Page 234 of Breaking Rosalind

Matteo doubles over with a strangled roar. The other guards lurch forward, but Cesare is quicker. He grabs the dead man’s semi-automatic and shoots the pair by the door, then takes aim at the other two orderlies.

The one still holding me by the neck hoists me up like a shield, but I drive my dagger into his arm. He screams, loosening the grip around my throat.

I drop to my feet, whirl around, and plunge the knife into his chest. He collapses to the floor, his eyes wide, his mouth opening and closing like a fish.

“Catch!” Cesare is about to toss me a gun, but Matteo tackles Cesare to the floor.

The door slams open, and someone shoots up in the ceiling, raining plaster on our heads.“What the fuck?”

It’s Tommaso Galliano, flanked by two guards, and he’s furious.

He rushes forward and delivers a kick to the back of Cesare’s skull. “Get off my brother before I explode your head like a watermelon.”

As his guards rush forward to separate the father and son, Tommaso turns his gaze to me. Recognition flashes in his eyes, and his lips curl with contempt.

“Call the doctor and put my brother back into bed,” he says to a small crowd of men at the door.

“And Montesano?” asks a guard.

“Keep him subdued.”

“What should we do with the whore?” asks another.

“Take her out to Bella’s Ranch and keep her there until my brother is well enough to enjoy watching her burn.”

NINETY-FOUR

CESARE

Pain reverberates across my cranium, and the pulse between my ears pounds hard enough to rattle my skull. My fucked-up state has nothing to do with that brutal kick.

I’m in shock.

Not because I finally understand why Matty Galliano wears thick makeup. Not because the man has no genitals. I’m shocked at the realization that he’s the man Rosalind blew up the day she took back her daughter.

Matty Galliano is the stepfather who abused Rosalind.

Matty Galliano is Miranda’s father.

Which makes Miranda my little sister.

I’m running on autopilot, my ears ringing with the shattering truth. Matty flounders beneath me, filling my nostrils with the stench of his bowels.

Rough hands grab me off my feet and shove my back against the wall. At the same time, what’s left of the orderlies lift Matty off the floor.

My gaze shoots across the hospital room, where a pair of Galliano guards are trying to manhandle Rosalind out of the door.

“Stop,” I croak.

They ignore me.

“No,” I roar.

One of them glances over my shoulder and sneers, still trying to wrestle Rosalind out of the door. I turn around and lock gazes with Tommy Galliano.

It’s been a lifetime since I’ve seen that demon. His wavy gray hair is slicked back, revealing eyes the same shade as mine. This is the bastard who took Mom away from us and married her, only for her to perish under the blade of a plastic surgeon.

If I don’t put a lid on my murderous resentment, Rosalind will go up in flames. I’ve seen a man burn to death, that’s not a fate I want for the woman I love.

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