Tipping Point

by Ali Parker

  Adam smiled. Fuck, he was a sexy bastard. “You see? I knew you would understand. But that doesn’t change the fact that you’re a massive threat to me and mine. I know what I’m up against. Tell me, Izabella, why did you break into my estate uninvited? After our time together at the club a few weeks ago, I thought we were, I don’t know,” Adam shrugged, “forming an unlikely friendship of sorts. Do you disagree?”

  “Why did you break our meeting in Chicago?” I quipped back, arching an eyebrow. I already knew the answer, so when I opened my mouth to say it, Adam did too, and the word came out in unison.

  “Marco.”

  “As I thought,” I said, forcing myself to fall still in my chair. The wire was biting into me, and my struggling had only made it tighter. “Good. Bring him to me. I want him. Then there will be no bad blood between you and me, and that friendship you speak of wanting will be yours.”

  Adam ran his index finger along his bottom lip as he leaned sideways in his chair to lean on his elbow. “Not a fucking chance, you sly fox.”

  “You know what he did to us, right?” I narrowed my eyes at him and tried to force him to see reason with pure will.

  Adam paused with his finger still pressed to his lower lip but didn’t respond.

  “He arranged to have my mother raped and murdered. I saw what they did to her. What he let them do. And he killed Freddy. Our baby brother. Fuck him, and fuck you, Adam. This isn’t just about your fucked-up daddy issues anymore. We both know who killed Terrance.”

  “Of course we do. Your father never tried to keep it much of a secret. Not only that, but he couldn’t leave my father as an option for your mother to, you know, come back to when she was in the mood.”

  I had no clue who killed Terrance Cooper, and to hear that the Bertinellis in New York had it out for the old man was interesting, but now wasn’t the time.

  I strained at my bonds again. I felt the warm wet blood leak out and spill over my wrists. “You have no clue the game you’re playing at. You’re pissing off the wrong people, Adam. Let me go, and I’ll spare your life.”

  “Spare my life?” Adam pressed his hand to his chest and chuckled. “Dear Izabella, you are in no position to dictate whose life is spared and whose is forfeit.”

  “Not this second, maybe. But I swear to God I’ll—”

  “What? Kill me when you get out of that chair?” Adam arched an eyebrow.

  “Fuck you,” I grumbled and glared back. I forced myself to take a few calming breaths. Freaking out now wasn’t helping me. I wasn’t getting out of these bonds, and cutting myself raw would only slow me down later. I would have to play this smart if I wanted to get out of here.

  “Now there’s an option I’d be willing to discuss.” His smile widened.

  “Not a chance.” If D wasn’t in the picture, there would be more than a chance. The man was sex on a platter. His wealth, good looks, and the bulge in the front of his pants were more than enough for a long night of whimpers and moans. But D was in the picture and all the fuck I wanted.

  “Beautiful girl, you really don’t seem to appreciate the gravity of the situation you’re in. I hold all the power now. I have the daughter of Don Joe Castaletta. I can do with you what I wish, as many times as I wish. And by the end of it, you will fucking love it. I know what kind of woman you are, Izabella. I know what you need.”

  I swallowed the bile in my throat. “I’m going to strangle you with your own fucking curtains, Cooper.”

  Adam rocked back in his chair with laughter.

  “Laugh while you can,” I said, seething. “This is temporary. And this power you speak of? It’s just a fucking illusion, you dumbass. You just made the biggest mistake of your entire syndicate career.”

  Adam rose smoothly to his feet. He approached my chair and paused in front of me. Then he reached out and ran his fingers through the length of my hair. He stooped over me and lifted the strands to his face, where he inhaled a deep breath. “You smell like roses and lilacs. Exactly as I remember.”

  I scowled up at him as he dropped my hair and grabbed my chin in one hand. I jerked out of his grip, but there was nowhere for me to go. He grabbed me again and forced me to look up at him, squeezing my cheeks in his grip.

  “You talk a big game, Izabella. It can be charming, but you’re not as bad ass as you think.”

  I couldn’t speak with his hand holding me so tightly.

