Page 49 of Sins of the Father
Mia clawed for his face, her nails raking skin, but he caught her wrist and twisted until something in her hand snapped. Agony flared—two fingers, maybe broken. She screamed, but the sound barely left her throat before his knee drove into her side.
The first man recovered, blood streaming from his nose, his knife gleaming in the morning light.
“Carlos—” she tried to cry, but her voice barely rose above a whisper.
“Shut up,” one hissed, backhanding her. Stars exploded behind her eyes. The world tilted, her knees buckling.
Through the ringing in her ears, she thought she heard gunfire—distant, closing fast.
Then everything went black.
Mia drifted in and out.Hands lifted her, someone touched her cheek, and then she heard Luc’s voice slicing through the haze like a blade. Voices blurred in the dark.
“—fucking incompetent—”
Luc’s snarl, raw with something she’d never heard before. Fear. She tried to ask him what was wrong, and then darkness swallowed her again. When she surfaced, harsh white light met her eyes, and the sharp sting of an IV tugged at her arm. Mia squinted as her eyes adjusted. Luc stood by the window, his posture a coil of barely restrained violence. He looked like a man on the edge.
She made a sound, and he spun toward her.
Luc stepped forward. His voice was low, rough. “Mia…”
His gaze pinned her—furious, protective. She’d never seen him like this. The doctor glanced between them but said nothing. No one did.
Mia whispered, “What happened?”
Luc didn’t answer right away. His hand hovered near hers but never touched. “I'm sorry,” he said.
She stared at him. That wasn’t an answer. “Tell me, Luc.”
Luc’s jaw flexed. His eyes swept the room. “Out,” he ordered.
The staff cleared out. The door clicked shut.
When he spoke, his voice was low and deliberate. “Somehow, our home was infiltrated. They tried to take you.”
Confusion rushed through Mia. “Me?Why?”
Something cold shifted in his gaze. “Your family tried to take you. First, they would have tortured you and then put a bullet in your head.”
A shock sound burst from Mia. “This… this makes no sense.”
Luc held her gaze. “With you gone, there’s no heir. Without you, the simple takeover I wanted would no longer be possible. Their territory remains open ground, and any takeover would trigger a war that the Commission would have to stop.”
“You said they would have tortured me first. Why?”
“They believe your father left you the intel he had on powerful people. There is enough leverage in what he left behind for the Boninos to rise back to the top. The keys to rebuilding what they lost. ”
Pain tore through Mia, sharp and suffocating. “I saw my aunts and cousins,” she whispered. “We laughed, we reconnected… and now—” Her voice broke, and she pressed a trembling hand to her chest as if to hold herself together. “My own blood wants me dead. My uncles, my cousins, men who used to toss me into the air and kiss my cheeks…
Her throat burned as she forced the words out. “Before my father sent me to St. Mary’s, they were my world. My aunts doted on me, and my cousins were like siblings. And now they want to kill me just to stop me from giving you an heir. Because our child would secure your claim to the Bonino territory.”
The truth cut deeper than any blade. She could accept danger from strangers, but not from the faces she once loved and was reconnecting with.
“Yes.”
A shaky laugh escaped her. “And the only reason they didn’t kill me on sight is because they want the information my father left behind.”
The air turned leaden.
