Embrace the Darkness (The Maura Quinn Series Book 1) - Ashley N. Rostek Page 0,123

been fucking blind all these years? You’ve been grooming her,” he sneered, and his eyes traveled around the room until they circled back to me. “He’s going to put a bitch in charge. A woman cannot rule over this family. You will ruin our entire empire and I’ll be damned if I sit back and let that happen.”

Without removing my eyes from Samuel’s, I pulled the trigger over and over and over. The click after click of the gun sliced through the silence in the room to the same effect as a loud drum. Boom. Boom. Boom. Panic and fear took root in Samuel’s eyes with each click of the gun until it was clear the gun was never going to fire. I pulled the bullet I'd pretended to load into the gun from my sleeve. “Sleight of hand,” I said, wiggling my fingers at my uncle. “I swear you can learn anything on the Internet these days.” I placed the bullet upright on the table in front of Dylan. Both him and Samuel held mirror shocked expressions with their jaws slightly ajar. I set the revolver next to the bullet.

“I never intended to shoot you, Dylan.” My poor cousin’s brow was drenched with sweat and his face was white as a sheet. “However, there is one more matter we must go over and that’s where your loyalties lie.” Dylan’s head jerked up, eyes pleading. He opened his mouth to speak, but I stopped him with the shake of my head. “Put the bullet in the gun and line it up with the barrel,” I ordered him. His eyes dropped to the gun and bullet in front of him.

The sound of a chair scraping the floor was followed by Jamie growling, “Maura!”

I ignored him as I watched Dylan’s hand hover over the gun, apprehensively. “I won’t ask again, Dylan,” I said firmly and that seemed to be the push he needed. He scooped up the gun and bullet and once the cylinder was clicked back in place, I grabbed the barrel of the gun while Dylan still held the grip. When I pointed it to my chest, more chairs scraped across the floor as the men around me got to their feet.

“Maura, what are you doing?” Stefan demanded.

I could hear movement around me, but I kept my focus solely on Dylan. He tried to pull the gun away from my chest, but my hold was firm. I cupped his chin, making his eyes lock with mine. “Dylan, I know you were just following your father’s lead. I know you wouldn’t have betrayed the family if it wasn’t for him.”

“I’m so sorry, Maura. He said we were protecting the family. He said we had to make the deal with De Luca to stop the war and if it worked, over time he would tell Stefan. We haven’t touched the money. It’s all sitting in a safe. We were going to give it back. We took it as insurance to make sure Stefan wouldn’t kill us until my father could calm him down and make him see reason, that the peace between us and the De Lucas was working.”

“Shh…shh. I know.” I comforted him by caressing his cheek. Samuel had fed him nothing but lies and manipulation. My poor senseless cousin, who idolized his father, had believed him without question. “I’m going to give you an opportunity to redeem yourself.” Dylan’s eyes widened as hope filled them. I moved the gun away from my chest and made Dylan point it at Samuel. “You can shoot your father.”

“You stupid bitch! You think you can make my own son shoot me?!” Samuel roared, standing from his chair. Dean moved quickly by shoving Samuel back down into his seat while aiming his gun at Samuel’s enforcer. Jamie stepped into my peripheral, gun also out and pointed at the enforcer, who now held his hands up in surrender.

“Or…you can take me hostage,” I said, pulling the gun back to my chest. “You can try to give you and your father a chance of getting out of here.”

“Maura!” Stefan yelled.

I gave Dylan a little smirk and shrugged. He needed to be faced with temptation if he was going to prove himself. Stefan wouldn’t let him live otherwise.

“What’s it going to be?” I asked, releasing the gun, leaving the decision up to Dylan. “If you shoot your father, we will spare your life. You can look after your mother and sister in your father’s stead. Or you could