Page 59 of Savage Sin

Ghost’s eyes lose their shine. “This isn’t how you are supposed to die, asshole.” This motherfucker will not redeem himself by taking bullets for me. I pull my shirt off and try to stop the bleeding, but I already know how this is going to turn out.

He struggles for something in his pocket and I help him pull out his phone. Hope pulls at his bloody lips and he smiles.

“There’s no time for an ambulance.” I toss it aside. His hands come over mine when Persi tries to help me stop the bleeding.

I look at Persi and she knows there’s nothing either of us can do for him. Unshed tears swim in her pretty eyes and I hate knowing I helped put them there.

“I’m sorry. I tried to save him. Please believe me. I tried,” Ghost says in our native language. “Don’t let them kill her. Save…”

I watch the life leave Ghost as his soul departs this world to become his namesake; my once white shirt now soaked with his life force.

“Dios, perdoname. I’m so sorry.” Persi rocks Ghost’s dead body, her voice quiet. Distant. She looks to me torn to pieces for a man she doesn’t know. “So much death. How do you all live like this? So much death…” Her voice grows small. “This is my fault. I did this.”

“This is not your fault, baby.” My heart clenches the longer I look into her eyes. Her pain reaches for me and I pull her to me and take as much of it as I can inside me. “Don’t you dare think his death is on you. He had his problems long before you were born. They finally caught up to him.”

“My family did this.” Her voice trembles worse than her hands.

I move Ghost to the side and slide his eyes closed before I take her face in my hands. “Look at me, not him.” She slowly obeys my command. “A lot of people are guilty of a lot of things, but not you. Do you understand me? Not one drop of blood is because of you.” I pull her to rest her cheek over my heart. The longer I know the woman, the more it beats for her more than any other reason.

The cold steel pressing between my shoulder blades and the sound of a double-barreled shotgun loading has us both freezing.

Persi slowly pulls out of my arms. Her face grows pale. “Hermanastro. Step-brother, I see you’ve taken to doing your father’s dirty work.”

Fifteen

Persephone

This morning cannot get any worse. Nausea churns in my belly. I take several deep breaths as I fight to keep my empty stomach from rebelling against me.

I look into the eyes of a known killer and see a replica of someone else I want to see leave this earth. How can humanity be so unlucky?

“Stefano.” My tone is as flat as a sheet of paper and as lifeless. Inside, I’m silently screaming.

“Hermana. Come.” He motions with the barrel of the gun for me to get up.

Ha. Yeah, no thanks. Letting him get his hands on me is almost certain death. But that weapon isn’t a lesser of two evils kind of situation.

“Okay.” If I do as Stefano says, maybe it will help keep Rage alive to figure out a plan.

His brown eyes are just as dark as his father’s, but he has his mother’s softer features. His weak jawline is a punchline in jokes amongst his father’s enforcers and often a target practice when I’ve caught him sparring with the larger, more experienced men. He can’t get a proper beard to grow and he’s on the shorter side compared to his father’s height of nearly six feet. I can’t think of a single thing he might have going for him besides that loaded shotgun.

Rage tightens his muscular arms around me. I know he’s trying to be a shield and protect me, but Stefano is a sick individual. He’ll shoot Rage just to see me suffer if he thinks I have any feelings for the man. If the pellets go through Rage and into me, it will only be double the pleasure for the sadistic bastard.

“You have to let me go now, Rage.”

I silently plead for him to heed my warning, but he’s not having it. “Fuck that.” His arms bulge with the effort he uses to keep me against him.

Stefan smacks the butt of his shotgun against the back of Rage’s skull with a sickening thunk. It’s only seconds before blood is running down the side of his neck.

“You piece of shit!” Fury forces my hands into fists. I’m not a killer, but for once I wish I could end another human’s life.

Rage’s head falls to my shoulder, but his arms never leave me. “No,” he snarls, and suddenly I’m staring into the barrel of a shotgun.

“Está bien. Maybe this will get you to release my property.”

I suck in harshly. The weapon looks every bit as intimidating as it should.

“Harm her and your life ends,” Rage vows in a chilling tone. “Leave her and take me. I’m who you are here for, right?”

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