Marrying the Mob Prince
32

Tony

30 mg Oxycodone 5 mg cocaine

1 needle 1 prayer

The chains fell from my wrists. I seized the machete they'd taunted me with. My throat tore with an inhuman sound as I slashed at Ghost's outstretched arm, severing him from the elbow. I ripped Evie from him and tossed her behind me. I'd kill them.

All of them.

The whole fucking world.

Three bangs erupted from the exit as Cainan fired at their backs. I exploded onto Diesel and stabbed his neck with the machete. He choked as I ripped it free. A man grabbed my shoulder. I whirled, slashing his face. Another took it in the gut, the one who wanted to rape my pregnant wife, until he disappeared into a puddle of blood.

Soft sobbing filled the space as Ghost crawled over the bodies. I strolled to him and relished the sight of him, bleeding out, terrified. Then I pointed the knife's edge on his back. My palm hit the butt of the blade, sinking it through his leather cut slowly, until it struck the ground, pinning him there like a bug.

I spat on his twitching body.

Rage still blinded me to the horrifying scene, like a red filter over my eyes. She stood there in black and white, stark against my rage. Then the veil lifted, and I took in the carnage, and Evie's whitened face, and my throat tightened. She's pregnant.

Warmth glowed through me, extinguished by the cool draft of Cainan's sarcasm. He stepped forward, clapping me on the back. "Congratulations, Anthony. You're a daddy."

I grabbed his elbow, twisted it, and shoved him toward the floor, keeping my grip on him. "Ten seconds to explain yourself or I rip off your arm, too."

"I saved your lives. Took out two goliaths at once." He turned his head, stony-faced. "Once you locked up the president, his VP, and the sergeant of arms, I made a deal with the only biker left with any power. The road captain. I did the same with the traffickers I haven't been able to control. I promised Evie to the MC, and you to the traffickers. Then I got them to meet in the same room. Couldn't have worked out more perfectly." "And if I couldn't break free?"

I increased pressure on the bone, but Cainan didn't react. He was as expressionless as a reptile.

"I would've stopped it."

"I didn't see you lift a fucking finger!"

"Sometimes, you have to take a huge risk to reap an even bigger reward. You were right. Slow and steady wasn't working, and I saw a golden opportunity to get rid of them. I knew you could do it, Tony. I've seen you fight so many times." I ground into the precise spot where his arm would break.

"She's safe, isn't she?" Cainan roared, yanking out of my grip. "Can't you see the good in what we've accomplished? We single-handedly took down the Legion chapter and three of the worst traffickers. You should be thanking me on bended knee!"

He still didn't understand.

None of that mattered next to my wife.

My fist whirled, smashing into his jaw. His head slammed into the wall hard. He grunted, palm on the concrete.

"I never want to see you again."

"What the hell is your problem?"

"You. I hate you. I can't stand the sight of you. You're a sick man. You need to have your head X-rayed or whatever the fuck it is to replace out why you are so screwed up."

Cainan's lips thinned as he smoothed his hair, his flushed cheek the only sign I'd knocked him off-kilter.

"You threatened my wife's safety to get what you wanted. As usual, at the expense of others." I let out a humorless laugh at his nonplussed expression. "There's so much you'll never understand." Cainan flashed me a hard smile. "Fine. Find your own way out."

"Where are you going?"

"My security can handle this riff-raff."

He turned his back on us and climbed the stairs, leaving us alone. Boots pounded the ceiling, their weight creaking the floorboards.

I rushed at the door, locking it.

Evie's soft body pressed into mine, her arms wrapping my stomach. "I chose to come here. I can't live without you."

"He manipulated you."

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"He got us back together."

"Yeah. For how long?" I eyed the ceiling as the floor creaked. I had no idea what the hell was going on, but at some point that door would open. My gaze dipped to the carnage. The knot in my throat refused to dissolve. "Evie, I want to tell you everything...while I still can. You were almost killed because I haven't told you everything. Again."

I couldn't force out the words, my mind ravaged by the past. I took her face and gazed into her startled eyes.

