Page 121 of Ravage God

“Get out.”

“Isa—”

“Get the fuck out of my room. I don’t want to see you right now!”

He made a move toward me, and I screamed.

“Okay,” he said finally, sounding defeated. “I’ll leave.”

I turned away from him. I didn’t want him to see the tears streaming down my face. My bedroom door quietly opened and closed, and I could feel it the moment I was in the room alone. I climbed onto my bed and pulled the covers over my body, shaking a little.

A part of me was still in disbelief. I never thought Valentino would say something like that to me. It would have hurt less coming from Dad because that’s something I would have expected from him.

But my brother?

I closed my eyes and wished this night would soon be over.

It was earlyin the morning when a sound coming from downstairs woke me up from my sleep.

I was still wearing the same clothes I had worn the night before. I didn’t even remember falling asleep, but I must have at some point, and my phone was still in my pocket. When I pulledit out, the battery was nearly dead, but there was just enough juice to let me see one missed call from Elio and a dozen from Valentino, including some texts.

I didn’t bother reading them. It wouldn’t have mattered. I was still angry and hurt, and the last thing I needed was to hear any excuses he might give me.

I checked the time—barely five in the morning.

It was early, and the sun was almost peeking through the clouds.

Another sound came from downstairs. I didn’t just wake up randomly. Something had woken me up.

But what?

Dad?

He usually didn’t wake up this early.

I climbed out of bed and headed out of my bedroom door.

I wasn’t thinking. It must be the exhaustion getting to me; otherwise, I wouldn’t have been curious enough to go and check anything out, let alone a mysterious sound coming from somewhere in the house.

I shivered when my feet hit the cold hardwood floor.

There was a familiar voice coming from the living room. Dad was up this early, or perhaps he just got home. I never did hear him come home last night, and it had been late when I finally succumbed to sleep. Now he was on the phone with someone. I didn’t know why, but my guess, it was probably someone from the traditionalist group.

My heart seemed to slow down as I walked closer along the wall to listen, not sure what was making me do it.

I usually followed my good sense and ignored anything he said to other people, especially when it involved “business,” but I didn’t walk away now.

My resolve to stay only cemented when I heard my name.

I strained my ear, trying to catch his words. He was slurring them a bit, either because he was drunk or… injured? But then he moved on and talked about something else.

“How the fuck did they know the shipment was going down?” He paused, waiting for the other person on the line to speak. “I don’t know, but we’d better find out soon. They want answers… No, don’t worry about that. I know what to do to appease them… Yes, her.” Another pause. My breath caught in my throat. Why did I feel like I might beherhe was referring to? “I showed the bastard her picture. She’s part of the bargain. The other part rests on you. I need more information about De Luca’s recent operations… because I was forced out of it. I doubt the information I have is even up to date. You know how paranoid the De Luca spawn can be. I wouldn’t put it past him to change up everything. That would be just my luck…”

His voice trailed off as I tried to piece the information together. Was Dad…

Was he going to betray Massimo?

That would be a death sentence.