I collapsed, gasping.
“You sent her away, you fucking loser!” Michael’s foot whirled, slamming into my stomach. “She’s carrying your kid, and you give up on her?”
I rolled over, stunned. I’d never told Michael about the phony pregnancy. The chaos surrounding Nico’s death had driven it clean from my mind, and it’d stopped being a fake relationship weeks ago.
“I warned you,” he glowered, his shoe pressing my neck. “Hurt her, and you’re dead.”
I gripped his ankle and shoved him off. A blow struck my head, and my vision blacked out. His knuckles bashed my skull, hitting me so hard the echo of grinding bones filled my ears. He refused to let up. His merciless punching slammed me into the ground.
If I didn’t stop him, he’d kill me.
I tackled his middle, hurling him into a console table. Michael grunted at the impact. Hissing, he launched at me. I scrambled out of the way, warding him off with a chair.
“Michael, calm down. I didn’t send her away.”
He batted the chair. “Put it down and fight me.”
“No. Let’s talk about this.”
I had fifty pounds on Michael, and I would murder him. If anything happened to her brother, Liana would be devastated. I couldn’t have that on my conscience.
“I’m done with you, buddy.”
Michael grabbed his sidearm. He pointed it at me, chest heaving.
I held up my hands. “Do you have to dial everything to eleven?”
“I warned you,” he snarled. “I told you what’d happen.”
“Christ, Michael. I did nothing wrong. I just—”
“I gave you a chance. You blew it!” His voice tore, the gun trembled. “You used my sister. She is the only sibling I have, and you destroyed her.”
His words ripped me apart.
“What—what do you mean? Is she okay?”
“No, she’s not, you fucking maniac.”
A horrible dread went through me. “She’s hurt?”
“Of course she’s in pain. Her husband abandoned her with a baby! You kicked her out of your home!” A red flush wrapped his throat as he screamed at the top of his lungs. “You knocked her up, and you can’t deal with it.”
“Michael, listen to me. She is not pregnant—”
“You really can’t handle being a father, huh?” he shouted, railroading me. “What a coward.”
“Michael, I love her. I’d do anything for her.” I backed into the couch as Michael advanced, his eyes flashing. “Look at me, and tell me you don’t believe me.”
His hazel pools bored into mine. “Then why is she at my house?”
“It’s complicated.”
“Explain.”
I strolled into the kitchen and poured myself water. My grip shook, sloshing the contents before the glass reached my mouth. “She would’ve left me, anyway. She wants someone else.”
“What are you talking about?”
A sick yearning yanked at my insides. “There’s another guy.”
Michael wiped his face, growling. “She said that to make you jealous, you idiot. She loves you. She has since she was a kid. While you were fucking around, she dreamed up names for your future children. She begged me to set you up on a date. She’s loved you forever.”
I dropped my gaze, startled at blood streaming from my clenched fist. I’d broken the glass. I picked a shard from my skin, but it didn’t even sting.
“I don’t understand.”
Michael snorted. “Of course.”
I stiffened as a wave of heat passed through me. Parsing through what he’d told me was like sifting sand. Then it landed on me.
Ice spread through my stomach.
“Why the fuck didn’t you say so?”
“The better question is, how did you not notice? You’re so dense, Vinn.” Michael launched into a tirade that seemed years in the making. “She visited you. She brought your favorite dishes to the hospital. She wrote you letters and cried every time she saw you with other girls. What did you think that meant?”
I didn’t think about it.
I’d never let my thoughts go there because she was too young, was Michael’s sister, and was forbidden on every level. Now that Michael had laid it out, it was so obvious. She’d downplayed her feelings as a crush, and my dumb ass had believed her.
I was so stupid.
A needle-like feeling prickled my face. “So you’ve talked to her about me.”
“Many times.”
My heart pounded. “And what did you say?”
“That she should move on,” he deadpanned. “Don’t give me that look. You’re nine years older. You’re a dog with women. You never cared about her the way she did about you.”
My insides curled up and blackened.
I picked him up by the shirt and slammed him into windows. My vision clouded with sick fantasies. I pictured him begging for his life as I hung him from the balcony. My fist smashed into his jaw. He smacked the ground and tackled my knees. I ripped him away from me. I shoved him into a photo.
Glass shattered over his head.
A second shadow crept along the wall.
“Mike.” I jerked my head toward it.
He spun around.
A man’s silhouette peeled onto the floor. A man in a leather cut tutted as he stepped out, pointing a gun at Michael, whose Glock lay several feet away.
“You idiots made this too easy. Door’s wide open.” Killian slicked his teeth, the sound wrenching at my gut. “Considerate of you. Thanks.”
Fuck.
“What are you doing here?” I kept my tone even, trying to buy us time.
“Killing you. Taking your wife.” He threaded a hand through his hair. “Where is the little woman?”
“She’s not here.”
“That’s too bad. I wanted your babydoll to see you die.” Killian slack-jawed expression glazed over. “Right before I fuck her over your corpse.”
He’d shoot.
He wouldn’t miss.
This was how I’d meet my end at the hands of a two-bit psycho who’d somehow bypassed my security just because Anthony had to get revenge.
A female voice echoed in the house.
Vinny.
The faint whisper was a desperate wish from my dying brain.
“Vinny?”
Less distant and louder.
No, no, no.
Killian’s stare drifted past my shoulder, his mouth parting.
A tremor shook my arm as I slowly turned. My gaze crashed into a pair of soft, blue eyes.
Liana stood in the hallway. She wore the clothes from three days ago. The necklace gleamed on her neck, like a beacon dragging me forward. Her lips parted as though she hadn’t noticed Killian.
“Vinny, I—”
“Run.”
Her brows furrowed. She hesitated.
She stepped toward me.
A gunshot blasted the air. Something splattered my wrists. I lunged at Killian, who’d lowered his gun. I tackled him. I grabbed his wrist and wrenched, knocking the piece away, and then I dove for it. He yelled. I shoved the barrel under his jaw. Pulled the trigger.
The deafening boom cracked like a thunderbolt.
Killian choked on the hole in his neck. He sputtered and stilled. I threw the Sig on the bloodstained floor, the ringing in my ears dimming to a dull roar punctuated by Michael’s screaming.