Page 73 of Reaper

CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR

BELLA

Reaching under my skirt, I pull my knife out and hold it for him to see, and he smirks at me.

“Oh, that’s cute. You brought a knife to a, well,pipe fight.”

He chuckles like he’s funny and he’s not. There is no fucking way he’s doing to me what he did to Nico.

Stepping closer to me, he grins. “This is beautiful, you know that?”

Rolling my eyes, I take two steps back. “What is?”

His grin widens to a creepy point, like theJoker. “When my nephew finds you, it’s going to destroy him. You see, I’ve been waiting for a way to hurt him after what he did to me. Payback’s a bitch, and this one, I’m sure, is going to hurt like a motherfucker.”

He can’t possibly know much about Nico and I, because even his brothers don’t know a lot. Or at least Bones didn’t seem to. Frank comes closer, and I swing my leg up to kick him, but he grabs it, twists, and brings me to the floor. I land with a thud on my stomach, and he hits me in the back with the pipe. I scream in pain but fight through it, and turn myself over and get to my feet. His eyes darken, as he growls like an angry animal.

“You’re mine, fucking whore. I’ll fuck you. And then I’ll kill you.”

The knife is still clenched in my hand and, as he charges at me again, I swipe it down his arm. It’s not a deep cut, but it’s enough to make him grimace from the sting. Again he swings the pipe and hits my arm, causing a blood-curdling cry to escape from my lungs, and I think my arm is broken, but I won’t stop because if I do, I’m dead.

“Are you prepared to die for your cause?”

I stare at him in the eyes as I hold my ground.

“Yes. One of us will die. And it’s going to be you.”

He stops moving and laughs dramatically, throwing his head back, and I take the only opportunity I might have.

I plunge the knife into his stomach, and his eyes widen, as he grabs my hair and brings me to the floor.

Frank kneels on my back, pushing down with what feels like all of his strength, I try to throw him off me, but I can’t. He’s got to be at least two hundred pounds, and I can barely breathe, let alone move.

“I like this. Skirts mean easy access, sweetheart.”

The tears pour from my eyes, as I mourn for the love of my life, and the pain I know he’s going to be subjected to. The guilt consumes me, because I did this. I bit off more than I can chew, and he’s going to be the one that has to live with my decisions.

I tried, Nico.

With one hand, he lifts my skirt and tears my panties from my body, and suddenly stops and chuckles when he sees Nico’s name on my ass.

“Ahhh, well, look at this. It would appear to me that my nephew is more like me than his father. Let me guess, you didn’t have a say in this, did you? This is some sick twisted shit. I’m so proud, I could cry.”

He inserts the lead pipe into my pussy, and I scream while he laughs. The pain is excruciating, and feels like I’m being ripped in two.

I cry out for everything I feel. The physical pain. The violation. The fact that Nico will never forgive me. I did this, and I have no one to blame. Reaching under my skirt, I grab the other knife and swing my arm back, and stab him. He lands on top of me, and I still can’t move. I struggle to move him off me, and eventually his body shifts to the floor with a thud, but as I try to retrieve the pipe, the dizziness sets in and I see stars, followed by pitch black.

CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

REAPER

We all pile into the armored van and head toward Frank’s house. I’ve known where he was my entire life. There has never been a time when I didn’t. When I told her to let it go, because the only reason I hadn’t killed him is because I couldn’t stand to be in his presence long enough to do it, I was being honest. Even my brothers were surprised he wasn’t already dead, after what he did to me. And I suppose I understand that, because normally he would’ve been, but they also don’t understand what that does to a man. How it affects his thought process. I’m not okay, I haven’t been for a long time, but the damage is done. I probably would’ve turned into a killer regardless, after all, my first kill was when I was a little kid. Would I have become the man I am now? I’ll never know, because I wasn’t ever given the chance to find out. I think it’s why I formed such a close bond with Athena, because she understands what it’s like. Even though I never told her what happened to me, somehow she knew something had happened to me. She never bought that I was just the way I was, as Bones suggested.

My brothers are all dressed in black pants and dress shirts, like they’re going to a fucking business meeting, as are the De Luca brothers. I’m the only one in jeans and a t-shirt. All of us wear matching holsters and guns. We have more weapons on us than the military. Okay, maybe not that much, but pretty fucking close. Our intel tells us Frank has a total of forty guards scattered on the grounds, all of them Abruzzo men. I asked Bones why they would protect him to this degree, and he said he has something they want. Probably information on our family. Obviously, information he intends to use, to wipe us out.

Damian De Luca is driving, while the rest of us are in the back of the van. There’s a lot of us and it’s a tight fucking fit.

Bones instructs us as to how he wants things handled.

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