considering that all signs point to me lying right next to Renzi in the same bloody puddle.
“Rossi!” A booming voice echoes in the still air, and I blink fast.
Wait...I know that voice!
“Phoenix!” I scream. “I’m in here!”
Rossi’s face twists into a grimace and he whacks me in the head with his gun.
Again.
A searing pain shoots down the edge of my jaw, my brain scrambled by the sudden force. I swear to God, when I get out of this fucking chair, I’m going to take that gun of his and shove it up his fat ass!
“They have me zip-tied to a fucking chair!” I shout.
Loud thumping noises follow, almost like a herd of elephants stampeding the place. I let out a breath when my father and brothers crash through the door and jump over Lorenzo’s body, guns in their outstretched hands.
It’s over. Jesus, it’s finally over.
Except...what exactly is over?
“What the hell is going on?” I mutter. “How did you know I was even here?”
“Lorenzo called,” Phoenix says in a low voice, nodding his head toward the body. “I guess he wasn’t of use anymore to you sick fucks, was he?” He storms over to Rossi and holds up the knife to his throat.
“Fuck the threats,” Jase grunts, hurling his body at Rossi and ignoring the gun in his hand. He grabs both sides of his jacket, slamming his head back against a heavy wooden coffee table before stepping on his neck with one foot and on his gun-clenched hand with the other steel-tipped boot. “Let it go,” he hisses. “Or the spike in the bottom of my shoe is gonna shoot through your wrist and puncture the vein, making you bleed out in fucking seconds.”
“Subtle,” Phoenix grumbles, using his knife to slice through the zip ties holding my wrists and ankles together. When I’m finally free, I leap out of the chair, raking a hand through my hair. “Where’s Charlotte?” I stomp over to Rossi and kick him in the side of the temple. “How do you like that, dick? Doesn’t exactly tickle, does it?”
Jase and Phoenix exchange a look. “Where the hell is Charlotte? And where’s Dad? They were right behind us with—”
A shrill yelp pierces the air right outside of the room. I jump at a familiar clicking sound and spin around to see Charlotte’s tear-streaked face as she walks into this dungeon followed by Cammy and Charles Hawthorne...the sack of shit who is holding a gun to my dad’s back.
“You dirty fucking bastard,” I seethe, clenching my fists as he shoves my father into a chair.
“Sit tight,” Charles says to my dad. He waves Cammy and Charlotte inside. “Shut the door,” he growls and Cammy’s eyes widen as she huddles into a corner. Her arm wrapped around a quivering Charlotte.
Charles looks at me with a menacing smile. “I did tell you I’d fix this, didn’t I? I told you I’d find out who is behind the terror assault on my family.” He grabs my father around the throat and squeezes. My father sputters as he claws Charles’s hand off of him to no avail.
“Get the fuck off of him!” I yell.
“Tell your brother to step off of Rossi or I will squeeze the ever-loving shit out of the old man’s throat. I will crush his goddamn windpipe!” Charles looks around at us with a maniacal glint in his eyes. “You aren’t the ones in control here, do you get that? You can’t stop us and what we’re about to do!”
Phoenix nudges Jase and kicks his foot off of Rossi’s arm. Rossi rolls onto his side and jumps up, his gun now pointed at my brother.
We are so fucked right now and I still don’t know why, dammit!
“It’s too bad your family didn’t listen to you, Xander. You were so close, but you didn’t realize it. And if your father and brothers had a shred of intelligence between them, they’d have connected the dots.” He leans close to my father’s purple face. “But you didn’t, did you, Marco? Xander raised the red flags, but you and your dipshit spawn ignored them. Not that I lost a second of sleep over it,” he says with a snicker. “Even with Lorenzo double dealing, you guys still couldn't get out of your own way.”
Charles lets go of my father and he coughs and chokes as he takes large gulps of air, one hand clutching his red throat. The gun barrel doesn’t move from my father, though.