Ruthless Heir: Chapter 3

“Why the hell didn’t you tell me right away?”

Rian’s arms are raised in disbelief. His greyish blue eyes are wide and wild. His jaw is on the floor.

He can’t believe what I’ve just told him.

Shit. I can hardly believe it myself.

“I… I wasn’t sure if I was right. I mean, what are the odds?”

Closing my eyes, I try to fight away the cosmic hazel-green glare that has been eroding my sanity ever since I saw it in that suffocating dungeon three days ago.

My demon has returned.

… Or, at least, I think he has. My mind is so mixed up I’ve been seriously considering that he was nothing more than a fever dream.

“Well, you were right. Gabriel Corso is on my list. He was in the cellar. That was him. Unless he goes by some other name?”

“No,” I sigh, rubbing my forehead. “That’s his name—though, there were rumors at school that it was a fake.”

“Why would a high school kid have a fake name?”

“I don’t know. For the same reason he had tattoos. To make himself seem cooler.”

“Sounds like some typical prep school bullshit,” Rian mumbles, shaking his head.

I hate that I’ve brought my problems to him. He already has enough shit to deal with.

But Gabriel’s first shift is today.

Could I really risk encountering that demon alone?

My heart sinks as conflict slashes through it.

Shit. Maybe I should have kept this all to myself. I already managed to do it for three days.

Yet here I am, folding just before the big moment.

Like always.

“It probably was bullshit,” I agree with Rian, trying to brush aside my concerns.

“Either way, I’ll look into it. But I can’t imagine something like that slipped past Maksim and your father during the vetting process. That shit is intense, trust me.”

“I do trust you,” I sigh, but just the mention of Dad makes the hair on my forearms stand up. “That’s why I’ve told you all of this. Please, though, Rian, don’t tell my dad.”

The way Rian stares at me in response is almost enough to make me hang my head in shame. It’s like he’s looking at a naïve little child. One who doesn’t understand anything, let alone know what she wants.

“Bianca, I don’t think you quite grasp the magnitude of this situation. We’re supposed to trust these people to protect you. If one of them was a problem for you in high school, and we somehow didn’t know about that, then we’re going to have to get rid of the whole group.”

“No!” I rasp, bolting up from my bed.

But Rian isn’t budging. “I’m going to tell your dad, Bianca. At the very least, I need an explanation as to why someone you just described to me as your high school bully was allowed to become your bodyguard.”

“Dad was never allowed to know about him,” I plead, remembering the rule Mom had put into place the first time I came home crying over some mean boy or girl. “Neither was Mom. She was too afraid of how they would both react. You know what my parents are like, Rian. Yours are the same. They are capable of so much destruction.”

“I’m well aware of what we’re all capable of. But if your father doesn’t know about your connection to this boy, then it’s all the more reason to bring it up to him.”

“Please, Rian. Dad’s already got enough on his plate. Or have you forgotten about what happened to the congressman’s daughter?”

Shit. That’s so manipulative. But I’m getting desperate. Asking for help from my cousin is one thing, but dragging these stupid teenage problems to my dad will set me back years.

“What happened to the congressman’s daughter is why we need to be extra careful,” Rian counters.

“Fine, then talk to Uncle Maks. I’m sure he was intimately involved in the vetting process.”

“And what if this connection between you and Gabriel is news to him?”

“Then kick Gabriel out onto the streets,” I posture. “Replace him with another guard.”

Rian’s demeanour immediately darkens at the suggestion.

“That’s not how it works,” he tells me.

Those sharp blue eyes nearly overflow with concern. It’s like he’s worried about telling me too much.

I don’t blame him, not after how I’ve just acted. But I’m nothing if not stubborn.

“Then how would it work? Just get rid of him,” I shrug

“You can’t do that,” Rian sighs, shaking his head. “These guards are all connected. They’ve come up together, fought together, killed together, survived together. They are a team. If one fails, they all fail. If one is dismissed, they are all dismissed.”

“Alright, fine,” I give, dropping my shoulders. “But how hard can it be to find another dozen fit loyal men to protect me?”

“Let me be clear, Bianca,” Rian says, stepping forward so that his shadow engulfs me. “When I say dismiss, I don’t mean fire. After what we put them through, these men have become connected by blood. By the fabric of their very being. In the mafia, we don’t let men go. We don’t fire them. We terminate them. We wipe them off the face of the fucking earth. All of them. I know it. They know it. And I think you already knew it too.”

He’s right. To some extent, I did know that.

Still, the brutal confirmation cuts through me like a scythe. Hell, even the scar above my eye starts to ache as I swallow a ragged breath and try to fight my way out of the darkness Rian has just plunged me into.

