Total pages in book: 94
Estimated words: 91164 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 456(@200wpm)___ 365(@250wpm)___ 304(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91164 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 456(@200wpm)___ 365(@250wpm)___ 304(@300wpm)
Enzo shifts his gaze to me. I instinctively try to step backward and almost fall, but he catches me. He takes my arms and raises them over my head. He’s almost face to face with me for a moment.
“You’re really going to do this? To follow him?” I ask.
Enzo eyes narrow. “He’s right. Cassian’s line is tainted. Our family will be dead because he won’t step aside and let someone who can father a successor take over the throne. It’s selfish. I’m doing this for the greater good of the family.”
“Keep telling yourself you’re doing it for the family, but you know the truth as well as I do. Greed. Jealousy. You want what is rightfully Cassian’s.”
“I’m doing it for the family,” he repeats.
“And you think Malek is going to let you rule? You think he’s just going to hand you Cassian’s territory?”
“Trevino territory. Not Cassian’s personal territory. And I’m a Trevino.”
“You’re handing everything to Malek, you idiot.”
He glances over my shoulder at Malek and leans closer. “If he betrays me, I’ll kill him and take over both territories.”
“And Cassian? What happens to Cassian?”
He looks me square in the eye. “He dies.”
34
CASSIAN
Floodlights engulf the churchyard surrounding the house in bright light, but the rain coming down in sheets makes it hard to see, to hear.
Enzo.
It’s Enzo. Father and son. Both of them traitors.
There’s a dozen of us out here. Two men flank me as I stalk toward the gate at the far end of the house. The gates that were chained. Locked up tight. I can’t remember a time they were opened.
But they stand open now. No broken lock. Why would he need to break the lock? He had every key to every room. Because I trusted him. Because I fucking trusted him.
“Looks like tracks from two vehicles. I’m sending a car out,” one of my men says.
I nod, looking at the ground for signs of her.
Nothing though. I see nothing. If there ever was anything the rain is washing it all away.
I try her phone again. I don’t even know why I’m doing it.
“Here!” Someone calls from nearer the house.
Hope surges in me and I run, shoes sinking deep into the ground, mud squelching with each step. As I get close, I hear it. The phone.
“Allegra!” I hurry, almost falling in the slippery mud in my haste. But when I turn the corner, that hope evaporates, gone as swiftly as it came. I slow. It’s not Allegra he’s found. It’s one of my jackets. It’s caked with mud and torn. I take it from him. The sound of the phone ringing is coming from inside one of the pockets. She must have put it on when she came out here. It stops ringing as soon as I reach for it.
“Inside,” I say, knowing there isn’t anything more to find out here. We need to regroup. And I need to get more out of Angelo. Because she’s long gone and I don’t know where. I don’t have a clue.
Once I’m in the house, I go back down to the crypt. Jet has a bottle of water to Angelo’s bloody lips. The instant Jet sees me, sees the phone in my hand, his expression darkens.
“Were you working together to dethrone me? Is that what this is about? You fucking bastard, I trusted you!”
“No, Cassian. No. It’s not what you think,” my uncle pleads.
“Then what the hell is it?” I demand.
“I found out a few days ago. That’s all. A few days. Andre, my driver, I heard them talking.”
Andre. Andre who delivered the gun to Severin’s man to then deliver it to Gage. To distract me. To make me suspect Severin who already hates me.
“What did you hear?” I ask, half-hearing myself, no longer trusting myself. My instincts.
I trusted Enzo. I trusted Angelo.
He shakes his head. “Andre wanted more money, or he’d give him up. So, I confronted Enzo. Demanded he tell me what was going on. Cassian,” he pauses and just keeps shaking his head. “His head’s all turned around. He thinks... Ah fuck.” He closes his eyes. “No.”
“What does he think?” I demand, knowing I won’t like the answer. Knowing I will hate it. “Fucking say it.”
“Your brother’s disease. Your father’s. He thinks your blood is tainted. He thinks the family…”
Something inside my gut twists. I bite down on the pain. I can’t do this now. She needs me now.
“It’s not his place to think, is it?” I hiss. “Where did he take her? Where the hell did he take her?”
“It’s my fault. He thought I loved you more than I did him. I should have seen what was happening. I could have talked to him.”
“I need to know where the fuck she is. That’s all I care about right now, Uncle,” I say, feeling his blood betrayal anew. “You say you loved me.”