Page 12 of And Twice as Twisted (Agostino Crime Family #4)

APOLLO DELUCA

T his disillusion was all-consuming and I was losing my ability to think, to properly process my surroundings. The control I held over every aspect of my life, my psyche, had shattered. Leaving me floating amidst the chaos, instead of anchoring me to the present.

The scent of another man lingering on her skin had filled my lungs. That lack of reality was the incendiary device that led me to this moment, my relationship with il familia decimated.

Had I really smelled Romano on her skin? I didn’t know anymore.

At the end of the day, her spending the weekend with him painted a bright-red target on Philly.

If he’d touched her, Romano deserved to suffer in my same purgatory.

I was stuck between the hell she evoked and the heaven between her thighs.

Neither of us deserved her. The mere thought of them together burned my throat as I swallowed back my desire to murder him .

The power of these images forced my hand, and by the time I’d snapped back to reality, she was already unconscious at my feet. Lying so vulnerable and unprotected as I fled—a coward’s flight.

As angered steps charged from a distance, I knew this was the end. I’d happily welcome the filicide that was coming my way. The man was like a father to me, the closest thing to a parental figure I’d known. Mario had given me a life to succeed and I’d practically spat in his face.

My refusal to look at her was solely based on my need to dismiss her, us. She needed to realize this , she and I, would never be. My urges for her had blinded my ability to rationalize. The desire that burned each time she was near was what incapacitated me.

Confusion rocked me as a gunshot echoed and pain lodged into my shoulder. My eyes dancing between Mario and Lucky, I saw that neither held a smoking gun. They stared to their right, forcing my gaze for the first time to Sienna.

I’d broken her.

She held no concern for the bullet she’d imbedded into my shoulder and the action was owed. Sienna was unscrupulous when it came to protecting her family but always allowed pain and sorrow to trap her soul.

Not anymore.

When the barrel of my own gun was pressed to my chest, a part of me wanted her to pull the trigger.

All the adversity I had inflicted upon her warranted my end at her hands.

It was the only thing I had assumed would offer her the solace my actions could afford her.

There was not a word or a backwards glance as she walked away from me.

An action so minimalistic and yet so… final.

No matter what transpired, moving forward, the beating organ in her chest cavity had combusted. There was nothing left.

“We should take turns,” Al growled, my eyes turning towards him. “You piece of shit.”

Bella smiled at Sienna’s ghost, my blood appeasing her.

Lucky was vibrating with a barely contained rage, but when I turned towards Mario, his glare made me flinch.

“I took you in because I saw such potential. Your loyalty proved I could trust you. And then you do this to her .” His words did their damage.

“Mario…”

He raised a hand to silence me. “I knew it would come to this. Years of watching my daughter fall for you, I had no idea how to stop it. I fucking knew it would end badly, but she’s too fucking stubborn.

She thought she’d be happy with whatever piece of yourself you gave to her.

” He paused and I had to clench my jaw to keep from responding.

“Now… you’ve broken her and I don’t know if she’ll ever be the same. ”

A fist slammed between my shoulder blades, forcing me to my knees.

I could immediately feel the swelling in my upper back, overlying the coracoid and acromion processes.

I didn’t even try to protect myself. I deserved the excruciating sensations assaulting my large intestine—thanks to Lucky’s boot.

Al kicked me in the back, my thoracic curvature taking impact and causing me to roll the opposite way.

He gripped the collar of my shirt and pulled me closer to him; the rage emanating from him was stifling.

His right fist felt like a sledgehammer to my jaw, forcing my mandible to shake.

“Sleep with your eyes open.” Al’s warning trickled through the pain. “Watch your fucking back, Apollo. Because we will always choose her first.”

Bella slapped me across my face, her open palm darkening the imprint of Al’s knuckles, before Mario hauled me to my feet and Lucky kept me standing.

My head rolled sideways and I couldn’t gain purchase with my boots.

The Agostino patriarch may have been getting older.

May have soldatos to do his dirty work. But he hadn’t lost his touch.

Two heavy punches and I dropped to my knees once more.

The direct blow to my lower back brought immense pain—a kidney bruise, also known as a kidney contusion.

The blunt force trauma would cause internal bleeding, accompanied by sharp pain and tenderness.

My back muscles and ribs took the impact; the bones were more likely cracked than broken.

“Sir.” One of the guards entered the yard, addressing Mario. “Your package has arrived.”

“Clean him up.” And then he was gone.

Al and Lucky started dragging me towards the house, my head thumping as consciousness slipped through my fingers. But each time they purposefully jostled me, I would snap out of the haze. Grunting as they dropped me on my bed, I couldn’t look at any of them.

“You got what you wanted.” Bella shoved at me until I rolled over so she could place a towel under my shoulder.

And I growled as she unceremoniously dumped peroxide onto the gunshot wound. “Fuck! Bella!”

“Whoops,” she said, but her tone was dry. “You wanted to push her away, and poof she’s gone. You’ll never get her back now.”

I closed my eyes as Bella cleaned the wound, biting my tongue when she dug for the bullet with ill-practiced hands. She was doing her best to make it agonizing. The pain wasn’t what I deserved, but I wasn’t dying today.

“There.” She dropped the bullet onto the side table. “Keep it. That way every time you see it, you’ll remember what you’ve lost.”

“Bella.” I stopped her from leaving.

