Page 78 of Thorns of Silence

Cesar appeared stunned for a second. “That’s impossible.”

“Why? Because she’s a woman? Romero could have been in on it too.”

“True.” Then a realization flickered in his gaze. “Do you think Phoenix shot you on her grandmother’s orders?”

A foul taste exploded in my mouth at that possibility while my mind bubbled with different plausible explanations. The thought that these women could have been planning a long game didn’t sit well with me.

“I don’t know,” I admitted. There were too many coincidences and that never boded well.

That family, Diana in particular, had underestimated me for the last time. I’d rip her apart, crush her bones, and watch blood ooze from her wounds. And then, I’d still take Phoenix.

Deep blue eyes flashed in my mind, full of disapproval. I hated and loved the hold she had over me. The silent sister. The deaf sister. The sister with luscious lips and a warm touch that had been haunting me ever since our first kiss.

I’d eliminate the problem—her grandmother, her father, whoever. Just not her.

“If you kill her grandmother, that woman might never forgive you,” Cesar pointed out, reading my intent.

There was no room for those types of sentiments here. I had hardened my heart and my soul. Romero and Diana, even Reina, committed a crime, and they had to have known that it’d come back to haunt them. They knew their time was limited on this earth. They hid their secrets for far too long. But not from me.Neverfrom me.

If the Leone bloodline would be erased from this world, so would Romero’s.

It was time to make them suffer. It was time to make them pay. The only Romero that mattered to me was Phoenix.

She would be mine. At all costs.

This was my revenge.

THIRTY-ONE

DANTE

The dream always started the same.

I walked across the dark parking lot with my phone in my hand, smiling and happier than I’d ever been. My girl and I… we’d be driving into the sunset before long.

Except, I could never remember the girl.

Lost in thought, I hadn’t noticed I was being tailed. Suddenly, an arm came around my neck and I dropped my phone.

“Leone owes us a debt,” a voice whispered before pain hit my side, right underneath my ribs. A blade pierced my skin, I realized. “You’ll do.”

I grunted, feeling the warm liquid trickle down my torso. I thrashed, growling against the grip as the pain seared my skin.

“You’re going to be fun to mess with,” another voice said.

I seethed, fighting tooth and nail when two of the men in masks came around me. One drove his knee into my stomach, sending me doubling over and coughing. He stuffed something into my mouth. The sound of tires screeching reached my ears and I shot my gaze over my shoulder, meeting a set of dark eyes.

Everything turned black behind my eyelids as I sank quickly into unconsciousness.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

I woke up in a dark space, the sound of water dripping in the distance. I had no idea how long I’d been in this state.

The ache in my body reminded me of the days when Amon and I were young and Father wanted to make us tough. He called it training; we knew it as torture. He’d beat us or pair us with one of his guards, knowing a twelve-year-old had no chance against a thirty-year-old man with combat experience.

Fuck, if this was one of Father’s ideas of teaching me a lesson, I would slice his throat ear to ear. Fuck the Omertà.

Drip. Drip. Drip.