My father stilled, with his jaw clenched. “That’s right—so what are you doing in that chair?”
“Dad,” I called, but he denied me his attention when his eyes remained on a hesitant Izzy. She sat still clenching her jaw and refusing to back down from his gaze.
“Izabella is no longer a slave. She is my woman,” growled Nathaniel.
“And this is my house.” Fathers gaze found his. “Do you think I fucking care you decided to fuck her more than once? She wanted to be a slave, so I’m only treating her the way she expects to be treated.” He turned his stare at Izabella. “Or did you forget what you signed up for?”
The tension was suddenly thicker, as the question was laid out. My brother's eyes knotted in confusion when he found Izzy with a remorseful look on her face as she gazed down at the table. “I always told you son. Woman want either one of two things.” He lifted his hands, counting on his fingers. “It’s either a good fuck, or your fucking money. You think because she’s pretty and her pussy grips you like a fucking vise means she loves you?”
“What the fuck are you trying to say?” Nathaniel sneered.
“Your beloved Izabella sold herself for three million dollars.”
“You’re a fucking liar.”
“Believe what you want, I’m only stating the facts. Hey, but don’t believe me, since she looks like the picture of truth right now.”
Our gazes found Izzy who looked as guilty as a man placed on death row. She was staring at the table, lips pressed tightly together before her eyes slowly rose and found my brother's across the table. He was staring at her with a ridged expression leaning forward. “Is it true?”
She hesitated, her mouth opening then closing before she sighed looking back at the table.
“Look at me?” Nathaniel demanded. “Is it true?”
“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I wanted to tell you, but it isn’t what you think.”
“And what am I thinking exactly?”
Her eyes shifted around the table. “I did it because I saw a way out. When my mother died she left me and my brother with nothing but debt. There were people hounding us for money, I worked a crappy job and my brother could barely hold down his own. I overheard some guys talking about selling some girls at this auction and—I made my brother sell me.” She eyed my brother desperately. “That’s where you found me—at Hector’s. Everything that happened after that wasn’t my fault. I didn’t plan to be sold again. I didn’t plan to come here, and I definitely didn’t plan on seeing you again.”
A slow clap came from my father who held a bored expression on his face. “As much as I love sob stories; which I don’t, you’re still a liar—and while in this house, you’re still a slave.” He signalled to the guard standing behind Izzy who stepped forward with the gun pressing to the back of her skull. “Now, either you assume the position, or you suffer the consequences.”
I saw the fight in Izzy’s eyes die as she kept them on my brother, but he offered her nothing in return. He was angry, probably beating himself up about what he now knew, but I knew my brother. Yes, he was hurt, but deep down he wouldn’t let our father touch a hair on her head. Izzy pushed her chair back and walked the length of the table, until she found her place between my brother and I. Sinking down to her knees, closer to my brother, she looked up at him remorsefully.
I looked over at Jovana, watching her head dip from exhaustion and pain. I was gritting my teeth wanting to reach for her, but with guns pointed at all of us, we had to play along until the right moment presented itself.
“Dinner is served everyone.” Our father picked up his fork and knife and began cutting into his fish, as the rest of us looked at each other with confused, unsure eyes.
I grabbed my fork and stabbed my fish, ready to get this fiasco over with. “The quicker we eat, the quicker this shit show ends.” I shoved a forkful into my mouth and grinned at Dad, while everyone else still stared on. “Trust me, if he was planning to kill us—he wouldn’t poison the food.”
“He’s right,” Dad said wiping his mouth with his napkin before staring at us amused. “Why waste good food when a simple bullet to the skull could fix everything?”
We ate in uneasy silence. I mean how good can ones digestive system work, with six guns pointed at the table? I knew this wasn’t about dinner, it was about secrets. He already outed me by bringing Jovana, while Izzy was paying for hers on floor.
The question now was, who’s next?
We all watched as he cut into his salmon with careful precision, making sure there was a piece of asparagus and sauce coating every inch before placing it in his mouth. It was like he was purposely eating slowly to prolong this torture.
My fork clinked against my plate before I wiped my mouth with my napkin. “Well Dad, dinner was awesome, but as much as I’d like to stick around—I think I’d rather spend my time elsewise. Preferable where you are not.” I moved to stand, but was halted when dad cleared his throat.
“Nathan, your plate may be cleared, but your guest's isn’t.” My eyes shifted across the table toward Jovana, whose food was barely touched. I wasn’t even sure she could see the plate.
“With all due respect—Dad, you and I both know she can’t finish. Her jaw’s probably broken from the numerous hits she took to the face. But you should already know that, since it was your doing.”
Dad, who looked none too caring took another bite of his food. “That may be so, but no one leaves until she’s finished. Haven’t I taught you the importance of table etiquette?”
“Fuck your etiquette. Look, I don’t know what fucking game you think this is, but I’m done.” I stood readying to leave.
“Sit down son. You don’t want to cause a scene,” he demanded with one challenging brow raised.
“Fuck you. Or are you going to shoot me?”
