Page 39 of Blood for Blood

Dominic: I’m tired of waiting. Meet me now. Same address.

“He’s not waiting, he wants me to meet him now.” My hands shake as Mateo grabs my shoulders.

“We planned for this, that’s why security was there early.” He kisses my forehead and hands me a set of keys. “There’s a bag of clothes in the back to make it look good. The car is out front, it’s the Red BMW.” He walks me out to the car, with Lorenzo and Aurora right behind us.

I kiss them all and tell them how much I love them before getting in the driver's seat and pulling out of the driveway, praying this isn’t the last time I get to see them.

When I pull up next to the fire hydrant, I put the car in park and take a few deep breaths before hopping out and grabbing the bag from the back seat. Quickly crossing the busy street, I’m looking for any sign of Dominic when my phone rings. I press the green button and place it to my ear, “Hello?”

“Keep walking. Go to the passenger side of the orange Mustang and get in,” Dominic demands. “He’s going to bring you to me.” He ends the call as I open the door to the car.

“Get in, it’s not good to keep him waiting.”

I slide in the car, buckling my seat belt. During the short drive, I keep my eyes straight ahead, not wanting to see the traitor next to me. When we pull up to an abandoned warehouse, my heart sinks a little more. I make sure my phone is in my pocket so Mateo knows exactly where I’m at. I climb out of the car, following Travis through one of the bay doors.

Once we’re inside, I’m hit with a strong feeling that I’m not making it out of here alive. There are at least a dozen dead women in this huge space. All of them have cherry red hair, just like me. Some of them have bullet holes between their eyes, some look like they’ve been beaten to death. It smells like rotten flesh and lavender in here. Both scents make me want to vomit.

“Evaluna, it’s nice to see you again after all these years.” My blood turns cold at the sound of Mathias’ voice. Now I know for certain that I'm not leaving here alive.

“Where is my son?” My voice comes out strong and sure, but that’s not how I’m feeling on the inside.

“Don’t you mean OUR son?” He unbuttons his suit jacket before sliding it off his shoulders and putting it over the back of a chair. “Let’s play a little game, shall we?”

“I’m not interested in your games, Mathias, I just want to see my son!” I seethe, trying not to let my frustration build.

“It wasn’t actually a question anyhow. You get to choose which son of mine dies today!” He claps his hands together, smiling like the sick fuck that he is. “Isn’t that fun?”

“You’re a disgusting human being. I won’t choose.”

“I’m not fucking around with you, Evaluna.” He snarls, getting way too close to my face. “Choose now, A or B. If you don’t pick a letter in the next ten seconds, they both die. Along with Aurora, Drew, Malakai, Lorenzo, those Wicklow boys, and their whore.” He starts holding up fingers, counting the names as he lists them.

“They’ll all die today. You’ll leave here with Dominic and Ravenna will finally come home with me.” He smiles again before starting to count down. “Ten. Nine. Eight. Seven.”

“Wait!” I shout, putting my hands up to plead with him.

“No waiting. Six. Five. Four.” He holds up his last three fingers, wiggling them at me. “Three. Two.”

“A!” I cry out, sinking to my knees. “Please don’t kill them all.”

He slides his phone from his back pocket, bringing it to his ear. “She chose A. Make it quick.”

A second later, a gunshot rings out and the realization hits me. I just chose for him to kill my son.

Chapter 25

Lorenzo

As soon as Luna pulls out of the driveway, we get to work on the rest of the plan. Alaric and Karrion should be pulling up any minute now to help us. Since we don’t know exactly how many rats are among us, Mateo has come up with an easy solution to weed them out before we leave. He calls the meeting and every security guard we have enters the basement of the sawmill.

We had Owen and Brad moved until we have the time to deal with them properly. Once the last guard walks down the stairs, Mateo speaks. “We’re just waiting for two more people to join us momentarily, then we’ll get started.”

“Awe, you waited for us to start the party? You’re too good to us!” Karrion has a goofy smile plastered on his face as he walks down.

“Everyone is here, boss.” Gordon calls from the top step.

“Okay. Pull the door shut and come on down.” Mateo nods to him. We stand together with Alaric and Karrion by our sides, staring out at twenty four of our security guards. “Paghi come giochi. Occhio per occhio, dente per dente.” He crosses his arms over his chest, watching for any reaction from the guards.

I lean closer to Mateo, whispering in his ear, “Oliver, James and Tom.” Now we know for sure that those three are helping Mathias’ and I have to take a step back before I lose my shit.

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