Page 31 of All Your Lies (All or Nothing #2)
twenty-five
Gage
W ith a smirk on my face, I observe Alexa’s frustrated huff as she regains her stance, determination clear in her eyes.
Under the hexagon lights in my home gym, her body glistens, clad only in her bra and my boxer briefs.
After our movie last night, she made excuses and retreated to the other room, much to my disappointment, so I woke her up early for a sparring session.
“Why are we doing this? Aren’t you supposed to protect me as my soon-to-be husband?”
“I will, but I want to know that you’re capable of fighting if something happens to me.”
She crinkles her nose. “Don’t say things like that.”
“It’s always a possibility. You know how this life is. A new day is never guaranteed.”
“Well, I don’t like to think about it.”
“Careful, Lex. Your love for me is going to make my heart burst,” I say with a smirk.
She glares at me as she prepares to attack. I dodge her jab, then wrestle her down to the ground.
“I knew this was your plan all along,” she says as she gazes up at me.
“It was part of it.” I laugh.
“And the other part?” she asks with a quirk of her eyebrow.
“When I found out about what happened to you, I felt so guilty I wasn’t there to protect you. We could’ve lost you,” I say as I rub my finger against the raised scar near her ear. I know she’s ashamed of the scar and what it represents, but she shouldn’t be. It shows her strength and resilience.
She flips me onto my side. “It wasn’t your fault. You didn’t have a choice—”
“I always had a choice. I was just too weak to go against it.”
“You were never—”
“I was.” I feel the scar running long and raised across my palm.
The reminder of the day I finally showed myself is seared into my flesh.
16 YEARS OLD
My father cuts my palm and I wince at the initial sting as he looks into my eyes. “Pathetic,” he spits with disgust.
His new objective has been to inflict pain until Marco and I no longer wince or flinch or move. He intends for us to turn into nonfeeling robots just like him.
It’s an exhausting mind game, and I’m sick of it.
The blackness seeps into my soul as it always does, but this time, I don’t push it back down.
My fingers clench around the knife, still deeply embedded in my flesh, and I pull it closer. Ignoring the searing pain that rips through me, which passes as the black haze fades it into nothingness.
“Let the blade go, Gage,” my father says through clenched teeth as he tries to pry it from my hand.
I squeeze the blade in my palm harder until my crimson blood creates more of a stream and less of a trickle on his desk.
“You wanted blood. Let there be blood,” I say in a voice that seems foreign.
Marco comes into my line of sight behind our father and shakes his head for me to stop while holding his bleeding palm.
I’m sick of seeing him get hurt. I’m sick of getting hurt. This has to stop.
A smile reaches my lips as I flick my eyes back to my father while taking in his reaction. The fear in his eyes is something I’ve never witnessed in him.
I let his words and his beliefs of my unworthiness turn me into the monster he tried to craft me to be. What he didn’t know is that this side of me was there all along, fighting to come out, fighting to dance with the light I shrouded myself in.
He learned the mistake he made today, and fuck, it feels good.
She grabs my hand, bringing me back to the present.
“Jesus, Gage, what is that?” Alexa says as she runs her finger along the scar.
“A reminder of who I am. Come on, we’ll go get you some new clothes, and then we have to get ready for the meeting.”
Manuel, Tony, and Rocco file into the room later that day, but what confuses me is Gia trailing the three of them.
“This was to be a closed conversation,” I say as I glare at Gia. She will never be in a position of power, so I don’t understand her attendance today when we’re speaking of important matters.
“We’ve already got one woman in here. What’s the difference?” Manuel mutters.
I don’t need to glance at Alexa to know the comment stung.
“Alexa may be a capo as you three are, but the difference is she is to be my wife. This puts her higher in rank and importance, and she deserves the same respect as you. I won’t put up with anything less.”
The transition of putting a woman in a boss’s role hasn’t been smooth, though I’d never mention that to her. These stupid fucks and their fathers need to get out of the Dark Ages. This will happen whether they like it or not.
“Understood, boss,” Rocco says with a begrudging huff as he looks at his sister. “Should we begin?”
“Not until Marco arrives.” On cue, my brother walks in. The fucker was probably listening on the other side of the door.
“Someone mentioned me?” he asks as he walks in with a smile before coming to stand between Alexa and me.
I narrow my eyes at him, silently warning him to step away from Alexa, but he remains unfazed and unmoving.
I have to get out of this townhouse and into a bigger house with a bigger office. Being crammed in here is making my already bad mood worse.
“Okay, let’s get to business. What do you have for me, Rocco?”
He looks over at his sister and then back at me. “There were once whispers of you marrying my sister. Now that is no longer,” he says as he looks over at Alexa. “We’d like to propose a marriage between her and Marco now that she’s of age.”
I observe Marco, who has become as still as a statue, and unfortunately, Alexa, too. Alexa looks over at Marco and then at me before leveling Rocco with a glare. “No.”
I feel the air leave my lungs as those two letters, that one simple word, gut punch me.
Did last night mean nothing to her? Will I always be second best to him?