Page 61 of The Forever One

“I absolutely am not ready, but I also don’t break my promises.”

His eyes are full of what looks like pride as he smiles down at me, rubbing soothing circles into my sides with his thumbs.

“Okay. Enzo messaged about two minutes ago to let me know Lina has finally arrived now too.”

“Good.” I nod. Having Lina here was important to me and I know it’ll be important to her too. After all, she lost so much more than any of us that day and Elizabeth played a huge part in all of it.

Trouble is, it’s been difficult getting Lina to do anything other than hang around with Freya lately. It’s not something I’m comfortable with, I’m actually kind of worried about her, but I also know she’s as stubborn as her brother when she wants to be. This means she is likely to push back at anyone telling her what’s good or bad for her.

However, that’s not an issue today, it seems. She’s here and I’m looking forward to giving her a hug.

Marco leads me through to another room closer to the entrance and my mood is instantly lifted when Lina stands from the deep-blue sofa and rushes toward me. She’s still too thin, the weight she’s lost is not worse, but also not any better. My comments on that are staying firmly inside my head though, because now is not the time.

“Hey, Gorgeous.”

“Are you ready for this?” I give her the same look Marco gave me out in the hall, my arms resting on her shoulders. There’s something new stirring in her light-gray eyes, something darker than before, but I’m not going to question it because I understand it and I don’t blame her.

Somewhere along the line, Marco and I discussed Elizabeth’s fate, going back and forth on our decision. Ultimately, we are responsible for an entire community that is depending on us making the right moves. Getting Interpol involved was just too risky for our liking. At the same time, my soul doesn’t need another black spot on it so I wanted to give her one last chance to persuade me to let her live.

“Ready as I’ll ever be.” She pulls a gun from behind her back, I assume it was in her waistband, and cocks it, holding it up beside her head. She looks like a total badass, in black hotpants and a black crop-top as she moves from foot to foot in her black sneakers.

I turn and Marco is right there, holding out a large dagger for me. After my mishaps with guns lately, I figured I was less likely to damage myself, or anyone around me, if he kept a hold of it until I needed it.

“Come on, ladies.” Marco holds the door open and gestures for us to exit, then he leads us down the hall to the end.

The stench of piss hits me as we walk inside and it’s nothing like the room Nathaniel was in. Elizabeth is in the middle of the cold and empty space, her hands chained high above her head so she’s practically hanging. Her red hair is limp, hanging over her face as her head droops forward. She has her back to us and Marco slowly moves around to face her.

Enzo is in the far corner of the room, arms folded across his chest, glaring in our direction. A brief flash of pain zips through his eyes as he rakes his gaze over Lina but it’s quickly masked by the well-practiced stern thing he has going on.

“Wha-what’s going on?” Elizabeth lifts her head slowly, stuttering her words, seemingly confused. “Wh-where a-am I? Is that-that you, Marco?”

He says nothing. Hands in the pockets of his suit pants, legs shoulder-width apart, every bit the strong and powerful man I have fallen in love with.

I grip Lina’s hand and walk her around to face Elizabeth, whose eyes widen when they catch sight of the accessories we’ve chosen to bring with us.

“You know exactly where you are and what is going on. So, Elizabeth, what do you have to say for yourself?”

The scared and confused look quickly disappears, replaced by malice and hatred. I knew the cunt was faking it… again. The only injury she sustained while being kidnapped and brought here was a punch in the face from J—who was really pleased with herself for holding back and not ripping her apart.

“You can’t do anything to me. You wouldn’t dare. And you,” she turns her attention to Lina, “You’re just a pathetic waste of space. The spare Mancini.” When she’s finished her ridiculous tirade, she spits, barely missing Lina’s foot as she steps back.

Quickly raising her gun, Lina shoots Elizabeth in the kneecap, and the scream that follows is excruciating. I’m not here to listen to the villain’s speech this time, I’m not here to find out her reasoning for anything. She means nothing to me.

“You fucking bitch!” Spit flies from Elizabeth’s mouth as she shouts out her insult and I know I need to follow through on my promise, for my own peace of mind more than anything.

“I made a promise, one I was willing to ignore because I’m not an evil sadist like you clearly are.”

“Your promises mean shit-all, whore.” Her tone is venomous and I can’t stand to look at her fucking face anymore.

“You’re as original with your insults as your brother.”

I put my face as close to hers as I’m willing and hiss my next words at her.

“This is for Kai… and for me.”

Extending my arm, I slash out with the knife in my hand to Elizabeth’s throat. Again, I fuck it up.

Instead of the clean slice across the throat that happens in movies, I must have misjudged the length of the knife, because it’s now lodged halfway through her neck. It looks like I was trying to slice her head clean off and only got half way, and I kind of want to puke at the sight, but I did it.

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