Fuck. I really am naïve. This darkness is part of my inheritance. I should be welcoming it, not running from it.

But that’s so much easier said than done.

“I… I don’t want that,” I admit.

“Neither do I. These are good men,” Rian quietly responds. “Well, good might be a stretch. They are the wretches of society. Vicious demons. The stuff of nightmares. But they are ours. They are loyal. And they will do whatever it takes to keep you safe.”

“Even Gabriel?”

“That’s what I’m going to go find out right now.”

“You’re going to go talk to him?”

“How could I not? I’ll bring it up with Uncle Maks first. But even if he knows about all of this drama, I’ll still have a little chat with the asshole who hounded you in high school.”

A dark weight pushes down my shoulders as Rian turns his back to me and heads for my bedroom door.

“Wait,” I hear myself say. Even through the heaviness surrounding me, a stubborn flame has managed to rise up through it all.

“What?” Rian stops and looks back over his shoulder at me.

“Send Gabriel to me.”

The shock lifts his entire face. Hell, even I’m stunned by what I just asked for.

“You want to see him?”

“I want to show him who’s boss.”

The prideful smile that crosses my cousins face in response fills me up with a red-hot determination. There’s no backing down now. I’ve made my choice. This is what being an adult is all about. Facing down your demons. Confronting them head on. Crushing them beneath your heel.

It’s time to grow up.

I’m ready. Right?

“That’s what I like to hear out of my little cousin,” Rian nods. “You’ll be a fearsome warrior princess yet. I’ll go fetch the bastard.”

His words of praise fan the stubborn flames lashing around inside of me. Hell, the fire gets so hot that I can’t help but open my big fat mouth again.

“One more thing,” I hear myself call out, just as Rian reaches out to open my bedroom door.

“Yes,” he asks, not bothering to turn around this time.

“Send him in alone.”

My words might as well be a whip, because they twist Rian around like he’s just been lashed.

“Bianca, let’s not go overboard. We—”

“Please,” I ask, letting a bit of my desperation slip out.

That desperation is enough to pull back my cousin’s protective curtain just enough to allow him to seriously consider what I’m asking.

But as he ponders my proposal, so do I.

Is this what I really want?

… Or am I getting dangerously ahead of myself?

“We’ll see,” Rian finally nods. Then, turning back to the door, he opens it up and steps out into the hallway.

“Thank you.”

With that, my door is closed, and I’m left to process what I just did.

Fuck. Have I gone mad? Is this just cabin fever? Or has this lockdown finally forced me to take the first step down a path that has always been there, waiting for me?

The path that leads to my destiny.

Someday, I’ll be the queen of a ruthless empire. Sooner or later, I’ll need to learn how to deal with the problems that come with that kind of power.

What better way to start than by confronting the demons of my past?

Shit.

No one said it was going to be easy.

Taking a deep breath, I try to prepare myself for what’s to come.

Those green-flecked hazel eyes that I saw in the basement haven’t just been silently stalking me for the past three days—if I’m being honest with myself, they’ve been haunting me ever since they first appeared in my life, then suddenly disappeared, all those years ago.

All of these years, I’ve been asking myself the same question. How could a single gaze stick with me for so long?

I’ve never settled on an answer. But now, I wonder if it isn’t because there was no closure with Gabriel Corso.

After Principal Winchester’s death, a good portion of the student population never returned to school. Gabriel was chief among them—at least, he was in my mind.

But unlike the others, who I still saw on social media and around town, I never heard or saw anything from Gabriel ever again—well, except for some twisted rumors.

Now, suddenly, the heart-melting, impossibly infuriating bad boy is back. And he’s grown into a beast of a man who has already killed for the privilege of getting close to me.

So, the question has shifted. It’s no longer about why I can’t forget him.

No.

Now, there’s only one thing I want to know. One thing I need to figure out.

What the hell is he doing here?

The fateful knock at my door comes long before I’m ready for it.

Not that I’ll ever be ready for this.

I’ve spent the last twenty minutes cursing my very name, all the while seriously contemplating if I have enough time to run to the bathroom and puke out my nauseating anxiety.

Well, there’s no time for that anymore. I’m going to have to swallow my dread. Confront it head on. Just like I wanted.

Fuck. Maybe I don’t actually know what I want.

“Come in!” I try to declare, but my voice is half shattered from anxiety and it cracks like a coward’s squeal as I frantically look around for a better place to stand.

I’m still trying to decide on my perfect spot when the door creaks open and Rian’s face pops in.

He doesn’t say a word, but the expression on his face is loud enough.

Are you sure about this?

