Page 92 of Taboo Flames

“Yes, you are,” Giordano roars. “We are both ambitious men with a hunger for more. Nothing will ever be enough for us. Men like us are meant to rule the world, not exist under the leadership of lesser men. Me and you together, we could have owned the world.”

“Through the flesh trade? Is that how you plan to rule the world?” I snarl in disgust.

“Giving hopeless housewives access to copious amounts of cocaine and a gun is far more dangerous than selling girls, wouldn’t you say?” He cocks his head at me, his smile sharp and menacing.

“Guns don’t have families or feelings,” I tell him in a hard voice. “What you are is a greedy man who thinks he’s God. Newsflash, Giordano, you’re not God. You’re just a pathetic man who is too cowardly to come out of the shadows and actually fight for what he wants, so he stays hidden there and plays his little games.”

Anger turns Giordano’s eyes into slits, and next to him, Aurora looks panicked, her eyes wide.

“I was wrong about you, Giovanni. You’re as small-minded as the rest of them.” He shakes his head in disappointment.

“I’ve never been so glad to disappoint someone in my life,” I riposte.

He chuckles, then moves his gun until it’s trained on me. “I’m going to enjoy wiping you from this earth like I did to your bitch of a mother.”

“Go fuck yourself, Giordano,” I seethe.

Aurora’s muffled noises increase in volume as Giordano smiles sadistically and fires his gun at me.

CHAPTER 25

Aurora

With ever-increasing horror, I watch Gio go down. A scream rips out of my throat but is muted by the tape over my mouth. Tears pour from my eyes as I watch him lie there, unmoving and still…so horribly still.

No, he can’t die. He simply can’t.

It’s all my fault. I’m the one who messed with that pimp in the first place. I brought this on us. I should have been patient with Gio instead of running off in the dead of the night to dig for further information about him.

Why did I even trust an unknown person enough to meet up with them in a spooky location just because they promised to tell me about Gio’s life with Giordano?

It was an obvious trap, and any other person would have smelled it a mile away.

I’m a damn idiot, and now, because of me, Gio’s dead.

A sob catches in my throat, and I’m unable to look away from him.

“It’s a pity, isn’t it?” Giordano says in a deceptively soft voice.

I turn my head slowly to face him, showing him the full force of my hatred in my expression. He chuckles, unfazed, and even steps forward to rip the tape off my mouth.

I bite back a pained gasp as the tape is ripped off painfully.

“You bastard,” I spit at him as tears continue to blur my vision. “You’ll never get away with this.”

“And who’s going to stop me?” he asks mockingly. “After I’ve killed you and disposed of your father, no one would be the wiser about what happened today. Vitale will be too stricken by grief because of his dear sister’s death to notice me taking over his city one trade at a time."

He walks around me, and I follow him with my gaze, straining my neck. With a flourish, he grabs the two edges of the dark curtain behind me and throws them open, revealing a part of the castle wall that’s broken off, leaving behind a gaping hole from which I can see the ocean behind us.

“It’s a beautiful view, isn’t it?” he taunts. “You’re lucky the last thing you’ll get to see in your life is the sea.”

I gasp as his meaning becomes clear. Giordano plans to throw me off the building.

“I’ll haunt you for eternity,” I promise darkly, venom lacing my words.

“Don't waste your time,” Giordano replies dismissively. “I’m not afraid of ghosts.”

He moves and stands before me, smiling deviously. “It wasn’t meant to end this way.”

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