Page 10 of Bittersweet Endings (Agostino Crime Family #6)

OCTAVIA AGOSTINO

M y sister couldn’t stop staring while Apollo was shooting me confused looks. My dress was tight and short, my hair down and wild. I was free, and it was intoxicating.

Shrugging her off, I motioned towards the dance floor, and she nodded. Apollo was close and so were Al and Rocco. I swayed to the music, closing off my mind and trying to enjoy myself. My muscles ached as we danced to one song after another.

A hard body pressed against my back, swaying with me. “Now I see what all the fuss is about.”

The shots throttling my system slowed down my understanding. I spun to face him. The man was a stranger. But as his eyes devoured my body, I felt sick under his glare. My phone started to ring, and for whatever reason, I placed it to my ear as I continued to stare at the man in front of me.

Carmine was shouting in my ear as Rocco called out, “Ragetti! ”

I turned towards him, but didn’t see who he was talking about. The stranger chuckled. “You’re here?” I knew he wasn’t. But part of me hoped…

That hope was quickly dispelled when the asshole gripped my arm. I raised a hand to hit him, but he caught it. His hold tight and painful. A silent threat as he tugged me towards his face.

“Agostino trash. We’re going to enjoy breaking you… to break the little prince.” His breath was putrid.

“Get the fuck off me.” I tried to twist away, but he yanked me closer. My back to his chest as he whispered in my ear.

“Calm down, calm down. Wouldn’t want your sister hurt, would you?”

I looked up. I hadn’t even realized he’d managed to separate us. “Sienna!” I screamed, raising my hand to point at the figure lurking behind her. JP. “Lucky! Apollo!”

They were on the outskirts of the dance floor but the moment they heard me, they started shoving people out of the way. Rocco was almost to us, but the look JP gave sent chills down my spine. He was right behind her, but all Sienna was focused on was getting to me.

And then it clicked into place. I was not fucking weak. I stabbed the scariest man I knew and lived to talk about it. I wasn’t going down so easily anymore.

I reached under my skirt and pulled the knife from my thigh strap. Then, handle tilted, I jabbed it behind me three times before he let me go. I quickly turned, wedged my fingers into his throat, and shoved him to the ground.

JP was right at Sienna’s back. My brothers and Apollo were too far, fighting to get to her while Rocco was closing in on us. But he didn’t see JP.

“Fuck. You,” I mouthed, and he smiled. But I moved faster than he thought. My knife flew across the dance floor, gliding between dancers. His shock was short-lived as the blade landed in his shoulder.

I could hear his shout over the music and watched as Sienna turned in shock. She moved fast, punching her fist into his wound. He stumbled backwards. Men surrounded her, but I was already there. JP slank away as I tried grabbing for him.

“He’s going to kill you for this!” I screamed, shuddering at his unhinged smile. “Get her out of here, Apollo!”

“Let’s go.” Rocco and more soldatos surrounded me and we stormed out of the club.

Once everyone was settled inside the car, I finally felt like I could breathe again. All the blocks came crumbling around me, as I was reminded how much my family couldn’t protect me.

I reached for my phone and saw Carmine’s name flash across the screen. “Octavia, I?—”

“He almost got me,” I whispered. “Because of you. Because you let me go.”

“Octavia, listen?—”

I hung up, not interested in his bullshit, and answered my brother’s call as he beeped through.

“Did you know? Tell me now, Octavia. Did you fuckin’ know he was in the city?” he demanded, and the smallest tear dripped down my face.

“You honestly think if I did, I would’ve put my sister at risk?” My heart broke all over again. “No, Lucky. I didn’t. Oh, and don’t worry… I’m safe. Goodbye.”

The moment I ended the call, it started ringing again. Over and over, a different name popping up on my screen. The only one I was tempted to answer was the Californian god I wanted in my bed.

I shut my phone off as Rocco escorted me home and locked me down. Where I stayed for days, unable to talk to anyone or even look at myself in the mirror. Because one question played on repeat in my head:

Would you have told them that Carmine was in the city?

I think we all knew the answer.

***

“God. I have no energy for this,” I muttered while tapping on my phone.

“It’ll be good for you to see them,” Rocco commented. “For them to see how good you’re doing.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

He glanced in my direction before turning back to the road. We were headed to the family compound for Sunday dinner. Apparently, while I was away as my mother called it—because kidnapped was too harsh—they started a new tradition. Every Sunday, the entire family was summoned to the compound.

I’d gotten out of it thus far, but my mother was no longer accepting my excuses. I hadn’t seen any of them since the club. Truth was, I’d been avoiding them.

I continued to scroll through my socials. My newly formed company had a few authors who were interested in meeting. Their marketing potential was promising, considering they ran everything themselves.

We pulled up outside and I swung my door open, slamming it closed again before Rocco followed me into the house. I could hear the women laughing in the dining room, the kids screaming, but noticed the light on in my father’s office.

“I understand that, genetically, she is family. At the same time, I’m compelled to once again remind you the leukocytes within her body won’t stop her from turning against us,” Apollo said.

I paused while Rocco took an angry step forward. I threw out an arm to stop him. Motioning him towards the side as I pressed my back against the wall and listened to my family attack me.

“What’re you trying to say? A few months away and all of a sudden Octavia will turn against us?” my father scoffed. “I know her better than that.”

