Page 93 of Taboo Flames

I scoff. “Let’s not pretend this isn’t giving you a major hard-on. Get on with it already, asshole.”

Something unidentifiable flashes in his eyes. “You could be worth millions, Miss Vitale. I know men who would give everything for the chance to break you in.”

I shudder in disgust. “Good thing I’m not a horse then. I don’t need to be broken in,” I retort icily.

He laughs wryly. “Would you rather die then?”

“I’d rather choose the most gruesome death you can think of,” I inform him.

“Then die.”

Just as he reaches for me, the sound of a gunshot rings in the air, and red blooms on Giordano’s shirt. He gasps, looking down at himself and touching the rapidly spreading blood with a sense of disbelief.

I look over his shoulder to see Gio with a gun pointed at Giordano, his eyes narrowed in fury.

“Gio!” I cry out in shock and elation.

“Wha—how?” Giordano stammers in disbelief.

“You’re the one who taught me to always aim for the head,” Gio says coldly, opening his shirt to show a bulletproof vest. I let out a breath of relief.

Giordano drops to his knees, gasping in pain as his blood continues to flow.

“It’s a good thing I paid attention to your lessons,” Gio continues, his eyes blazing.

Giordano collapses onto his back, breathing harshly. Then, he coughs, blood spluttering from his mouth and running down his chin.

Gio steps forward to stand over him. “It’s time to end this.”

And then he raises his leg in the air and brings it down hard on Giordano’s head. I watch in grim fascination as his head explodes like a watermelon, blood and brain matter flying everywhere.

My stomach lurches at the horrifying act, but I don’t avert my eyes for a second. I need the assurance that this man, who has been out of me, is finally dead and gone for good.

Gio walks over to me and cuts me out of my bindings, and as soon as he does, I rush over to Giordano’s dead body and spit on it.

“Bastard,” I hurl venomously. “This is for Gio.” This is for breaking his heart one last time. I can’t even begin to imagine how Gio must be feeling right now. The man he respected, believed in, and trusted turned out to be nothing but a fake.

Gio had been disappointed by the less-than-sterling performance of his real father and had trusted Giordano to be different, only for him to be far worse. My heart ached for him.

I grab Giordano by the legs and drag him toward the edge of the building.

“What are you doing?” Gio asks in a panic.

“Ending this,” I tell him as I push Giordano over the edge. Gio comes over to watch with me as Giordano’s body disappears below and sinks into the ocean.

Then, Gio pulls me into his body, his scent surrounding me. I relax into him, filling my lungs with his heady scent.

I immediately burst into tears—huge, racking sobs that cause my whole body to shake as the whole mess of the past few months and my emotions finally hit me.

I’ve been on a rollercoaster of emotions for a while now, and I haven’t even stopped for a second to examine it, too busy jumping from one feeling to the other. I used my love for Gio to distract me from my fear of Il Sguardo Nero, and I used my anger at him rejecting me to distract me from my love for him.

It has all been one endless cycle, and now it has all finally come together to hit me. I almost died, and I watched the man I love die right before my eyes. Or at least I thought and believed he died.

“It’s alright, baby. It’s alright,” he breathes soothingly into my hair.

I don’t know how long we stand there, the sounds of the waves crashing beneath us.

“I was so scared,” I admit.