Ruthless Heir: Chapter 33

I recognized the smell the second I came to.

At first, I thought I was dreaming. But the pain ravaging my body was too real.

Harsh rope digs into my throat. A blindfold is wrapped around my eyes. The soles of my feet barely reach the varnished wood below. My wrists are tied behind my back.

I can feel how high up I am. I can sense the cavernous aura of this place.

It’s a place I haven’t been in over five years.

A place I swore I’d never come back to.

My old prison.

Westwood High.

My body instinctively flinches when I hear the gymnasium doors scrape open from across the basketball court.

I remember what we did to Principal Winchester.

That’s what’s about to happen to me.

Only, I imagine Drago won’t shoot me before I’ve suffered the entirety of his wrath. Hell, it’s clear to me now that he killed Winchester so suddenly just to shut him up before he could spill the truth about my mother.

But now I know the truth. I see through the lies.

At least, most of them.

There are still some questions I desperately need answered. Things that I can’t die without knowing.

But these questions aren’t the same ones I’ve been chasing my whole life. No. I don’t give a shit about my history anymore.

All I care about is the woman who was supposed to be my future.

Bianca.

I need to know she’s alright.

“Where is she?” I ask, as Drago’s footsteps echo through the cavernous hall. I don’t even need to see shit to know it’s him. I can sense that fucker’s presence.

Just like I can sense that Bianca is alive.

She has to be.

“She’s alive and safe,” Drago confirms, his deep voice rising from below. “Well, relatively safe. You can never be so sure with Krol. You know what he likes to do with his women.”

“She’s not his,” I growl, shaking with fury. “She’s mine.”

The rope digs deeper into my throat with every subtle movement. But I don’t restrain my rage.

How could Drago leave her with that monster?

I’m going to make them both fucking pay.

But first, I somehow need to survive this shit.

“Yes. Yes. I saw the ring,” Drago assures me. “Good job. You did as you were told. I just got word that Krol received a positive pregnancy test from the girl too. Thank God for Roz’s little invention. It’s all coming together.”

My stomach drops all the way down to the gymnasium floor. My heart follows closely behind.

“She’s pregnant?”

“That’s right,” Drago says. “Let’s hope it’s a boy. Although, maybe I’ll have better luck raising a girl this time.”

The thought of him getting anywhere near my child sets me off. My hands clench into fists. I grit my teeth and try my hardest to pull apart the rope restraining my wrists.

But the strands are too thick. I could push and pull until I’m red in the face and get nowhere.

How the fuck am I going to get out of this?

“I’ll fucking kill you,” I threaten. But my threat has no teeth. Not when I’m tied up like this.

“Give it a go,” Drago scoffs.

I know there’s no use. My best bet is to save my energy. To get answers, so if I ever get out of this, I’ll know what the hell to do next.

“How the fuck did you find me?” I ask. The idea that I could have been betrayed sinks into my gut like a heavy black stone. “How did you know we were meeting at the bridge?”

“I didn’t,” Drago answers. “I’d simply been trailing Ray Byrne and Rian Kilpatrick since you disappeared, hoping they’d lead me to you. And they did. The moment I saw what I was looking for, I called in the helicopter. Of course, Krol was in the cockpit, controlling that machine gun. The fool went a little wild. He wasn’t supposed to disintegrate the bridge like that, only separate the lot of you. But it doesn’t matter now. He did his job. We got what we came for. You… and your little wife.”

I nearly explode.

It doesn’t matter that I wasn’t betrayed. I find no relief in the truth.

“Let her go,” I demand, every inch of me on fire. My noose rattles as I shake with rage.

“Or what?” Drago taunts.

“I’ll make you suffer.”

“You already have, my dear boy. You broke my heart. And for what? A girl?”

“She’s not just a girl,” I growl. “She’s mine.” She’s my everything.

“No. She’s just a pawn. And now, she’s just a womb. We’ll keep her alive until your heir is born. After that, it’s probably best she joins you in hell.”

