WARPED VANITY ( BL)

CHAPTER 31

They look like you. Venice is you. Everyone who sees him knows he’s yours.”

   vegas smiled the darkest, saddest smile I have ever seen. “Have you come to tell me before my death that I’ll never see them? Angel, I must say you are crueler than I could ever be.”

  I linked my fingers with his bloody ones, the blade cupped between our palms. “Our children are perfection but here, in the Outfit, they represent shame and dishonor. People whisper behind their backs, call them  theerapanyakul as if it is something sinful, something dirty. Our children are beautiful.” My voice became fiercer with every word. “They are meant to hold their heads high, not be ashamed for who they are. They aren’t meant to bow, aren’t meant to live in the shadows. They are meant to rule. They are theerapanyakul’s. They belong in  bangkok where their names carry power and respect. They are meant to rule at the side of the cruelest, bravest man I know. Their father.”

  vegas didn’t say anything but his expression set me aflame with emotion.

  “How badly injured are you?” I whispered in his ear.

  “Badly,” he admitted.

  I nodded, my throat tightening. I reached for the syringe in my pocket and pulled it out. “Adrenaline.”

  vegas mouth pulled wider. I injected him with the liquid and he shuddered. His pupils were dilated when he met my gaze again.

  My lips brushed his lightly. “How strong are you, vegas theerapanyakul?”

  “Strong enough to take you and our children home where you all belong, Angel.”

  I smiled. I wedged the blade under the rope. “Swear not to kill my family. Not my brother, not my father, not my uncle. Swear it on our children, vegas.”

  “I swear it,” he murmured. I cut through the rope when I heard the creak of the door. I dropped the knife in  vegas now free hand.

  “pete, get the fuck away from the asshole!” Danilo growled, gripping me by the shoulders and pulling me to my feet. I whirled around on him, getting in his face. “Don’t tell me what to do. I have a right to be here.”

  Danilo was breathing harshly, his chest heaving. I took a step back, closer to vegas again. Dante and my father stepped in. I shielded vegas mostly from their view but that wouldn’t last long.

  “You shouldn’t be here, dove. This isn’t something for a boy,” Dad said gently.

  He still believed in my innocence, but Dante and Danilo regarded me more cautiously. “Where’s Samuel?” Dante asked.

  I wrapped my arms around my body and slid my hands beneath my cardigan, my fingers curling around the gun strapped to the holster there.

  “I’m sorry,” I whispered and pulled the gun on them.

  Dante put his hand on his gun at his waist but didn’t pull it. My father and Danilo were completely frozen.

  “Samuel’s going to be okay. He’s knocked out behind the sofa.”

  “pete,” Dad said in a soothing voice. “You’ve been through a lot. Put down the gun.”

  I took another step back, releasing the safety catch. “I’m sorry,” I said again, biting back tears, thinking of Samuel, of what he would think once he woke up. In my peripheral vision, vegas cut through the last rope around his ankle.

  Dante pulled his gun and so did Danilo, but I barred their view of vegas. They wouldn’t shoot me, not even now that I was holding them at gunpoint. I was a boy, someone to protect. I was their responsibility and their failure. Vegas staggered to his feet behind me, and Danilo aimed. I shot at him, nicking the outside of his upper arm. He gasped, his eyes flashing at me.