It was a standoff. I glared menacingly at him, who looked seemingly intrigued. The pin-dropping silence kept us all frozen and waiting for the next move. They knew if I walked out, that would be the opening they needed to leave too.
“I’m not going to shoot you—” Dad pushed his chair back and stood placing his hands in his pockets with his lips stretched so tight over his teeth, that they seem to disappear. That look wasn’t normal, that look sent my eyes looking at everyone around the table, hoping that they were seeing what I was. “At least, not yet.” Those were the words that drained the blood from my face. They were the words that had everyone at the table shocked still as a bullet came out of nowhere piercing Jovana between her eyes.
Blood splattered against the guard standing behind her, as he to jumped from the sound of the gun going off. Her body fell limp against the table with a hard thud, causing the plates and silverware to clatter and tumble to the floor.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Nathaniel
The moment her body hit the table I knew what was about to happen. Luckily Izzy had enough sense to slide under the table when I shot to my feet grabbing my brother who was almost halfway across it by then. Glasses and dishes shattered as they tumbled to the floor while I used all the strength I had pulling him back.
“I’ll fucking kill you,” he yelled pushing against my arms that remained wrapped against his arms. “You son of a bitch, I’ll fucking kill you.”
Our father stood watching us with a malicious smirk on his lips while folding his arms together in front of him. The gun he used very visible within his tight grip. “Disobeying is not an option.”
“Fuck you, you’re dead.”
“I warned you—”
“And now I’m warning you, you fucking prick,” he sneered still pulling against me. “Before this night is over, I’m going to put a bullet in your head.”
“You’ve made that threat before—”
“Yeah, but this time it’s a promise.” He shrugged me off breathing rapidly with his eyes downcast on Jovana's dead body. Turning his head to face me, his wild eyes found mine as I telepathically spoke to him hoping he
understood. Blinking a few times, he pulled the lapels of his jacket forward before falling into his chair, eyes returning to Jovana.
He loved her. The way he spoke of her before was very unlike my brother and now I understood why. He’d never spoken of a woman as anything other than a good time and then suddenly he was smiling as he spoke of her. His pain was something I knew all too well, but I couldn’t feel that pain again. Like him I couldn't lose another woman at the hands of our father.
This had to end. And it had to end now.
“Enough!” My voice echoed across the table, grabbing every ones attention. “Either you let us go or kill us all and end this pathetic game of yours.”
“Now that’s where you’re wrong, son. This isn’t a game. This is me shining a light on all the liars and the fucking scum who vowed to have my back. All of you—” He watched each one of us with distain in his eyes— “Have dissatisfied me in one way or another and you brought this on yourselves.”
I sat noticing Izzy hadn’t returned to my feet which meant she was somewhere under the table. There were guards all around this end of the table, but none on the other where the door was located. If she was doing what I thought she was, hopefully she would get as far away from this house as humanly possible. But knowing Izzy, she wouldn’t leave knowing I was still here and in danger. My father already killed one of us. Wouldn’t take long before he got to the rest since this was clearly a game of Russian roulette.
“Quite frankly Father I do think your old age has gotten you paranoid.”
“Or fucking suicidal,” said a glaring Nathan who was perched on his chair without care. He was like a caged animal simply waiting for the right moment to pounce.
Dad chuckled, cracking his knuckles while pacing at his side of the table with his gun still drawn. After a minute he fell back into his chair, and we all watched and waited as he continued to eat, prolonging the silence while each pair of eyes was now curious as to what he knew.
“What is this, fucking intermission? Get on with this bullshit of a show, so we can all get back to our lives.”
“Who said anything about going back to your lives?” he said eyes dancing with mischief while he whipped the side of his mouth with his napkin. “You are all useless to me, and when my back is turned I have no doubt that anyone of you won’t hesitate to put a bullet in my head—”
“Glad you understand,” mumbled Nathan.
“Which is why I wanted you all here tonight. One final get together where we air out our differences and then—”
“You kill us,” I said knowingly tilting my head.
“Well this is a dog-eat-dog world. You should know that better than anyone, Nathaniel. You hate me the most.”
“With good reason. You gave me no other choice.”
“Which I guess is why you went behind my back and intrusted help from my enemies.” His eyes now focused on Costas, who during this entire ordeal sat patiently tapping his fingers against the table.
He had enjoyed his meal, his plate clean, napkin resting on top as he sipped his wine slowly. Sensing all eyes on him, he bared his teeth to my father who also had his on display. “So now I’m an enemy. And here I thought we were friends,” he said.
My brow lifted and I briefly glanced at Andrea who appeared to be as surprised as I was.
“Surprised son?” Dad asked pulling my attention to him.
“By what?”
“That fact that I knew your little plan long before it even played out.” My mind was reeling. Costas was an informant for my father, and watching him now I was surprised I didn’t see it before. I should have known that his cool easy-going demeanour was his way of knowing his ass was covered this entire time.
“Don’t blame your father Nathaniel, this was all my doing.”
“Yours,” said Nathan also in a state of shock even though he had no clue who Costas was.
“What, do I not look like a mastermind? After all I did have your brother and my entire family fooled.”