‘”This won’t work out like you hope it will, Drago,” I sneer. “By now, Tytus and Roz will be in Poland. The second the news gets out that Bianca is pregnant, they will be given the keys to my empire. They’ll have everything and you’ll have nothing. They will crush you.”

“They will try,” Drago agrees. “But they will fail. I will control your heir, Gabryjel. Thus, I will control all that the priests have to offer. Your inheritance will be mine. And so will all of the power that comes with it.”

“No one will ever follow you.”

“They won’t have a choice.”

“You piece of shit,” I try not to struggle against my restraints any more, but I can’t fucking help it.

The rope digs deeper into my neck.

Then, I hear Drago’s footsteps approach.

He’s climbing up the bleachers towards me.

“I had such high hopes for you,” he practically whispers as he leans into my ear.

When he tears my blindfold off, I’m greeted by his vile face.

There’s no remorse it in at all. But no pleasure either.

“You were always going to betray me,” I realize. “You could never just sit back and let someone else have all the power.”

“Nice to see you’re finally putting the pieces of the puzzle together,” Drago nods.

Turning his back on me, he heads back down the bleachers, and towards the lever that controls them.

“Not all of the pieces,” I rumble.

“You still haven’t figured it all out?” he scoffs.

My chest tightens as his hand falls onto the wall-mounted crowbar.

“I know enough,” I spit. “You’ve been working with those Reca disciple fuckers behind my back for years, haven’t you? You’ve been secretly building up your own little syndicate filled with scum of the earth drug dealers. And you knew I wouldn’t approve, so you’ve been plotting my death. You…” The realization hits me like a fucking tsunami. “You were trying to distract me from it all with Bianca.”

“Not quite,” Drago says, shaking his head. The gymnasium is dark, but I can still see his forearm flex as he pushes down on the lever.

The bleachers start to retract beneath my feet. The noose tightens around my neck. I have to push up on my tip-toes just to keep from being strangled to death.

“Why not just kill me?” I choke.

But that question isn’t because I’m afraid to die. No. I’m scared of something much simpler.

I’m trapped. There’s no way out of this.

And the threat of never seeing Bianca again is already tearing me apart.

I never got to tell her that I love her.

“How could I just put a bullet in your head?” Drago asks, stopping the lever for moment. “No. I raised you like a son, Gabryjel. You need to suffer. That’s what happens when you betray your family.”

“This isn’t how you treat family.”

“It is in our world. It is when you come from a family like yours.”

“No,” I grumble. “My mother may not have been the saint you painted her as, but there’s no way she was this depraved.”

“Ah, Sonia,” Drago sighs. “She was the love of my life, you know?”

The suddenness of his massive confession nearly knocks me out. I can hardly believe my fucking ears.

“But I was never powerful enough for her,” Drago continues. “Your mother had great ambitions, Gabryjel. And I had no way of giving her what she wanted, not back then…”

“You loved my mother?” I rasp. The arches of my feet are starting to cramp. The rope is tightening around my neck.

My heart is ready to implode.

Fuck. I can’t imagine Drago loving anyone.

But he did always speak of my mother with such admiration.

“I loved her from afar,” Drago admits. “I could never get too close, though. Not with your father obsessively watching over her. And then he was killed. But Sonia was never one to stay single for long. She remarried before I could make my move. It hurt—even if I knew the marriage wouldn’t last. The poor fool just wasn’t strong enough for your mother. So, when I saw the first cracks, I jumped in. Finally, she heard me out. Sonia Caruso. The fiercest woman I had ever met. She listened to me. We talked. We… Well, we made plans. Big fucking plans. Plans that could fill an endless void. We saw a way out. Together. We would make it. And then Ray Byrne put a fucking bullet between her eyes.”

It feels like I’ve been hit by a fucking train. My already struggling lungs nearly collapse against the force of what I’m hearing.

It brings everything together.

After all of this time, I finally understand why Drago was so focused on pairing me with Bianca.

It had nothing to do with my inheritance.

Not really.

It was just so he could get his revenge; so he could torture Ray Byrne before he took everything from him.

“You bastard,” I choke. “She was my mother. She was mine to avenge. Not yours.”

