Page 106 of Revenge & Ruin

“Under your orders.”

She laughs again. “You want to stand there and pretend you’re not loyal to him now?”

“You killed his sister!” I scream. “She was eight years old, and you killed her in cold blood.”

“She was a loose end. She would have grown up just like her brother and slit your throat in your sleep.” She jabs herself in the chest. “I’m the only one who could ever understand the lengths we needed to go to keep our family safe.”

“She was a child!”

“She was collateral damage.”

“Enough of this!” Leon roars suddenly before depositing me firmly behind him before he stalks forward toward our Mother. “Did you purposefully ensure a pregnant woman would be in that house today?”

Ida scoffs at him. “How dare you speak to me like this.”

“ANSWER ME!”

She doesn’t even flinch. “Like I said. Collateral damage.”

I watch as Leon’s shoulders aggressively rise and fall. “I gave you an order.”

“You can pretend to be the don all you like, but you and I both know where the Prince’s Hands’ loyalties lie,” she sneers back. “And it’s not with you. Not when you’re too weak to do what needs to be done.”

“I will not murder children. I will not murder pregnant women.”

“Then you are doomed to make the same mistake I made. That your great-grandparents made. It’s a cycle, Leon. The only way to ensure that we survive is to kill them off once and for all.”

I gape at her, unwilling to even comprehend what I’m hearing. “Cassandra has nothing to do with this!”

I glance over to where the woman in question is curled up, sobbing out Rocco’s name in sporadic intervals.

A few months ago, I would have sneered at her weakness, as my mother is now, but I can almost feel her heart being torn apart every second that building continues to blaze and no one emerges to end her greatest fear.

I can’t even imagine what it must be like to lose the person you love.

I don’t want to think about how close I might be to finding out.

“That harlot has the heir to the Guild growing inside of her,” Mother growls out. “What do you suppose will happen when it’s grown? They’ll take you to dinner and pardon you pleasantly?”

“We could have peace!” I cry out.

“There is no such thing, you ignorant little bitch. You suck that man’s cock, and suddenly, your head is filled with these naive little notions of tranquility and happiness? That’s not how the world works, Isabella. I taught you better than that.”

I want to scream at her, to fly at her and tear the words from her mouth.

But then there’s an almighty groan.

We all turn toward the building.

The fire lights up the night, casting an orange glow over everything.

Teo is in there, somewhere behind that wall of flame and smoke. I can’t breathe. I can’t think. He hasn’t come out.

My breath hitches as each floor buckles, collapsing into the one beneath it.

I blink, and then…

It’s gone. The entire house lies in an inferno of ruin. There’s nothing left.

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