Garden of Roses ✔️

Chapter 12

Dante

         I want to kill her. I really do. She is vicious, rude, sarcastic, not to mention how she deceived me at the party. She disrespected me on so many different levels, yet she is still breathing. She slaughtered my men like they were animals. True, they all annoyed me, but still. Then she danced with me like I was just a random charming man and not her target. And I let her. Then I took her against her will, tied her up so she could barely breathe, but she still managed to be rude and practically laugh at me.

Who does that?

I shoot her and she lets out one scream. Only one, and then composes herself again and her face turns into the one of a statue. I press my gun hard against her head and she's still not talking. She gives me one sentence. One pathetic sentence, as if it's even remotely enough. She would rather die than tell me everything I want to know.

She knows that I'm not screwing around. I will kill her this time. And yet she doesn't budge.

What the hell is wrong with her? Doesn't she want to live? She's not even trying to save her own life. She's completely prepared to die right now and it pisses me off. She's not trembling, not even flinching at the feeling of cold metal against her skin. She's not afraid and her calmness is infuriating.

Why am I even thinking about it? I should've killed her right away and not waited for her to test my nerves even further. I can't let her live. She's done too much. What kind of a Don would I be if I let this woman breathe for one more minute? What kind of a message would it send to people? That I let my enemies live? That I tolerate disrespect? I don't think so.

My finger moves slowly, removing the safety on my gun as she stands before me, her eyes closed and her face seemingly peaceful. Again, I get no reaction out of her as she's approaching her death with every second that passes. My index finger is now on the trigger as I hear Camilla's voice scream behind me. She is trying to get me to put my gun down. Not a chance in hell I'm doing that.

I hear her talk about our father. Every muscle in my body tenses at the mention of him. She knows exactly what she's doing. Camilla knows what I'm going through constantly, fighting with myself about every damn move I make. Her words start to slowly get to me as she talks about my inner battle. I can't let her convince me. What's more, now this woman is listening about my struggles and it only gives me more reasons to kill her right here and now.

I'm not weak. She already doesn't respond to me with fear as I would like her to, and after hearing all this, she will respect me even less, if that's even possible. Her death is inevitable.

Camilla's screams and pleas become more desperate as she mentions Isabella. If my body wasn't tense until then, at the mere mention of her name I can feel my every muscle stiffen and my jaw clenches involuntarily.

That devil.

Memories of Isabella rush through my mind. Her wicked smile, her poisonous words, her unbreakable loyalty to my father. What she did to Camilla at my father's command, and how cruel she was about it. She didn't just kill the man. She had to send his fucking head to Camilla and traumatize my sister for life. What that woman did was unforgivable and thinking about her makes my blood boil.

My attention is not even occupied by the woman in front of me anymore. I'm thinking about that devil incarnate and the cruelty that she and my father inflicted on Camilla.

Maybe she's right and I shouldn't pull the trigger. It's not going to solve anything. It will just kick me deeper into my self-destruction and I'm already deep enough. I don't need that. Maybe I don't need to prove a point by killing her. That is something my father would certainly do, not me.