Page 33 of Bittersweet Endings (Agostino Crime Family #6)

OCTAVIA AGOSTINO

I felt every cut. Every scrape. The blood soaking into my torn dress. But it didn’t matter. I could only focus on the house in front of me. I could only see the men sitting on the porch, guarding the path to my revenge.

I deserved to make Peiro suffer, just like he’d made me suffer for years. To repay him with the same kindness. He owed me that much.

I heard it then. Carmine’s voice, soft and insistent, calling to me. His words weren’t loud. They were desperate whispers carried on the wind. But I didn’t turn around.

As I approached the porch, the men stood, their eyes taking me in like I was the prize they’d been waiting for. The catcalls were crude and dismissive.

I stopped in front of them, my voice steady despite my fear. “Take me to your boss.”

Their smirks faltered, but they didn’t move to stop me. The real test was still ahead. Peiro was inside, and I needed to know what kind of woman I was going to be in this moment .

Carmine had drawn a line in the sand. He’d made it clear. I belonged to him. And if I had any chance of surviving a life beside him in California, I needed to prove to myself that I could do this. End my nightmares once and for all.

I was strong enough, right? This wouldn’t be my first murder.

The question clung to me like the blood on my skin, the answer just out of reach.

I stepped through the door, the stark contrast of the house drawing my attention. Soft lighting, neutral colors, mismatched furniture. The kind of place you might pass by without a second glance.

But beneath the illusion of normalcy, there was something darker. The men dressed in black, their hands resting on concealed weapons. They moved silently through the rooms, watching with cold, predatory eyes.

A voice yelled out from somewhere deep inside the house. “Octavia.”

I froze for a beat. A man stepped forward from the shadows, his face unreadable.

He didn’t speak but gestured for me to follow him.

And there, at the head of the table, sat Peiro.

His body was half-turned towards me, but it wasn’t his gaze that caught my attention.

It was the sight of him getting stitched up, his face pale but unwavering.

My stomach twisted, and for a moment, I couldn’t breathe.

This man. This monster who’d made my life a living hell.

Was sitting there like nothing had ever happened.

Like he wasn’t the one who’d dragged me to the edge of my sanity.

Like he wasn’t the sick bastard who’d used me as a pawn, played with my mind as if I were a puppet.

His eyes met mine and a smile tugged at the corner of his lips. “Sit,” he commanded.

His gaze followed me as I moved, and I could feel the weight of it pressing down on me like a heavy chain. I sat, but not close enough. I left space between us, my body stiff as his presence loomed. The air around us felt suffocating, thick with history, resentment, and so much goddamn pain.

Peiro moved his chair closer, so close that his knee brushed mine. His breath on my neck sent a shiver down my spine. My palms itched to kill this asshole. Yet I had to swallow back my terror.

“So, Carmine, huh?” he spat the name like it was venom. “After everything I’ve done for you. After everything I gave you, you run to him?”

“I’m confused, Peiro,” I whispered,. “So many men want something from me, but none of you really want me. ”

His eyes narrowed, his lips curling into a smirk that felt like a punch in the gut. “You think Carmine wants you?” His hand shot out, grabbing my chin and forcing me to meet his gaze. “He doesn’t want you. He wants to own you. Just like I do.”

I swallowed hard, trying to keep my composure, but it all unraveled in a second. My tears slipped past my control, burning hot on my cheeks. My voice cracked, the words breaking free before I could stop them. “Why did you hurt me, Peiro? Why did you do all of this to me?”

For a moment, there was a flicker of something in his eyes—guilt, maybe.

But it vanished just as quickly as it had appeared.

He leaned in, his face inches from mine, and I could smell the alcohol on his breath.

“You always needed a reason to feel something… so I gave you one. I carved the truth into you.”

“What do you mean? Why?” I almost sobbed.

“Because it was the only way to make you real . To wake you up. All your life you kept giving and giving to people who never deserved you. You gave everything you had, no matter the damage it did to you. I watched them ignore the miracle right in front of them. So I took what was promised.”

“P-promised?” It wasn’t a weak studder; it was confusion.

His breath brushed my ear. “I did everything right. I waited. I obeyed. I bled. And he said there’d be something at the end of it. Someone. You. You always want to make everyone else happy. I couldn’t let that go to waste. I couldn’t share that.”

I pointed to my scars. “None of that has anything to do with these.”

