I came up to him and crouched down beside him. “I’ve had Obsidian and her contact work on this. We’ve been on it since I left last night. We sent this to the FBI, Caleb. Roulette has a contact through them, and I’m hoping they see the truth and help.”
“I always knew there was more to me becoming CEO than I thought. He always said I was worthless. I guess I had a little value left in me after all.”
I pressed my hand to his cheek; that vulnerability of his always surprised me. “What are you thinking of doing?”
He kissed the palm of my hand and leaned back into his chair. “Whatever it is won’t turn out well for either of us. He’ll probably want me killed when he finds all this out, because he will.”
I grabbed his hand and squeezed it. “You’re not alone.”
Nodding, he got up from the chair, his fingers grazing mine as he let me go and stepped out onto the balcony. “I know and I’m grateful, but this is something I’ll have to do alone.”
I came up behind him, leaning against his back and running my hands down his arms. “If you need me, you know where to find me.”
He turned to me then, sorrow in his voice. “This may be the last time we see each other, Duchess.”
“Don’t say that.” I cupped his cheek, my chest full of angst for this man that I had hated and misunderstood for so long.
“You worried about me?”
“How could I not be,” I said, wrapping my arms around him.
“I thought you hated me,” he whispered.
“Yeah, well, I thought you hated me back.”
“I just hated the fact that you weren’t mine.”
“Well then, you’re going to have to make it up to me cause I’m not done having you in my bed.”
Grabbing my hand, he leaned his cheek into it. “You’re my everything, Stephanie. Just know that.”
“I do know that,” I whispered.
“And know that he’ll come after you, too.”
I nodded. “Oh, I am ready for that.”
He gave me a sad smile and kissed my hand. “I’m sorry if I won’t be there to see his defeat.”
“You’ll be there, Caleb. I promise you that.”
I wrapped my arms around him again and hugged him tight. My chest felt like it had been gutted. I did the right thing, letting him know.
I always knew I’d win, just not like this. I didn’t realize winning meant losing him in the process, nor that the thought of that would hurt this deeply. I’d done a lot of dark shit in my life to get me to where I was. Shit, I didn’t want to do, blood I didn’t want to shed. For the most part, I was able to get througheverything with the help and support of my sisters, but this was something I didn’t know how to handle.
How was I supposed to protect my Mafia King from his own family?
Chapter 25
Caleb
As I dangled from the scaffold jutting out over the side of a thirty-story high-rise, the first thing I tasted was blood. Metallic and thick on my tongue. The ocean below roared as it crashed against rocks. And the wind howled around me as if the Pacific itself wanted to drag me under. My arms burned from the pressure of the chains biting into my wrists, and the frigid steel cut through the thin fabric of my shirt, burning through my skin. Every inch of my body screamed, but the only thing I could think was,So this is what karma feels like.
Dragged from my bed in the middle of the goddamn night, I'd barely had time to fight. One second, I was dreaming; the next, I was choking on smoke, with fists coming at me from all angles. They’d swarmed me, placed a hood over my head, and beat the fuck out of me. My arms were twisted behind my back, and then I felt the needle, inserted sharply and fast into the side of my neck. I thrashed, cursed, fought with every shred of strength I had left, but the world blurred into nothing before I could land any solid hit.
Now, I was awake. Strung up like meat, exposed to the sky and the city below. But this wasn’t some dusty abandonedwarehouse or blood-soaked basement on the outskirts of town. No, this was personal. High above the skyline, with the ocean stretching forever beneath me. It was a spectacle. A fucking warning.
I tried to twist, to get a look at whoever the hell had done this. But the chains clinked and groaned, and every shift sent my balance teetering. One wrong move, one broken weld, and I'd be a memory painted across the pavement below.
