I shake my head, not even remotely interested in an explanation. “Can we just … do what you brought me down here to do?”
Roman nods and starts walking, heading toward the left side of the room to the line of wide cells. I follow behind him with Marcus and Levi stepping in behind me. “Does your father know about this?”
Levi sighs. “Unfortunately. It was supposed to be our little secret, but now he has his henchmen using our facilities and fucking up our tools. Fucking amateurs.”
“Can’t you stop them from coming in?”
“We did at first,” Roman says. “But that didn’t go down so well with Daddy Dearest. It’s just easier this way, but we keep them on their toes. They’re just as terrified to come here as the people they drag along with them. It’s like a potluck. Which one of them will lose their lives?”
I swallow hard, crossing my arms over my chest. “You didn’t go to many potlucks growing up, did you?”
Marcus glances my way, his brows furrowed as he tries to make sense of my comment, but his blank expression has an amused smile spreading across my face.
I look away as Roman comes to a stop in front of a wide cell that’s as big as my old living room. “Here we are,” he says, looking back at me and patiently waiting for me to catch up. I keep my gaze down, too afraid to look up and see what’s inside the cell as I step into his side. “Consider this a peace offering for what happened with Lucas Miller.”
Intrigue has my head slowly rising and my gaze settling on the man inside the cell. He dangles from heavy chains wearing nothing but a pair of stained underwear. Blood pools on the ground beneath him and slowly runs to the small drain at the back of the room.
He looks completely defeated, knowing without a doubt that he will never see the light of day again. My stomach churns as I take him in, regret settling deep inside my gut, but as he raises his head and his familiar blue eyes rest on mine, my heart constricts, aching with what to do.
Maxwell Mariano. My deadbeat father.
I stumble back a step, the very sight of him like a punch right to the gut. “What the hell is this?” I demand, unable to look away from my father as a slow smile spreads over his face.
“A peace offering,” Marcus says, confusion lacing his tone. “What’s the matter? I thought this is what you wanted? It’s a gift.”
“I …” I shake my head, horror sweeping through me. “You want me to kill him? My father?”
“You said you suffered years of abuse at his hands,” Levi says. “You were made to eat out of dumpsters and fear for your life everyday living with him. He stole from you time and time again, and you just want to stand here and gape at him?”
My father laughs and spits a mouthful of blood onto the stained concrete. “She’s too weak. She’ll never do it.”
Rage pours through me and I reach for the back of Roman’s pants, gripping his gun and tearing it free. I point it right at my father’s chest, the anger swirling through me like a wild tornado. “I’m only weak because you made me that way,” I seethe. “I spent years running from you, funding your bullshit addictions while fearing that one day you would do something stupid like sell me to settle your debts, and look where we are now. I’m the one with these assholes standing at my back, not you.”
Fear flashes in his eyes before he shrugs it off. “Doesn’t matter who you’ve got standing at your back, sweetheart. You’ll never pull the trigger. You don’t got it in ya.”
Tears well in my eyes as I fight the urge to do something I know will come back to haunt me. I fight between right and wrong, strength and weakness, honor and disgrace.
A lump forms in the back of my throat, making it nearly impossible to breathe. “You’re a worthless piece of shit,” I spit. “If I don’t kill you now, Giovanni sure as hell will.”
“You don’t know shit about Giovanni.”
“Really now?” I laugh. “I just spent the night at his mansion, sitting around his dinner table, listening to his plans on how he will destroy you. I was never in your life, so how the hell does selling me to his family pay your debt? All you’ve done for me is introduce me to three men who will shamelessly stand by my side as I tear you down. So, tell me, how have you spent your night?”
My father clenches his jaw and I step forward, not prepared to hear another word that comes out of his mouth. Giovanni was right, he is worthless, and as long as he lives, he will continue to come for me. He will destroy me until I have nothing more to give, and that will be on me for how I allow tonight to play out.