Page 106 of Bound By Threads
I struggle beneath him, gasping. His weight crushes my lungs, making every breath feel like a knife in my ribs.
“You don’t know what I’ve done,” I rasp.
“Oh, but I do. I’ve known about your little plan to kill me. The alliances. The backroom deals, as you stole Pacheco from me.” He sighs. “I let it happen. I wanted to see if you had it in you. And you don’t. All this time, and the best you’ve done is come here like a broken dog, sniveling that we broke your old toy.”
He crouches down. More weight on my chest. “I thought it would have made you stronger, but I see where I went wrong. I should’ve been finding a way to control you instead.”
Then he reaches for his gun.
“This is the part where you learn what it means to be a man…” he says. “A real Valen.”
The muzzle presses against my sternum.
Cold.
Final.
“I think it’s time I got myself a new wife,” he says with a smile, as if he’s discussing a weekend trip. “Scarlett’s still beautiful, I imagine. Still fertile. She’ll give me a better son. One who isn’t as useless as you are.”
“No—” I try to scream, but it comes out like a croak.
“She’ll be mine, Roman,” he whispers. “Her screams will be mine too. Every. Night. Until she gives me a son who won’t disappoint me.”
He lifts his legs and drives it into my ribs. The crack is audible. Pain explodes in my chest, and I taste blood.
“I’ll tell the world my son died tragically… so sudden. Maybe a drug overdose? A pathetic ending to a pathetic man.”
He tightens his grip on the trigger.
And fires.
The sound explodes in my ears.
The world erupts in a flash of sound and agony. My body seizes.
The pain is unlike anything I’ve ever known—hot and cold all at once, like being set on fire and drowned simultaneously.
My lungs scream. I can’t breathe. I can’t?—
The world tilts sideways. The taste of blood floods my mouth.
I fall numb, blinking up at the ceiling as he steps away, barking orders at his men to clean up the mess.
Epilogue
Ishouldn’t be alive.
The gunshot still echoes somewhere in my skull, muffled and distant like thunder underwater.
But it missed.
Not entirely—not even close.
The bullet tore through muscle, maybe cracked a bone, but it didn’t hit the heart.
I don’t know if that was mercy… or punishment.
Maybe he wanted me to live for a minute. Just long enough to know I won’t be able to save her.
