Ruthless Heir: A Dark Mafia Romance (Ruthless Dynasty Book 1)

“Wakey wakey.”

A bead of sweat drips down my forehead as my heavy eyelids flutter open one more time.

What the hell?

It feels like my skull has ruptured. The pain is nearly blinding.

“Get it over with already,” a new voice orders. It’s not one I recognize. But the unmistakable stench of evil wafts off every word.

“I think it would be more fun if she was awake,” Krol crackles.

A cold chill passes over my skin, even as an unbearable heat seems to burn mere inches from my face.

“This isn’t for fun. This is to teach that ungrateful bastard a lesson.”

“Who’s to say he survived?”

Who are they talking about?

“I am. If there’s one thing I taught that boy, it’s how to survive.”

“Maybe you should have taught him how to die.”

Every time I blink, an earthquake of pain rattles through my bones. Still, even through the nearly blinding agony, my vision slowly begins to refocus.

Finally, I see what’s making me sweat.

“No…”

My voice is so faint it feels like it belongs to someone else. Someone far away. Someone I wish I was. Someone who wasn’t in so much danger.

But there’s no escaping this nightmare.

“Ah, there you are,” Krol taunts. “Now, we can begin.”

The glowing face of the branding iron in his hand smells like smoke and charred flesh. He waves the flat burning metal end inches from my eyes before gesturing to someone standing just behind him.

“Cut off her finger first,” the stranger orders. “Or the hand. I don’t fucking care. Just separate that ring from her fucking body. Then cauterize the wound immediately. We still need her alive to carry out the pregnancy.”

My stomach lurches at the careless brutality of his orders. I want to puke. But I’m not even strong enough for that.

“What do we do about this mark on her shoulder?” I hear Krol ask.

However weak my body is, it’s still strong enough to flinch as the serpent traces a cold sharp nail over the G that Gabriel carved into my shoulder.

“We’ll burn it off of her with the branding iron later. I want every trace of that traitor destroyed. First, though, deal with the ring.”

The venom in the stranger’s voice is palpable. I still can’t see him, but somehow, I now understand exactly who he is.

“Drago,” I feel myself sneer.

A searing flash of hate gives me the tiniest bit of strength,

“Looks like Gabriel has been talking about you,” Krol chuckles. “Such a daddy’s boy.”

“You are not his father,” I hiss, before coughing up blood.

My lungs burn. But the fire in my empty belly is slowly rising too.

“You’re right,” Drago says. “I may not have made him, but I certainly did end him.”

My shriveled heart drops into an endless pit.

“Liar!” I screech.

But when I rip my neck up to confront the bastard, my head explodes. The pain forces my chin back down to my chest.

Gabriel can’t be dead. I won’t accept it.

A cold tear joins the sweat dripping from my face.

“Don’t talk to your new master like that,” Krol hisses. His sharp hand clamps around my throat, forcing my eyes up again.

The pain pounding behind my skull makes my vision blurry, and all I can see is Drago’s dark outline as he starts to stalk around the room.

His long shadow stretches over my back as he settles behind me.

“I have no master,” I rasp.

“Not even Gabriel?” Drago prods.

“He’s not my master. He’s just… mine.”

Drago and Krol both huff at the same time.

“He’s marked you,” Krol points out, flicking my shoulder with his long bony finger.

“I’ve marked him too.”

“Yes, I saw,” Drago grumbles. “The tear drop tattoo, and the carving on his forearm, right over the burn mark you gave him all those years ago. It will rot away with his flesh.”

“He’s not dead,” I insist, more for myself than for anyone else. “I would be able to feel it if he was.”

“Wishful thinking on your part,” Drago callously replies.

But I swear I hear some hesitation in his voice.

Is he scared? Of Gabriel?

He fucking should be.

Drago’s little slip up gives me just enough energy to take a big deep breath.

There’s hope. If Drago’s scared that Gabriel might be coming after him, then there still must be a chance he’s alive.

“You’re scared,” I say out loud.

Krol’s sharp nails dig deeper into my throat. But I don’t care. I’ve been strangled by a far stronger beast.

I’ve learned to love the pain.

“What did I fucking tell—”

“Enough, Krol,” Drago interrupts. “She’s just trying to make us angry. The little girl is scared. Her only way out of this nightmare is through death. She wants you to make a mistake. She wants you to sever an artery so she can peacefully bleed out on my office floor. Don’t give her the satisfaction of an easy death.”

In response, Krol rips his hand from my throat. A twisted grin stretches out his cracked lips as he laughs at me.

“You’re the only one who should be scared here, princess.”

Reaching into his pocket, he pulls out the knife he’d shown me earlier. In his other hand, the branding iron still glows, red-hot.

“Show her how we handle disobedient little sluts,” Drago spits from behind me.

“With pleasure.”

