Page 17 of And Twice as Twisted (Agostino Crime Family #4)

SIENNA AGOSTINO

“ W hose blood is that?” Al asked, climbing into my driver’s seat.

“ Theirs .” I peeled a piece of the dried bodily fluid off my skin before rolling down my window to flick it away.

“What the hell were you thinking going there alone?” He smacked my steering wheel, his dramatics making me roll my eyes.

I adjusted Apollo’s shirt, much to Al’s angry glare, and quickly countered. “Whose blood is that ?”

“My own,” he deadpanned. “Motherfucker blacked out and totaled the car. They literally had to cut the door off to get me out. And do I even want to know why you’re wearing his shirt and what used to be your pants as a belt?”

“Semantics.” I brushed off his concern, ordering him to take me to my apartment.

“Nope. Mario wants you home,” he muttered before singing his taunt. “ Somebody’s in trouble .”

I punched him in the arm, ignoring his stupid chuckle as he drove me towards the compound. I’d kept some of the truth from my family. I could’ve kept it all to myself and just done what I wanted. But after my abduction, my need for self-preservation had kicked up a notch.

“Office. Now,” my father clipped the moment I walked through the front door.

“I’m really tired,” I said, flopping into the chair while suddenly all too aware of my limited attire. “Uncle Rick?” I dropped my feet to the floor and leaned forward with the shock. My Uncle Rick—my dad’s best friend—hadn’t been around in a few years.

“Hey, princess.” He’d aged. A lot. And not in a handsome way, like my father.

Uncle Rick had always been around at the holidays, birthdays, and all that jazz.

Then when he found a new, much-younger wife, he sort of disappeared.

Speculation at best, I knew something else had gone on between him and my father.

Neither would admit it, but I had a feeling it had to do with my father never taking a right hand. The king never wanted a usurper.

Uncle Rick patted my shoulder before exiting the room, and I turned to face my father’s wrath. “Sienna, do you have a death wish?” His voice was deflated, and suddenly I realized how old he’d gotten too. This life—his children—were taking an insurmountable toll on him.

“After I went to see Gio, I knew I could handle it.” There was no counterargument.

He wiped a tired hand down his face, his voice so quiet it gave me chills. “Sienna, I have one daughter missing… Do you really think I want to worry about the other?”

“Dad, I—”

“Silence!”

I jumped in my seat, his anger unexpected.

“Gio Moretti hates this family and you run off on your own, to do what? Fulfill some goddamn vendetta that Apollo and Al were going to handle themselves?”

“Dad, I…” I tried again, and he took that moment to notice my clothing.

“Are you. Fucking kidding me. Sienna.” He leaned over his desk.

“That morto figlio di cagna almost killed you… I almost threw him out of this family… and you.” He stopped.

“ Gesù Cristo. Non so cosa fare con te.” I dropped my jaw to interrupt again and he talked over me.

“How can you be so stupid? I raised you better than this.”

I throttled back in my seat, tears immediately forming at his verbal assault.

“You’re going to Philly. Tomorrow. I’m not going to worry about two daughters, not now.”

“No. I. Am. Not!” I rose to my feet, just as the damn belt came loose and I had to catch the shirt before flashing my father. Classy.

“Yes, you are. Or so help me God, Sienna, I will fucking take you there myself. I am making a deal with Romano.”

We were back to the same reality of my future being chosen for me. I was being punished for someone else’s actions. I’d just gotten myself back on track and was starting to settle into a new rhythm. Now my independence was being taken away from me. Again.

Well, this time I wasn’t going to sit pretty.

“No,” I said calmly.

“Excuse me?” he ground out, the vein in his temple throbbing.

“I said no. I will not allow other people to dictate my future any longer. It’s not my fault that I love a psychopath!

But isn’t that punishment enough? Knowing he’ll never love me back?

” I slapped my father’s desk with my fist. “She’s my sister and it hurts me too!

Why are you okay with losing both of us? I won’t go!”

“I will.” Apollo stood in the doorway and I hated that my body thrummed to life.

Since he left the hospital, his impeccable suits were things of the past. He stood shirtless with blood-tinged pants, wearing my teeth marks in his shoulder and my scratches down his arms. Normally he’d have changed already… but this new Apollo didn’t care.

“You’ve got a lot of balls showing up here like this. Instead of killing you, your brothers and I taught you a lesson with our fists. Now you walk in my office smelling like her?” My face burned bright in embarrassment as my father added, “Did you not learn the first time?”

