“You take that girl to the hospital and the cops will be all over this—all over her. They will violate what’s left of her,” Jack says as he struts to the door. I watch as he pulls it open and my cousin Celeste enters the room. Narrowing my eyes, I look from her to Jack. I know she and Gina have remained closed, I even ran into her at Gina’s apartment once, but it takes me a minute to process why she’s here.
The girl is a nurse.
She’s also dating one of the Knights.
Tearing her eyes away from me, she walks toward the bed and gasps as soon as she gets a look at Gina. Looking over her shoulder, tears stream down her cheeks as she locks eyes with the man who brought her here.
“You didn’t tell me it was my cousin,” she cries, furiously wiping at her tears. Then she orders him to get her medical bag and demands we all leave the hotel room.
“I’m not going anywhere,” Stryker argues. “I promised her I wouldn’t leave her side.”
A sob rips past Gina’s lips and we all turn to her. She calls Stryker’s name and he assures her that she’s okay. I watch as she struggles to open her eyes, but her left eyes is swollen shut and she only manages to open her right. Spotting Celeste, a tear slides from the corner of her good eye and my chest tightens. I want to step into her line of sight. I want her to know that I’m here too and that I’m so fucking sorry this happened to her. I want her to look into my eyes and see the conviction. And more than anything, I want to tell my sister I love her.
Instead, I remain rooted in place. Celeste convinces Gina to take a shower and after she agrees to her help, we start to file out of the hotel room. The moment we hit the pavement of the parking lot, I reach for my phone and dial Joaquin. I don’t get a chance to lift the phone to my ear, though, because Stryker suddenly charges for me.
“You son of a bitch,” he growls, slamming me up against the wall.
“Jesus,” Jack hisses, ordering Cobra to pull him off me. Once we’re separated, Jack demands the truth from both of us. Stryker confesses to having a relationship with my sister and cites that didn’t realize we were related at first. I counter his confession with one of my own and admit that I recruited Stryker to help me keep her safe.
“A fine job protecting her you all did,” he seethes, pointing toward the hotel room. There is no argument there, that’s for sure, but I’m not the only one to blame. If Parrish would’ve given me the time of day and not dismiss me every time I tried to bring up Yankovich, we might’ve been able to work together and neutralize him before he fucking raped my sister—and that’s exactly what I tell him.
“Wait a minute,” Cobra interrupts. “Are we sure this was Yankovich? I mean, anyone could’ve done this—a complete stranger with no ties to either organization could’ve attacked Gina.”
“Sure,” I sneer. “And it’s a fucking coincidence that the cops just pulled the guy I had guarding her from the Hudson river.” I turn to Jack. “Yankovich has been on my radar for some time,” I reveal. “On my last visit with Uncle Vic, I brought his name up and he told me to get rid of him. I tried to tell you this at his funeral, but then your wife went into labor and I decided I was done chasing you. That part is on me, but your refusal to cooperate, that’s on you. From what we know, he’s a smart man and everyone who has underestimated him in the past has contributed to the war he just declared—including my uncle. Now, Yankovich recently made a deal with Triton containers and my underboss, Joaquin, has been planning to intercept his shipments to Russia.
Jack crosses his arms and gives me his attention.
“What’s the Russian looking to transport?” he questions.
“The guy is into bad shit—drugs, human trafficking—you name it he’s got his hand in it. You’d know this if you fucking listened to me.”
Jack’s jaw ticks and his eyes cut to Stryker.
“Find out who did your girl dirty,” he orders. “I want to be sure before we throw our balls to the wind and go to war.”
Stryker meets his gaze.
“The club will back me?”
“She’s your woman, that makes her property of the Satan’s Knights and no one fucks with what is ours,” he declares, turning his attention back to me, “Looks like you got your wish, boy. You ready to work with me?”
“If it brings justice to the people who hurt my sister, I’ll do whatever the fuck you tell me do.”
And that’s the truth.
~*~
I don’t know how much time passes—if it’s minutes or hours—before Joaquin shows up and I brief him on the situation. But as soon as I fill him in, I can see the wheels turning inside his head. He’s not raking his brain for a solution or dreaming about revenge. He’s recalling the attack on Pilar and the promise I made when he landed in New York.
“What are you going to do?” he asks.
The answer is simple—I’m going to do what I should’ve done from the start. The difference is back then I thought I was invincible. I believed I could be the change. The one man who survived the underworld and lived a full life.
But with power comes sacrifice.
I lift my eyes to his and swallow.
“I’m going to end it.”
Because with love comes death.
Chapter 31
Violet Cabrera
When things feel too good to be true, they usually are and tonight proved that much. I went from being showered with diamonds to being dumped on our doorstep without so much as a goodbye. I had it coming, though. I mean, things were just too easy for us. Not only did my brother accept our relationship, but my mother faded into the background once I officially moved into Rocco’s mansion. On top of that, I nailed a part in the Academy’s production, securing my spot on the stage and Rocco appeared to be mending things with his sister. They had ways to go but they were no longer greeting one another with insults.
Like I said, things were too easy.
We were doomed.
I didn’t realize it at first. I let myself into the house, poured myself a glass of wine and undressed. The plan was for Rocco to find me in bed when he got home, wearing nothing but the new jewels he had gifted me. But when the sun started to rise and he still wasn’t home, I knew something was wrong.
I called him.
I called my brother.
Dread filled me and I turned the television. I took solace in the fact his face wasn’t plastered on the morning news show and tried to calm down. If he had been shot it would be all over the local channels. Keeping that in mind, I did my best to go about my day. With the production coming up, I couldn’t afford to miss a single practice. I was already inundated with rehearsals and put extralong hours in at the academy. Some nights I didn’t get home until well after nine and Rocco was either still out from early in the morning or just leaving again. Thinking about it now, that was probably the first sign of things falling to the wayside of perfect. I mean, after a long day I just wanted to curl up on the sofa with my man or maybe take a long bath with him and there he was dressed to the nines, with one foot out the door. I didn’t argue, though. It’s not like he was leaving to paint the town red—not in the sense most would anyway.