Page 98 of Tainted Ties

We had shared many unyielding stares, yet this was the one I broke away from first.

Raphael turned; his forehead pressed into my gun. “Kill me, then,” he seethed.

“Why did you do it?” I asked, frowning in disbelief.

“Youtookher when she wasn’t yours to take.”

A burning trickle coursed through my chest, tightening it.

“I’ll never stop,” he snickered, manic rage evident on his features.

I cocked the gun, setting my finger on the trigger again.

“At least I’ll die knowing you’re a tortured son of a bitch.”

“You’re no brother of mine,” I whispered.

Bang!

Chapter34

Aurora

Numbing pain racked through my body.

Everywhere ached: my muscles, my bones, my head, and most of all, the gaping hole in my chest.

“You can’t leave him in there!”

Ricardo ignored my protests, pushing me inside the backseat of the car before shutting the door.

There was a coldness that had claimed me since I stepped foot into that warehouse, and it hadn’t thawed since.

Not knowing if Roman was okay seized my lungs from working.

Would he make it out?

Had my father escaped, or would he kill him?

Nicolai occupied the driver’s seat, gripping the steering wheel, his knuckles white. “Why did you do it?”

His question lingered in the confined space of the car before Ricardo opened the passenger door and sat, shooting out a command to drive.

The ignition hummed to life, charging the beat of my heart to escalate.

I couldn’t figure out why they had come or how they knew our whereabouts, but I wasrelieved.

My father would have killed Roman if his men hadn’t interfered.

It was all my fault. I had become naïve and held onto the hope that my father could be civil.

Images of Roman’s face flashed in my mind. Every hit he took back there, I had felt.

Even now, it tore me apart from the inside, starting from the cramping that twisted in my stomach.

I groaned, clutching my stomach, a light coating of sweat forming on my skin.

“Are you okay?” Nicolai asked, eyeing me wearily in the rearview mirror.

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