Page 58 of Vicious Redemption

I stand over the man who raised me, looking down on his lifeless body. And all I feel is rage. We might not have had a conventionally close relationship. But my father has been my one constant in life since the day my mother died.

He’s the one who drove me to become great, to see the potential in the world around me. He taught me what it means to be strong. He showed me how to play the game. And he unleashed me on the world without a second’s hesitation.

He believed in me. He believed in my vision.

And without his support and guidance, I wouldn’t be half the man I am.

My father was a great man in his own right. And now he’s dead because some bastard betrayed me. Again.

“I’m so sorry, Leo,” Tia breathes beside me.

I scarcely feel her hands as they wrap around my right arm as if to comfort me. And though she’s soft and warm beside me, no amount of the body heat radiating from her seems capable of chasing away the ice in my heart.

“I’m going to paint this town with the blood of my enemy who did this,” I declare. “This means war.”

We stand in silence for a long moment, looking down at my father’s lifeless face. And fissures slowly creep through my chest and threaten to shatter my mind. I never imagined his life could end this way. I honestly hadn’t even considered his death before now.

Even though I know the dangers of our chosen path, my father always seemed untouchable. Invincible.

“Let’s go home,” I state flatly, my voice bled dry of emotion.

“Okay,” Tia murmurs.

My men are gathered in the hallway outside the hospital room. And their eyes shift to find me as soon as we step into the fluorescent lighting. None say a word.

It’s a grim procession back to the Escalade and a silent ride home as I contemplate what I’m going to do about Don Guerra. I can’t let him live—not after this.

But with the hate in my heart after seeing my father’s lifeless body, I know that killing Tia’s father will break us.

She won’t forgive me.

And I can’t forgive him.

28

TIA

Leo’s losing it. I can see the madness flickering behind his eyes. A deadly wrath that could blow a hole through the center of our world. His stony silence is almost more terrifying than the deadly threats he made at dinner and the hospital.

And now, more than ever, I don’t doubt the violence in his heart.

“I want every Guerra man you can get your hands on rounded up and detained until further notice,” he states, making my stomach plummet. “I intend to start questioning them first thing in the morning. I want to know who’s responsible, how they did it, what they ate for their last meal before they made the gravest mistake of their life.”

The barked orders Leo gives his men as we pile out of the Escalade are met with immediate confirmations. And they melt into the night, leaving me alone to weather the hurricane of emotion brewing around my husband. It would seem no one is prepared to question him in this frame of mind. Not even I can find the strength to deny him.

My heart aches to see him in such a state of turmoil.

This man, who has shown such calm composure no matter the circumstance.

Right now, he feels as though the slightest disturbance might make him snap.

I follow him down the hall to our room, intensely aware of the walls he’s building around himself—protective barriers that will hold him in one piece. And keep me out.

I close the door softly behind us, finally alone with him after what feels like the hardest night of my life. I’m terrified to think he might be right about my father. It breaks my heart to imagine he’s manipulated me once again.

But more than that, I wish I knew how to soothe Leo’s suffering. Because I can tell that beneath all his anger, he’s in pain from his loss. I want to be here for him. I just don’t know what I could possibly say that might console him.

His movements are jerky as he loosens his tie. Shrugging out of his suit jacket, he gives me a brief glimpse of his shoulder holster before that, too, is set aside. And all the while, he keeps his back to me, hiding the stormy expression I know is on his face.

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