Page 73 of Pretty Evil
Serena pulls away from me and says one word that changes my life.
“Yes.”
I stare at her beautiful face in shock and whisper, “You mean…”
I don’t finish my sentence as she whispers, “I’ll go with you.”
Shade says lazily, “I’m sorry to interrupt this happy moment, but we have shit to deal with here.”
My arm remains around Serena’s shoulders as she faces her brothers and says angrily, “You have a lot of explaining to do.”
Killian nods. “You deserve to know the truth.”
He casts a disparaging glare at his aunt’s body and snarls. “Connor’s real name is Marcello Lomas. He was a hit man for the Matassos.”
Connor says nothing as Serena stares at him in shock.
Killian continues. “He came to us with information, and we acted accordingly.”
“Information? I don’t understand.”
Serena is trembling and I tighten my hold around her.
“He was ordered to hit Serena by our aunt, and she would pay him enough money to retire if he included all three of us.”
Killian’s eyes glitter as he hisses, “She wanted to bring the family down. Marcello told me she had spread word that our father ordered a hit on us, knowing we would get to him first.”
My heart goes out to him because it was Killian who arranged his own father’s death on the instruction of his grandfather.
Serena gasps beside me and Killian snarls, “Marcello’s loyalty has always been to the Dark Lords, but he went along with her plan under my instruction.”
Serena shakes her head. “You knew he was going to kill me.”
Shade laughs out loud. “Like fuck he was. Marcello wasprotectingyou. He was your protection when you left for Australia but was acting as a double agent. How was he to know you would give him the slip and plan your own journey? He was there to keep you safe and then you weren’t– there I mean.” He shakes his head and stares at me with a hint of impatience.
“You always were stubborn, Serena, but even we didn’t see this one coming.” He jerks his thumb at me and says softly, “As it turned out, you were in safe hands.”
Killian adds. “Marcello agreed to see this through to the end because we needed Aunt Giselle to play her hand.”
“So, you used me as a fucking target? You bastards!” Serena yells and I have to hold her back in case she uses the gun on the other members of her family.
“You were never in danger, Serena.” Killian says darkly. “Marcello is trained and was always on your side. There were also marksmen in the shadows with their guns trained on our aunt. There was also the added precaution of no bullets in her gun. She was never going to kill anyone.”
“You set her up.” Serena’s eyes are wide as Killian nods.
“We needed the truth. There was too much riding on this. One dead family member is enough. We didn’t want any mistakes this time.”
“Does nonno know?” Serena’s voice shakes as she stares at the corpse at her feet, and Killian nods. “He ordered us to dispose of her. It broke his heart.”
It’s as if all the fight has left her as she sags against me, brushing the tears away furiously with her fingers as she realizes what just happened.
She breaks away and runs toward her brothers, who crowd around her, and as they shut the rest of us out, they share a moment only a family can. A family who has lived, breathed and dealt with who they are and what they must do because of it. A family in grief and facing the pain of betrayal, a far more devastating cross to bear than threats from strangers.
We wait in silence for them to come to terms with what happened here today and their part in it. Then, as they pull away, I notice the cool mask of zero emotion has been set back in place.
Serena gazes at me with a smile that lights up her eyes and holds out her hand.
“Take me home, Alexei. We’re done here.”