“Son, have you ever heard the term keep your friends close and your enemies closer. Well in this case—” He gestured back and forth between Costas and himself. “Friend enemy, enemy friend. I needed a way in with the Donatella's and with a lot of persuasion and a lot of money Costas easily provided that.”
“So what, you’ve been selling out your entire family to the man that’s been trying to destroy them for years? How long?” I asked leaning forward and eyeing him with disgust.
“Why does that matter?”
“It fucking matters when those people I met who put family above all else, they put you above all else and you betrayed them.”
“You know nothing,” he said slamming his fist against the table before pointing a finger at me. “All my family ever did was treat me like the useless help. I got the shit jobs with no fucking recognition and for what, because were family.”
“Well boo fucking hoo for you,” said Nathan as he slowly clapped with a bored expression. “It’s not like your father treated you like shit growing up, or fucked and killed your woman.” He looked around with a smile on his face before laughing carelessly. “He just got a bunch of shitty jobs everyone.”
Costas sneered at him. “Fuck you, you low life piece of merda.”
“The fuck you just call me?”
“Enough.” My father shouted across the table. He pointed at Costas. “You did your job, now shut the fuck up.” He turned his gaze back to me. “Nathaniel you seem to think that you know these people better than I do.” He chuckled. “What a fool you are. Were you looking for a replacement family, well sorry to break it to you. The Donatella’s are more dysfunctional than we are.”
“And you think because you have one spoiled apple that suddenly all the others spoiled,” I said trying not to seem unaffected by his words, but I was pissed. I wanted to reach across the table and cut that smug grin off his face. He thought he’d won. That he had one upped me again and maybe he did, but he could have all the hands he wanted, just as long as I got the last one.
He watched me with a gleam in his eyes that told me I was fooling myself. The crinkle around his eyes always appeared when he knew he had the upper hand. I was glad he thought so, and hopefully I wasn’t wrong in thinking I was right since Andrea was still seated quite quietly without mention from his cousin. If Costas was working for my father, why hadn’t he outed Andrea yet?
“You think I have only one Donatella on my payroll,” he said matter-of-factly.
I shrugged but Nathan spoke before I could. “So you have two, maybe even three. So what? This is not like it was when you sold Nathaniel’s Lyla or when mom died and you fucked another one of your whores in the bed she died in a few hours after it happened.” Raw emotion captured his voice when he glanced at the dead body of the woman I didn’t get a chance to know, but knew my brother clearly cared for. “You fucking killed Jovana.” He sneered. “Do you think any of us give a fuck about what you have and what you don’t have?” he yelled. “You’re still going to die.”
“And how sure are you of that?” He leaned back with a smug look on his face. “Right now what I have is at least seven guns, eight if you count the one I currently have at my disposal. And all of you have nothing. You’ve always had nothing and you will continue to have nothing because you don’t understand how this world works.”
“Does it work by destroying the lives of the people you love?” I said.
“What makes you think I ever loved either of you?”
I moved forward onto my elbows and watched him, truly watched him. If monsters were real I had no doubt that my father would be one of them. Everything about the man from his perfectly manicured hands to his untouched hair, left you with a bad stink, didn’t matter if he was blood or total stranger. He could never love anything but himself.
“Oh I’m not fooled, you’ve never loved us. You tolerated us because you had no choice, which I never truly understood because you never do anything you don’t want to do.
So what was it?”
His eyes grew dark trying to mask his annoyance. “What was what?”
“Your secret.” I glanced at everyone around the table who all held unsure expressions, well apart from Andrea whose anger was drilling holes into Costas every now and then. “You said everyone in this room had a secret, so are you willing to share yours?”
His serious face broke into a grin when he started clapping. “I have to give you credit, you almost had me going there son.”
“What are you talking about?” Nathan whispered, but before I could respond dad picked up the gun and pointed it at me. He wouldn’t pull the trigger. He’d leave that up to one of trusty sidekicks.
He moved the gun slowly as he pointed it at each of us. “You forget, this is not your show.” It stopped moving when it landed on Justine. “Baby, come here.”
Chapte r Twenty-Six
Justine
I was an FBI agent god dammit. I should be able to handle this, to be under pressure and not be compelled to run away and hide. Yet, I wasn’t. Under my calm demeanour I was sweating while trying to keep focus on my plate became harder and harder with every bite. I had slipped into this role of Justine so well that Vanessa the FBI agent had somehow vanished, and this scared alter ego had remained.
During the meal I wasn’t even hungry, but I knew if I didn’t shovel something in my mouth, I would say something instead, and that would be so much worse. So to avoid it, I ate every last bite, only taking slight glances at Andrea. The tension in the room was so thick my dinner knife could cut it. And then he started moving that gun around and it landed on me. I knew it was my turn.
“Baby, come here,” he said with a broad smile.
I paused, and for one heartbeat of a minute I had a deer in headlights expression only to blink it away to seem more at ease. I avoided looking at Andrea not wanting to add more ammunition to Nicolae’s gun. I pushed my chair back and stood, feeling as if I was walking toward my execution. Fuck, I was braver than this. So what if he knew I was sleeping with Andrea, I would own up to it.
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