Page 66 of Alpha On Top

“He thinks I'm dead now?” I said it as more of a question to myself than to Franco. This could work in my favor, it could give me the upper hand.

If Marcos thought I was dead, he wouldn't be expecting me to show up. His guard would be down, his doors exposed and open to me. I could be a ghost, a shadow that could kill him without anyone seeing me coming.

Pointing at my mother, I shouted at her. “Go get some rope from the shed!”

She didn't ask me why, she didn't question me at all. My mother took off running without giving me any shit about where my head was going.

“Porter, you have to understand—” Franco started to say, until I hit him again in the throat, causing him to gag and cough.

“You can shut the fuck up! I understand, Franco, I always have. You don't give a shit about me or my mother, all you care about is yourself. I get that Zander's death was hard because he was your son, and I'm truly sorry that he's gone. But you don't see it, you've never been able to see it.”

His eyes searched my face, wondering what the hell I could mean.

“All these years, all I ever wanted was for you to see me as your son too. You never gave me that chance, you never let me in. You kept me on the outside, and that fucking hurt. You helped do this, Franco. I went looking for a father because you were too good to ever be mine.”

“Please, Porter, don't kill me.” Releasing his grip on the steering wheel, he sat back. “I was just trying to save your mother, to make her world better. I wanted to give her back her life. We couldn't live like this, not anymore.”

“No, you wanted something else—don't act like you did this for my mother, because she'd never want this. My mother would never have allowed you to do this. You did this for yourself.”

My mother ran back across the yard and handed me a bundle of rope. “What are you going to do with this?”

“I'm tying his ass up, I won't risk him fucking up what I'm about to do.”

“You're not going to kill me?” Franco flicked his eyes up, and I saw more life in them than I had ever seen before. He looked afraid, he looked anxious and unsure of what would happen to him.

He's afraid of me.

“You're not worth my fucking time, Franco.”

“What are you going to do, Porter?” My mother reached out and touched my arm, squeezing me gently.

“I'm saving my girl, like a real man.” Glaring down at Franco, I snatched his wrists and tied him to the steering wheel. “But you wouldn't understand what it means to be a real man. If you did, we wouldn't be here like this. Instead, you hand fed me to the fucking wolves. Look where that got you, you made more enemies than friends today.”

My mother stood stiff, her fingers plucking and pinching her lips. “What am I going to do?” she asked as her muscles began to tremble.

“You're going to stay here and make sure he doesn't do shit. Give me a few minutes to get a head start, then call the cops. Tell them everything, I don't care. Whatever happens to me after this, I'll deal with it. But I have to save Emery before he hurts her.”

“Okay,” she said, wiping her hands down the front of her thighs and taking in big breaths. “Take my car, the keys are in the front pocket of my purse.”

“Thanks, Mom.” Kissing her cheek, I gripped her shoulders. “I will be back, I don't want you to worry about me. You won't lose me today, I promise.”

Shuffling around in her purse, I found her keys and pulled them out. Giving my mother a faint smile, I jogged to her car and climbed inside.

I had finally found the only reason to live.

I wasn't about to lose that before I had the chance to truly appreciate it.

Love comes once in a lifetime, and my life wasn't over yet. . .

It was finally just beginning.

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