Gritting my teeth, I force myself to concentrate on my rage instead of my fear.

But that’s easier said than done. And I can’t help but wince as Krol takes his first step towards me.

He doesn’t get far.

Before he can take his second step, a sound stops him in his tracks.

Everyone in the room instantly recognizes it.

A muffled gunshot.

It comes from somewhere behind the heavy office door.

“Oh sh—”

Suddenly, the front door is torn from its hinges. The heavy metal frame flies forward, crushing Krol beneath its weight.

Smoke starts to fill the room.

Outside, I can hear the sharp crackle of gunshots. They fill the air like fireworks, until there’s not an inch of silence left in the world.

“Goddamnit.”

Drago’s growl rises from behind me. Then, I feel his icy presence lean over my back.

It takes me a second to process what’s happening, but when it hits me, the pain ravaging my body is overcome by a desperate will to escape.

This is my chance. Someone has come to my rescue.

Gabriel. It has to be.

But Drago is already a step ahead of me. His blade digs under my restraints. Through the thickening smoke, I feel him cut me loose. Wrists first. Then ankles.

The moment my legs are free, I call on every ounce of my strength, and I try to lunge forward.

But Drago catches me, mid-air. His fingers wrap around my hair, and he yanks me back into him.

I hit his chest with a thud. The pain returns.

But nothing is as strong as the hope.

“Gabriel!” I shout into the ever-growing fog.

“Shut the fuck up,” Drago demands.

His wretched hand clasps around my mouth. I bite down.

Drago howls as I rip the flesh from his palm.

With a violent shove, he thrusts me forward, far away from him.

But I’m not pushed into freedom. No.

Krol has pulled himself out from under the fallen door. And I collide with his chest just as I hear a heart-stopping voice call back to me through the smoke.

“Bianca!”

It’s Gabriel.

He’s here.

He’s alive.

And he’s come to save me.

“Not so fast, bitch,” Krol hisses.

The sizzling branding iron flashes across my face as he presses his blade against my throat, positioning me like a human shield.

“Take her out into the tunnels,” Drago barks, from somewhere in the smoke. “I’ll meet you above ground.”

“How the hell are you going to get out of here?”

“Don’t fucking worry about it. Get the girl out of here. Now!”

“Fuck.” Krol’s blade is pressed so tightly against my throat that I can already feel blood trickling down my skin.

But I’m not afraid of blood. Not anymore. Not with Gabriel so close.

If anything, the taste and scent of my own blood gives me strength. It turns me the fuck on.

Some of the fear and the pain evaporates as I do whatever I can to make this as uncomfortable for Krol as I can.

“Let me go, you bastard,” I spit. “If Gabriel sees you treating me like this, he’ll rip your head off.”

“Not if I threaten to kill you first.”

Krol is trying to be tough, but I can hear the same hesitation I recognized in Drago earlier.

He’s scared.

My dark wolf has been unleashed.

But I know that Gabriel isn’t going to attack if I’m in the way.

There must be something I can do. Something that doesn’t end with my throat getting slashed.

“Hold on tight, you bitch. This is going to be a bumpy ride.”

Digging his knee into my back, Krol forces me to stumble through the open doorway, into the smoky chaos outside.

There’s so much shouting, so many gunshots, I can hardly make any one thing out. Still, I desperately search the frantic silhouettes for one that looks like Gabriel.

I heard him. I swear I did.

“Gabriel!” I shout again.

Krol doesn’t like that. For a split second, his blade leaves my throat. But it’s only to violently bring the handle down into my stomach.

The jab knocks the wind out of me. And I’d easily crumple to the ground if it weren’t for the serpent holding me close to his slimy body.

“Don’t even try to do that again,” Krol warns.

It’s not like I could. I can hardly breathe, let alone get a word out.

His blade presses back against my throat as he feverishly begins to back us both away from the battle.

“Bianca! Where are you?”

Gabriel’s roar lifts over all of the others. His voice is so fucking primal. I can practically feel the hairs rise on Krol’s hands.

A shot of beautiful, savage warmth fills up my heaving belly.

I’m not imagining things. He’s here.

But I still haven’t caught my breath; I can’t yell back to my dark wolf. I can’t tell him where to find me.

Not that I have to.

No. Gabriel can sense me. He can smell me. Feel me.

I blink, and suddenly, there he is.

A hulking silhouette that moves like lightening through the heavy fog. His brutality is unmistakable.

His shadow flashes from enemy to enemy, snapping necks and shooting through skulls at point-blank range.

“Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.” Krol panics. Clearly, he sees my approaching beast too. “Kill the traitor! Fucking kill him!” he orders.

But Gabriel is on a mission. No one is going to be able to stop him—though, they do manage to slow him down. For now.

The killing spree continues ahead as Krol desperately backs us away from the action.

