The sudden blast of gunfire surprised Colton. Next to him, Nishi gasped. Finn went down, holding his chest. Colton’s heart thumped like a goddamn jackhammer against his ribs. Anger and frustration swirled around him, turning him into a ticking timebomb. His head snapped back to the old man. “What’s he talking about, DeLuca. There’s only one reason you’d shoot your son. To shut him up. What are you hiding?”
“Y-yes, he did, Colt.” Finn cried out. “He doesn’t want you to know the truth—”
“Say one more word, ungrateful bastard, and I’ll end your fucking life,” DeLuca bellowed. His breathing erratic, the old man turned away.
Finn whimpered and pulled himself into a sitting position against the fireplace. “He killed your father, Colt.”
“What the fuck?” Colton advanced so fast; DeLuca didn’t have a chance to move and found himself staring down the barrel of a gun. He shoved the Colt into DeLuca’s chest. “I’ll give you one more chance, old man. What’s Finn talking about? And don’t fuck with me. I want the truth.” DeLuca’s men raised their guns. “Tell them to lower their weapons or one of us is dying today, and it’s not me. I’ll tear open your fucking chest before they have a chance to get a shot off.” Colton gritted through clenched teeth. DeLuca gestured to his men. They lowered their guns and stepped back. “Now, talk.”
DeLuca heaved a deep breath and dropped into the chair behind his desk. Colton kept the gun trained on him. “I guess sometimes we all pretend to be something we’re not, huh, son?” Colton stared at him blankly. “Does this look like the face of the man I used to be?” DeLuca pointed to his face.
“No. Not the man I used to know. You were once feared and respected. Now, you’ve become nothing but a perverted fuck.”
“You have no clue, do you?” DeLuca smirked.
“Enlighten me.”
“When a man goes looking for death, one way or the other, he’ll find it. I gave your father my life, my trust, my fucking heart, and he betrayed it. When a man makes that choice, then someone has to deal with the consequences that follow.”
“You knew my father? What betrayal?”
DeLuca stared at the ceiling, lost in thought. “We were thick as thieves when we looted our first jewelry store. Once we got the taste for money, it became second nature to steal. Confident, we ventured into the drug market. Soon, we were a force to reckon with, and I trusted him like a brother. Then, he fell in love. He pretended everything was kosher between us while he planned to leave the operation. When I found out, I pretended to let him think I was okay with him leaving. Only I wasn’t.” His tone dripped venom and more than just hate.
“My father was your partner?”
“Mind-boggling, huh? Trust me, son, your father was no saint.”
Colton shook his head in disbelief and sat down on the edge of the desk. His father was the ideal husband, the perfect parent. His family always came first. “You expect me to believe this shit you’re spinning to save your life.”
DeLuca sighed. He reached into his desk draw and pulled out a Smith and Wesson Magnum. “Remember this?”
Colton’s eyes flared in recognition. “My first kill.”
The older man nodded and rubbed the weapon almost lovingly. “My prized possession.” He laughed. “Yes. The baby you used to shoot the fuckers who raped your mother and sister. It felt good, didn’t it, son?” He looked up. “Ask yourself a simple question.” At Colton’s raised brow, he continued, “If I am feeding you bullshit, how did I pitch up at the precise moment my men were going to kill you.”
Realization dawned. His sister. His mother. Colton shot up. Rage flared in his veins––hot, bloody, and violent. His body shuddered. He took a couple of deep breaths. “Your men? You bastard.” Without thinking, he grabbed the older man by the neck and brought him to his feet. Colton punched his face, landing a blow in tune to the words he uttered. “Your men raped my sister and mother. Fucking pig.”
DeLuca’s gun dropped to the table. He staggered backward into his chair when Colton released him. One eye quickly swelled as he cupped his jaw and pointed to something. Colton turned. He cursed and lowered his weapon. One of DeLuca’s men held Nishi at gunpoint. Yet, the look she gave him told him not to worry. A level of trust passed between them. He placed his gun on the table.
“Let’s try this again.” DeLuca spat blood, wiped his mouth, and stared at Colton. “If it weren’t for your father’s stupidity, neither one of us would be here today. At this very point. Ready to kill each other. Shoot me if you want, but at least hear me out. You owe me that much, son.”
