Page 76 of Under His Embrace

He nodded slightly in reply, turning back to Wes.

“Get your hands off my son,” he growled.

31

FRANCO

Seeing someone put their hands on Caleb pissed me off with a fury I’d never fully experienced before.

To dare to point a gun at him?

I don’t fucking think so.

I’d faced instances of my family being threatened. Dante under the aim of a gun. Romeo being captured and hit. Liam beat up. Countless others. Even if they weren’t blood relations, every single person in the Constellawasfamily.Myfamily, a representative of someone I’d go to every end of the earth to protect.

But my son?My son?

Wes pressing the end of his gun barrel at my son tripped me into a feral rage that I strained to contain.

I did. I tried to mask the pure anger and scorching malice that I wanted to unleash on that man. Caleb was just learning about me. He was already curious about why I—and everyone else at the house—carried guns.

I didn’t want him to fear me or what we did. I didn’t want to allow a barrier between us as he came to terms with the fact that his father was a trained killer, that I supervised soldierscapable of torturing our enemies and ending the lives of those who crossed us.

For him, to preserve my son’s innocence, I contained my wrath the best I could.

“I told you to get your hands off my son. Now.”

Wes sneered, heaving deep, spittle-flying breaths as he kept Caleb close. “Your son? He’s just a bastard no one wants.” He laughed hard once. “No one but those old fuckers. I killed the judge last week. But the old bitch didn’t care. She still wants me to bring this bastard to her so she can?—”

“No.” Caleb wrestled to get away. “You’re not taking me anywhere.”

“Shut up! Shut up, you little piece of shit.” Wes shook him a bit, growling with the effort. “I’ve spent years wanting you out of the way so I could have my woman.”

“My mom’s not your girlfriend,” Caleb shouted.

“She’s mine!” Wes roared. “If she won’t come to me and be mine, I’ll kill her! She has to bemine. I’ll order hits on every boss she has. I’ll follow her everywhere she goes and prove to her that she has to be withme.”

Romeo glanced at me, alert and on edge. He was likely making the same conclusions I was.

Wes was crazy. He had to be mentally unstable to act like this, but with his confession, he cleared up the mystery about who shot up the A&J Deli.

I bet Romeo was also thinking that it’d be nice to have Liam here. A sniper shot from a distance, and Wes would be dead.

Already, people were noticing the presence of the Constella men waiting for my order. They spotted Wes foaming at the mouth and acting like a lunatic.

And that wouldn’t fly. Not on my watch. Any one of these people near the hospital could call someone to get him and likely have him admitted to the psych ward where he clearly belonged.

Someone could call the cops and have him arrested. Maybe his connections would get him out and free, but that also meant the law enforcement agencies would butt into what was now a very personal matter.

Wes Morrison was a dead man walking, andIwould be the one who’d have the pleasure of ending his life. All this pent-up rage I tried to contain in the face of the watching public eye, in front of my son, would be spent on ending his life.

Romeo nodded, showing me that he was ready. He was aware that we needed to wrap this up sooner than later. We couldn’t risk anyone intervening.

“Let him go.” I lifted my hand to tug at my ear, showing Caleb the tell that I’d just shown him this morning when we talked and played basketball.

He didn’t flinch or show a sign of fear. He also didn’t give away that he saw my tell.

Wes didn’t notice, scanning all the soldiers around us.

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