Yes, I silently nod, lying through my teeth.

For a second, the lion just pauses, like he isn’t quite ready for this either. But that indecision doesn’t last long. It never does with him.

Before I can reconsider and beg Rian to send Gabriel away, the lion’s head disappears. The door closes.

Then, it’s pushed back open.

That’s when I see him.

Gabriel Corso.

He was no hallucination. He’s real.

And he’s here.

“I’ll be waiting outside,” I hear Rian say, but I can’t see him. I can’t see anything but the dark prince standing in my doorway.

Gabriel takes a long step inside, and the door swings shut behind him.

Just like that, we’re alone. In my bedroom. My childhood bedroom. The same bedroom where I spent many restless nights hating myself for being unable to get the cocky popular kid out of my mind.

“Princess,” he says, half-bowing so that a wavy lock of pitch-black hair falls over his right eye.

“Gabriel,” I reply. My voice is raspy, but surprisingly steady.

“You look… well.”

“Well what?” I hear myself immediately respond, confrontation pushing out every word.

The smirk that lifts his thick red lips makes my racing heart stop in its tracks.

“You look good,” he clarifies.

Instantly, I recognize how foolish I just sounded. I’ve already made my first mistake. A hot wave of shame threatens to flush my cheeks and sabotage my position.

Fuck.

“Alright,” I mumble, unable to think of anything clever to say. That’s mistake number two. Everything is already falling apart. “You look like you’ve been through hell.”

Shit. That was too much. The lack of subtlety is like a bullhorn in the quiet bedroom—even if it is true.

Gabriel may have the face of a Greek god, but the sharpness of his cheekbones have been dulled by swelling; the smooth golden tan of his olive skin has been interrupted by cuts and bruises. And I’m sure the same could be said of his jawline, if it wasn’t hidden under a short, thick brush of jet-black facial hair.

The beard is new; it adds a smack of maturity to his cocky smirk.

I hate it—no matter how well it frames his face… and those fucking eyes.

“I have been through hell,” he nods, his smirk faltering ever so slightly. “But it was worth it.”

“To become my bodyguard?”

“To become part of this family.”

“You. Are not. Part of my family,” I suddenly snap.

The fucking gall of this man.

My little outburst wipes another millimetre off of Gabriel’s cocky smirk, but even as his lips drop and he tilts his head slightly to the side, I swear he’s still smiling. Mocking me.

“Did I do something wrong, princess?”

“Stop calling me princess.”

“What would you prefer?”

“My name is Bianca.”

“Bianca Byrne.”

Even without the smirk, the knowing glint in his stunning eyes is enough to confirm he’s fucking with me.

“Yeah, Bianca Byrne. Sounds like the name of some second-rate comic book character, right?” I sneer, reminding him of one of his schoolyard insults. “Like I’m in the running for worst comic book character of all time, right? Isn’t that something you once told me?”

Gabriel’s head tilt becomes more pronounced as he stares into my eyes, then right into my soul. But instead of looking like a lost puppy, he looks like a fucking wolf sizing up its prey.

“Did I?”

“Yes, you did,” I nearly hiss.

The motherfucker is testing me. I’ve pulled him in here to see him grovel, but he’s just as cocky and irreverent as ever.

He must know that I don’t have the heart to doom a dozen men to their deaths just because I hate him. He must think he’s safe.

I fucking hate that he’s right.

“Well, then I apologize, Bianca. You know how kids are.”

The apology slips out of his blood red lips like a quickly forgotten breath. It’s so casual, in fact, that it almost doesn’t register.

“Kids are cruel,” I admit, before throwing in a warning. “But adults are crueler.”

“I’m well aware.”

“What else are you aware of?”

“That you probably hate me for how I treated you in high school. That you probably called me in here to gloat one last time before you put me and my whole crew to death. That you think your father doesn’t know who I am, or how we’re connected, and you’re afraid to tell him because you think it will keep you locked away in your little gilded cage forever. I’m aware of all of that, Bianca Byrne. And so much more.”

Each word he says is like a knife twisting into my chest. This is not a man here to beg for his life. This is a man who’s been through hell and knows that I’ve never even been close to the inferno.

This is my old bully all grown up.

“Well, I do hate you. So at least you got one thing right,” I spit. But the desperate frustration in my voice makes every word a raspy mess.

“Can’t we put our differences aside, princess?” Gabriel asks, the ghost of his smirk returning to haunt my every thought. “This family is bigger than that.”

“If you ever become part of my family, I’ll kill myself.”

“As your personal bodyguard, I just couldn’t allow that to happen.”

“You’ll do whatever I say.”

