“What?”
There are no words for what I see. Instead, I hold the video camera up to Liam. “Holy shit.” He staggers back and puts his fist to his mouth. I swear, Liam almost hurls. I get it.
I totally get it.
My stomach churns with what’s on that tape.
I’ll never be the same again.
A noise in the hallway gets my attention. Liam reaches for his gun as I spring to my feet.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” My uncle cocks his weapon and points the muzzle of his gun at me.
Liam holds his hands up and out.
My mother and uncle stand in the threshold, but all I can see is a killer and a psychopath.
“What are you doing in here?” That imperious voice is one I know well.
My mother steps into the room. Her long, slender fingers curl like talons; a bird of prey swooping in for the kill, and her brittle voice makes my blood run cold. Her gaze cuts to the video camera.
“Where did you get that?” She spits the words at me with poisonous intent.
“Does it matter?” All I can see is the young woman on the tape being stabbed to death while my mother and uncle have sex.
My mother knows exactly where we found it.
“I know what you did.” I shift my attention back and forth between them, not sure which one of them I despise the most.
“You shouldn’t have snooped.” My mother takes a step.
Liam shifts toward me. Hands still in the air, he moves to place me behind him. The man is a Guardian, a sworn protector, and in this moment, I know he’ll willing give his life to save mine.
But I can’t let that happen.
I’m having some difficulty breathing. Blood roars past my ears as I gasp for air and try to make myself breathe through a panic attack. My heart pounds in my chest as I fail to calm myself.
“Ah, Maria …” My uncle steps into the study. “You should never have seen those.” Middle-aged, my uncle is a classically handsome man with thick, wavy hair constantly threatening to cover his dark and intense eyes.
“You killed my father. You killed that woman.”
“Technically, your mother killed that pathetic waste of flesh.”
“And the woman?” I eject the tape and hold it up. “The two of you …” I can’t make the words come. “While she …”
They fucked while someone killed her. That goes beyond psychopathic to insanity.
“You’re not getting away with this.” My voice sounds bolder than I feel.
“This is unfortunate.” My uncle clucks his tongue and glances at my mother. “Darling Muriel, you know what needs to happen.”
“Marco …” My mother clasps her hands in front of her. “We can’t. She’s my daughter.”
“She’s my brother’s spawn. Or did you forget how many times he raped you? Day after day? Month after month? And year after year? Forcing you to raise his child?”
“But …” My mother’s voice vibrates with an emotion I’ve never heard before. She’s genuinely scared.
“You are going to do exactly what I say, or the brat dies.” Marco waves his gun at me, but his words are for Liam. “Reach in real slow and place your weapon on the desk.”
“And if I do?” Hands up, Liam shifts again, closing the distance between us.
“This isn’t an If I do kind of scenario, but let me spell it out for you. You do it, and she lives. You don’t do it, and she dies. The choice is yours.” My uncle’s hard gaze doesn’t waiver. His finger moves from the trigger guard to the trigger itself.
Liam takes half a step forward, getting closer to me. I’m not sure what he’s planning. He could easily take my uncle out. I’ve no doubt his aim is impeccable, but can he pull his weapon from his shoulder holster before my uncle puts a bullet between my eyes?
I don’t think so.
Is disarming himself any better?
We’ll be defenseless.
“Don’t make me repeat myself.” Marco gives a little shake of his weapon.
“It’s going to be okay.” Liam looks at me, his expression stern and focused.
I wish I believed him.
“What are you going to do to us?” I wring my hands, desperate for some way out of this madness.
Marco reaches into his back pocket and pulls out another gun. He hands it to my mother, then looks at me.
“Maria, pretty Maria … I don’t want you distracting your fiancé. Step away and take a seat on the couch.”
“Do as he says, Maria.” To my horror, my mother lifts the gun and points it at me.
“Liam?” My voice cracks, but I don’t move. I can’t. My feet are rooted in place.
“It’s okay.” His voice is low, steady as a rock. There’s not an ounce of fear in his expression or in the way he holds his body. He lowers his voice. “We’re not alone.”
Not alone?
It sure as shit looks like we’re alone. Wolfe and Brady are somewhere outside, doing a piss-poor job as lookouts. Why didn’t they warn us my uncle and mother bypassed the traffic stop?
Where are the elite Guardians now? How did they fail so epically?
I don’t hear any of Mitzy’s drones, and I don’t see any of the visual distortions wrinkling the air. Not that a tiny drone does us any good.
We’re very much alone.
“Mother …” I try to plead to whatever scrap of maternal instinct that may still exist within the woman standing in front of me. “This isn’t you. You’re better than this.”
Better?
Better than having sex while a young woman is brutally slaughtered in front of her? I don’t know who the woman standing before me is, but she can’t be my mother.
“You have no idea who I am or what I endured at your father’s hands.” Her voice hardens and her grip on the pistol tightens. “Sit down.”
“And what are you going to do? Are you going to kill me like you killed my father? Is that what you’re going to do?”
Mother glances at my uncle. “Marco, there has to be another way.”
“My darling, you know …”
“We take them to the basement. We’ll figure something out. She’s a Rossi. She’s our legacy.” Her voice changes timbre, hardening and growing cold. “As for him … we don’t need a witness.”
A cold sweat breaks out on my forehead. I try to even out my breathing, but that proves impossible. I stand before a sociopath and a psychopath. There’s no reasoning with that kind of madness.
Then I see something that steals my breath. My uncle stares at me completely devoid of emotion. He’s a cold, calculating machine who knows nothing about caring for another human being, but in my mother’s eyes, I see fear for the very first time. I see the tiniest glimmer of love for a daughter she hates.
“You do anything to Liam and I don’t care what you have to say. You’ll have to kill me too.”
“Marco …” My mother turns to my uncle while my stomach churns.
I shouldn’t let them know how much Liam means to me. It gives them too much power.
“We take care of this ourselves.” Marco takes a step forward, gun leveled at Liam. “We’ll get rid of them the same way we got rid of my brother.”