Page 98 of Pretty Pink Poison
Bane’s eyes cut to his brother. “I should kill you for not telling me immediately.”
Rafe held up his hands. “Let’s kill Ivan first, huh?”
He rubbed my cheek once more and kissed my forehead. Then he murmured, “I’m going to spend the rest of my life making this up to you after I kill him, okay?”
And then he surged around me like he was on a mission.
Shit, I was in a daze before it hit me that he couldn’t. “Wait! You have to stop! Give us a second to think.”
Rafe was behind us. “Think about what? If he doesn’t kill him, I’m going to kill him myself.” How my fiancé had turned into an overprotective big brother, I didn’t know, but Rafe was the worst of them. He was a vicious don in the making, and I had no idea how to stop what was about to happen.
“Ivan’s the pakhan’s son, you guys. You’re not going to do a damn thing to him even if—” My voice broke as the weight of the truth finally hit me, and I slapped a hand over my mouth to stop the dam that wanted to overflow at finally knowing who’d done the unspeakable to me.
“Oh, we’re killing him. There’s no question. He’s mine.” Bane’s voice was so carnal even his brothers took a step back as he moved past me. “No one else’s.”
I ran and then whirled in front of him so he had to halt if he didn’t want to run me over. “No, wait. Wait.” I shoved him back. “I get to make that decision, Bane. You know it.”
“Pink.” My name rumbled out of him in warning.
“Bane,” I replied back with the same tone. “This isn’t your fight.”
“He deserves to die!” the man bellowed in anguish. “And I do too for letting it happen.”
To him, he hadn’t protected me, he’d let this happen, but it wasn’t ever going to be his fault.
“You can’t protect me always,” I rubbed a hand over his heart.
“Please, Bianca.” His voice sounded broken. “You need to allow vengeance.”
“Bane,” I sighed and then looked at him with tears in my eyes. “It will truly disrupt so many partnerships within your family.”
“You’remy family. You always have been.” His stare flicked to his brothers. “She always has and you both know that, right?”
I glanced at the two of them and they were just smiling and nodding. I knew they were giving him a sort of permission and that’s when the rage at what Ivan had taken from me started to build.
I turned back to Bane and licked my lips. “Then plan it, Bane. Plan it like you always do. And check every damn part of it three times. Make it perfect. For me… tonight.”
“For the family. Famiglia prima, sempre,” he murmured and stared at me. “You’re the most important part of that to me now.”
CHAPTER 31
PINK
I’d worna fun hot-pink pleated skirt with my combat boots and tucked in a new T-shirt of the Wicked Witch of the West to walk through the little fun house Rafe, Ezra, and Bane had put together for me that night. I decided my villains sometimes were the heroes, and I loved the witch specifically for that reason.
I loved what my very own villain heroes had done for me that day even more though. They’d put together a fun house, telling everyone that it was a request of the bride before the wedding rehearsal and I watched as they shut it down right when Ivan entered.
No one was allowed in as they came to ask me if I wanted to walk through it with them after they finished what needed to be done to the man beforehand.
I saw the look of murder in Bane’s eyes but told him I wanted Ivan at the end for me to confront, that I wanted to walk through the fun house alone to face him down at the end.
I knew Bane didn’t want to agree but he gritted his teeth and nodded. Bane was planning and orchestrating fast just for me, no one else today. He was giving me exactly how I would have wanted someone’s death to be.
It was the way Bane had made me face the fear of the closets. I wanted to face down the man who’d taken so much from me and decide what to do then.
I knew who I was now, knew I needed the exposure, knew that, for me, I might never heal but closure could come at this cost tonight. I’d face him down and say what I wanted to, would give myself the voice he didn’t give me that night.
When I stepped into the fun house, I got to hear his screams. They were guttural and begging. Over a speaker, they sounded, and I smiled because I knew right away Bane planned every single thing. It was the perfect present to me.
