Page 13 of Vicious Redemption

Except Tia, it would seem.

7

TIA

I know my reaction was childish. Even as I hear the door to our bedroom slam shut, signaling Leo’s departure, I wish I would have handled things differently. There are so many better ways I could have dealt with the situation besides screaming that I hate him.

I don’t hate Leo—I don’t think—even if my feelings would be justified, considering he intends to kill my family and doesn’t seem to feel a drop of remorse. But despite the conflict my father has started, despite the fact that he showed such little concern for me—even going so far as to use me to rub Leo’s face in his loss—my father is still my father. And I don’t want him to die. Least of all, at the hands of my husband.

My stomach knots as I think about Leo’s admission that his own father was shot and is now in the hospital. I didn’t know that until after my temper tantrum. Dropping my head into my hands, I fight the fresh wave of tears that threaten to fall.

My family is responsible for so much that’s gone wrong. If Don Moretti dies, how could I expect Leo to show them any mercy? If he were to live up to the name he’s earned since his rise to power, Leo would kill me along with the rest of my family—wipe us clear off the earth—if his father dies.

I should be happy that he doesn’t seem to intend to do that. And hopefully, he’ll stay true to his word and leave my sisters alone as well.

Do I have any right to ask that of him?

Still, I was willing to ask for their sake.

Once again, I have no clue where Leo and I stand.

It seems I won’t likely find out for a while, either. I doubt Leo will return until late tonight.

And that’s my doing.

Pulling myself together, I rise from my spot on the floor and open the door. I hadn’t bothered to turn on the light, and the bright morning sunshine filters in through the door to the bedroom, making me squint.

Now that the argument is over, it’s time for me to get cleaned up. Then, I intend to spend the rest of the day in bed. Pulling my hair back, I wash my face, scrubbing the smokey cat-eye makeup away along with my red lipstick. The cold water feels good on my puffy eyes, and after brushing my hair and teeth, I make my way back into the bedroom.

I reach for one of Leo’s oversized T-shirts in the dresser drawer and hesitate. How can I relax in the clothes of a man who has no problem murdering my family members? How can I stay with a man like that?

And at the same time, I yearn for that closeness I feel when I’m with Leo. The happiness he’s brought me. The inner turmoil has me in utter knots. I feel absolutely spent. I don’t know whether it’s wrong of me to hate Leo or love him. Can I possibly do both at the same time?

I’m so tired, I can’t decide.

But I pull it out and shrug into it anyway, feeling guilty as I draw comfort from his familiar scent. Then I collapse into bed, exhausted after the night’s events. I don’t even bother closing the curtains. Instead, I turn my back to the sunlight, letting it warm me as I swiftly sink into unconsciousness.

Leo’s in my dreams as well, seeming to occupy every corner of my mind, but my dreams are no better than my waking nightmare. And I toss and turn as I watch Leo force my father onto his knees at gunpoint in the middle of a forest clearing.

“It’s him or me, Tia. You can’t have both,” Leo states, his hazel eyes cold and emotionless as he watches me.

“I can’t choose. Please, don’t make me,” I beg, standing helplessly as I watch the man I love prepare to take my father’s life.

“If you don’t pick one, then we both have to die,” he says.

“No one has to die!” I insist, stepping forward to reach for the gun.

But Leo only shakes his head. “Wrong again.”

Then he pulls the trigger, putting a bullet through my father’s head. And as his body drops, Leo turns the gun on himself.

“No!” I scream, racing to stop him in time.

The gun goes off a second time, and Leo falls to the ground, lifeless.

But as I run to him, sobbing in my utter loss and despair, the ground suddenly drops out beneath me. And this time, there’s no tree to stop me. No Leo to save me.

Instead, I plummet toward the rocky gorge below.

---