“Son? I’m not your fucking son. You are no father. Your heart is pure fucking stone. I owe you shit, old man. Look at the fucking scars on your back and your leg. You’re walking around with a plate in your fucking skull because of me. I saved your life. Three. Fucking. Times. I paid my fucking dues with my life. Yet, you stole everything from me.” Colton seethed. Sweat lined his brow. His blood, spurred by fury, on the verge of boiling.
“And you think I lost nothing,” DeLuca screamed. “I lost the only woman I loved with all my heart and—” He broke off on a sob. “My son—my dear Emilio. He would’ve been your age today. Instead, they left me with this whining, wretched ass for a son.” He gestured at Finn. The younger man glowered, hatred painted across his pained, sweating features. “In exchange for a plea bargain, your father ratted me out to the feds. During the raid, they killed my wife and son. I escaped and swore vengeance on your father. It took forever to find them until a dirty cop on my payroll got me their location.” DeLuca sneered his features a hard mask of the old DeLuca. The one whose very name elicited a shiver. “Yes, I fucking killed your family, and took you to replace the son, your father’s betrayal stole. And you turned out to be everything I wanted in my son. Look at you, Colton. Proud, arrogant, rich, and a fucking killer. All because of me—”
“You killed my family?” Rex’s unexpected growl had Colton swiveling sharply. “It wasn’t an accident?”
Colton’s men crowded the entrance, the three patio doors, and the open windows. Which meant they had the property surrounded and had probably taken care of the men outside.
The man holding Nishi backed up toward the fireplace. “Tell them to drop their weapons, or I’ll shoot her.” He looked at DeLuca for reassurance. The older man’s other men raised their weapons.
“Seems we’ve reached a stand-off.” DeLuca scoffed.
“Colt?” Rex’s distressed features crushed him. This wasn’t the way he intended his brother to find out. “Is it true?”
“Yes, it’s true, Rex,” DeLuca answered before Colton could respond. “You and your brother ate from the hand of the man that killed your father. I also had your mother and sister raped then killed.”
“You bastard.” Rex rushed toward the DeLuca.
“Rex, no,” Colton yelled at the same time a gun went off.
Everyone froze, eyes darting around to see who’d taken the shot. Colton was the first to react when his gaze fell on Nishi and the blood spattering her shirt. “Nishi?” he shouted.
She shook her head. “I’m okay.”
The man behind her slid to the ground, his eyes lifeless. Colton shifted his gaze to Finn. Next to Colton, DeLuca cursed as Finn grinned.
“You’re welcome, Colt. Paybacks a bitch, ain’t it, daddy dearest?” Finn’s laugh filled the room. His smoking gun dropped to the floor before he erupted into a coughing fit. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry, Colton. Sorry, the same bastard raised us,” he mumbled as blood trickled down his chin.
Finn pulled in his last breath on a loud inhale the same time the color drained from DeLuca’s face. Rex dashed toward the old man, and pandemonium broke out. Gunfire filled the room.
“Nishi! Get down!” Colton shouted, unsure if she could hear him. He dropped to the floor as bullets whizzed by. On all fours, he scrambled for his gun and opened fire while he scanned the room for Nishi.
Several minutes later, when the cac
ophony of gunfire, aggravated shouts and struggling ceased to nothing but whimpers and moans, he turned to find Rex at his rear. With a nod, he gestured for Rex to stand. Colton scanned the room, scattered with slumped bodies. Most of his men rose slowly.
“Where’s Nishi?” His gaze darted quickly to the last place she’d stood before all hell broke loose. “Who’s got eyes on DeLuca?” His anger ricocheted around the room.
“Probably lurking in the shadows somewhere,” Rex grunted. “Wherever the fuck he is, I call dibs on killing the bastard.”
“Boss!” Brody’s shout yanked Colton’s anxious gaze. “You better get outside quick.”
Fueled by panic, he raced out the door and stopped short. It took a breathless second to survey the scene: DeLuca sat against the wall. One hand nursed a wounded thigh evident by the blood seeping through his white slacks while the other clutched his stomach. Nishi lay on the terrace floor, eyes closed, her fingers wrapped around DeLuca’s prized Smith and Wesson. But it was the dark crimson patch on the front of her white shirt that caught his attention.
