Page 99 of Stay Little Fighter

His cheeks turn a deeper shade of pink as his loyal followers murmur between themselves, their eyes widening as I divulge some of his deepest secrets.

“She wanted to get out of that godforsaken compound, and she would have taken Ronan and me with her, but you couldn’t let that happen, could you?”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You couldn’t let her go. Did you know she would call Kingston to drive her to her appointment? Or were you banking on her taking her usual driver where you would have more control over the situation?”

“Shut up!” he shouts as his entire body begins to tremble with rage.

“Damon,” Kingston warns through the earpiece.

“She would be ashamed of you, Dad.” I spit the word. “She would be ashamed of the man you became and the ones you turned Ronan and me into.”

His eyes flare with fury, but I can’t stop. There’s so much I want to say, so fucking much I need to get off my chest before this motherfucker leaves this earth. “Shut the fuck up!” he screams.

“You want to know something? I obeyed almost every single order you gave me, even the ones that made my stomach churn, but there was one time I couldn’t do it. One time when you went too fucking far, and I couldn’t let you kill someone innocent.” A slow smile tips up the corners of my lips as his brow furrows, trying to anticipate what I’m going to say. “I was the one that helped Chloe escape the night you killed her parents. I knew I’d never be able to look my brother in the eye again if I let you kill the love of his life. And if I’m honest, I wouldn’t have been able to look at myself in the mirror after killing the only woman I could ever love.”

I’m breathing hard, my chest rising and falling so fast I know I’m at the end of my tether.

I’ve spent most of my life wanting to kill Salvatore Lombardi, but I was bound by loyalty, bound by a name and a legacy.

But after today those things won’t exist anymore.

Everything I thought I wanted will be burned to the fucking ground, right alongside the man I hate with every single beat of my heart.

“Damon.” Chloe’s voice fills my ear, and my chest tightens for a whole new reason. She’s safe. “We just landed, and we’re on our way to the warehouse.”

Thank fuck.

“As touching as this family reunion is,” Mikayla interjects, “none of this is relevant to me or my associates. It doesn’t matter what you think your little whore has because my employers are far too powerful to be taken down by the likes of you.”

“Aren’t you the least bit interested where your brother is?” I ask.

She sucks in a breath, but her face remains neutral. Mikayla was always a cold, heartless bitch, but somewhere over the last ten years, she’s lost her soul.

“He’s dead. I’m not sure what Kovu did with the body, but you can ask him when he gets here…if you don’t die first, obviously.”

That seems to get her attention, and she turns to who I assume is her head of security just as the doors burst open and the first shot is fired.

May she and my father rest in hell.

CHAPTER SIXTY-ONE

RYKER

NOW

There was a time in the not-so-distant past that I lived for this shit. I thrived on blood and chaos and gunfire, and I never thought that would change.

And don’t get me wrong, I’m fucking hyped to be wiping out some of the world’s scummiest humans, but there’s a part of me, and not a small part at that, that just can’t wait to get back to Chloe.

Knowing she’s safe and on her way here has allowed each of us to refocus on the task at hand because we don’t want her to live the rest of her life in danger.

We want to give her the world, and that includes one free from threats to her life. Meaning every person in this warehouse that didn’t arrive with us needs to die.

I burst through the door and take aim at one of Salvatore’s men, reveling in the way he hits the ground like a sack of potatoes before moving on to my next target.

Both Lombardi’s and Mikayla’s teams scramble to assess the situation they’ve found themselves in, and I’m a little smug that we tricked them both.