Page 64 of Christmas Mafia Prince
Titus gasps for air and it takes him a moment to respond. “I don’t… hate you. I just… I found out you weren’t married… That it was fraud for Damen to take part… Didn’t have the evidence just yet, and…”
“And you decided to murder my husband!”
“He isnotyour husband,” Titus shouts back, the teeth he has left covered by a red film.
“Yet,” Damen corrects him.
Titus writhes under him, but the hold Damen has on his brother is steel. “Why do you always have to win at everything? Winning the Christmas hunt wasmy thing!”
Their father steps in, glaring at them as if they’re two unruly boys fighting over their favorite action figure, not two men ready to kill one another. “The Christmas hunt is meant to be a bit of family fun. Fun,” he growls and grabs Titus’s ear, tugging on it firmly. “If it’s making you order a hit on your brother’s… partner, you’re doing it wrong! So he’s the better shot! Big deal. Practice more.”
Bree sobs, covering her face with manicured fingers. If this were a movie, I’d probably be laughing, but there’s a wound in my shoulder, and my brother-in-law’s teeth are on the carpet.
“Can’t believe you would do that!” Alexandra shouts, rolling the sheet of paper into a ball and tossing it into Titus’s face. “Even if he got more heads, he would have been disqualified on the technicality! And now you ruined this year’s hunt for everyone!”
Titus whines like a damn baby. “Everyone would know—”
I spread my arms in disbelief, but then wince at the pain. “What the fuck, Titus? That ispathetic.”
When Damen growls and squeezes Titus’s neck again, Bree gets to her knees, and I’m impressed. I didn’t think she’d humiliate herself like this for anyone.
She clasps her hands together with a sob. “Please, Damen… I’m pregnant.”
Probably a lie, but I don’t blame her.
It’s like a scene from a renaissance painting. Two brothers caught in a fight that could end in death, the mother with hands over her face, a wife begging for mercy, and a father standing over his sons with a face carved in stone as he lets fate play out.
And I’m right in the middle like the one figure who can break the balance.
I slide off the bed on shaky legs and put my hand on Damen’s shoulder with a sigh. “Let your brother live,” I say. “He doesn’t deserve it, but you would always regret it if you killed him.”
“Yes!” Damen’s mother exclaims from behind her fingers. “And it’s Christmas after all, for god’s sake.”
Damen inhales, relaxing when I place my hand on his head. I see him. I know he’s furious because I’m hurt, but we’re together now, and I will take care of him too.
My man shakes his head. “So this was all because of the hunt?”
When Titus nods, Damen reaches to his side and pulls out a hunting dagger, making everyone go quiet. And yet, nobody dares intervene.
My man is the meanest of them all.
“Then we better make sure it won’t happen again,” Damen says, and with that presses his brother’s hand to the floor and digs the blade into the base of his trigger finger.
Only a small yelp escapes Titus when the digit falls off as if it were a stick of butter, not flesh. Another inhale. “You better mind him from now on, Bree, or I’ll come for the one on his left hand too.”
She nods and tries to catch the bloodied finger, but Damen grabs it.
“Don’t even think about it. This is my trophy,” he says with a snarl and gets up.
Titus groans, turns to his side, looking more out of it by the second, but as soon as the doctor gets a green light, she’s at his side.
It’s over.
I finally exhale.
Karl clears his throat. “Titus, you are banned from the hunt for five years. You will also be a witness at your brother’s wedding.”
His head jerks up, but his wife has the sense to force it down. Good.
