Page 180 of Taming Seraphine
“The one who’s going to blow your brains across your TV if you don’t answer my questions.”
He forces out a sharp exhale, his large frame trembling with restrained fury. Edoardo seems like the type of man who might grab my wrist and wrestle control of the gun, so I step back out of reach.
“What do you want?” he asks, his voice tight.
“Samson Capello is still alive. I want to know where he’s hiding.”
“Have you tried the big house?” he snaps.
I don’t dignify that stupid question with an answer. Samson wouldn’t return to the mansion until he was sure that all his enemies were dead. Instead, I flick off the gun’s safety with a click, making Edoardo stiffen.
“Try again, asshole.”
Edoardo raises his hands. “Alright, alright. Last thing I heard, he was staying with an associate out of town.”
“Where?”
“He didn’t say. Some house by Lake Alderney.”
My nostrils flare.
He’s with Anton.
“That’s all I know,” Edoardo says. “Now, could you please fuck off?”
I can’t muster up the enthusiasm to give him an elaborate death. All my anger has been superseded by the overwhelming pain of everyone’s betrayal.
Leroi’s treachery cut the deepest. I’d come to terms with losing Mom. She was flawed, but hadn’t deserved such a terrible death. Now, I don’t know what to think.
My breathing becomes labored. Leroi crafted a persona of my perfect match. A man who knew the pain of being rejected by family and had spent his teens learning to kill, just like me. He gave me hope that there was someone out there who would see me as more than a pawn or prey, when all I was to him was both.
“Hello?” Edoardo snaps, his harsh voice snapping me out of my musings. “You got what you want, so?—”
I cut off his rant with a bullet in the throat, and he falls off the sofa with a heavy thud. Killing is dull without an audience.
My journey out of his house is a blur of jumbled thoughts. Thoughts of Mom. thoughts of Gabriel, thoughts of Leroi and the hole I sliced into his gut. Thoughts of how on earth I’m going to find Anton’s house. It’s probably in Miko’s address book. If not, maybe I’ll find a clue in the photos.
Pain drags my heart down to my ankles, creating imaginary shackles. Even though I knew this thing I had with Leroi was too good to be true, I’d prepared my mind for a betrayal, but not of this magnitude. My worst-case scenario was Leroi being fickle, and one day casting me out. It never crossed my mind that he could be one of the masterminds conspiring to enslave my heart.
And Mom? I don’t even know what to think.
The only way to clear my mind is to keep killing enemies until I get answers. With any luck, I’ll find where Samson is hiding with Anton and pick them off one by one.
As I sneak back into Pietro’s house, a sharp pain pierces my arm. I glance down what’s sticking out of my skin: the red tailpiece of a tranquilizer dart.
I break into a run and yank it out, but it’s already too late. It takes no time before my steps grow heavy and my muscles succumb to the sedative.
Darkness clouds my vision, and I stumble to my knees. As I hit the floor, rough hands roll me onto my back and I stare into the furious eyes of my attacker.
Miko flashes his teeth. “You’re going to pay for stabbing Leroi.”
SEVENTY-ONE
LEROI
Pain lances through the stab wound, setting my insides aflame. My knees hit the ground, and I yell at Seraphine to stop. She thinks I’m attacking her mother, but she doesn’t understand I was trying to stop her from running. Blood rushes from my abdomen at an alarming rate, and the edges of my vision fill with a dark mist.
Shit.