Page 10 of Cara

“Who gives a flying fuck if he wins?”

My chest expands, ballooning until my rib cage flares in agony. “He’s takentoo much… too much from me.”

“At this rate, he’ll kill you!”

“Then let him.”

Dante scoffs, choosing to disregard what he thinks are ravings. “He’s not coherent. Just grab him?—”

My arm stretches out to stop him, and with the movement, the chains shackled to my ankles grate deeper, right to the bone. “If you give a shit about me, you’ll go. You’ll take the money I gave you, and you’ll disappear. That would make this worth it.”

Dante shakes his head, locs loose around his face. “Listen, I already told you there wasn’t a chance in hell of that happening. Zeke won’t leave either.”

“Has word spread?”

Bo stares at me long enough for his gaze to become accusing. “That wasyou?”

I nod, grimacing as I attempt to straighten my spine. “I have Dario’s ear. When he isn’t bashing my brain in, he lets me know what’s going on out there.”

“Well, he’s doing a decent job. You must’ve promised the bastard something good. Words started leaking through the phone lines. Vito’s up to his chin in debt, and Arturo was already labeled a monster before doing this shit, so I wouldn’t be surprised if you were chosen to unseat him, even in this predicament. There’s unrest for sure.”

“It’s worth a shot… but it would be all-out war,” Dante adds, not knowing that war is all I dream about. That it infiltrates my thoughts, regardless of whether I’m awake or sleeping, that I dream of it more often than I dream of my wife.

War would heal me right now.

“If we’re going to do this,” the look I cast between them is meant to disuade them, make them fear entering this inescapable void with me, “it has to be done right. We’ll only get one chance.”

It’s fucking insane that neither of them backpedals to the beginning of this conversation, how they continue to stare at me as if I were an idiot for assuming they would. Either I’m too delirious to make this sound as dangerous as it will surely be, or they are as batshit crazy as I am.

I toss another lifeline. “If there is any opportunity to get out of this life, it’s right now. I wouldn’t hold it against you to go. It’s what I want. This isn’t your fight.”

I want to retract the words as soon as I’ve said them, throw the both of them out of this crumbling warehouse by force ifneed be, but Dante is squeezing the hell out of my forearm. “I’m your brother, X.Weare your brothers.”

Bo has already started swabbing my infected skin with a wet alcohol wipe. “We’re not going anywhere without you.”

My eyes close, selfish enough to let the argument I could wage die on my lips. “Then let’s get to work.”

My father waves a handful of hair in front of my face. Hair as black as ink. “Shebeggedfor you.”

Dario’s blade digs deeper into my skin, a clean incision that makes my limbs flinch involuntarily.

A game of roulette with my veins.

Laid flat, I watch blood trickle over my forearm, flowing like a stream through the cracks of the cement. Dario is experienced enough to miss every time. I'm losing just enough blood to bring me in and out of consciousness.

Dario’s mouth knots as if he’s suddenly sucking back everything he could hurl onto this slab. “Boss, anymore of this and he won’t wake up.”

My father has straightened by the time I blink again. He seizes my throat, spitting words at me. Words he knows will inflict more pain than the razor-edge of a karambit knife. “She nearly got away from us. She fought like hell.”

He’s lying.

Don’t let him bait you.

Sophie is free. Sophie is safe.

Dio, let her be safe.

He slams the fistful of hair onto the concrete beside me, storming off. “We’re done for the day. Send for the Doc.”