Page 24 of Her Wicked Men

“Why would they pick you up?”

“Because it was the middle of nowhere, and I was going to die if they didn’t stop,” I admitted.

“You’re telling me the Slade brothers decided to rescue you out of the goodness of their hearts?” he scoffed in disbelief.

“It’s the truth,” I muttered, his fingers digging into my jaw as he held my face firm, forcing me to stare at him.

“Why were you on the side of the road?”

“I ran away from my fiancé after he hit me.” Why lie? I wasn’t getting out of this anyway, and if I had a chance of garnering even a sliver of sympathy from them, then I would.

I’d do whatever I could to survive.

“Maybe he was just teaching you your place,” the man said, his mouth twisting into a wretched smirk.

“Sounds like they took in a wounded little stray,” the other man across the room said. I knew he was there, but this horrid man was blocking me from seeing him.

I hated how he called me a stray. The word had come to be something sweet from Zane, but now it cut deep, making my own beliefs falter.

“Take in the broken little doll and she’ll happily dance for you, right? Fucking knights in shining armor, huh?” the mantutted before me, cocking his head as he arched a brow. “Did they fuck their little doll?”

I yanked my head away, hating the way his words were poisoning my veins. No, the brothers weren’t like that. They’d shown me their truth, and opened up to me.

They weren’t just using me. I let my gaze flit over my promise ring, grateful it was still there.

They’d promised.

Zane had promised.

“Well, now, that’s interesting. We were planning on one hell of a gunfight, showing those bastards just who we were, and then we found you instead. Talk about a wonderful surprise,” the man before me leaned forward, resting both his hands on my thighs so his face was almost pressed against my cheek.

“Blood for blood, that’s the rules. Years ago, those bastards took our father and uncle after they dutifully eradicated the Carbone family, leaving all but one,” the man stated. “Do you know who that was?”

I swallowed, refusing to turn my face and meet his gaze as I stared at the corner of the room. It was a small space, devoid of anything save for this chair I was bound in and a high window that was barred outside. Was this their interrogation or torture room? I was surprised there weren't blood stains on the wall, although the wood grain vinyl flooring looked weathered. Probably from scrubbing blood off of it repeatedly.

“You know him well, I imagine,” the man continued as he forcefully pushed off my legs, applying far too much pressure and making me wince. “Lorenzo Carbone.”

I frowned, Lorenzo’s story of how the Slade family took him in after his parents died flashing to the front of my mind.

Wait… had they…

“That’s right, our family turned on itself, offering my father and uncle over as a sign of good faith and to seal the trucebetween the families,” the man said, seeing the realization across my face. It was hard to hide, and pain swept through me for Enzo.

His family hadn’t just died, they’d been murdered. Not just his parents either, from what this man was saying, the entire Carbone family had been gunned down.

“He lost both his parents, including his mother,” I whispered, and the man scoffed.

“Ah, yes, the whole Slade code, don’t involve women and children. How do you have any chance of expelling the weeds off our streets if you leave roots? They’ll simply sprout again. My father and uncle understood that, they knew what had to be done. You take the roots out completely, leave nothing. It’s because of their stupid little code that you’re here now. Of course we want to avenge those of our family who saw that you can’t make an omelet without cracking a few eggs,” the man said nonchalantly, like he was talking about an actual recipe and not murdering an entire family.

It made me sick to my stomach, a shudder coursing through me as the realization of how unhinged and murderous the man before me was.

“But children are innocent,” I murmured, my heart now pounding violently as I finally dragged my gaze back to him, hating the sick smile he wore.

“Only while they’re young. What adult is truly innocent?” he threw back. “It’s a damn shame Lorenzo survived the whole ordeal, he wasn’t supposed to.”

My blood ran cold at that, and I just stared at the monster before me, hating how my hands trembled behind my back. I just hoped it wasn’t obvious, because this man was the kind to revel in that fact. Fear was everything to him.

“That whole thing sparked some big issues in our family, divided us,” the man continued, as if he was merely at a businessmeeting, relaying facts. “Such a shame. We had someone rat us out, and the Slade family came down hard on us for destroying a rival family. They should have been grateful we gave them the space to grow their enterprise, but no, they punished us. Some of our family believed peace and a treaty was the best way forward, so they sacrificed some pieces from the board, namely my father and uncle. Tragic, don’t you think? But that’s how it is, the good of the many outweigh the few. Except, in this case, it was wrong. The day the family turned over their own was the day they submitted to the Slade family, admitting they were better than us,” he spat, and I glanced at the other man in the room. He was leaning against the wall, his arms folded, watching this man who reminded me of a damn movie villain who went into detail about everything right before the hero rocked up to knock some sense into him.

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