“Save it. Those words aren’t for me. You need to think long and hard about your next move.” She looked over her shoulder. “You’ve all but pushed her to Philly. I suggest you open your eyes before it’s too late, because when she goes, none of us will get her back.”

“Fuck Romano.” I winced, trying to sit up against the headboard.

Without another word, Bella turned and left the room.

The four stages of healing were arduous enough. But each open wound would go through the hemostasis, inflammatory, proliferative, and maturation stages to put me back together. And as my body mended itself, I had time to search for the duo far more deserving of this pain and my wrath.

The near-death experience at the water’s edge seemed to diminish my ability to recall events.

The two boys thought they had gotten away scot-free, but they hadn’t.

My body was on the rebound and I had no doubt I’d find them.

Their faces, they were right there… yet I couldn’t grasp them.

Until I closed my eyes and the past came throttling to the forefront of my brain.

And then I realized why this was happening.

La verità ti renderà libero. My past had come back to haunt me and Sienna paid for those crimes.

“How did it feel?” I directed my question to the slumped and barely conscious man. He was tied to the metal table and stripped bare.

“Huh, wh-what?” he mumbled, his eyes opening wide and taking in his surroundings. “What the fuck? Who are you? What the fuck are you doing?” he stammered, echoing the same questions screamed by my previous victims.

“Answer me.” My pointer and middle finger pressed into the center of his forehead, slamming his head back down onto the table.

“How did it feel? Did you enjoy his cries of pain? Did he call out for his mommy or daddy?” When he didn’t answer, I continued.

“I know exactly who you are. Eugenio Affanad, once a member of Mario Agostino’s trusted counsel.

Husband to Mary and father to two sons, Carlo and Fausto.

And a fucking philanderer with a grotesque affinity for little boys.

” I snarled the last sentence. “Tell me. Have you touched your sons too?”

His eyes popped open and a look of disgust marred his face as he hurled some creative words my way.

I was going to kill him and allow his sons the peace of not knowing the disgusting creature their father truly was. “You are my first kill... unassisted. I guess you should feel pleased by that fact.”

Carlo and Fausto. They were the spitting images of the man who had died on my table, and clearly out for unjustified revenge. They had no clue as to their father’s guilt and now we’d suffered for it.

Mario didn’t want the boys or anyone to know the truth about Eugenio. He knew they’d be tainted by the memory of their pedophile patriarch. That was a mistake. I didn’t hurt the innocent, but they shattered their ability to be called that as soon as they harmed her.

Dressing quickly with two guns strapped to my chest and a knife on my belt, I left my room.

The first time since being shot. So consumed by my mission, I missed the soft body coming up the stairs, my chest shoving her backwards.

She tried grabbing the railing, but it slipped from her fingers.

I lunged for her, pulling her to my chest but lost my footing.

As Sienna screamed, I turned us and my back took the impact as we slid down the remaining steps.

The stitches in my shoulder split and the pain coursed through my body.

But worse… my dick came to life with Sienna’s ass pressed firmly against it.

“You motherfucker!” A click sounded above us and I looked up into the barrel of a nine.

Sienna pushed off my body to stand. “Al, stop. He didn’t do anything.

” She stood in front of the gun. “This time.”Holding my bleeding shoulder, she helped me sit up and started unbuttoning my shirt.

I hadn’t even realized I wasn’t wearing a jacket as she pulled my arm free.

She poked and prodded, inspecting the wound before nodding.

“It’s fine. The stitches are still mostly intact.

” Then she turned on her heel and headed into the family room.

“Cold.” Al chuckled, extending a hand. “Where are you off to?”

“I found them.” Saying it aloud appeased some of my rage.

“Office. Now.” Mario stood outside the door, while his tone left no room for argument as we followed him inside. “Who are they?” The tick of his jaw proved he was mad at himself.

We never should’ve hidden Eugenio’s past.

“Al will go with you.” He stopped my interjection. “I let you fucking live because you’re a son to me. But do not push me, Apollo.” I nodded in respect to the man that helped me harness my cacodemon. “I am also bringing additional reinforcements into the city,” Mario added.

Into the city. Fucking Romano…

“We need to cut ties with Philly. He’s a threat to you… to Lucky.” It wasn’t often I challenged my boss, but I couldn’t hold my tongue.

His moment of silence was deafening. “There is more at play here than you realize. Philly will stay in line. I’ve assured it.” Mario lit his cigar, puffing a few times. “Tell me. Why do you have such a problem with Philly?”

I was mute. Unable to articulate my reasoning.

“Nothing to say?” he challenged me, but I clenched my jaw and remained stoic.

“Lucky may be preparing to take over my reign but let me make something perfectly clear to you. This is my city. And Romano knows that.” The cigar smoke puffed in my face.

“Now tell me, Apollo. Is there anything concrete that points to Romano being a threat to my city ? Or is it not my empire that he’s threatening? ”

I always listened to my gut and it said to put him six feet under.

“Al! Go with him.” Mario’s command was final and I was dismissed.

I felt the tension lightening with each step I took, the proverbial burden being lifted from my shoulders.

Their death wouldn’t right their wrongs, but it would alleviate some of the affliction on my psyche.

It would appease the tarnished fragments of Sienna in my head.

The images of her beaten and bleeding, begging me with her eyes to save her.

Their deaths would serve as the recompense for her pain. And I would savor killing them.