Page 67 of Fractured Loyalties
Roman grins, grabs the pen, and drives it into Robert’s neck just below the jaw. Blood gushes out, splattering my sheets and spraying the wall behind the bed. Robert convulses, his hands fluttering weakly and his eyes rolling white.
Roman holds the pen in place, staring into Robert’s face until the light goes out. Only then does he let go. He backs up, breathing hard, and covered in blood and sweat.
He stares at the corpse for a long time.
The girl goes to stand beside him. “You’re an absolute mess,” she says, but there’s a streak of affection in it.
Suddenly, I feel jealous of her.
Roman wipes his mouth with the back of his hand and turns to me. His eyes soften. Every one of my nerves is on fire, every inch of skin crawling with adrenaline and dread, with something hotter underneath.
I expect myself to scream, to throw up and run away, but instead I just… stare at him—the way his chest heaves, the way his eyes burn, and the way he is the only thing in the world that matters.
I open my mouth, about to tell him I love him.
Then he completely ruins it.
“I killed Kade,” he says, his voice flat as he pants. He has blood splatter all over his face. “I dumped him in the bay. No one’s going to look for him. No one’s going to look for us.”
The girl leaning against my desk doesn’t even look remotely surprised.
I don’t know how to process this information. Instead, I watch blood run down the side of the mattress to where it pools at the corner of the bed frame. I watch the pen still lodged in Robert’s neck, the ink mixing with blood and dripping onto the carpet.
I feel…nothing.And everything.
Roman comes to me, then. He drops to his knees beside the bed. He reaches out, his hands ironically gentle. He brushes my hair away from my face and he touches my cheek with a finger, so soft it might as well be a ghost.
“I had to do it,” he says, voice broken. “Not kill Kade, I mean. That was just me being angry, because I just… I just wanted you, Ivy. But Robert?” He nods toward his dead father. “He would’ve hurt you. He would’ve hurt you like he hurt…”
“Me,” the girl steps forward. “And your mother.”
I nod, unable to speak or fully comprehend what they are telling me.
“This is my sister, Nico,” Roman clarifies.
“He did it to all of us,” Nico adds, still calm. “We just never thought he’d go this far. My older brother killed himself because he joined the family business and couldn’t live with the trafficking. So Robert learned to keep us on the edge. He’s the one who leaked the tape. He did it to get to you. And to make money, probably.”
“That’s…sick.” I can barely choke out the words, as the disgust hits me.
Roman pulls me off the bed and gathers me into his lap. He holds me there, rocking me back and forth even as his blood soaks through his shirt and onto my skin. And as fucked up as it is…
I feel safe.
And I don’t care about the rest of the world.
I bury my face in Roman’s neck and inhale the scent of sweat and blood—and everything Roman. He holds me tighter, as if he’s afraid I’ll vanish, and for a moment I wish we could.
He tips my chin back, his eyes wild and bright, yet still full of hunger. “You’re mine,” he whispers.
“I’m yours,” I breathe out, clinging to him. “I love you,” I say, my voice thin and sharp. The words are a secret just for us.
Roman’s eyes flash, and he smiles, wicked and bright. “I know, and I love you, too, in my own fucked up way.”
I squeeze him tighter in reply because I’m okay with that.
Epilogue
ROMAN
