Page 38 of Die for You (Kiss or Kill #2)

“She was an ignorant woman, and her arrogance got her killed. We were both going to double-cross the other. I just got to her first. We both knew better, but our hatred for you both was far greater than the risk of working together. Poetic justice, really. She got what she deserved.”

As Bria walks close to Valentina, I have to distract her. “You can’t do this on your own.”

“Who said I’m on my own?” she counters. “I disposed of your most loyal men. Now, the ones left bow to me. I have your kingdom as well as Gianna’s. It’s what is owed to me!”

“Baby, don’t do this. You can’t do this on your own.”

From the corner of my eye, I see Valentina working subtly at the ties.

It won’t be long.

“You’ve had your chance.”

“You need me. You know we’re stronger together. It’s only a matter of time before the men revolt. They will find out what you’ve done, and someone will challenge you.”

She pauses, mulling over what I said.

“You can’t think Hugo the pirate is really a suitable candidate to sit on the throne next to you?”

Hugo stands guard.

His time is coming, however.

“Of course not! He’s an imbecile with a childish need for revenge for something that happened a hundred years ago.”

Hugo doesn’t appreciate the insult.

“So who can you trust?”

When she doesn’t answer, I smile.

“You know who. Let me make it up to you.”

“Really?” she says, her eyes bright.

“Yes.”

“How?”

“Whatever you want.”

She taps her lip in thought. “Whatever I want?”

“Yes, baby, anything.”

“I want what I’ve asked for…I want her dead. That’s all I ask. Allow me to avenge my father, and everything will be over.”

“Okay, you win. Untie me and I’ll do it.”

Bria looks for any signs of deceit. But eventually, she ambles over behind me. She places the box cutter at the rope around my wrists and slices through.

“I love you, Lennon…”

I feel a slash across my back.

“But you were never a good liar.” She laughs hysterically, seeing through my ruse.

Blood spills from the wound she made, and I know this is merely the beginning.

“Your men are now mine. Gianna’s men are now mine. I am unstoppable. This entire fucking town will submit to me.”

“Take it, it’s yours.”

“I don’t need your permission. I have it. Your name is ruined, Lenny.”

“Just kill me and be done with it.”

“Kill you?” Bria questions, licking her lips.

“Why would I want to do that? Killing you would be easy. I’d rather you live a life with shame as the once all-powerful, almighty Mafia king.

Shame will follow you wherever you go. That’s a punishment far worse than death.

You’re ruined, and nothing but an embarrassment. Overthrown by your own wife.”

She’s right. I would rather death than live with a tarnished reputation because once you commit to this life, there’s no getting out.

The men who once followed me will see me as a coward. A man’s honor is everything, and Bria is taking it away.

“I killed all your confidants. I burned down my father’s store because I’m starting fresh. A new era approaches, and it’s one I built myself. Everyone will remember my name.”

She’s doing all this for notoriety and believes she has something to prove. But her father has the respect he does because he was honorable.

His daughter is anything but.

“This entire time, I thought Gianna was the bad guy, but it was you. You’re the one who kidnapped Lettie? You knew about her this whole time?” Valentina deduces.

“Yes. I came to Gianna with a proposition to use your bastard child as bait, knowing she’d take it because, look what she did to you.

She was desperate and weak, and this was the only way to get what she wanted.

Even until the very end, she believed she was going to win, that we were still in the sisterhood together. ”

“Don’t you dare call my daughter that,” Valentina snarls. “If anyone, you’re the home-wrecker, you fucking psycho!”

“Why do you get to have it all? Lenny’s love and his child.

It was supposed to be me, not you! But I played all of you.

I was under your noses this entire time, but I was underestimated.

But never again. As Gianna says, to love is to be weak.

And I don’t plan on being weak ever again. A woman scorned is a dangerous thing.”

She snaps her fingers, and Hugo jumps to command. He enters a moment later with a man I’ve never seen before. I assume he’s one of Gianna’s.

The other people they drag in, I do recognize.

He has Francesco and Nico.

“No!” Valentina screams.

Her anguish merely feeds the monster that is Bria.

“Hurts, doesn’t it? To see the people you love suffer before you. I watched my father die because of you. And for years, I watched my husband be half the man he is because of you. You’re nothing but poison, polluting everything you touch.”

If Nico is here, then where is Lettie?

“Any final words?” she asks Francesco, but he doesn’t get a word in before she slashes his throat with the box cutter.

He drops to the floor, bleeding out and clutching his throat.

