“You okay?” Marcus questions, striding down the final few steps as he takes my hand and helps me to my feet.
“Fine,” I mutter, staring out past the driveway and watching as Ariana hits the main road and takes off like a bullet with her husband hurtling after her. “I’m sorry,” I tell them. “I should have—”
“No,” Levi says, staring after his father as well. “We’ll get our chance. He’s a proud man. He won’t be able to resist coming for us after what we just did. He’ll want to prove he still has what it takes to hold us down, and though we may have the keys to the kingdom now, as long as he’s still breathing, he still owns it. This war is only just getting started, Shayne. What you experienced tonight wasn’t even the tip of the iceberg.”
31
Blood trails between my tits as I walk back in through the front door of the boys’ childhood home. My knees hurt from being thrown down on the stairs and my ribs are definitely bruised from Giovanni’s kick, but the sting on my neck is what’s killing me. It’s really not that bad compared to the fresh hell I’ve been through in the past, but either way, it’s a bitch. It’s like getting a papercut and it makes me want to scream.
My gaze sweeps over the fallen bodies that take up the foyer and my stomach clenches. I’ve seen men gutted and murdered in the most brutal ways since getting caught up in this world, but those men deserved it. This here … I don’t know. What if these men weren’t the bad guys and their only mistake was being hired by a bastard like Giovanni DeAngelis? What if they had a family at home, a newborn baby, or a doting wife?
I try to put it to the back of my mind. What’s done is done. It’s not like I can go back, line them up, and interrogate them with quick-fire questions about their life before handing them over to boys to end their life. I have to find a way to be okay with this because, even if I hadn’t been here, this would have eventually ended the same way.
Closing the door behind me, I ignore the rush of guilty pleasure that pulses through me at seeing Ariana’s blood stained on the back of the massive door. I wish I could have played with her a little longer, let her feel the kind of hell she put me through, let her suffer just like I did, but she won’t be gone for long. She’ll get what’s coming for her. It’s only a matter of time.
Making my way to the stairs, I take the long way around, not wanting to walk through the pools of blood or step over the dead bodies like they don’t matter. I grip onto the railing and make my way up the massive staircase, not really knowing where we go from here. I’m almost certain that the boys intend to stay here from now on, seeing as though they brought the wolves along with them, but one can never be too sure when it comes to the DeAngelis brothers. Though if they are staying, I’m almost positive that they’ll be doing a raid on the castle to get every single weapon out of there. Sooner or later, they’re going to need them.
The mansion is incredible, modern and sleek with a slight gothic feel to it, though that could be the dead bodies downstairs. The ceilings are high and the rooms are massive. I’ve never been in a property quite like this, you know, except for the other time I was here, but I only saw the coatroom and the dining hall so it doesn’t really count.
I wander around, searching for a bathroom to clean up in when I push through the door to what must have been Ariana’s room. My mouth hangs open. It’s fit for a fucking queen in here with its own private living room, a massive walk-in closet bigger than my whole apartment, plus a private bathroom that has my mouth watering. I thought my bathroom back at the castle was impressive, but that’s got nothing on this.
I find myself hovering in the massive room, picturing her life here. She would have had everything she ever wanted, only she had it with the wrong DeAngelis.
Walking into the massive closet, my fingers skim over the designer gowns and past the massive fur coats that I could never afford in my whole lifetime. I find myself glancing down at my cheap jeans and black hoodie. How pathetic.
Seeing the blood soaking through my clothes, I pull them off and dump them on the floor, not giving a shit about staining the pristine carpet as I make my way through the luxurious closet, searching for something to wear that wouldn’t get me mugged on the street.