  “I am pleased with how things have fallen into my lap. I didn’t even need to work for any of this. And you, sitting here in my home, is just the icing on the cake. When this is all behind us, I will help you see that this is what’s best for you. Let me steal you away from this life of death and misery your father has corrupted you with. Let me help you.”

  He released my chin, and I looked away from him as he walked behind my chair. He rested his hands on my shoulders and began massaging them gently. He leaned in close, and his breath grazed my cheek. “Let me save you, Izabella. I can make you whole again. Together, we can rule. You can have anything and everything you might want. You just have to speak it, and it shall be yours.”

  “Marco,” I hissed. “I want Marco.”

  Adam gathered a fistful of my hair and pulled my hair back. A snarl whispered between my teeth as he pressed his lips to my throat. “You know I can’t do that. He is too important a piece in this war.”

  “And what am I in all of this? Just a trophy?”

  “Do you crave more than that? Does the simple manner of that life not appeal to you at all? To be free of murder and hate and always doing what your father tells you to do? Don’t you want more than orders?”

  “I’d never betray my family. Not ever.”

  He threw my head down, and my hair tumbled over my shoulders, framing my face like a long black curtain. I started laughing.

  Adam moved around in front of my chair and stared down at me. His shoulders were tense, and his brow was drawn together. I’d struck a nerve. Good.

  “You are a weak man, Adam Cooper. I would grow bored of you within the week.”

  His jaw clenched.

  “I’m no trophy,” I said. “I’m an Enforcer. And if you think you can make me anything other than what I am, you have another think coming. Let me out of this chair. Let’s see how you do against me.”

  “Enough,” Adam said coldly. He dropped to a crouch in front of my chair and grabbed both my knees. “I didn’t start this fucking war, but mark my words. I will finish it if that’s what Joe wants. I’m not afraid of any of you.”

  I smiled at him. “Then you’re a bigger fool than I thought.”

  “Perhaps, dove.” He leaned forward and licked his lips, stopping short of kissing me. “Perhaps.”

  He stood and walked languidly out of the room. When the door opened, he told the guard on the other side to keep an eye on me. The guard, a broad-shouldered guy dressed in black, turned to the door and slipped inside. He closed it softly and kept his back to me. He waited until the sounds of his boss’s footsteps in the hall faded, and then looked over his shoulder, a wide grin stretching his handsome face.

  “Nate?” I squeaked out. “Holy fucking shit.”

  “Hey, pretty girl.” He moved toward me and knelt down. “I’m thinking Demetri is going to call your number for getting caught.”

  “I’m going to thank him generously for placing you here as a rat. The fucking man is brilliant.” I sucked in a deep breath as relief filled my insides. “Wait. Don’t tell him I said that.”

  “Mum’s the word.” He winked and moved around to help free me from my restraints.

  19

  Marco

  Adam had been in there with her for too long. Over three hours. I could hear them talking, then yelling, and then silence. Izzy was pissed and rightfully so.

  None of this was what I wanted for my sister, and preparing to come face to face with her made me sick. I clutched at my stomach as I paced the floor, waiting.

  Desperate for a distraction, I went to t
he kitchen and sorted through a spread of snacks on the dining room table. I plucked a bran muffin from a silver tray and grabbed a bottle of orange juice; Izzy’s favorites. At this point, I was willing to try anything to curry her favor. I just needed a little bit of forgiveness and understanding. Just to get her to see the situation I was in.

  Surely, I could make her understand.

  I made my way back to the upper level and waited at the top of the stairs for Adam to come out of the bedroom.

  I wasn’t so sure I belonged in the Cooper camp anymore. Hopefully, I would be able to get out sooner rather than later. Best case scenario, Izzy would see why I did what I did, and she and I would get out of this place together.

  I jumped when Adam approached from behind and rested a hand on my shoulder. I spun to face him, and he gave me a curious smile. “Didn’t mean to startle you. I came out here, and you were gone. Your sister is all yours, man. Maybe you can help her see reason.”

  I peered down the hall at the bedroom Izzy was being kept in. “Maybe.”

  I made my way down the hall, tossing the bottle of orange juice end over end in one hand. When I got to the door, I knocked softly. She didn’t answer. She was probably going to give us all the silent treatment now.

