Page 2 of Unforgiving Queen

That night, our world turned black. Like a damn psychopath, our father had Dante and me beaten and tortured until it hurt to breathe. I couldn’t shut off my brain afterward. Instead, I learned the ways of self-preservation in that cold, damp basement, refusing to submit to weakness.

One day, I thought as I sat alone in the dark cell,I’ll get my brother and me out of this fucking place.

I made a vow then: I’d become stronger than our father. More powerful, more calculating. Better yet, I’d kill him.

Because it was clear that Angelo Leone was a sadist, not a father.

1

AMON, 23 YEARS OLD

Death was a part of life.

A breathless body. A splatter of blood. Empty eyes.

By my not so tender age of twenty-three, I had killed and tortured countless men. I didn’t regret any of it.

But Reina Romero’s pain felt like a bullet to my heart.

I felt her before I saw her standing there. To casual bystanders, the party was in full swing. Glasses clinking. Alcohol flowing. The rich and powerful in attendance, right alongside the heads of the criminal underworld organizations.

But I knew better. I knew her eyes were locked on me, and when I finally looked away from my date, I registered the hearts they still carried. Every cell in me itched to plow through the room and go to her.

Instead, I kissed Sakura, a model who’d made her debut at Paris Fashion Week. I’d been advised to be “seen” with her due to her family’s connections to the Yakuza in Japan. To boost my image within the organization. As if I gave a fuck. The real reason was far more pathetic. She was on my arm tonight to keep me from doing something stupid.

It was only when I spotted Reina that I decided to take it a step further and kiss Sakura. Ihadto stop Reina from looking at me like she wanted me.

It backfired. I felt her pain like it was my own, piercing through my chest and stealing my breath. A shattered expression crossed her face. She froze, and I swore I heard her heart break before she turned around and left.

Mission accomplished. But did I stay put like I should have? No. I didn’t. I followed her. I needed just one more glimpse of her—knowing it was wrong—to get me through the rest of my life.

I quickened my pace, using the distant echoes of her footsteps on the street like a homing beacon. Something in the air shifted and I heard the unmistakable grind of metal on metal. I took off running, my legs now moving at an impossible speed. I was barely a block away when the worst possible scenario stared back at me. A bloodied body sprawled across the pavement. Reina’s small form tangled up between two vehicles. Her golden curls, matted with blood, stark against the pavement. Eyelids shielding her vibrant blue eyes.

My brother cradled her body, terror in his expression. I hadn’t seen that look in his eyes since we rescued him from his kidnappers—bruised and with a thousand cuts on his body.

This is bad.

Reina’s fragile limbs lay at a weird angle, her face deathly pale.

Panic wrapped around my throat, and for a moment, I was frozen in place. Unable to move. Unable to breathe. Unable to feel.

Heartbeats stretched into long seconds, possibly minutes, before fury flared inside my chest.

Fuck, this isn’t the end.

She might be off-limits to me, but this wouldn’t be the end of her life. She deserved to live; I deserved to die.

Pushing through the quickly growing crowd, my skull protested with every step as I neared her. The thought of Reina dead squeezed my heart and assaulted every fiber of my being. It was a fear like I hadn’t experienced in a long time.

Let her live, I prayed to whoever was listening.Let her live and take my life. Take me instead.

I slid down onto the pavement. “Ambulance,” I barked. “Someone call an ambulance.” She was an angel bleeding out into the cruel, dark world.

“It’s on the way,” someone answered.

My knees brushed against her soft, limp body. Her lips were almost blue.

“What happened?” I shifted Reina’s body from my brother’s arms. It was cold, sending shock rippling through me. There was so much blood. “Where in thefuckis Darius? He’s supposed to be watching her.”