silence somehow full of inexplicable hostility.
It must have been my imagination, because there wasn’t a single reason Cato could be upset with me. The last two weeks had been wonderful. He’d returned to work because I was strong enough to take care of Martina on my own. By the time he came home, Martina was so happy to see him. The second he walked in the door, he picked her up and looked at her like she’d been on his mind all day—not me.
Once Martina was asleep, I walked toward the doorway and got a better view of his expression. It was cold, guarded, and dangerous. As if we were eight months in the past, the cruel and bitter man had returned. His jaw was clenched in a way it hadn’t been in a long time. His blue eyes weren’t so pretty anymore.
He stepped out of the bedroom and into the hallway.
I shut the door behind me. “What’s wrong—”
He grabbed me by the elbow and yanked me down the hallway.
“Cato, what the hell are you doing?” I tried to twist out of his grasp, but it was too strong. He gripped me with the force of steel. “Cato!” I used all my body weight to get out of his hold, to get free of this man I didn’t know.
“I’m doing what I promised I would do.” He pulled me down the stairs.
Panic exploded inside me as the adrenaline circulated in my veins. Fear rang like a drum with every beat of my heart. I’d forgotten about his promise because it seemed irrelevant. He and I were different now. We loved each other. We had a daughter together. “You can’t be serious.” I pushed him off me and lost my footing.
He caught me before I fell, only to keep dragging me. “I am serious.”
Tears flooded my eyes, not from terror, but anger. “I’m the mother of your child—”
“Doesn’t matter.”
“You can’t take me away from her!” Now I fought with everything I had, fought to get back to my little girl. “How dare you? What the hell is wrong with you?”
He continued to pull me down the stairs until we reached the entryway. “You betrayed me—twice. Let’s not forget that.”
“Only a pathetic man holds on to the past like that.” Tears ran down my cheeks like two warm rivers. “I love you and you love me. How could you do this to me? I make you happy—”
“Not happy enough.” He pulled me through the front door and into the chilly nighttime air. His men were gathered around, armed with guns. Bates was there too, smiling like this was the happiest day of his life.
I kicked Cato. “You’re better than this!”
He didn’t react to the hit. “No one crosses Cato Marino.”
“And no one gets close to him either. I feel sorry for you. I’m the one about to die—but you’re the person I pity.”
He left me on the concrete in front of the fountain. “Kneel.”
I spat in his face. “Fuck. You.”
He let the spit drip down his face until it left his chin. “I will make you, Siena. You don’t want that.”
I drew my hand back and slapped him across the face. “She will never forgive you. She will hate you. And I hate you.” I slapped him again, putting all my weight and ferocity into the hit. I’d never wanted to hurt him so much. If I had a gun, I wouldn’t hesitate to shoot him. “I can’t believe I ever loved you. I’m ashamed that I did.”
He grabbed my shoulders and pushed me down. “Kneel.”
I let my knees buckle underneath me, and I fell to the concrete. The bullet wound in my head would drain my blood into the fountain and mix with blood from all his other victims. My body would be thrown into a pit somewhere in the countryside. My daughter wouldn’t remember me, not even the sound of my voice. The tears fell harder, and the cramps started in my sides.
Cato walked back to his brother and took the pistol offered to him.
I lifted my gaze and stared down the barrel, refusing to be weak in my final moments of life. I’d run away from this man because I’d feared this would be my fate. But then I fell for those blue eyes and those hot kisses. I slept beside him every night and fell deeper in love. For him to do this to me, despite all that, told me he was a psychopath. Putting up the Christmas