Page 123 of Ruthless Vengeance
There’s still one person I need to take care of.
Once the girls are all settled, I lead Clara into our room and sit her down on the edge of the bed. I kneel in front of her and help to slide her sneakers off her feet and give her ankles and feet a quick massage.
“You should sleep, love.”
“So should you.” She brushes her fingers through my hair.
I rest my forehead against her knee for a second, knowing that I can’t wait any longer to bring up the subject of her brother. As much as I want to storm over there and empty a round into his head, I can’t do so without Clara’s permission.
When it comes to him, she gets the final say.
I reach for her hand. “We need to talk about Ben.”
Her hand stiffens in mine, but she doesn’t pull away. “I know.”
“I’ve got him at the slaughterhouse. Bruno and Carlos have been...keeping him busy.” I say it like it doesn’t weigh on me, but it does. Not because I have doubts about leaving him in the hands of the Costa brothers, but because I hate that it has come to this.
Clara’s shoulders slump. Her hands are still stained red with Andre’s blood, and she looks down at them as if she can’t quite believe what happened tonight was real and not just some terrible nightmare.
“I should feel something. Like grief or even guilt, but I don’t. I just feel numb. Does that make me a bad person?”
“No, love. You could never be a bad person.” I squeeze her hand. “You don’t owe him anything, especially after what he did to your family.”
“He’s my brother.”
I reach up to cup her cheek. “No, hewasyour brother. There’s a difference… Family doesn’t do what he did. Family protects you and loves you.”
Her throat bobs, and I can see the internal battle she’s fighting in her green eyes.
“I know what you are thinking, but Ben made his choices. He chose wrong. Now he needs to deal with the consequences.”
She blinks fast, her eyes glazing with tears, but they don’t fall. “I just want it to be over.”
“It will be.” I climb to my feet and lean in to kiss her forehead. “I’ll handle it.”
I stay with Clara until she’s asleep, curled on her side with one hand resting on her stomach. I press a kiss to her shoulder before quietly slipping out of the room.
If she hears me leave, she stays quiet, considering what she knows I’m about to do.
I pass by Zoe’s room to check on her before heading down the hall to Rosa’s room.
She’s still fast asleep with Holly wrapped in her arms, both of them snoring softly.
Everyone is safe, which means it’s finally time to take care of Ben.
As much as I regret putting Clara on the spot like this, Ben needs to be dealt with, once and for all. He’s proven one too many times that he can’t be trusted, that he is a danger to my family, to his own blood, and I don’t want Clara to have to spend the rest of her life looking over her shoulder.
My brother almost lost his life at his hands, he put a gun to Clara’s head and shot it, even if he missed.
I take that sort of shit very personally.
I want Ben to know what it means to betray blood. I want him to sit in the cold with the taste of failure and fear in his mouth, knowing I’m coming for him.
Right now, I need to be the version of myself I only pull out when things like this happen.
The one that Clara doesn’t see.
The one that Zoe will never know.
