Page 18 of Red Dreams

Shock flickers across her face before it hardens into a sneer. “Do you think I won’t pull the trigger and make her die on your corpse?”

“I know you will.”

I take a step forward, the gun pressing harder against my chest to hide my trembling grip. “And I know why. Because I failed you, Cassandra. In every way a father can fail his daughter. I wasn't there to protect you.”

Her hand shakes, the muzzle of her gun wavering against Layla's temple. “You don't get to do this. To make this about you.”

“But it is about me. It always has been. My failures, my sins, my inability to save the ones I love most.” I chance a glance at Layla, apology and regret bleeding from my stare. “I thought becoming the Scythe would help me find you, would give me the power to bring you home. But all it did was turn me into the very thing I was trying to destroy.”

“Shut up.” Her fingers flex around the gun. Layla's rapid breaths syncopate with my pounding heart. “You don't get to—you can't just...”

“I can,” I say softly, my own voice rough with unshed tears. “Because it's the truth. I let vengeance consume me, let it twist me into someone I didn't recognize. Someone who couldn't see past his own pain.” I take another step, the gun digging into my chest until I feel it rubbing against bone. “But I see you now, Cassie. I see my little girl, hurting and lost. And I am so, so sorry.”

A single tear slips down her cheek, catching on a scar at the corner of her mouth. A scar I should have prevented.

“It's too late,” she whispers, but there's a waver in her voice, a hairline fracture in her cold facade. “You can't fix this with pretty words.”

“I know.” I hold her gaze steady, letting her see the sincerity, the bone-deep remorse. “I let them take you. I let them hurt you in ways no child should ever be hurt.”

Tears stream freely down Cassie's face now, landing on the top of Layla’s head and soaking through the dirtied blond strands. It kills me not to look at her, not to include her in this and reassure her somehow, but I have to stay on Cassie.Shehas to drop the gun.

“I hate you,” she whispers.

“And I'll never forgive myself. But Cassie, this path you're on, this darkness you've embraced ... it won't heal the wounds inside you. Trust me, I know.”

Cassie's face contorts, tears and blood smearing together as a sob wracks through her tall, slight frame.Fuck, she’s grown so much…

I’m so wrapped up in the heartbreak of her that I miss her eyes darkening, the storm building behind the blue.

“Papa showed me the truth. That love is a lie, a weakness to be toyed with.” She presses the muzzle harder into Layla’s temple, making Layla sob. “He taught me how to turn it into a weapon.”

It takes all my willpower to fight the urge to lunge for the gun. One wrong move and someone’s blood will paint the walls. And I don’t want anyone here to bleed.

“Cassie, listen to me. Whatever Morelli told you, whatever he did, it was wrong. He poisoned everything good and pure inside you.”

“No!” she shrieks, the sound bouncing off the walls. “He made me strong. He showed me my true potential.” Cassie then flicks her attention to Layla, a cruel smile curling her lips. “Just like I'll show you.”

Denial wrenches from my throat at the same time Cassie shifts the gun and slams the butt of it against Layla’s head.

Layla crumples to the floor, her body going limp after the pistol connects with her skull. A ragged shout tears from my throat as I surge forward, desperate to reach her.

But Cassie moves like a viper, all lightning speed and venomous grace. She becomes the apprentice other criminals whisper about, the ones who fear both her intelligence and viciousness. The one who Morelli groomed himself.

She sidesteps my charge and brings her knee up into my stomach, driving the air from my chest. I stumble, wheezing, but manage to catch her wrist as she aims the gun at my head and tries to shoot. We grapple for control, our faces inches apart. Her eyes blaze with a feral intensity, the madness of a caged animal finally set free.

“Cassie, please,” I rasp, my fingers digging into her skin. “Don't do this.”

She snarls, baring bloodstained teeth. With a burst of strength, she wrenches her arm free and reverses our positions,slamming me back against the wall. Stars explode across my vision as my head cracks against the concrete because I let her. I can’t retaliate the way I normally would. I won’t.

“You still don't get it, do you?” she hisses, pressing the gun under my chin. “I'm not your little girl anymore.”

“Cassandra Black.” I try again, my voice strained. “That’s who you are. Who you’ll always be.”

She digs the gun barrel deeper into my flesh. The pain radiating from the back of my skull wars with the ache in my chest, both physical and emotional.

Cassie laughs then. “Black? Like the family we never were?”

Her free hand comes up to grip my jaw, her sharpened nails biting through stubble and into flesh. “You really are pathetic, clinging to this fantasy that you can save me, like there's anything left to save.”

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