"I was trafficked by the club. I wasn't at a rehab center. That was a lie I sold to the masses to hide where I'd really been, because I'm so ashamed of what I've done." It poured out of me as I stroked her cheek. "Crash sold me to a man who brought me to...an island. It's a place off the Caribbean called Leda, a human trafficking hub where people fly in to party, to network, to do all kinds of shady business deals. I was drugged, shipped over there, and sold." Weakness tingled in my legs, and I let go of her to sit against the wall.

"A psychopath named Attila bought me. I lived in his villa. It was smack dab in the middle of a jungle. Hot as hell. Humid. Naked women everywhere, all of them trafficked. He used me as an enforcer. I protected the girls from clients that got too rough." I pressed my hands into my eyes until stars exploded behind them. "I saw things, Evie."

She sat beside me, slipping her hand around my bicep. "Did you try to escape?"

"I couldn't leave them. I had to help. I tried, but the overseer caught me. Whipped my back. Then the bastard put me in cage matches where I had to fight other men. I butchered them for their amusement. That's how I met Cainan. He was one of the people watching me fight."

Her eyes glazed with tears.

"I wasn't myself. They broke me on that island. They made me so hateful it turned inward, killing me from the inside. Cainan saw that cruelty and knew he could hone it. He got me out when he found out how well-connected I was. I got to Boston. I was home for weeks, but I couldn't move on. I was stuck. I told nobody I was back. I didn't want them to know because I couldn't tell anyone what I'd been through. Who the fuck would believe me? Who would understand?" Evie cupped my cheeks and kissed me. Heat blasted across my lips, almost dissolving my urge to continue. Would this be the last time I tasted her kiss?

"I was spiraling. I needed something to do, so Cainan gave me a purpose. He would allow me to join him in fighting human trafficking, but I needed to pass a loyalty test."

This next part was the worst.

I had to get it out of me.

"He told me to kill my father, so I did." The tightness in my chest released as it spilled out of me. "I shot my dad, who never stopped looking for me, never gave up on me once, then I blamed it on your MC to start a war. Hands down, the most evil thing I'd ever done. I can't even explain why I did it. I just-I wasn't in my right mind and Cainan knew it."

My voice croaked, and I lost the energy to keep going. Evie's raspy whisper chased my echo.

"How did you do it?"

"I blocked it out. I don't have a memory of the actual murder. The only thing I remember is stepping onto my dad's lawn for the first time in over a year, and hours later, Dad's necklace dangling in my hands after I'd done it." "The same one you're wearing now?"

She fingered the gold chain, replaceing the flat oval pendant nestled in the hollow of my neck, blazing with an image of St. Anthony.

"I keep it on as penance."

I couldn't believe I'd told her.

I'd never admitted this to anyone.

"I did so many things I hated on that island, and it turned me into a monster. A violent man with no self-control. I can barely look my mother in the eye anymore. It's why I told you I never wanted children, because I feel so tainted. And after what I did to Dad, I didn't think I deserved to father my own kids."

But I was a father, and the burden sank into my heart like golden light, warming me from the inside out. Relief flooded my veins. The fire inside me banked lower. Air came more smoothly in my lungs.

I breathed.

"Now you know the man you married."

And she'd leave me.

I braced for it as Evie's gaze clouded with tears. Heaviness centered on my chest as I prepared for a stinging response. Then she smiled.

"I understand you completely. And I love you even more." Evie's trembling lips slowly broke into a sweet smile. "I love you. All of you. Every flaw. Even the parts of you that you think are too dark."

I pinned her to my chest, overwhelmed. "Are you really pregnant?"

She lightly grasped my cheek, nodding.

It struck home, finally. "You don't know how fucking happy you've made me."

My heart hammered as she wrapped her arms around my blood-soaked chest. She smashed her mouth into mine, gripping my hair. The pit of my stomach churned. I growled before I caught her lips. Her soft mouth demanded a harsher response, so I angled my head and deepened the kiss. Spirals of joy swept through me.

I had my doubts, but fuck them. She loved me despite the graveyard of my victims. If she didn't leave me for them, she would never leave me. We would make it through anything. There wasn't enough darkness in the world to blacken this shining moment.

The door flew open.

Vinn stepped out. His widened gaze took in the carnage and narrowed on me.

"Jesus Christ. What happened?"