Page 137 of Clean Slade
I took a step back and wiped my tears. My father slammed his elbow into Nino’s face, and he stumbled, but he didn’t let that stop him. With a growl, he pushed our father to the floor, collapsing along with him.
The coffee table broke as they landed on it, and my father’s gun slipped from his fingers.
I didn’t think. I jumped. I grabbed the gun.
“Nino, step away,” I said, rising to my feet.
My brother glanced at me, and his eyes flared when he saw the muzzle mere inches from his face.
He crawled out of the splintered table and stood by my side.
Our father stopped trying to get back up and stared at us.
“I knew he was a disappointment. But you? I expected better,” he told Nino.
“You were a terrible father. I don’t give a shit about your expectations.”
My heart pumped so fast that I thought I was hearing things. I was mildly shocked at Nino’s response.
Parker and Maddox walked into the room with their guns in the air. Father didn’t notice them. Instead, he turned to me.
“And you. You don’t have the balls—”
Bang.
My insides stilled as heat spread from my hands to the rest of my body.
A red dot appeared in the middle of my father’s forehead, and he fell back on the broken table.
Only when I saw the life in his eyes vanish was I able to breathe again.
And it was easy.
“You tried to kill my family,” I said. Because apparently, now I talked to dead bodies. “My balls are bigger than yours, asshole.”
I searched for my father’s phone as Parker and Maddox lowered their guns. Somehow it had ended up sliding under the armchair.
When I looked at the screen, I only found Slade watching his own phone.
“I had to,” I whispered to him.
He looked up at the camera as if looking right at me.
“I know,” he said, and I almost cried again.
Because it was over. The monster I’d been running from was dead. It might have taken everything and risked everyone, but I did it.
I took my life back.
I turned to my brother and wiped my face again.
“Thank you,” I told him.
Nino grimaced. The two men—strangers really—didn’t move, didn’t even say anything.
“You’re family, big brother. And blood comes first.” Then he looked down at my hand. “You know what that means.”
I lifted my hand and looked at the gun laying innocently in my palm as if it hadn’t just taken a life.
