Page 45 of Deviant Knight

“Swear to me,” he forces out through a cough, blood splattering on him and me.

“I swear. I promise, Dad,” I lie to him, knowing I’m going to break it the second he’s gone.

Don’t fucking die, Dad. Please, God, don’t let him die on me too.

“Daddy,” Sienna says from where she’s kneeling beside me.

“You can’t leave us, Dad,” Ren follows from my other side.

“I love you, my children. I loov—”

A shallow gasp comes from his throat, then his chest deflates as air leaves his mouth for the final time. When his eyes glass over it takes everything inside of me not to lose it, not to allow the tears sitting on the bottom of my eyelids to spill down my cheeks.

“No!” my sister cries out before doubling over and clutching parts of our father that I’m not fisting.

My father is dead. Gone forever.

If I’d taken the shot sooner, he would still be alive, living the life he’s supposed to be living. Something inside of me hardens into solid rock at that moment. My head snaps up, seeing Ciera lying on the ground with her elbows propping herself up, her eyes wide with blood dripping down one side of her neck. Her head shakes in slow-motion, her eyes never blinking as she stares at my father’s lifeless body.

Releasing the lapels of Dad’s jacket, anger washes through me starting at my head and coursing through every cell in my body. My spine straightens as my shoulders square, then I lunge with no regard for anything or anybody else around me except to get my hands on her throat.

Shecaused this.

My father is dead because ofher.

Ren and Sienna grab my arms at the same time Sasha snatches Ciera backward, pulling her out of my reach. Someone else wraps their thick arm around my chest. It’s not K. I can see him from my left side, standing next to where Ren is kneeling at my side. That leaves Matteo.

“Get off me,” I demand, pushing through them.

“Get her out of here,” Sasha shouts, still holding Ciera locked against her front. “Now.”

A red haze forms on the outer corners of my eyes.

She did this.

She has to pay for his life ending. A flash of pain shoots through my forehead at that thought, but I shove it away just as fast as it came.

“Take her, Krishna. Get her the fuck out of here before he does something stupid,” Sasha demands, her tone erratic, and I know she’s likely imagining all the ways I’m planning to get retribution for my father’s murder at the hands of Ciera’s father.Herblood. They’re all going to die—every last one of them.

Krishna steps forward, snatching Ciera from his sister’s grasp. Ciera yelps, making it sound like she’s in pain, but she isn’t the one that lost her life. My father did.

“You hurt her, you’ll answer to me, brother,” Sasha spits.

“And me,” my sister adds as her grip tightens. Leaning in close, her breath fans my ear as she says, “If you kill her, and then Dad died for no fucking reason. Don’t do that, Dom. Don’t you dare make his death meaningless.”

“Get off me, Sienna.”

Krishna yanks Ciera by her bare bicep, pulling her away and taking my revenge with him.

“Krishna,” I say in warning.

“You know where to find us,” he says, his voice low as he strides away.

“Get the fuck off me,” I yell, the lethal tone in my voice making Lorenzo loosen his hold as Sienna and Matteo tighten theirs.

“Release him,” Giovanni says, his voice coming from behind us.

Matteo is the first to let go as he whips around to face Giovanni. “Where’s my daughter?”

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