Page 43 of Bittersweet Endings
I turned away. “What is…” The moment I sawhimmoving towards her, my vision went red.
“Wait.” Diego grabbed my arm.
JP stumbled towards Octavia like some wounded fucking animal. Blood dripping down his face, lapping at it and smirking around the taste. He was bleeding because of me. Battered because of me. And still, the old bastard smiled. Because now, his game had switched focus. Octavia. He was having a fuckin’ blast.
She was fired up, hurling insults at him. “You fucking snake! Don’t come near me?—”
Her security held her back and was shoving at my father’ssoldatos, but it didn’t matter. JP fed off this. Off the chaos, the rage, the destruction. It was all a fucking game to him.
And me?I was seconds away from tearing him apart in front of her.
Diego’s grip on my arm was steel. “Carmine. Carmine.” Digging his heels in, he forced me back. “Not here. Too many fuckin’ civilians, Carmine.”
I didn’t look at him. My focus was locked on my father, my hands itching to finish what I’d started.
“Carmine, stop it.” Matteo was at my other side. “Cameras are pointed directly at us.”
JP’s lips curled as he wiped blood from his chin. “Ah,figlio mio,” he crooned, fucking taunting me. “Is this what love looks like?” He gestured towards Octavia.
Her head throttled back at the word. She glanced at me quickly before locking it back down. I’d expected terror at some point. But there was only anger embedded in every part of her face and body.
JP tilted his head as if he were considering her. “You’ve got spirit. I’ll give you that. But you should be more careful who you give your heart to.” His eyes flicked over to me, dark with amusement. “Men like my son don’t keep things, little girl. They destroy them.”
I saw the words hit her. Saw the flicker of something in her eyes. The face that matched the one she made when I fucking shot her. So many things I’d done to hide her from my father. To bury the reaction she forced out of me.
And all of it was for nothing. I hadn’t fooled him. I hadn’tfooled anyone. He already knew. That realization sent me lunging forward.
Diego’s grip tightened around me, dragging me back just as my fingers grazed JP’s throat. “Carmine! Civilians, goddamn it!” he repeated.
“Fucking let me go!” My roar tore through the room. My voice raw. I could hear my own blood pounding in my ears, drowning out everything but the pure, blinding rage burning through me.
JP only grinned, loving every second of the destruction he was causing. Because that’s what he did. That’s what he was. He didn’t just break you. He made sure you watched while he did it. Made sure everyone around you suffered alongside you.
And right now? He was making damn sure Octavia saw me unravel. I’d had so much power and control over her. Now I had zero, too battered down by angst to care.
“She’ll hate you, you know. She’ll wake up one day and realize exactly what you are. What you’ll always be.” JP leaned in, just enough to let me see the pleasure in his eyes. “The monster who fucked her, to fuck over her father.”
I tore forward with a growl, dragging Diego with me. My fists clenched, my body wound tight with the need to end the motherfucker.
But before I could reach him…
“Carmine!” Her desperate voice cut through the rage, a lifeline pulling me back from the edge.
I turned, breathing hard. Octavia’s chest was rising and falling, her hands still clenched into fists at her sides. Her eyes were wide and furious. But they weren’t on me. That pure loathingwasn’tlaser-focused onme. She was trying to get between us.
JP clicked his tongue. “Ah. She thinks she can save you. Howfucking precious.” He waved at her. “This is going to be so much fun.”
Diego held on to me, his voice low and filled with warning. “Walk away, Carmine. Twenty cameras on us right now.”
“Yes. Walk away, son. Before I take her from you.” A dark promise slithered in JP’s voice, and I felt something inside me break. This wasn’t over. I took one last look at Octavia, my blood screaming for me to act, to end this now.
But then I saw the crowd. The little pieces of plastic pointed directly at us. The camera lights blazed around me like fire.
Not here. Not yet.
Instead, I stepped back, breathing slow while curling my lips into a smirk. I wiped at my jaw, smearing away whatever was left of her lipstick. “You’re already dead, old man,” I murmured. “And I am going to make it fucking painful.”
Then I turned and walked away. For now.
