Page 38 of Drowning in the Deep

“You are one branch of our family tree that is twisted and withered, you pathetic little bitch. I have no idea how it is that you are even a part of the La Rosa family. You make me sick. You’re not even worth the time it took for your mother to give you life.”

Anger pulsed through me as I leaned up onto my elbows. “I’m sorry, Father. If I’ve disappointed you recently, you’re going to have to be more specific. All of these insults have been hurled at me a thousand times before, so I don’t know what has you so unbelievably pissed off at me this time around.”

Shaking his head, he snarled at me, the hate in his eyes boring through me. “Fine. I’ll be more specific. I just saw an interesting video of you with Daemon Petrov’s cock buried so deep in your throat, he was probably coming out of your asshole. How’s that for specific?”

I swallowed hard, hoping wherever that video had come from, the location of the event hadn’t been identified. “So what?” I asked him. “You gave me to him as a wedding gift, right? Did you not expect us to fuck around?”

Slowly, he shook his head, and I could tell that what he was about to say next was going to be another blow to the sternum. “No, you dimwit. I fully expected a filthy little whore like you to fuck his brains out. What I wasn’t expecting—at least if you had any loyalty to the La Rosa family whatsoever—was that you would take him to the goddamn properties I’m buying!”

And there it was. He knew. He fucking knew. How in the world was I going to get myself out of this one? Once again, I found myself unable to breathe as I looked up at him, my mouth agape, trying to come up with any bit of explanation I could think of to excuse it away.

But I had nothing. Not a single shred of a reason came to mind. Why else would we even be in that part of town? My father must’ve had me followed—or Daemon. It was the only explanation. Was one of those shady characters in the shadows one of his men?

I realized then that while I had been trying to come up with an excuse, he was still talking. I tuned back in just in time to hear him say, “Well, the properties I waspretendingto buy.”

“What?” I asked. “Pretending to buy?”

“Oh, come on, you idiot,” he said, pacing a little as he spoke. “Were you really so stupid to think that I would invest any money in those piece of shit buildings? Your mother must’ve been sneaking tequila shots when she was pregnant with you to give you such nonfunctioning brain cells. Or were you just so focused on Daemon’s dick you didn’t notice the shit hole you were kneeling in?”

I managed to pull myself up to stand, still going over everything in my head. He wasn’t actually going to buy those buildings. So why did he have me working on it? Was he just trying to give me busy work or something?

“Really, the next time you give head, maybe you should check your surroundings so you don’t get a bullet through the back of your head as well as Petrov penis,” my father suggested.

“Why are you so focused on Daemon’s dick?” I asked him, ready to add something else snarky, like asking him when he’d switched teams. I didn’t get a chance as he reached out and slapped the fuck out of my bloody cheek, whipping my head backward in the process.

“Shut your filthy mouth, cocksucker. My point is, you did exactly what I knew you would do. I gave you some vital information, something important to the family business, and what did you do with it?”

With my hand pressed to my aching cheek, I lifted my head and looked at him, finally understanding. I’d fallen right into his trap. Goddamnit. He wasn’t ever going to buy the properties, but he was following me, or maybe Daemon, to see if we went out there. He knew that if he saw Daemon out there, the only way he could’ve found out was because I told him.

“After Ragno disappeared, I knew you had to be ratting me out to the Petrovs. It was the only thing that made sense. I specifically told you not to mention any of this to him, and not only did you defy me, but you also took him out there and showed him what a little whore you really are.”

I didn’t know what to say. Was there any excuse I could make to convince my father I hadn’t done exactly what he’d just said? “I was trying to gain his loyalty.”

“Bullshit!” Father yelled. “You are clearly loyal to him and willing to betray the family again and again if it gets his cock buried deeper into you. Now, I want to know what happened to your cousin—and why the fuck my library window is different!”

I only stared at him, unwilling to say more because I didn’t want him to know that Daemon had killed Ragno.

“All this time, working so hard to make that bastard weaker, doing everything I can to infiltrate that family, and you have to do your best to try to fuck it up, don’t you? Sneaking around, lying to me, not doing the assignments I give you, setting your cousin up to fail. All of that bullshit. I’m onto you. Well, there’s shit going down that I would never trust you with, so it is impossible for you to actually stab me in the back and win, you ungrateful little traitor.”

Deep down, I’d trusted him. I’d thought he was willing to give me a chance to help the family. And I should’ve never been willing to follow him with faith because now where had it gotten me?

“You’re caught by the tail, little rat. And now it’s time for you to pay. Tell me what happened to Ragno.” My father glared at me with an evil menacing stare, the likes of which I’d never seen from him before. If someone had told me he was the devil himself, in that moment, I would’ve believed them.

But I said nothing because it didn’t matter anymore. He was right. I was a rat—and I was caught. I might not be able to get myself out of this situation, but that didn’t mean I had to sing. If I did, I was just giving my father more ammunition to come after Daemon, and I refused to put us both in the same hopeless situation.

My father reared back and hit me again, pushing me against the wall. I fell, my elbow catching on the table by the door, taking a chunk of skin out of it. “Tell me what happened to Ragno,” he demanded.

“I don’t know,” I told him.

“Fucking liar.” He kicked me then, right in the ribs, and I thought I heard one crack. Pain splintered through my side, causing tears to come to my eyes, but I kept my stare locked on his face. “Fine. You wanna do this the hard way? Let’s do this the hard way.”

Alexander La Rosa opened my front door, and two bulky men in black suits walked in carrying rope, a gag, and a carpet. My eyes widened in terror, but I’d already promised myself I wasn’t going to cave.

They manhandled me, pulling me up off the floor just long enough to tie my hands behind my back and my ankles together. Next, they shoved the gag into my mouth and tied it into place before sending me toppling back to the floor. My face landed in the pile of glass. I didn’t stay there long, though.

The rug was warm and smelled of urine. They rolled me up so tightly inside it, I could hardly breathe. As they carried me out of my apartment nestled in the dark fibers of the carpet, I thought to myself,I’m never coming back here again. I’m dead.

CHAPTER26

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