Page 8 of And Twice as Twisted (Agostino Crime Family #4)

APOLLO DELUCA

C old. So fucking cold. Potential hypothermic chill.

Everything hurt and the goddamn water was like a thousand knives assaulting my body.

The nerve receptors just under the surface of my skin reacted quickly, my heart rate and blood pressure expeditiously sharpening.

Your body temperature dropped twenty-five times faster in water than air of the same temperature.

I could barely keep my head above the surface. Fatigue set in as my limbs would slow and my head would submerge. I opened my eyes and let the saltwater burn, staring at the black abyss that enveloped me.

It was thoughts of Sienna that reinvigorated my fight. I’d catalogued the wounds they’d given her, and I felt peace, believing someone would get to her before she bled out—while my own future didn’t seem as likely. If I survived, only one thought would be on my mind.

Revenge. And I’d get it.

My lungs were taking in water. I was drowning on the inside long before I would on the outside.

I closed off my mind to the innate panic.

It was funny how the same instincts that were meant to keep you alive, only helped to quicken your demise in a situation such as this.

God—not that I believed in him—was one fucked-up son of a bitch.

In my head, I screamed for help, but never made a sound. No one would hear me and no one was coming, much like my childhood.

The thought of death wasn’t terrifying. Not like it should have been.

It never was. My rage was the only thing that kept me going.

But the idea of letting go was nearly as gratifying.

Peaceful. Her face was the last thing I saw as I succumbed to exhaustion, knowing Lucky would burn down the city to avenge me.

To avenge Sienna, if they were too late to rectify my mistake. My inability to protect her.

“Wake up, Apollo!” Small hands shook my body.

“Bella, back up! He could hurt you,” Lucky bellowed.

“Open your eyes, Apollo. Please, you’re safe!” Bella’s voice was filled with such emotion that I forced my dry gaze to hers. She ran a soft fingertip down my face, her mismatched eyes dripping with tears. “You’re safe now.”

I turned away from her. No one was safe around me. From my godforsaken birth to my near death, I’d destroyed everything I touched, and the Agostinos were unwilling to see the truth.

Reality crashed back into me as I shook off the memory of my time spent in that frigid water. My purpose was reinvigorated.

Cassandra was dealt with but the other two… I was still owed their blood. Their pain. Their deaths. It was mine to control and deliver. They couldn’t hide from me forever. Focus and commitment was all I needed to get the job done.

Sienna was my blind spot. Whenever she was near, she was all I could see. That first taste of her had been my undoing. I was a crazed man, driven by obsession rather than duty. I’d become complacent, clouded by the misguided dream that I could have more.

Death was my only companion. Not her. Never her.

That didn’t mean Romano-fucking-Bianchi was for her either. Watching her get into his idling car, I’d been ready to start a war. Instead, I shut my mouth and let her leave with them.

“Go, Lucky.” Bella shoved him towards the door. “Homer and I will keep Apollo company.” She lifted the large book for reference. If I weren’t so apoplectic, I’d be entertained by my best friend’s discomfort.

Lucky was concerned. That much was made obvious, if not by the expression on his face, then by his whispered warning to his wife—the one I’d overheard in my dreamlike state. I’d lost my mask of control in the Hudson, but not my ability to read people.

I lay in bed, staring at the ceiling. Bella’s reticence as she read her book at a safe distance stifled the room, while her audible sighs and random glances made her need for attention all too apparent. I would have mocked her lack of subtlety if I had any semblance of humor left within me.

“I know you’re attuned to my sighs. Can you please put me out of my misery?” Her tone reflected her evident displeasure.

“You’re the one who decided to read that poor example for historic literature.” The book was horrendously overrated.

“How do you not like the Odyssey ? Even the damn movie was good! Great soundtrack too.”She nodded, as if her argument bore any merit. It didn’t.

“Never saw it.” I shoved the blankets aside and stalked to my bathroom.

“That doesn't surprise me.” Bella charged to her feet. “What does is your lack of concern for Sienna. You both almost died, and now you’ve cut her out of your life.” The tiny woman slipped her arm through the small opening in the door, forcing me to keep it ajar.

She kept rambling, claiming that my ignorance was morally inept, my actions self-absorbed. I removed my shirt, noticing the obvious change in body language when my hands crept inside the waist of my sweatpants. I waited for her to catch on.