“Nishi?” Colton shot forward and dropped to his knees. Dread squeezed his insides. “No. Fuck. This isn’t happening.” Without thinking, he pushed up her shirt. Breathing hard, he searched her body for the wound. “What the—”
“It’s my blood,” DeLuca uttered a maniacal laugh and lifted his black shirt. Blood oozed from a hole near his belly button. “Fooled you for a minute, didn’t I, Colt?”
Livid, Colton narrowed his eyes at DeLuca then dropped his gaze. “Nishi? Sweetheart?” He shook her lightly, then placed two fingers to the side of her neck and listened to her breathing. Her pulse was weak, but she was breathing normally.
Another laugh spluttered past DeLuca’s blood-stained lips. “She got me good, Colt. Finally, a woman with balls. She got her revenge.” He winced and held his stomach. “Guess she was right, though. That she’d kill me, but the bitch got—”
The sudden crack of a gun cut Colton’s gaze to his brother’s shaking body. “The bastard was taking too long to die,” Rex grunted and stuck his weapon into the back of his jeans.
Colton glanced at DeLuca. Blood saturated his face, spilling from the hole to his brow, glassy eyes fixated on nothing. Colton dropped his gaze back to Nishi. “I don’t understand?” Baffled, he looked up at Rex and Brody. Both men appeared just as perplexed. “If she didn’t get shot, why isn’t she waking up.”
“Boss, the bastard shoved her hard when she shot him. She probably had the wind knocked out of her and fainted.” Brody stepped forward and dropped to his knees. “Check the back of her head.”
Colton slipped a hand under her head. The second moisture lathered his fingers, he recoiled in alarm and stared at the scarlet liquid on his fingers. Shit. Heart pounding, he slid his arms under her body and gently lifted. He stood with her cradled in his hold. “I need to get her to Rob.”
All three men raced to the SUV parked out front. Colton slid into the rear while Rex got behind the wheel and Brody into the passenger seat. As his brother sped toward home, Colton stared at Nishi, willing her to open her eyes. A sense of déjà vu pricked his senses. Only, this time he wasn’t staring down at an injured stranger, but the beautiful face of the woman who’d disarmingly changed his mind about sentiments. It existed. Again, his emotions turned jagged, and his insides tightened. He prayed for her to wake and smile—that stunning smile that made him go weak in the knees.
Chapter Twenty Five
STILL ANXIOUS AFTER Rob’s visit almost two hours ago, Colton paced his bedroom. He glanced down intermittently at Nishi’s sleeping form until his shot nerves warned him to calm the fuck down and reach for the bottle of whiskey sitting at the minibar. It took several sips before a smidgen of concern eased up enough to let him breathe properly.
“How’s she doing?”
He turned. Rex stood at the door, his gaze on Nishi. “Thankfully, well. Doc mentioned her memory might return. Says it’s a mild concussion. Something he can only determine when she wakes.”
“She will wake, right? Do you think she’ll remember us?”
He’d asked Rob the same question. “Doc’s sure of it.” He inhaled deeply. “Rex?” When his brother turned to face him, Colton flinched. While Rex was strong, he appeared to be one more blow away from breaking. With everything he’d discovered about their family today, losing Nishi would probably hurt a whole lot more than Colton could imagine. She’d become the sister Rex never knew. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you the truth.” His fingers clenched against his brother’s pain.
Rex stared at him for a long moment, then sighed. “I guess you had your reasons.”
He placed a hand on Rex’s shoulder. “Honestly, I didn’t know how to tell you—to share their gruesome deaths to a child. And then before I knew it, you were a teenager growing into a young man with a happy future ahead of you. I didn’t want it marred by bad memories.”
“I understand. Whatever it was, I’m grateful to you for not only sparing me the horror behind their deaths but raising me right, for the constant protection and always being there. And, I’m sorry you had to live with that burden for so long—alone.”
Colton smiled and slipped his hands into his pants pockets. “While I couldn’t do anything to save our parents or Alessia, I swore I’d never let anyone or anything hurt you, Rex. It’s the only reason I never allowed DeLuca to sink his greedy claws into you no matter how many times he tried.”