  I nudged the door open with my hip, and as it swung open, my gaze fell upon the chair Izzy was in—correction, had been in. The wires that had been around her ankles and wrists had been cut and were hanging off the armrests.

  “Son of a bitch,” I growled, dropping the muffin and orange juice as I darted to the open window. The breeze blew the curtains inward as I rushed out onto the patio and peered down over the balcony.

  Izzy was running across the grounds with one of Adam’s security guards.

  “Izabella!” I yelled.

  She looked back at me. Even from the distance—about fifty feet across the yard—I could see the anger in her face. The man she was running with looked back too as I took to the stairs on the side of the balcony and rushed down them. I yelled for Adam.

  I hit the grass, and I rushed toward them. Izzy had stopped running and turned back to me. The man she was with grabbed her wrist—which I noticed was bloodied—and tried to pull her along behind him. She yelled something incoherent at him, but he tried again, this time pulling more forcefully.

  Who was that fucker? He looked incredibly familiar. Dark hair, tall, fit as hell. Wait, where was his blond hair at?

  Nate. Son of a bitch. How could I have forgotten that he was undercover? He was right under my nose this whole fucking time.

  I pulled my pistol out of the back of my jeans and took aim. I stared down the barrel and exhaled to still my hands. Time to cut the loose ends.

  “Get down!” Izzy screamed.

  She ducked as I pulled the trigger, and Nate moved to cover her. He staggered back a step as my shot slammed into the right side of his chest below his shoulder. Izzy shouted his name as she landed in the grass in front of Nate.

  Nate pressed a hand to his fresh wound and bent over to grab Izzy by the upper arm and haul her to her feet. I saw her next move before she made it.

  Izzy plucked Nate’s gun off his belt, and then she spun to face me, squaring her shoulders, spreading her feet, and pointing the gun right at my chest.

  I stopped in my tracks, and Izzy marched across the grass toward me, fucking fearless. She looked so much like our mother that my heart almost stopped. What had I done?

  “Izzy,” I said, trying to keep my voice level as I trained my gun on her. “Let’s talk about this. There’s still a lot you don’t know. I never wanted to hurt you or—”

  “You’re a fucking murderer!” The words left her in a snarl. I had never heard her so angry. So hateful. “How could you do that to Freddy? To Mom? My God, Marco. Who the fuck are you?”

  “You don’t understand!” I yelled back. “It wasn’t my idea. None of this was my fucking idea. I wanted to make Joe proud. I wanted to earn my place as a Castaletta and prove to him once and for all that I belonged in his syndicate. He’s not my father. I had to do something, goddamn it. I needed him to know that I was just as worthy of his respect as his fucking pet, Demetri. None of this was ever about you.”

  “It’s about me now,” Izzy growled. Nate ran up behind her, and she shook him off as he tried to pull her back to him. “You made me shoot D, Marco.”

  “I’m sorry.” Though I wasn’t sure that I was.

  “You don’t know what sorry even means.”

  “Izzy. Please. We just have to work together—like old times. We can take out Adam Cooper. We can cut the head off the snake and bring word back to father that—”

  “He’s not your fucking father.” Izzy spit her words out like venom. There would be no convincing her of my reasoning. “He never was. And he never will be. Your time as a Castaletta is done. You’ve brought shame to the name and to yourself. You’re not worthy of it.” She took a shaky breath as tears started surfacing in her eyes. “All of this just to prove yourself? That’s all Freddy and Mom were worth to you? They were just pawns in your bullshit game?”

  “They made their beds, Izabella. They fucked Dad over.”

  “Freddy fucked Dad over by being born?” she screamed at me. She’d fucking lost it. There would be no survival for me.

  Her face was bright red, and the tendons in her neck were strained. Izzy clenched her jaw and shook her head. “Who were those thugs in the alley? Who were the ones that raped Mom? Tell me, Marco, or so help me God, I’ll put a bullet straight through your fucking skull!”

  “Izzy, please. Drop it—”

  “Fucking tell me!”