“You didn’t even know her,” Drago spits. “Not like I did. But that shouldn’t matter. You would have failed in your quest. To think, you’ve fallen for the daughter of the very man who murdered your mother.” His words are laced with venom, and overflowing with pure disgust.

“You’re a coward,” I tell him. “Always hiding. Always using others to do your dirty work. No wonder she never gave you the time of day. You—”

“She was going to be mine!” Drago bellows, cutting me off. His anger fills the gymnasium like thunder.

“But only because my father died,” I slash through. “A real man would have fought anyone for the love of his life. Anyone.”

I know that’s true, because there isn’t anyone in this world I wouldn’t destroy just to keep Bianca safe and by my side.

Fuck.

Bianca…

“You’re so naïve, Gabryjel. Your father wasn’t just anyone. He was the most vile, ruthless creature to ever walk this earth. Even a single hint of disobedience and he would have kept me alive for years, just to see me suffer endlessly through them.”

“My father…”

“Yes. Your father. He was a brutal and cruel man. If he had known about the feelings I’d held for Sonia, he’d have chopped me into little pieces long ago. And then he would have revived me just to do it over again. Over and over until the end of time. That’s the type of bastard he was. Hell, he poisoned your mother’s first husband—a senator’s son—just because Sonia hinted it might be what she wanted. I was there when he made the decision. The man didn’t even think twice about killing such an important and well-connected person. One day, that poor bastard Andrew Hoeven just dropped dead. And Sonia was free. Together, they ran away, pockets lined with political blackmail, and so much leverage in the war to come…”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” I cough. The rope is riding up under my jaw now. I’m starting to see black spots.

“You still haven’t figured out who your father is?” Drago asks, almost disappointed.

“He was a king,” I foolishly blurt out.

But the man Drago is describing doesn’t sound like any kind of king I know.

“That’s right. He was,” Drago replies. Looking off into the distance, he presses down on the lever again.

The bleachers sink further away from my scrambling feet.

I can feel the rope pulling at my fucking spine.

Every breath is a struggle.

“Tell me who he was!” I somehow manage to choke out.

“Everything I told you was true,” Drago slowly replies. “Well, nearly everything. Obviously, I lied about your mother. But Sonia was too well known in the underworld. If I’d let that connection slip too quickly, our cover may have been blown. I had to wait until just the right moment to leak it all to Ray Byrne. That info is why he helped get you into this school, after all. It’s what got you close to his daughter.”

Fucking hell. Did Drago really trick Ray into getting me accepted here? Was it all actually part of his secret agenda?

I don’t know what to think. Big black holes burn through my vision as I struggle for air. Everything is on fire.

Still, through it all, I can picture Bianca.

My fucking angel.

So soft and sweet.

So tough and fierce.

My perfect woman.

I can’t lose her.

I need to stall Drago. Even if it only prolongs my suffering, I need to give myself a chance to figure a way out of this shit—not that there seems to be one.

“What else did you lie about?” I push out.

No matter how hard I try to break through the rope restraining my wrists, I just can’t fucking do it.

“So little else,” Drago says, shaking his head. “Everything I told you about the old empire is true. The king. His death. The Reca’s usurping his throne. The power struggle after they had been killed by Ray and the Kilpatricks. The priests and your inheritance. It’s all true, Gabryjel. Though, I did lie about one small detail.”

“Tell me.”

The very tips of my toes are only barely scraping against the varnished wood of the bleachers. One inch more and I’m dead.

“I guess I might as well,” Drago sighs. “Your father was not the first king, my boy. Not the original. Not the man I said he was. No. Gabryjel. Your father was Kamil Reca. The man who killed him.”

With that, Drago pushes down on the lever.

The noose snaps around my neck, and the bleachers disappear beneath my feet.

But I’m not killed right away.

No.

I’m made to suffer.

I’m kept alive just long enough to realize that my entire life has been a lie.

My parents. My family. My purpose.

Lies.

It was all lies.

Except for one thing.

I was truly always meant to end up with Bianca.

My shining light.

She’s all I think about as the world slowly fades to black.