Her eyes were still open, and I remember thinking there was no light to be found there.
There was nothing but a cold body and a broken heart.
I bent my head and pressed my lips to hers, finding them just as cold as the rest of her. When I reluctantly looked at Rocco, he was holding Violet in the crook of his arm. She was hysterical and he shielded her from the massacre sitting before her.
Victor’s guys had taken him out the back and Rocco had ordered Violet to get under the table. It took him less than a minute to join me but every bullet we sent flying into Pablo’s brother’s body was too late. He and his crew had already done their damage.
“They killed her, Rocco.”
“I’m sorry, brother.”
Now, I know you’re wondering how I knew it was Pablo’s brother who killed Pilar— well, the motherfucker was his twin. Looking back, I think that’s why I stalled when I spotted him standing behind her. For a split-second, I thought I hadn’t killed him and then I recalled his dead eyes and it all clicked.
It was an eye for an eye.
“They fucking killed her,” I shouted, looking at Rocco again. “Look at her.”
“Joaquin . . . ”
“Please, just look at her,” I pleaded, tears filling my eyes. “She didn’t deserve this, Rocco.”
I buried Pilar on a Tuesday— the day after Rocco got made. What? Did you think her death would change the course of Victor’s plan? Not a chance.
It was business as usual.
To them, she was just a junkie.
No one cared that I had just lost the only woman I ever allowed myself to love.
Well, I shouldn’t say that— Rocco cared.
In my time of grief, he stepped up. He got rid of the guns and paid the restaurant to destroy the surveillance tapes and lie to the police about the meeting. There was no trace of Victor to be found and when the cops came and saw the dead bodies, it was Rocco who told them Pablo’s guys had come into the restaurant guns blazing and I had acted in self-defense after they killed Pilar.
Pilar was taken to the morgue and Rocco, Violet, and I went home. My sister was a mess, but I didn’t have the head to console her. Hell, I don’t remember speaking to her after that. Rocco had to give her a sleeping pill to get her to finally go down. The next day, he called the airlines and changed her flight. He flew home with her and after his ceremony, he came back to stand beside me as Pilar was lowered into the ground.
I wanted revenge.
I wanted to kill and maim.
I wanted to wash away the stain of Pilar’s blood and replace it with the stain of someone else’s.
And so that’s exactly what I set out to do.
Victor turned himself in shortly after the funeral and with Rocco back in New York, I was free to run amuck. I sat outside Pablo’s house for two weeks, watching his wife. I thought of a million ways I could kill her and leave their children as orphans. I came close twice, once when she was sleeping and another when she was taking a shower, but the boy dressed in Batman pajamas and the little girl in the crib beside him always stopped me.
I can’t explain why. I just couldn’t do it.
Sometimes, I tell myself it wasn’t her time yet and I assure myself that when it is, it’ll be me who ends her life. Other times, I tell myself she ain’t worth it.
My phone sounds with a text and I shake the thoughts from my head.
Focus on today.
Turning the phone over, I glance at the screen and see it’s Violet. I swipe my thumb across the screen and open the text.
Violet: Checking on you.
Me: Still alive.
I lay the phone back on top of the desk and lean back in my chair. The bass sounds from the main floor and I close my eyes. It’s times like this when I’m alone with nothing but my thoughts and regrets that I feel Pilar’s presence.
Her love was a gift, one that will stay with me forever.
Someone knocks on the door, disrupting my moment of peace and my eyes shoot open. Slowly, I open the top drawer of my desk and pull out my gun.
“Come in,” I call.
The door opens and Primo steps inside. He doesn’t flinch at the gun in my hand and meets my gaze.
“The car is here to take you to the airport.”
I give him a nod and rise from my chair, tucking my gun into the waistband of my pants. I button my jacket, fix my sleeves, and smooth a hand over my tie.
Appearances are everything.
As I round the desk, I play back all the lessons Victor schooled me on throughout the years. However, there’s one lesson I wish he would’ve taught me before he died and that’s how to live when all the great ones around you are dead.
The End . . . for now.
About the Author
Janine Infante Bosco lives in New York City and is an International Bestselling Author. When she was thirteen, she began to write her own stories and her passion for writing took off as the years went on. At eighteen, she even wrote a full screenplay with dreams of one day becoming a member of the Screen Actors Guild.
Janine writes emotionally charged novels with an emphasis on family bonds, strong willed female characters, and alpha male men who will do anything for the women they love. She loves to interact with fans and fellow avid romance readers like herself.
When she isn't writing, she is busy planning the Tempted & Tantalizing Author Event, an annual book signing in her hometown of Staten Island, New York. She also recently started a mystery box subscription services that caters to bad boy characters and the various authors who write them.
She is proud of her success as an author and the friendships she's made in the book community but her greatest accomplishment to date would be her two sons Joseph and Paul.
Also by Janine Infante Bosco
The Tempted Series
Illicit Temptations
Forbidden Temptations
Uncontrollable Temptations
Reckless Temptations
Lethal Temptations
Eternal Temptations
The Nomad Series: Satan’s Knights MC
Drifter
Wanderer
Roamer
Loner
The Satan’s Knights Transition Of Power Series
From The Ruins
The Devil Don’t Sleep
Riding The Edge
Parrish
The Leather & Lace Duet (Satan’s Knights MC)
Blackout, Book One
Blackout, Book Two
Satan’s Knights Novella
Rite Of Passage
The Satan’s Knights Prospect Trilogy
Shifting Gears
Breaking The Chains
Walking The Line
The Tempted Series Generation 2.0
Fight Or Flight
The Pastore Crime Family
Straightened Out
Stand Alones
Raging Inferno
Cocky Hero Club
Cocky Jerk
Connected (The Pastore Crime Family) Page 6