“Oh.” She guffawed, turning to face the door. “But don’t you think, after everything, maybe you were brought back together for a reason?”

“Bella, turn off the incessant Romeo and Juliet complex.” I stepped under the showerhead and my muscles immediately relaxed.

Hot water expanded blood vessels and opened circulation, a natural vasodilator I found comforting.

“Rationalizing everyone’s decisions and making off-base hypotheses won’t change the facts. ”

Her rage obviously outweighing her decorum, Bella spun on her heel to face me, with an accusatory finger aimed in my direction.

“So, let me get this right. You fucked before you both almost died, and now you dismiss her! You can’t be that fucking stupid!

” By the end of her tirade, she was yelling, her pale cheeks brightening with the exertion.

“How far along are you, Mirabella? By twenty-seven weeks, the fetus can hear sounds outside the body. If you continue with these antics, your offspring will come out the womb saying fuck ,” I mocked, gripping my cock to add to her discomfort.

“ Sono sgomento, Bella.” Then I tsked my tongue for good measure.

Frankly, I was tired of all these little girls insisting on going toe-to-toe with the boys. If she wanted to sit at the table with the men, I would treat her like I treated any one of them.

“ Gesù Cristo! ” Lucky appeared in the doorway like an apparition in the night. “I hear the word fuck ten times and come to find my pregnant wife in the bathroom with a naked man.”

Bella gasped, Lucky’s tone forcing her to assess the situation. She twirled on an angry heel and stormed from the room. Beneath the mock irritation, my best friend was amused by his wife’s lack of social awareness.

“She’s something else.” He chuckled before turning his silent glare on me.

“You’re as relentless as your wife. I assure you I will not sever the radial artery in my wrist, nor will I spontaneously combust.” My jaw worked over the words as I spoke, each syllable taut as it clung to the air.

“I’m asking because I am me… and you… are you.” He paused, and his patronizing tone had me teetering on the ledge between insanity and blinding rage. “I have something that needs to be handled and I need to know if I can trust you with it.”

“The fact you have to ask is downright disrespectful. I may not be the same man you knew, but I have never given you a reason to question my loyalty.” My palms twitched, forcing my thumb to stroke each finger as I counted in my head.

“Sienna is on her way back from Philly. I need someone who can handle her… reluctance. I’ve already texted and informed her of the imposed lockdown.”

I swallowed past the bile that was lodged in my esophagus at the mere mention of her name. “I’m not her fucking babysitter.” I turned off the taps, grabbing for a towel and wrapping it around my waist. “ Piccola puttana.”

He refused to respond, opting to give me orders he knew I’d be pleased about instead. “Then I need you to head to the docks for an extermination.”

I took the information and slipped into a navy-blue Brioni suit. The same material that once made me feel whole was now clawing at my skin, strangling me.

Philadelphia. Romano-fucking-Bianchi.

Sienna’s lack of cognitive reasoning was the catalyst for all her problems. Instead of recognizing her debilities, the woman fucking doubled-down. She was looking for a shoulder to cry on; though I’d bet she’d find more than that with that cocky excuse for a Don.

“ Cagna insensibile,” I muttered in fast Italian as I descended the stairs several minutes later.

“You picking up Sienna? She should be back in the city shortly.” Pieces of banana mixed with saliva projected from Al’s mouth as he spoke.

“Practicing?” I lifted a brow, my palm clutching the handle to the front door as a banana peel launched across the space and landed against my back.

“You’ve always been a real prick, but it’s not funny anymore.” Al’s whining devolved into white noise as I began to formulate a plan.

We had another wannabe thug sniffing around the docks and I needed to ensure he wasn’t working for anyone… prior to his disposal. These types of jobs kept me busy, my mind focused on anything other than the man I used to be.

Suddenly, I found myself pulling up to the penthouse and standing just inside the lobby.

A quick glance to the side, and the bar was already calling to that disastrous part of me that needed to drown my soul in whiskey.

However, I knew once I started, I wouldn’t stop until I was either doused in blood or smothered in pussy.

Perhaps a mixture of both…

Just as I was about to tell myself to walk away, three-tinted SUVs stopped at the curb.

In perfect succession, two sets of doors opened and several men slipped out and onto the sidewalk, attempting to clear the area.

Their skill set was lacking, and within moments, they tapped the window and Romano’s second-in-command emerged.