He pressed a hand flat against my stomach, the scarred lines suddenly doused with gasoline and ignited into flames.

“This is proof. That someone finally saw you. That someone finally gave a damn. I wanted to show them that they couldn’t keep you safe.

But I could. And I wanted you to remember, every day, that someone cared enough to slice you apart just to get inside you.

To remind you I was coming back.” His lips twitched into a smile. Crooked. Unnatural.

“You don’t do that to someone you care about.”

The asshole actually rolled his eyes. “People do far worse things to those they love.”

I gulped at the four-letter word.

“But you betrayed me, Octavia.”

Before I could reply, his hand shot out, grabbing my arm with a force that sent a jolt of pain through my body.

He yanked me towards him, his breath hot against my skin.

The kiss was degrading. Rough and bruising.

His mouth forced against mine. This wasn’t love.

Wasn’t passion. It was ownership. Control.

For a moment, I froze. My mind blank, lost to the suddenness of it all. I couldn’t think. Breathe. All I felt was the weight of his hands, the suffocating pressure, the humiliation. The agony I’d hidden for so long to protect others.

Gunfire erupted outside, the sound deafening, the chaos too close. His men scrambled, running for cover, but Peiro didn’t flinch even as the sound broke through the terror. The cold metal of his gun pressed against my ribs as he turned us towards the door. And then…

Carmine. His figure loomed in the doorway, his eyes flashing with a cold fury. But now, the sight of him did nothing to calm me. It only fed the storm building inside.

“She came to me, ” Peiro sneered, his words slicing through the tension like a knife. “Yet like a diseased dog, you chased her anyway.”

“Octavia.” Carmine spoke barely above a whisper.

I didn’t even spare him a glance. The only thing I could focus on was Peiro’s cold, relentless grip on me. His gun pressing into my ribs and hidden by the table.

Before either of us could make a move, the door burst open and men rushed in from behind Carmine. I screamed, the sound raw and desperate, as I tried to push away from Peiro, and he laughed as he watched Carmine struggle against the chaos. “You’ll never have her.”

More of Peiro’s men stormed in from the rear entrance, their eyes wild and their weapons drawn. They moved fast and barricaded the room, so that only Carmine’s brothers remained inside. The numbers weren’t in their favor. The Ragetti brothers were forced to their knees in front of us.

Peiro turned my face to his, his eyes gleaming with something cold and possessive. “Tell me, Octavia, what should I do with them?”

My chest tightened. My throat felt raw. I couldn’t breathe. I’d never felt so trapped. So lost. I started crying, the tears coming fast. “I’m so tired,” I whispered. “Peiro… do you promise... will you set me free? Will you take me away from this?”

His eyes softened, just for a moment. Before his lips curled into a smile, a smile that felt like the last shred of my sanity while everything else was cold and fake. “I love you, Octavia. I’ll do whatever it takes to make you happy.” He pressed a hand to my stomach, and I flinched.

“Then I need to be the one to do this.” I tried stepping away, but Peiro held on to me. “To end this so we can move on.”

Why was it that men always thought they had the upper hand?

I turned to Carmine, enjoying the myriad of emotions passing over his face. I shrugged free of Peiro but remained close. “I was never yours to steal.”

Carmine kept his mouth shut, but his eyes blazed with rage.

“None of you should’ve come for me,” I said to his brothers. Then I stepped backwards, Peiro’s arms wrapping around me again.

Carmine struggled against the man holding him to his knees.

“Told you she was mine.” Peiro mocked as I turned into his embrace, so that we were chest to chest.

“No. I’m not,” I said clearly.

The gun’s barrel dug into his flesh, and the air crackled. Peiro’s eyes widened for a brief second. His victory wasn’t as certain as he thought it was. Even if I didn’t make it out of this alive, just watching the life drain from his body would be worth it.

I wasn’t his fucking slave anymore. I wasn’t going to wallow inside my own head and hide from the world. I would bury the trauma, the guilt and the pain with his disgusting carcass.

So I pulled the trigger and smiled as he howled in pain.

A body slammed into me and I landed on top of Peiro.

Gurgling and gasping. I straddled his waist while chaos broke out behind me.

He couldn’t speak as blood dribbled from his lips.

I could hear Carmine yelling for me to come to him, but all I wanted was to watch this fucker die.

When he finally stopped twitching, I said, “Rot in hell, motherfucker.” And then the reality of what I’d just done settled in my bones. My hands and chest now coated in his blood.