“No!” Valentina hollers, rocking back and forth in the seat.

Bria smiles at her pain. She turns her attention to Nico. “Time to eradicate your family tree and wipe your existence from the face of this earth.”

“Take me…I won’t fight you. Please don’t hurt him.”

Nico doesn’t fight.

He doesn’t beg.

And at this moment, I respect him profoundly.

But he will not die here today.

Lettie needs her papa .

She needs both her papas .

I need to get out of here, and I need to do so fucking now.

I think back to Gianna’s lessons because the bitch knew how to fight. What would she do in this circumstance?

I’m tied, but Nico isn’t.

We make eye contact, and I side-eye the table with the weapons.

He needs to be my hands when I cannot.

Valentina catches on.

Who knew this throuple would eventually come in handy?

“You’re a fucking coward. Your father would be disgusted by your behavior.”

Bria turns her attention to Valentina. “What did you say?”

“You heard me, you ugly bitch. All this because your father and your husband loved me more than you. No wonder you recruited cyclops. You’re both pathetic. Great empire you’re going to run.”

“My father loved me!”

“Too bad you didn’t love him enough to protect him. I mean, you fucking stole from him because why, he wasn’t giving you enough attention?”

“Shut up!” Bria roars.

“You shut up,” Valentina counters calmly. “I cannot believe this is the plot twist. A spoiled little brat ruins the story because she is throwing a tantrum. Boo-hoo, Lenny doesn’t love me.” She turns down her bottom lip, mimicking a whiny Bria.

Bria rushes over to Valentina and slashes her face with the blade.

It’s deep and it will scar, but my God, it just makes Valentina even more brutal than she already is.

Valentina licks away the fallen blood from her lips. “You can kill me, but that doesn’t bring back your father. Nor does it erase the fact that even dead, Lenny will love me more than you.”

Bria shrieks, and when she attempts to slash Valentina’s throat, Nico runs at her, shoving her into the wall. The table with tools topples over, scattering instruments all over the floor.

Nico punches Bria in the stomach, which results in the box cutter falling from her hand.

Valentina furiously works at the rope on her wrists, and as Hugo charges for her, I trip him.

The other man pulls out a gun and shoots at me.

I rock my chair backward at just the right time, and it crashes as I hit the floor. I’m able to free myself, but my hands are still tied. Regardless, I charge the man with the gun and tackle him.

Nico is attempting to restrain Bria, but he’s no match for her. She throws a punch that connects with his jaw.

Hugo is attacking Valentina, who is still tied. She uses her leg to propel backward and smashes her chair against the wall. She charges him and even with her hands tied, she beats the shit out of him. She kicks, bites, and headbutts him.

He doesn’t stand a chance.

But we’re at a massive disadvantage being restrained.

Bria charges Valentina, gripping her hair and smashing her face into a cabinet. She hurls her around the room like a rag doll. The man with the gun aims at Valentina. I kick him in the solar plexus, and when he goes down once more, I kick him in the face, knocking him out cold.

Nico runs over, blade in hand, and furiously cuts through the rope at my wrists.

“Hurry!” I demand, and when it gives, I break my hands apart, the rope coming free.

I grab a hammer and instantly smash Hugo’s fingers with it as he reaches for the fallen gun. I pick up the gun.

Bria still has Valentina, but when she sees me charging her, she spins her around and places a knife at her throat. “I’ll give you a choice—walk away with Valentina and live your happily ever after. But in return, you leave me Lettie.

“A small sacrifice for happiness.”

Valentina laughs, but it’s not a happy sound. “That’s not happening.”

“Fine, have it your way, then.”

Bria throws the knife at Nico.

He grips the knife sticking out of his chest, and his eyes widen as he drops to his knees. If unattended, he will die.

Valentina howls in pain, frozen and watching the man she loves bleed out in front of her.

I go to charge Bria, but Hugo smashes my kneecap with the hammer using his uninjured hand.

“Fucker!” I cry, kicking him in the face with my good leg.

I can’t put my weight on the busted kneecap, so I hold myself up against the wall.

Hugo hobbles over to where Valentina is being held captive by Bria. Valentina looks at me because we’re fucked this time and for real.

No army of men will come to our rescue, Bria made sure of it. The ones left standing are Bria’s puppets. No one will help us. We’re on our own.

Just how we were when our paths collided.

But I won’t stand back and watch my family be destroyed.

We need a distraction, one that allows Valentina to break free.

And I see it in the form of a gun in my hand.