barge into my room and head straight for the box on the top shelf in the closet.
The blade Mila gave me for my birthday falls at my feet. Bending down to retrieve it, I go lightheaded and almost fall.
“What’s going on, Raphe? Talk to me.”
Turning, I come face-to-face with him. “Do you have my back?”
“You know I do.”
“Even against my father? Your uncle?”
“Against everyone. Why? What do you need me to do?”
“Come with me.”
My father is seated behind his desk with his feet perched over the top, a thick cigar between his lips.
“Why?”
“Why what, son?”
“Why did you call and tell her all those lies?”
He taps the cigar over the ashtray, flicking off a chunk of ash.
“Because I could. This is the way it’s meant to be. Two hundred years can’t be changed because one old man says it can.”
His eyes go to the blade, but the arrogant asshole doesn’t move to prepare himself for an attack. Not even when I take long strides to cross the room and stand before him.
“I will get her back, and Vita will know peace. Unlike you, we’re not blinded by hatred. This could’ve been so different.”
Mila didn’t want any more Marocchi blood spilled by this blade, but as I plunge it into my father’s heart, I reckon she’ll be pleased it took out the Marocchi who deserved it the most.
“Raphael!”
Cristian grabs at the back of my shirt to pull me away, causing me to stumble and fall back on my ass. Pain shoots up into my shoulder, and I hiss through the burn that settles in its place.
“What the fuck did you just do?” he yells, falling to his knees before me.
“I cut the snake’s head off. Now, get me a fucking doctor.”
Falling back on the carpet, I stare up at the mural painting on the ceiling. It seems like the more blood I lose, the more the cherubs seem to move.
I doubt I’ll die from this, but if I do, it’ll be better than living without my Mila. Her trust in me was shattered, and she wouldn’t believe a single word I said. One phone call from my father had her believing him wholeheartedly. She had men who knew her father was dead, and still ran to protect her when they heard the gunfire. They’re going to form a wall around her, and she’s going to use them to keep me away. Anger creeps in and replaces the shock of her actions. Rolling my head to the side, my father’s lifeless body slips from the chair, just as a shrill scream batters my ears. My mother stands in the doorway, looking between her dead husband and her bleeding son.
Soldiers rush past her, quickly filling the room. Lucien is the first one to check my father for a pulse, shaking his head no to Ricardo.
Pulling the blade from my father’s chest, he looks over the inscription.
“Camarco,” he hisses, generating a violence I’ve never felt before from the men.
“Raphael!” a voice calls, and then someone—I don’t know his name—is hovering over me, giving my arm the once-over.
“Help me up. Cristian went to get the doctor.”
Two men quickly haul me up and help me over to the couch.
“What do you want us to do, sir?”
Looking up, I take a moment to read the situation, and realise he’s waiting for me to give them their orders.
“Take my mother to another room, she’s giving me a headache. Then, round up our men and hunt down every Camarco soldier they can find. No one is to touch Jamila. I want her myself.”
“Understood.”
He himself straightens and turns around to repeat my order before instructing three soldiers to remain with me, to protect me with their lives.
“With your father gone, it’s you who rules the family now. Are you ready?”
“Yes.”
But not in the way he’s thinking, I’m sure. Once Mila has heard me out, I’m sure she’ll come to see the lies she’s been fed are just that, and we’ll move on with our lives, together, just as we’d intended.
“Then we’ll follow you as we did him.”
Their heavy boots thud over the carpet as they leave. Resting my head on the back of the couch, I close my eyes, shutting out the sight of Mila’s heart breaking to plan for the future. Even if I have to take out every Camarco soldier to get to her, that’s what I’ll do. She’s mine, and always will be.
Cristian nudges my arm, snapping me back to reality as her coffin is carried out of