’t know where he belongs. Like a man that doesn’t know what the fuck is going on in here.” He slammed his fist against his own chest. “You need to decide what the hell it is you want, and then you take it, and you make sure that no one, and I mean no one, ever takes it from you.”
I bit down on my bottom lip. He was right. I was confused. Every time I looked into those beautiful sapphire blue eyes, I was confused as fuck. I didn’t understand how one woman could change so much, make me feel so many different feelings all at once.
One moment I felt like I needed her more than I needed air. The next moment I looked at her and I couldn’t stop thinking that everything that happened, Nikolai death, me killing both rex and my mother, this war that simmered between me and Damon, it was all because of her.
I killed my own flesh and blood because of her. My family was now divided because of her. Yet I couldn’t stop myself from wanting this woman more than I wanted anything in this entire goddamn, motherfucking world. How the fuck was that possible? Blaming someone just as much as needing that same person?
I squared my shoulders and looked at Uncle Lucas, hoping like hell he didn’t see all the conflicting emotions running rampant inside me. “I’m trying to figure all this out.”
Uncle Lucas stepped up, his dark stare pinned on me. If I wasn’t such a confident asshole, I would have felt intimidated by the stone cold look he had on his face. “That woman you currently have locked up in your bedroom in my house will either be your saving grace or your downfall, Nico. I pray it’s not the latter. But if you keep on treating her like your prisoner, I can guarantee she will destroy you.”
I snorted and shook my head before looking him square in the eye. “It’s too late for that, Uncle Lucas. She already has.”