Page 12

A beat passed and he nodded. “We have wedding arrangements to discuss.” He lowered the cigar to an ashtray.

“I told you I wasn’t marrying you.”

“And I told you I’d drag you to the altar by your hair.” He lifted the glass of Bourbon, taking a sip before lowering it back down.

I rolled my eyes, glancing away from him and my eyes landed on the tray of guns to my right. My spine straightened. What do we have here…?

At this moment, I was murderous, not stupid. Even with the display in front of me, Antonio would have a bullet between my eyes before I could even reach for one of them.

“Part of me thinks you’d like that.”

My head swung toward him and he leaned back, crossing his hands on his abs—over his white dress shirt— and disbelief washed over me.

Before I could offer a snarky remark, a screech coming from downstairs forced me to whip around. Silvia.

Bolting for the door, I rushed toward the stairs, coming to a dramatic halt when I spotted Silvia being held down by two of Antonio’s men. Kiril and Rafé.

Kiril had Silvia’s hands restrained and his knee pressed to her back. Rafé slowly rose to his full height, holding a gun as though he was examining it.

“I’ll blow your goddamn brains out for killing her, Antonio!” Silvia writhed beneath Kiril. “Let me go you fucking asshole,” she sneered.

“Silvia!” My trembling voice made her freeze as I hurried down the stairs.

She lifted her head in my direction, eyes wide with fear.

“Nirah?” She breathed.

“Let her go!” I ordered, crouching down but he didn’t oblige.

“She tried to break in with this, sir.” Rafé lifted the gun, a thick Italian accent wrapped around his words. “Screaming about killing you,” he added. “We brought her in but she wouldn’t stop fighting so Kiril had to restrain her.”

Antonio, who was at the top of the stairs with both hands behind his back simply inhaled, then exhaled. “Let her go.”

Kiril obliged and stood upright. Silvia immediately leaped into my arms as she cried, burying her face in the crease of my neck. “You’re alive?”

“Yes, I’m alive, Silvia—oh my God.” I clutched her in my arms.

“They’re gone, Nirah. All of them,” she sobbed, pulling back. “I got back to the house and— and fuck, Nirah. There were bodies everywhere and I thought—” she choked out in uncontrollable sobs.

“All of them?” I whispered and she nodded. “Nereus?” I breathed but she only shrugged, sniffling a little.

“I don’t—I don’t know,” she stammered and my heart rate rapidly increased at the mere thought of Antonio having hurt him. Killed him. “The cops should be identifying the bodies soon but Nirah… nobody could’ve survived that.”

When her eyes swelled with tears, causing them to overflow I tugged her into my embrace, consoling her. Oh Silvia. I am so, so sorry for getting you into this.

“You’re okay.” I pulled back, taking my face in her hands. “You’re staying here. I’ll figure this out.”

Antonio’s presence, because only his could be so suffocating, appeared behind me. “No, she’s not.” Goddammit!

I turned, glaring up at him. “Yes, she is.”

He simply gave his head a slight shake.

“Antonio, don’t do this. You already destroyed my home and killed my family.”

“This is your home, Nirah.”

“Oh, for fucks sake, give it a rest,” I snapped.