  She was going to shoot me. I could see it in her eyes. “They were just some hired assholes.”

  “How could you do that to her?” Izzy asked. Her voice was hoarse from screaming at me. “How could you do that to Freddy? I could barely recognize him on those tapes. Our baby brother. He didn’t deserve that. Neither of them deserved that.”

  “They were cannon fodder, Izzy. Dad wanted them dead, and you know how it goes with him. He gets what he wants. Always. I was just a fucking tool to get the job done.” My voice dripped with desperation as I willed her to believe me; to understand why I had made the decisions I did. I didn’t have much time. “I love you, and you know it. You’ve always known it. I’ve done everything I could to protect you from this. I took the brunt of this shit. I did the dirty jobs. You were supposed to, but I stepped up, goddamn it. I took your place as executioner.”

  “Fuck you, Marco, for lying. My father would never ask that of you.” She glanced over at Nate, who had dropped to a knee beside her in the grass. His brow was furrowed with pain as blood leaked between his fingers. Izzy bit her lip, and her gaze swung back up to me.

  “No?” I screamed back. “But he asked you to come here and kill me? Your flesh and blood? We share a mother. You are my goddamn sister.”

  “Don’t you talk about momma.” The gun shook, and her expression stilled, which was never good. “And the Kallups? What of them?”

  “Dad hired them to fuck things up. To put us all on edge so that Freddy’s death would be swept under the rug and we could get Adam Cooper to come out to play. The bastard is a nice guy recluse.”

  “No, he’s not.” Izzy shifted her feet in the grass and rolled her shoulders. I could see the gun trembling in her grip. “How did you entice the Kallups when fucking Adam Cooper already had them on his payroll? And don’t fucking say one more thing about my father, Marco. I’m serious.”

  Damn her for asking all the right questions. Damn her for being able to keep her wits at a time like this. “We promised them almost two million in cash, which Parker delivered. But the bastard spent some of it. He had to die because he knew too much—and we told the Kallups we would get Drake back in town. That they could take their revenge on Drake for killing Zach.”

  Nate groaned on the grass, but Izzy didn’t take her eyes off me. Nate was staring at me too, his gaze hard and angry. “Fuck,
Izzy, we gotta get out of here,” he muttered.

  “If anyone touches Drake, I’ll bathe in their fucking blood.” She stayed where she was and glared at me with the look of a killer on her face. “You told me D was behind this.”

  I didn’t say anything. I was fucked. We had gotten to the part I knew she would hate me most for. The part she would never be able to overlook. I bit the inside of my cheek.

  “I know, and—” I started, but she interrupted me, her voice dropping low.

  “Was he supposed to die, too? Fucking tell me, Marco.”

  I wasn’t going to shoot my sister. I couldn’t. I lowered my gun and let my arms fall to my sides as I lowered my gaze to the grass and my eyes filled with tears.

  “Yes,” I whispered under my breath. I couldn’t do this shit anymore.

  “Look at me, you murderous fucking bastard!” Izzy screamed.

  The grass swayed between us as another gentle breeze blew through, bringing with it the scent of lilacs and fresh-cut grass. Behind me came the sound of the guards escaping the mansion to come after us. Adam knew the position that would put me in, and he wanted me right where I was.

  A dead man walking.

  I lifted my eyes slowly, staring up the grass and up to my sister. She was a force to be fucking reckoned with. She was dressed in form-fitting black clothes as she always did. She was dressed in what she had planned to kill me in. The truth of why she had come was not lost on me. Her sleeves cut off at her elbows, revealing the long dark cuts the wires had left on her forearms.

  I never wanted her to get hurt, and here she was, hurting more than I had ever seen her. Because of me. Because of our family.

  “I’m sorry, Izzy,” I said softly. The approaching guards were yelling for me to duck, yelling for me to get out of the line of fire so they could take her down. She still had time. If she did what she needed to do, at least one of us could get out of this with our lives. All I needed to do was tell her the truth.

  Izzy’s bottom lip trembled, but the hardness in her eyes promised me that she would do what needed to be done. “Tell me, brother,” she whispered, just loud enough for me to hear. “Did D need to die, too?”