“Dad, I...”

He laughed loudly, stepping around his desk to get closer to Apollo. “You won’t claim her, and yet no one else can have her either.”

“What?” I looked at Apollo, but his clenched jaw said it all.

“Nothing to add?” My father poked the bear. “I didn’t think so. Sienna, you will go to Philly. Now. I will iron out the details with Romano.” He picked up his phone before dismissing us with a flick of his wrist.

I walked past Apollo, hearing him quietly close the door. I made it halfway up the stairs before I stopped myself. I turned around, my heels in my hand and the smell of Apollo drowning me. His shirt felt soft on my skin and I hated that I wanted him to take it off me.

“Tell me what Daddy meant.” I knew he wouldn’t answer. “No one else can have me?” His jaw worked back and forth but he was mute. “Right. Well, I’ll launder this and get it back to you.” I tugged on the shirt.

“Something inside me snapped when I watched them stab you. Then, all I remember is the back and forth battle between floating and drowning, fighting only so that I could find out if you survived.” He stared past me. “Since I was pulled from the river, my control is gone.”

“Control?” My words were barely above a whisper as I internally pled for him to go on.

“Controlling the darkness. Every time I look at you, all I see is your blood on my hands.” He walked past me in the direction of his bedroom. “And now you took away the only thing that could’ve put me right.”

Ever watched one of those women-targeted movie channels?

Where it was nonstop bad acting, the same plots over and over—so bad, but you watched them anyway?

That was my life. I’d yell at the female leads over how stupid they were for falling for the same bullshit.

They knew he was bad for them, but they were too stupid and blinded by love to do anything about it.

Then it usually ended with someone dead…

Well, introducing Sienna Agostino. The dumb-ass female lead who would keep dealing with shit she didn’t deserve. And her costar, Apollo Deluca. The man who simultaneously drove her crazy and would—more than likely—eventually kill her.

Unless she fought back…

The question now was: which one of us would end up dead by the time the credits were rolling? And by whose hands? There were so many variables spread between the two cities.

Walking into my bathroom, I cringed at my reflection.

I had dried blood on my face and body, my makeup smeared and my eyes red from my internal woes seeping through any available crevice.

I rubbed the heels of my palms into my eye sockets, the harsh pressure doing little to dwindle my pounding headache.

My life was a whirlwind of bullshit but at least I finally put my foot down.

Moving forward, I was making decisions for the betterment of myself, and not for that of my family.

“Sienna!” Marco pounded on my door.

“Christ! Can’t a girl shower in peace? What!” I shouted back before opening the glass door and angrily wrapping myself in a towel.

“Someone’s been trying to reach you and the fucker won’t tell me who he is. He said turn on your phone,” he barked, slamming the bathroom door twice because my brother is an asshole.

Mumbling to myself, I tightened the towel around me and walked into the bedroom while ignoring Marco’s commentary on my lack of clothing. I powered on my cell phone and computer, smirking as my bastard brother acted so inconvenienced. My phone started ringing as soon as the service was reconnected.

“Sienna, this is important, but I need you alone,” John said, as I turned to my brother and made up a lie on the spot. John was the cop who had helped Persephone in her time of need, though I hadn’t spoken to him in a while.

“You fucking kidding me?” Marco punched my wall as he left.

“Your brother’s a real charmer. Listen… he’s out.

” John’s tone was layered with worry and stress, and I felt like I’d swallowed my tongue.

Surely, I had heard him wrong. “I was trying to give Persephone time to heal before testifying. They used it to their advantage.” His panicked voice did little to calm me. “Almost six hours ago.”

My heart pounded in my ears as unease settled in my gut. “He’ll still be in the city.”

“Or he has someone in the city to get you .” I didn’t like that answer. “I watched you together, Sienna. This thing he has for you is real… it’s dangerous.”

“Yet you didn’t tell my brother.”

John wanted Gio alive and he wouldn’t allow Lucky to interfere. “I know how your family deals with police cooperation.” Aw, he was looking out for me. “I can’t let the mafia handle this.”

“Allegedly,” I muttered, my mind in a tailspin. My brother and Apollo would hunt him down and more than likely, I’d lose them all at once. The FBI were too close to this. Apollo was too unhinged and Lucky didn’t know how to backdown. They’d both be gone because of me.

“I figured I’d run police protection by you.” I was telling him no before he even finished his sentence. “Then what are you going to do, Sienna? I can’t have a war. I won’t sit back and do nothing.”