Page 134 of The King of Hearts

I step back from the door, my body tensing. They may know we’re here so the element of surprise is off the table, but I can still make a fucking explosive entrance.

I lift my leg and slam my foot against the hardwood door. It bangs open, the bottom hinges dislocating, and crashes against the wall. The room is dark with only a tall lamp in one corner that doesn’t give enough light to see much. I step inside, my eyes immediately going to the bed. It’s cast in the shadows, so I can’t see if Savina is on it, but instinct tells me she is.

“Such dramatics,” a voice comes from a darkened corner of the room.

I have my gun up and pointed in that direction in the next second. I want nothing more than to go to Savina, but out of the shadows, I see the glint of a gun, and it’s aimed toward the bed.

“You better hope to fuck she’s alive,” I grit out between my teeth.

He stays in the dark when he replies. “Let me guess. You’ll shred me to pieces and pluck the bones from my body if she isn’t.”

“Fucking amateur. There are much more interesting ways to die and to draw out the torture for days.”

“Seems your way is to simply shoot a person since you’re pointing a gun at me.”

“This is just to maim. The fun part comes later.”

“Ahh… so youdoenjoy blood and gore. Grant told me as much.”

“Let her go, Theo,” my father says, stepping up beside me with his own gun out and pointing in the same direction. “This is between me and you.”

“So my brother managed to leave his deathbed,” Theo remarks. “I was a little sad when I decided to leave you in that basement to finally die alone. I wanted to invite you to this little get together, but it would have been difficult to transport you here. How did you escape?”

“Stop this madness. Matteo and his wife have nothing to do with this vendetta you have against me. Let them and the others leave and you can do whatever the fuck you want to me.”

“Sorry, brother, not good enough.” Theodore steps out of the shadows and faces us both. Despite the ragged appearance of my father, which probably makes him look older than he actually is, I can tell that Theodore is the eldest of the two. “You took something you shouldn’t have. Vivian was mine. You haven’t paid nearly enough for taking her from me.” His eyes move to me. “And your youngest killed our dear sister. It was all so perfect when Rosa moved in. She got to have her fun with little Matteo, adding to my plot of revenge. Then he had to fuck it all up by killing her. He has to pay for that.”

I glance at the bed when there’s a small whimper, but it’s too goddamn dark to see anything. I take a step toward the bed when I hear the click of Theodore cocking his gun.

“Another step and she’s dead, nephew.”

“You robbed me of my fucking son in retaliation,” Antonio says, pulling Theodore’s attention back to him. I barely pay them any mind, my focus trained on the gun and that bed. “Wasn’t that enough? When are you going to get it in your sick head that Viv was never yours? She chose me, Theo. Not once did she show interest in you.”

“I don’t give a fuck if she chose you. The bitch was mine regardless. I took your precious firstborn because he was supposed to be mine,” Theodore says angrily. “Vivian was mine. She was supposed to bemywife, and the bastard you created with her was supposed to bemine.”

Anger vibrates through my bones listening to this shit. It’s all because of a family feud between two brothers wanting the same woman. My wife has endured God knows what because of greed and a sick sense of ownership. I want to kill both of the bastards and hack their bodies into pieces.

“Let them go, Theo,” my father repeats his demand. “You’ve got Aiden and you’ve got me. You’ll never get your hands on Viv, so just give up.”

His lips curl into a creepy grin. “It’s amusing that you say that, my dear little brother, because Ihavehad Vivian. That night, all those years ago, after I sliced ribbons all over your body, I fucked her long and hard. I used her cunt until her blood coated my cock. She cried for you, screaming your name as I tore through her body, all the while you laid there a foot away.”

Blinding rage filters through my veins and the tendons in my joints scream at me to grab this asshole and kill him with my bare hands. My father tenses beside me, and I reach out a hand and grab his arm. I don’t know what’s going through his mind right now, but it can’t be anything good. Hearing what we just did, I don’t know if my father’s mentally capable of holding himself back. Doesn’t matter how weak he appears. Knowing his wife was raped as he laid nearby unconscious would push even the strongest man over the edge and have him reacting irrationally. She’s my mother, and I’m barely holding myself back. If I were in his shoes, I’m not sure if I’d be capable.

But we need to keep calm. That fucking gun is still pointed at the bed. A slight twitch and my wife is dead.

Theodore watches us with pure delight in his expression, enjoying the destruction he’s just caused my father. There are so many ways I want to destroy this man, each one more painful and bloody than the last.

“That’s not even the best part,” Theodore continues. His hand lowers the slightest bit when he leans forward like he’s telling a secret. “The bitch got pregnant and what little sanity she had left after I was done with her shoved her right over the edge. She was committed to the psych ward and stayed there until the baby was born. I took that child, too, and gave her to Grant to play with. By then, I had him broken in, so he was all too happy to have his own little fuck toy.”

Jesus fucking Christ.

Right as I tighten my fingers around Antonio’s bicep, he slips out of my grip and lunges forward.

“Fuck!” I yell and leap after him.

The gun goes off, a flash of light filling the room for a split second. Fear seizes through me, and I switch directions. Just as I take the first step toward the bed, the room goes from mostly dark to a blinding white. I blink and force my eyes to adjust to the sudden brightness. I freeze in place at the scene in front of me. My vision skips the whole red haze stage and goes straight to fucking black.

Savina isn’t the only person on the bed. There’s a man, and there’s no mistaking that it’s Aiden because we look just alike. He’s naked, up on his knees between Savina’s spread thighs. Her ankles are no longer tied to the bedposts like they were in the picture I was sent. Now they’re bent back so her knees are up near her midsection, held in place by rope. Her arms are still over her head, and her eyes are closed. Blood seeps from one nostril, and one eye is swollen with a purple bruise surrounding it. The corners of her mouth are red and raw, and her lips arecracked. From where I’m standing, I don’t see any wounds that would indicate the bullet hit her, so it must have gone haywire.

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