“Thank fuck the bastard’s dead. And now, you can start living—maybe marry and give me a niece or nephew I can spoil,” with those words, he glanced at Nishi. “She’s perfect for you, Colt.”
“I know.” He inhaled deeply. C’mon, baby, wake up and smile at me. Colton moved to the side of the bed. He could’ve sworn his heart skipped a few beats as his gaze caressed her sleeping features. A strange feeling settled over his body, stretching through every nerve cell, overwhelming yet absolute. He loved Nishi. Something told him he should be shocked, yet a small part of him had expected this to happen since the day he took her in the elevator.
“Let me know when she wakes.”
Colton looked up and nodded before Rex left the room. A soft groan drew his gaze back to bed. Nishi stirred. Her hand moved to her head.
“Nishi?”
Her eyes opened, confusion masked her features. She gazed at Colton. “W-where am I?”
Concerned, he sat down on the mattress and reached for her hand. “It’s okay, sweetheart, you bumped your head.” Again, she stared at him as though trying to place him. Her reaction worried him. Please, God, let her remember me. “Don’t be alarmed, sweetheart. It’s me—”
“Colton?” As recognition replaced her uncertainty, he inhaled on a thankful breath.
“Jesus, Nishi, you scared me.”
“My head hurts.”
“It will. You banged it pretty hard when you fell.” He reached for the pills and bottled water on the nightstand. “Here. Doc instructed me to give you these when you woke. She swallowed the medication and handed him the bottle. “It will take a few minutes to work.” He leaned forward and dropped a light kiss to her lips.
With an abrupt groan, she pushed him away and sat up, startling him. “Liam?”
Colton stared at her blankly. “Who’s Liam?”
Before he could gauge her move, she vaulted off the bed and stood. Her eyes darted around, searching. “Is he okay? Where is he?” Since meeting her, he’d never seen Nishi show an ounce of anxiety.
Slowly, panic surfaced. His spine tingled. Something was not right. Torn between wanting and not wanting to know, he asked, “Nishi, who’s Liam?”
Her gaze dropped to Colton as though recognizing him for the first time. She blinked then bit her lip. “My husband.”
Wait. What? He gawked in shock. Rising, he neared her. “Your husband? You’re married?”
She nodded. “We were on our honeymoon when we were hi-jacked.”
“Honeymoon?” It took a control
led effort to keep from shouting. His chest tightened—seared with the force of a thousand invisible knives. Disbelief mingled with pain, scorched his insides as he struggled to breathe. “Are you fucking with me, sweetheart?” he asked, willing her to say yes. Nishi had played more than a few tricks on him. He hoped this was just another one of her mischief antics.
“No. It’s the truth.”
Reality barreled into him like a close-range bullet, and a firestorm exploded in his chest. Colton strode over to the window. His heart, body, and soul fighting for the attention he couldn’t give. Relationships were a luxury he couldn’t afford with his way of life. He’d tried it once—the repercussions proved a dangerous combination of pain and fear—something he didn’t need. And now the one time he gave in to the desire, it happened to be a married woman at the other end. Murphy’s law just fucked him—twice over.
“Colton?” Nishi came up behind him. “I’m sorry I couldn’t remember anything.”
He turned and stared at the vision of loveliness in front of him. Her eyes, huge, liquid blue ink simmered with open honesty. It wasn’t her fault. None of this was—he’d wanted her just as much. “I can’t blame you for anything. You were a victim of circumstances and me...” He hesitated, unsure what to say.
“A victim of love?” her soft words tugged at his heart, the guard over her eyes no longer in place.
For the first time since she’d entered his life, he read genuine emotion in her eyes, her face. All this time, Colton believed she’d faked her interest, even when he was falling for her. Now, if one looked closely, they would see the perfect mask of pretense crumbling as raw emotions took over—it revealed her true feelings—something she couldn’t deny if he questioned her. What would be the point anyway—she was married. And once she found her husband again, she’d be out of Colton’s life, for good. The finality of that thought had him clenching his fists in frustration.
“I-I’m sorry.” She moved to look out the window.
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