Page 41 of Ruthless Redemption

Rock blanched. “What are you talking about?”

Houston laughed. “See, you feds don’t know nearly as much as you think. You think this piece of shit deserves your justice? He deserves outlaw justice. Death. Nothing more and nothing less. And then her father comes next. No way in fucking hell is either one of them getting away with what they did to her.”

“Wait. What the hell are you saying?” The alarm on his brother’s face made him almost laugh. He couldn’t believe he was this clueless.

“It’s pretty clear, don’t you think? Mazzeo made a deal to save his ass and then sweetened it with his daughter. When she refused to cooperate, they kidnapped her and with a plan to put her to good use in their sex slave operation while they finished their shit deal in her name.” Houston’s stomach roiled as the memory of those weeks of hunting Izzy assaulted him. He’d failed in saving her from that torture, but he sure as hell wasn’t going to fail her now. They were all going to die and it would be at his hand and not hers. She was too good for them. If that meant Rock had to arrest him, well, it seemed fitting. Like his father and JD always said.

You reap what you sow.

Houston grabbed the gun and pointed it at Marco’s head. He’d never shot a man from this range before, but he was certain in this case he could live with it. He aimed for the spot between his eyes and watched the fear of certain death fill Marco’s gaze.

He slowly moved his finger to the trigger and took a deep, calming breath. This moment. This second. It filled him with life. The knowledge that he was about to rid this earth of evil gave him something powerful. It was like a drug every time. The Marine Corps had given him that and now the club would do the same.

He exhaled on a slow hiss and began to squeeze the trigger.

Clarity filled his head.

And then chaos erupted.

Chapter Sixteen

Izzy

I stared at the gun in my father’s hand and froze.

One minute the woman who’d been preventing me from getting the hell out of here so I could find Houston had been standing in front of me with an apologetic look in her eyes and the next she was crumpled on the ground with blood blossoming across her chest.

“Let’s go,” he said, his face a hard mask lacking in emotions. The face of a monster. I’d known this is what he’d become, but I still had a hard time reconciling it with the man who’d doted on me that I’d once known.

“Please don’t do this,” I begged. “I don’t need to be a part of this. I only wanted my freedom.”

“By stealing from me,” he barked, his tone harsh and guttural.

My heart hardened farther. “You stole from me too. On more than one occasion. You took my father away and then you stole my innocence. And for what? Some sort of stupid business deal? Because all the money in Seattle isn’t enough? I hate you.”

He shrugged. “Your hate means nothing. Less than nothing. The money however, that’s important.”

“Why?” I had a feeling I might not be getting out of this situation so I might as well go out with an understanding of what my father loved more than his own flesh and blood.

“That money is my legacy. It represents all the power and control I have worked my whole life to attain.”

“What difference does a legacy make if you don’t have anyone to carry on the family business? You do know you can’t take it with you, right?”

My father snorted. “Do you seriously believe that I didn’t plan for my own future? That I only slept with one whore? Even now you are still incredibly naive, Isabella.”

“So you cheated on my mother.” My stomach was threatening to revolt as the gun in my father’s hand waved in rhythm with every disgusting word out of his mouth. I wasn’t sure I could take anymore of his revelations without wrapping my hands around his neck and choking the life out of him. If that brought on my death sooner rather than later then maybe that was for the best. Drawing out the inevitable only brought more misery.

“No moreso than she did. Only I had no choice. When she failed to produce an acceptable heir, I had to find someone who could.”

I wanted to scream at him. To demand to know why I wasn’t acceptable. Only I refused to give him that kind of satisfaction. I had a feeling that was exactly what he wanted. For me to beg and plead with him for my life.

I would not. For my mother’s honor I refused.

But this knowledge that I had a potential sibling hit me harder than I’d imagined. There had been so many slaps in the face these last few months, what was one more?

Only somehow this felt even worse. I had a brother or maybe a sister. Or maybe both. I was not the only living Mazzeo heir.

“If you kill me all of that money will disappear. Houston will make sure of it.”

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