Page 59 of Roma Queen
One running lunge, and I’m behind him.
One quick grab, twist and snap, and the gun he was holding a second ago is on the floor at our feet.
A half a breath later, and the length of wire I snagged from the tabletop is no longer wrapped around my hand; it’s wrapped around Lazlo’s throat, and I’m pulling on the ends, tightening my grip. He gurgles, a wet gagging sound filling the room as he chokes. His flailing legs hit the table, and something heavy crashes to the ground, followed by a series of tinging, tinkling metallic sounds—screws, or ball bearings, or something similar pouring out of a container onto the floor.
“You…can’t…” Lazlo rasps.
I bow myself over him, barely able to catch my breath around the righteous fury burning in the very center of my chest as I snarl into his ear. “No? Seems to me like Iam.”
“She’ll…die…”
“Sarah’s safe.”
“Not…Sa…rah. Your…mother.”
What? I hesitate. He’s bullshitting me. Shelta left the glen this morning in the van. She’s probably halfway to one of the other clans by now, already planning what she’ll tell them to get their blood up and turn them against me. Lazlo doesn’t have her. There’s no fucking way. I pull the cord tighter, feeling it bite into the gristle of Lazlo’s throat. “You’relying.”
“She…came…here,” he wheezes. His fingernails scratch at me, breaking the skin on the backs of my hands as he tries to free himself of me. “She brought…the card. The…Empress…”
Zara threw that card back in my mother’s face. It had gone under one of the chest of drawers in the gathering hall. If Lazlo has it…
I grind my teeth together, pulling even harder.
So what.
So fucking what!
If Shelta came here willingly, to a man she knows to be a fucking murderer, and she found herself neck-deep in trouble…then she got what she had coming to her. If he has her secreted away, locked underground with a limited supply of air, or he’s plastered her into a fucking wall, or he’s buried her alive and she only has moments to live, then that’s on her.
She lied to me.
Conspired against me.
Banished me.
Threatened to kill the woman I love.
Tried to force me to marry against my will.
Tried to play me like a fucking pawn in her plan for total Roma domination.
She’s fucking evil.
She can rot for all I care.
She should have looked out for me, not tried to hurt me.
She’s my mother, for fuck’s sake.
She’s my mother.
Fuck…
She’s my mother.
I roar as I rip the cord away from Lazlo’s throat. He was seconds away from dying.Seconds, and I’ve stayed my hand. It’s a temporary mercy; I still have a hold of the bastard by the back of his neck. He collapses to his knees, coughing and spluttering, the sound of his croaking, stuttering, life-saving breath making me want to drive my clenched fist into the back of his fucking head.
Shelta.
