Page 90 of Titan

My eyes darted away from his.

“All the men went by initials. The one who came for me was H. He… he was…”

Flashes of the way he’d held me down seeped into my consciousness. I put a hand over my eyes, trying to escape them, trying to stop the tide from bursting through. Gil tangled his fingers in my hair and drew them in slow circles around my scalp. His touch was calming, reminding me I was safe. They hadn’t got to me.

“He was particularly cruel,” I whispered. “I remember him being the first one to… break me in. His words, not mine.”

Gil leant over me and pressed his forehead against my hand.

“When I find him, I’m going to kill him. I’ll kill all of them for hurting you.”

“Does it make me a terrible person for wanting you to hurt them?”

“In my family, the only way justice is served is through death, so no, it doesn’t make you a terrible person at all. Not to me.”

He straightened, and I dropped my hand from my eyes.

“You said you were your father’s executioner. Does that mean your brothers have killed too?”

He cocked his head to the side, but his expression remained neutral.

“Yes. I haven’t kept count, but I was twenty when I became a made man. Zayn was like seventeen or eighteen, and Enzo… our father never made him kill. He thought Enzo was too soft to be in the mafia.”

“I wouldn’t exactly describe him as soft.”

Enzo was a pain in everyone’s arses at work.

“He was when he was a teenager, especially after our mother was put in a coma, and I had to take care of him. He puts up a good front, but Enzo has a lot of unresolved issues. It was a lot for both of us to deal with, losing her that way, but I think it was worse for him. At leastPapátook an interest in me. He didn’t give a shit about Enzo other than keeping him in line, so he didn’t ruin our reputation. OurMamáwas the best part of our family, and… well, Gennaro took that from us.”

He let out a sigh, his expression turning sad.

“What exactly happened to her?”

Gil let go of my hair and clenched his hand into a fist.

“Zayn didn’t tell us until after our father died thatMamátried to leavePapá. He tracked her down, beat her unconscious and kept her at the house on life-support for almost ten years. We were told she was in an accident, but the truth is, he wanted to punish her for leaving him.” He blinked before closing his eyes. “She’s in a better place now.”

My heart broke for Gil, Zayn, Enzo, and their mother. They’d lived under such cruelty for so long. No wonder Gil was so closed off. He had to be to survive all of that.

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay, Theia. I only wish I’d known what he’d done, but Zayn didn’t want me and Enzo to suffer with the knowledge like he had to. It’s why he left the family and forged his own path. Why he opened Desecration. Our mother is the reason.”

A lot of things clicked into place when he revealed that to me. Pretty much everyone at the club was a survivor of some description. Desecration was a place that gave us our choice back. And I’d be forever grateful to Gil’s brother for giving us all a safe haven.

“I don’t know where I would have been without the club after everything that happened to me. Zayn is kind of everyone’s hero at Desecration for that reason alone.”

Gil opened his eyes and gave me a sad smile.

“It’s the one thing he doesn’t get any credit for since it’s not something he makes known to anyone outside those walls. He didn’t tell me aboutMamá, but he did explain what the club’s purpose was after he opened it. I’ve always admired him for it, even if I’ve never told him.” He rubbed his face. “I resented him when I was younger for leaving me and Enzo, but I understand why he did it. He couldn’t stay around our father any longer.”

“I think your father was a monster.”

There were a lot of things I could say about Gennaro Villetti after everything Gil had told me. None of them were nice.

Gil’s eyes clouded over, and his expression grew even more miserable.

“He was… and I don’t want to be like him.”

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