“No,” Gabriel shakes his head. To my surprise, the dark wolf takes a step towards me. He smells like fresh rain. But even that surprisingly crisp fragrance isn’t enough to keep me from shuffling backwards in fear—not that there’s anywhere to go. The back of my knees quickly catch the edge of the mattress. My gut drops. “I’ll do whatever I need to do to keep you safe.”

“I don’t feel safe around you,” I rasp.

It feels like I’ve been plunged beneath the dark waves of a nightmare. This was a bad idea. I’m not ready for this. For him. For the darkness.

“Then tell your dad about me. Doom a dozen good men to death. That shouldn’t be hard for you. I mean, what’s a dozen good men to a mafia princess, right? Your empire is built on blood and bones and—”

“Rian!” I shout, my cowardly mind clawing at the walls, screaming to escape.

Just before my cousin can burst in and save me, though, Gabriel takes a long step back.

By the time Rian pops inside, the two of us are far enough apart that no one could ever guess what just happened—especially as I desperately try to wipe the fear and shock from my face. It’s an instinct I can’t fight against. No one should be allowed to see me like this. Not even my cousin. Not even if Gabriel just did.

“Is everything alright?” Rian asks, stepping up beside the dark wolf.

Rian is wider and more muscular, but Gabriel is taller, with the kind of lean, athletic build that makes me believe he could wrap a blade around my throat in the blink of an eye.

A fight between these two titans would drown the world in blood.

“Everything is fine,” Gabriel replies for me.

But Rian isn’t going to listen to that bullshit. He already knows about Gabriel.

“I didn’t ask you,” my cousin growls, brushing by the wolf to get a better look at me. “Bianca?”

Before I can gather myself enough to give a straight answer, a commotion in the doorway whips the rooms attention away from me.

“We have a fucking problem.”

It’s Uncle Maksim.

Immediately, I can tell something is wrong. My uncle’s usually stoic demeanor has cracked just enough to see the blood-red fire raging behind his eyes.

“What?” Rian asks, straightening up as he senses the same urgency I do.

Looking towards Gabriel, Uncle Maksim steps forward. “You. Prepare the men,” he commands. “We’re leaving. Now.”

Gabriel hardly even hesitates. “Where to, sir?”

“That is not for you to know. Gather the men from the guest house too. We need a full detail. The princess is being transported to a safer location.”

“What? Why?” I croak, the dread of what just happened colliding with the new anxiety of what’s to come.

Before Uncle Maksim answers me, though, he makes sure to step aside and fling his arm towards the doorway. “Go!” he orders.

Gabriel doesn’t need to be told twice.

The savage wolf gives me one last hard look before turning away. In the blink of an eye, he’s gone. The door slams shut behind him.

“What is it?” Rian and I both quickly ask.

“We’ve been framed,” Maksim growls.

“What the hell are you talking about?” Rian asks.

But Maksim doesn’t respond by looking at Rian. Instead, he turns his attention to me; to the scar throbbing above my eye.

“The kid who gave you that scar. He was a state senator’s son. Kevin Porter. This morning, they found his head swinging from a lamppost outside of the bar where the fight happened… the rest of his body was propped up by the front door.”

The air is sucked out of the room.

“No fucking way,” Rian grumbles.

I’m too shocked to even curse.

This wasn’t supposed to happen. Our men were ordered to stay far away from that brat. But if I didn’t know better, I’d say that the gruesome murder sounds exactly like something we’d do to send a message to an enemy.

We’ve been framed.

“I told Uncle Ray we should have put our own secret security detail on the kid…” Rian barks.

“We did,” Maksim sneers. “Yet somehow this still happened.”

“Fuck. How long do we have until every cop in the state is knocking down our door?”

“Not long. I’ll hold them off for as long as possible. But while the cops are around, the bulk of our army can’t be. And that puts Bianca at risk. Someone out there is still trying to kidnap mafia princesses. You need to be protected, child.”

“Uncle Maks—”

“No. Don’t talk. Listen. I’ve already put the backup plan into action. You’ll be meeting your cousins at an undisclosed location. From there, we will escort you all to the island. Our army will meet us there. No one will be able to get in. You will be safe.”

My stomach drops. The heaviness that had just been weighing me down seems to get a hundred times heavier, and a hell of a lot darker.

Whatever independence I was trying to forge by confronting Gabriel hasn’t just backfired spectacularly, it’s been coupled with a direct shot to my chest.

This lockdown is about to get a whole lot more intense.

I know the island Uncle Maksim is talking about.

He’s right. There’s no chance anyone will be able to get onto it.

But no one will be able to get off of it, either.

I’m trapped.