The Wrath of Cain (The Syndicate, #1)(41)

I charge at him. He falls to his knees when my fist connects with his jaw.

“I’ve only got one thing to say to you, you coward.”

I rip the tape off his mouth and he yelps. *.

With my hand fisted tightly in his hair, I jerk back his head. His eyes search me out.

“I didn’t know he was the one that p…put the hit out on Calla,” he snivels. “I swear to God, Cain! I was helping out Emerald. She asked me if he could live in the basement, that he needed a place to hide out from the cops.”

“Emerald?” I ask incredulously.

I thrust his head back and run my hands through my hair. I cannot believe this shit!

“I’m telling you Cain. We didn’t know. She’s just as innocent as I am. We’ve all been played here.”

“Aw, come on, Monty. You expect us to believe you didn’t have a f*cking clue? You knew he killed my father. And you f*cking know why? It’s because I threw his ass out of here. I don’t do drugs and you know it. You, on the other hand, do. You smoke that weed like f*cking crazy. It’s fried your goddamned brain cells. And as for your daughter? Well, I guess she f*cked up too, didn’t she?”

“No. Oh, God, no, you guys. That’s my little girl. She’s all I have left of my wife. She’s innocent, I know she is. She would never do anything to hurt you, Cain. You know this. She’s been in love with you for years. Come on, man. Not her.”

I look at him in disgust.

“As much as I would love to kill the both of you myself, my father-in-law is so much better at it. You see, he doesn’t blink. Doesn’t talk. He’s going to inflict so much pain on you, you will be begging him to end your lives. But he won’t. And do you know why, you stupid f*ck? You’ve been harboring a man who has a hit out on his daughter. You are so f*cked, man. I could almost piss my pants for you. After every goddamned thing my father ever did for you, you’ve been protecting him. He killed my father, you f*cking dickhead. MY FATHER! The man who trusted you! Jesus Christ, you make me sick.”

Right then, the crack of the door slamming shut cuts through the sound of Monty’s whimpering. Six sets of eyes simultaneously set their sights on my wife standing on the porch with the same look in her eyes as her father. The intent to kill.

She looks down on Monty with contempt.

“My dad isn’t going to do anything to Emerald. But I sure as hell will.”





Chapter Fourteen


Calla





“I’m glad we talked. I can’t say I understand why everyone does the things that they do. The hardest part is coming to terms with what my dad does. It’s so hard to explain the feelings I have inside of me right now. I mean, how do you handle it?”

My voice nearly breaks sitting here talking to Manny about being a child born into the mafia. His mom wasn’t born into it. She was his dad’s high school sweetheart just like Cain and I, only they weren’t forced apart by those who should love you, like we were.

I’m not a damn idiot. I know my parents, or at least my father, had something to do with Cain and I splitting up. A fresh onslaught of tears wells up inside of me knowing he had a hand in my destruction. He stood by and watched me fall apart. I’m not sure if I can forgive either him or my mother for that.

“I’ve grown up with this lifestyle,” Manny continues. “I’m used to it. It’s all I know. Everyone in the family is expected to have a certain role, whether it be to kill those who wrong the family, or become a lawyer on my father’s team. Me, I had the desire to kill. I remember one time going out hunting with my dad and a couple of his buddies when I was ten years old. My first hunt and my first kill. I was so f*cking happy, I couldn’t stop talking about it for days, like how good it felt, and asking when we could do it again. It worried the hell out of my mother so much so that every time dad and I would go out hunting, she would nearly have a nervous breakdown. That’s why she sent me here to live closer to you all.”

“Really? You came here by yourself?”

Manny shrugs.

“I lived by myself during the week. And every weekend my mom or my dad, or sometimes both, would come.”

“My God, you were only sixteen years old! How did they get away with letting you live by yourself?”

He gives me this, ‘Seriously? We can do anything we want’ look.

“And, I wasn’t alone,” he adds. “I knew who you were, and I knew about Cain, too. That’s why I made it a point to be friends with you right away. Plus, I had Aunt Cecily checking in on me every day, not to mention your dad. Jesus, that’s one scary man.”

I scoff at his remark about my dad. He’s never been a scary man to me. Not until earlier today, anyway.

“What did he do, beat your ass when you stepped out of line? Catch you in bed with all those sluts you used to bag in school?”

We both laugh. Manny was the new guy in school. Tall, dark, and mysteriously handsome, he climbed his way into just about every girl’s pants in the entire school.

“Nah. He didn’t give a shit about that kind of stuff. He just said he’d take me to the spot where he burns and then dumps the remains of his victims if I ever knocked any of them up. He was serious, too. I think that was his way of telling me it takes a special type of person to be able to take someone else’s life. You know what I mean? Here’s the thing, though. That’s not what my parents wanted me to do. They didn’t want me to be a hitman for the family; they wanted me to be a protector, one that kept an eye out for you and kept you safe. We have lots of enemies. People who want to take us out and destroy us. People who know what your father does. All families protect the ones they love the most. So I trained. I trained to be a killer. Not an assassin like your dad. Instead, someone who’s not afraid to kill someone if they attempt to hurt someone we love. My first assignment after your dad trained me was you.”