“Do you?” Lucky chimed in. “She’s kept secrets for years, Pops. Years. She allowed the enemy to walk amongst us.”

“That wasn’t her fault!” my father shouted, making my heart hammer in my chest. “We didn’t protect… I didn’t protect her. That’s not her fault.”

“She should’ve come to us. We all saw her cracking. Years of silence, and she let them keep walking through our door. She let it rot. And then at the club, that asshole’s father is right behind Sienna? How’d he know to be there?”

Lucky was dead to me. Officially.

“What was she supposed to do? She was scared.” My father sighed.

Apollo’s voice moved as he paced the room. “While it’s a contested illness, I assure you Stockholm Syndrome is a very real possibility here.”

Motherfucker… they thought I was that weak?

“It’s an empathetic and emotional attachment to your captor.

Carmine Ragetti is a master manipulator.

He took her when she was at her weakest, forced her to confess her trauma, then killed one of them for her.

That could create a sense of allegiance to the man that slayed her monsters…

” He paused. “To turn against those who didn’t. ”

“I saw the way they looked at each other. It’s a mutual attraction… Carmine clearly cares…” My father really was trying.

“Did he call a truce?” Lucky snapped. “Did he say the war was over because he loves your daughter? No. JP’s lighting up the west, and now he’s in our city. Gunning for us.” Lucky’s tone was harsher when he asked, “And at the hospital, what did Carmine say?”

“It doesn’t matter. He was overwhelmed by the truth of his uncle?—”

“He said he wanted you dead.” My brother’s words cut like glass. “Said he’d finish you when he got back. What’s the cleanest way to do that?”

“From the inside out,” Apollo muttered.

“And Octavia knows everything . About us. All of it.” He was nearly shouting now. “She’s his weapon, and you handed her the ammo by letting her leave this house.”

None of them trusted me.

“Fuck this,” I mumbled, straightening my spine as I walked into the office and sat in an open seat.

“O-Octavia.” My father started to stand, but my face made him flinch.

“Hello, family. I figured since you had so much to say about me, I’d allow you the opportunity to say it to my face.” I stared each one of them in the eye. None of them had the gall to say a damn thing to me. As if they hadn’t just so freely named me as their enemy.

Well, they wanted her. They got her.

“Curious as to why I never told you I was raped?” I paused. “Because you all flinch at the word. Like hearing it cuts deeper than how I goddamn lived it. Not one of you ever asked what it cost for me to carry the burden,” I growled.

“We would’ve helped?—”

My brother’s half-assed reply was cut off by my guttural scream. “I was scared! A scared, broken girl who believed the men who destroyed me—under your watch. And I kept quiet. Not for me. For you . I swallowed it all to protect this family. But I’m the villain? ”

And now they wanted explanations? No. They didn’t get to speak. Not until I was done.

“Carmine didn’t brainwash me. This isn’t a fucking syndrome, Apollo. I know exactly what I’m feeling, exactly what I’m doing. He freed something within me, and I saw myself for the first time. I saw what I could be when I wasn’t buried alive by this house and its secrets.”

“He’s the goddamn enemy, Tave—” Lucky tried again.

“I know who he is!” I barked. “And I know how deep his hate for this family runs! He took me to start a war, because he thought he’d break me. And maybe... maybe we both broke. Maybe we blurred lines no one wants to admit exist.”

“And what lines are those?” My brother’s olive complexion burned bright red.

“He won’t get what he wanted. Not through me. Not again. Because I spent years being quiet. Letting silence eat me alive to protect everyone else. Now… now, I come first.”

“We would’ve protected you,” he said, and I laughed.

“You couldn’t even protect me in the same house. And for the second time, I got hurt because of you.” I leaned forward. “But not anymore.” I stood, and Rocco immediately flanked my side.

“Is that a threat?” Lucky stepped closer. I paused, and he prompted, “Well, little sister, is it?”

“A war has been brewing since before we were born,” I reminded him. “It’s now knocking at your door, dear, dear brother. Are you going to answer it?”

“The fuck are you saying?” Lucky took another step forward, but Rocco moved between us.

“Scared? Worried your wife, your son , might get caught in the crossfire?” I goaded.

My brother was close to snapping and I wanted him to do it.

“Hope you protect them better than you ever protected me.” I turned and added over a shoulder, “I’ll try to keep the war off your doorstep…

but no promises. You know—my syndrome might get in the way. ”

“Hello, darling.” My mother walked out of the kitchen, pausing when she saw everyone trailing behind me.

“Sorry. I can’t stay, Mama.” I stopped at the door. “I’m not a traitor. I’ve protected this family better than most. But keep testing me... and I can’t guarantee where I’ll stand in the end.”

The door shut behind Rocco. No hesitation. I’d drawn the line. They no longer controlled me.

I climbed into the car. “Why can’t they see that so much has changed?”

Rocco turned to me. “I don’t know.” He sighed.

I leaned in. “Look at me.”

He wouldn’t. “Don’t make me do that.”

What was going on with him?

“I’m here,” I said flatly. “You earned that much. But I need your head screwed on straight. No panic. No collapse. When things go loud, I’ll need all of you .”

A pause. Then a shaky nod.

“Good.” I leaned back again. “California’s next. No chaos. No blood. I have actual business to handle.”

Rocco kept his focus on the windshield, and the rest of the ride went by in silence. My family was eating away at me, but I was going after my dreams.