Total pages in book: 260
Estimated words: 245483 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1227(@200wpm)___ 982(@250wpm)___ 818(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 245483 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1227(@200wpm)___ 982(@250wpm)___ 818(@300wpm)
“She doesn’t know anything!” Gio screams. I stare at the cinder blocks on the wall, focusing on my breathing, taking in the room. Looking for options.
It’s quiet for a moment as my father paces. I know he’s going to kill Gio. I can’t let him. I won’t be able to breathe if I watch him die at the hands of my father.
I look over my shoulder. My captor, my master, my everything is so badly wounded and scarred. But he’s still fighting. I won’t stop fighting either. Not till the very end.
Gio’s eyes are darting from me to my father, the hardness in his features replaced by a vulnerability I’ve never seen as he says, “Just let her go.” His breathing is coming in heavy pants as my father lets out a humorless laugh. “She didn’t do anything. She didn’t tell me anything.”
I didn’t. I have nothing to tell. But the truth isn’t what my father wants.
This is just another reason for him to hurt me. Maybe enough to kill me this time.
“You’re my daughter. A Rossi!” He screams so loud in my face it makes my chest hurt. I flinch out of instinct, and I hate it. I scoot back on my ass, the hard concrete under my palms and watch as my father moves to the edge of the steel table on the backside of the room. His rage is consuming him like the hothead he is.
Alec moves to the side as my father grips the table and flips it over, causing all of the knives and other weapons of torture to hurl into the air and crash onto the ground next to me. My arms cover my face as I turn my body.
Uncle Toni yells in Italian, grabbing my father by the arms and trying to keep him from beating me. Gio is screaming, his chair scooting closer and closer to me. But neither one of them can save me from the kick to my back. My father’s hard boot slams into me.
“I have a rat for a daughter!” The spit from his sneer hits my face as he grips my arm and turns me toward him as he yells, “A fucking traitor!”
I see the knife. The sharp edge of it is shining in the dim light coming from the hallway. I don’t hesitate to grab it, ignoring the kick to my stomach and quickly turn onto my back. It nearly slips from my sweaty palms as I grip it with both hands and reach up.
My father’s eyes widen as he crouches closer, intent on beating me again.
Intent on hurting me like he’s done for years. Expecting me to submit as I always have.
A violent scream rips through my throat as I plunge the blade into the side of his neck.
My heartbeat stills, and everything burns inside of me as I pull the knife out, blood gushing from his wounds and his body freezing in shock. And I stab him again, and again and again.
Chapter 27
Gio
* * *
The darkness in me shatters as Grace plunges the knife into her father. I’m helpless as I watch her struggle with the fear and anger and raw vulnerability shining in her eyes. Never has death seemed so real to me. And I can’t do a damn thing but watch.
I struggle against the zip ties digging and cutting into the flesh of my wrists, the blood dripping down my hand from the wounds.
Fuck! I need to help her. I can’t sit and watch. But I’m useless.
“You bastard!” she screams. She plunges it into his body again and again, the blade slicing through his skin.
“You bitch,” he groans, finally falling against the wall as the blood spills from his neck. His hands try to stop the flow, but she’s done enough damage. He’s done for. He tries to fight, but he’s losing so much blood too quickly.
I watch, totally helpless, unable to do a thing. I wish I could stand up and take the knife from her and finish the job myself. She doesn’t need blood on her hands.
But part of me is grateful she’s finally doing this. That she’s the one to put an end to her pain. She’s so fucking strong. I’ve seen this fight in her, and now she’s using it. But it hurts me that she had to. I hate that it came to this. She’s wanted freedom her whole life, and now she’s getting it. Killing the man that locked her up and abused her for so long was one surefire way to exorcise him from her mind. He can never hurt her again, not after she stabbed him to death.
Toni stands by the door, arms outstretched. “Back off,” he growls at the men that try to get past him and go to Martino’s aid, even though the looks in their eyes reveal the shock, and in some of them the pride of seeing her take down her father.