Page 73 of Deceptive Union

“Wait, Antonio,” Petrov says, holding his hands up as I stand over him. “Wait. We can still work together. Now that Franco is gone, you’ll take over. You’ll need a man like me at your side.”

“Shut up,” I growl, hitting him in the face. He grunts as his head snaps back and hits the floor. Nina gasps. “You tried to get your own daughter to kill me. What kind of manareyou? What kind of father?” I punch him again. Petrov’s already messed up face is looking even more fucked up. “You tried to have me killed. Why the fuck would I ever want to work with you?” I rain punches down on him. Petrov is too weak to put up a fight.

“Why are you even here?” I ask, sitting back slightly.

Blood gurgles out of his mouth. “I had a feeling you …” He swallows. “That you’d be going after Franco.” He inhales a ragged breath. “It made sense to check on Franco at his house. I didn’t … I didn’t know you’d killed him.”

“If you had, you would never have come here.”

“Obviously.” He spits, splattering his blood on my face. I don’t flinch.

“Well, you can join your friend in hell.” I let go. With reckless abandon, I hit, punch, and kick Petrov all over. I don’t hold back. The sounds of his bones breaking are music to my ears. The sight of his blood on the floor looks more like a painting than an act of violence.

“Stop!” Nina shouts.

I don’t listen to her. Petrov is still alive, groaning in pain but still alive. I have to end him.

“Stop!” Nina grabs my arms, trying to pull me off her father. I push her off me. She lands on the floor, crying out in pain. The sound makes me stop.

I look over at her. “Nina?”

“Stop,” she cries. “You’ve hurt him enough. Just stop. Please.”

It starts to dawn on me how I look. Covered in blood. A grin on my face. Petrov slowly dying beneath me.

Like a punch to my own gut, I stumble back, snapping out of my rage-fueled violence. Petrov coughs up blood. I turn to Nina. She backs away from me when I reach out for her.

“Nina …”

Eyeing me warily, she stands up slowly. “Just let my father go.”

I frown. “I’d thought you want him dead for how much you hate him.”

“I don’t have murder in my heart, Antonio. I never did. Now that Franco’s dead, you’re the new leader of the Moretti Mafia. You can control him now. My sister and mother will be safe from him. I’ll be safe from him. He doesn’t need to die. You’ve punished him enough.”

I stare down at my blood covered knuckles. “Are you sure?”

“Yes,” she says firmly.

I could still kill Petrov despite what Nina wants. She did betray me after all. Why should I care about what she wants?

But I do. I still love Nina. That hasn’t changed.

I turn to Petrov, kneel beside him, and tell him to leave. “I never want to see you again. If I do, I might actually kill you that time.”

Petrov nods frantically. I kick him toward the door. With a groan, he stumbles forward, barely managing to get out. I shut the door behind him.

“Happy?” I ask Nina.

“No,” she whispers. “None of this makes me happy.”

I look down at Franco’s dead body, taking in the bullet hole in his back. “Why did you shoot him? He was about to kill me. I thought that was what you wanted. Me dead.”

The softness in Nina’s eyes almost breaks me. “No. I never wanted you dead, Antonio. Nothing I said was a lie. My father was forcing me by threatening to hurt Anna. If someone threatened to kill one of your siblings, wouldn’t you consider doing anything you could to save them?” She has a point. I would. “But I never wanted to kill you. It was killing me inside. I shot Franco because I wanted you to live. Because I love you.”

I suck in a deep breath. “You really do love me?”

“Yes. I wasn’t lying when I said that. Were you lying when you told me you loved me?”

---