Page 99 of His Savage Ruin
He kicks back at me and his heel catches my ribs hard enough to make me grunt, but I don't let go. I drag him away from the gun and flip him over, my knee coming down on his chest to pin him in place.
"Get off me!" He's thrashing now, hands clawing at my face, my arms, anything he can reach. "Get the fuck off?—"
"This is for Alessia." I grab his wrist with my free hand and pin it to the floor, then bring the knife down.
He sees it coming and tries to twist away but there's nowhere for him to go with my weight holding him down. The blade goes in under his ribs at an upward angle, sliding between bone with practiced ease, and I feel the moment it finds his heart from the way his whole body goes rigid.
His mouth opens and closes like he's trying to speak but only a wet gurgling sound comes out. Blood bubbles up from his lips and runs down his chin, and his eyes are wide and panicked as he realizes this is really happening.
I hold him there and watch the light fade from his eyes, watch him try to breathe around the blood filling his lungs, watch the exact moment when he stops fighting and goes still.
I pull the knife free and let him fall back against the concrete. His eyes are still open and staring at nothing, and blood spreads slowly across the floor beneath him.
"You killed my son."
The voice comes from the doorway and when I turn, Emilio stands there with his gun already raised and aimed at my chest. His face has gone completely white except for two spots of red high on his cheeks, and his whole body is shaking with rage.
The gunshot is so loud in the enclosed space that my ears ring immediately. Fire tears across my upper arm and I feel blood start to run hot down my sleeve, but it's a graze rather than a direct hit. The impact still spins me slightly and pain flares sharp enough to make me suck in a breath through my teeth.
"You think you can just walk into my operation and kill my son?" Emilio's voice echoes off the concrete walls and he's moving closer now, the gun steady despite the rage making his hands shake. "You think there are no consequences for that?"
I press my hand against the wound and blood seeps between my fingers but it's not the arterial spray that would mean I'm in real trouble. The arm still works even if it hurts like hell.
"Matteo!" Alessia's voice cuts through the ringing in my ears and I can hear the panic in it, can hear her struggling against the zip ties still holding her to that chair. "Matteo, please?—"
"Shut up." Emilio doesn't even look at her. "You'll watch him die first, and then we'll discuss what happens to you."
I can hear gunfire still echoing from somewhere in the building where my men are fighting off what's left of Emilio's soldiers.
"Seventeen years I've been building toward this moment." Emilio is closer now, maybe ten feet away, and I can see satisfaction mixing with the rage on his face. "Seventeen years since I put a bullet in your father's back and watched him bleed out on that floor. You were just a boy then, weren't you?"
Hearing him say it out loud makes me seventeen again for a second, kneeling in my father's blood while he tried to tell me something through the gurgling in his throat. I was powerless then and all I could do was hold him while he died and promise him I'd make this right.
"I'm going to enjoy this." Emilio raises the gun slightly, adjusting his aim from my chest to my head. "I'm going to put a bullet right between your eyes and watch you drop while your little whore watches. Then I’ll decide what to do with her."
"No!" Alessia is screaming now and I can hear her throwing herself against the restraints hard enough that the chair is rocking. "No, please, don't?—"
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
Matteo
This is it. Either I move now or I die here and leave Alessia alone with this bastard.
Emilio's finger tightens on the trigger and I see the exact moment he's going to fire. I push off and dive to the side just as the gun goes off, the bullet passing so close to my head that I feel it against my ear.
He fires again but the shot goes wide because I'm too close now and moving too fast. My shoulder slams into his chest and drives him back against the wall hard enough to knock the air from his lungs. The gun falls from his grip when I drive the knife into his wrist, severing tendons and making his hand go useless.
His other hand comes up to claw at my face but I catch his wrist and pin it against the wall above his head. My forearm pressesagainst his throat and I lean in close enough to see the fear starting to replace the rage in his eyes.
"This is for my father." My voice comes out rough and I press harder against his windpipe.
I shift my grip to grab his throat with my hand instead of my arm, feeling his pulse hammering frantically under my palm. His eyes go wide for a second and then empty as his body goes slack, and the satisfaction that floods through me is so intense it makes my hands shake.
I let him drop and step back, breathing hard and cradling my wounded arm against my chest. Blood is still running down my sleeve but the bleeding is slowing now that the adrenaline is starting to wear off.
I turn away from Emilio's body and the sight that greets me makes my chest tighten harder than any bullet wound could manage. She's still on the floor where she fell, and I can see blood in her hair from where her head hit the concrete. The chair is on its side with her still partially bound to it, the restraints still holding her down.
My legs feel heavier than they should as I cross the distance between us, and I'm not sure if it's from blood loss or the sheer weight of everything that just happened finally catching up to me.