“Let me go, and maybe he’ll spare you,” I finally manage to wheeze. I need to be going in the opposite direction. I need to be going towards Gabriel, not away from him.

“People like us don’t spare shit,” Kroll curses, tightening his grip around me.

The scalding end of his branding iron glows faintly in the smoke.

“He’s nothing like you,” I quietly gasp.

But my voice is so quiet that not even Krol can hear it.

“Where the hell is that door,” he mumbles to himself.

Slowly, the smoke starts to thin. Gabriel’s violent silhouette fades in the distance. I can only watch as he’s forced to fight his way through an endless maze of combatants.

My hope dims. Does he even see me?

My question is answered when Gabriel’s hulking shadow suddenly stops. For a single breath, the vicious rampage is put on hold.

His silhouette turns in our direction.

I can feel those hazel-green eyes on me.

“Gabriel!” The cry rips out of my throat like broken glass. “Gabriel!” I shake and I squirm and I try to break free from Krol’s grip.

“Oh no you fucking don’t.”

This time, when Krol lifts his blade from my throat to pummel me in the stomach, I take full advantage of the opening.

Planting my foot in the ground, I push myself to the side just enough to avoid his blow. Then, I somehow manage to grab hold of the long metal rod in Krol’s other hand.

He’s not expecting me to move so swiftly, and I’m able to catch him by surprise. Tipping the end of the rod into the air, I force the burning flat surface directly into the bastard’s face.

The iron sizzles against his melting flesh, burning a hole into his eye socket. I force it into him with all my might.

His wails slash through the fog.

And then his blade slashes through my arm.

I can feel the skin on my triceps rip open as Krol stumbles backwards. The smell of burning flesh fills the air.

I fall to the ground.

“You fucking bitch. I’m going to fucking—’

Krol is interrupted by a bullet. It shreds through his shoulder, flinging him even further away from me.

He hits the ground, hand pressed against his burning eye. The coward howls like a fucking banshee.

The branding iron glows on the ground next to me. My fingers find the rod.

This isn’t over.

“You asshole!” I shout, rage bursting from my mangled body.

Dragging myself to my feet, I hold the smoldering rod out towards the snake.

“Bianca!”

Gabriel’s deep voice rips me out of my blood lust.

When I turn around, he’s there. Hazel-green eyes cutting through the smoke.

“Gabriel…”

For a moment, the world stands still. The chaos bleeds into the background.

Nothing exists but the two of us.

I drop the branding iron. It clanks against the hard ground below.

We run to each other.

“Get the girl! Kill the traitor!” Krol’s command breaks through our little moment.

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Before we can reach each other, a bullet whizzes by my ear. Gabriel has to hit the ground just to avoid it. I trip on something and join him down there.

Our reunion is shattered into a thousand little pieces.

He’s so close. Yet so far.

But neither of us are ready to give up.

Gritting through the overwhelming pain, I start to drag myself towards my dark wolf. He begins to crawl towards me. Bullets thrum over our heads.

“I’m coming for you, baby girl,” Gabriel growls.

We both reach out.

The tips of our fingers touch. A burst of electricity erupts from the point of contact. The sizzling warmth helps re-animate my fading corpse.

I’m so desperate to feel more of him.

But Gabriel doesn’t give me his hand.

Instead, he slips a chunk of throbbing metal beneath my aching fingers.

“A gun?”

“Are you alright? Can you fight? There are too many of them. If we’re going to get out of this, I’m going to need you to—”

“I can fight,” I respond. “I can kill.”

Even through the thinning smoke and the growing darkness, I can see those fucking heart-stopping dimples deepen as Gabriel smiles at me.

“That’s my girl.”

Before I can gather the strength to smile back, my dark wolf twists around. Lifting his gun above his chest, he starts to fire at our pursuers.

I’m ready to join him. But there’s more than one threat here.

I twist around too. Fully prepared to shred Krol to bits.

But the snake is already back on his feet. I watch as he tries to stumble away.

“I’m going after him,” I grunt.

“The fuck you are,” Gabriel growls back. “Not alone. I’m coming with you.”

Looking over my shoulder, I see him jump to his feet, then reaches down to take my hand, all while continually shooting back into the fog.

Every one of his shots seem to hit. Bodies fall like flies.

But there are so many enemies, and just two of us.

Fuck it. I’ll take those odds.

Grabbing Gabriel’s hand, I let him help me to my wobbly feet.

“I missed you,” I croak.

It’s all I can muster before aiming my gun under his outstretched arm. Bracing myself, I fire a volley of my own. The recoil stings like a motherfucker, but I hold the barrel straight.

Still, my aim isn’t as accurate as Gabriel’s, and I only manage to hit one fucker in the leg, and then another in the torso.

They both fall.

Good enough.

“It’s just like shooting Luis, right?” Gabriel chuckles, backing into me as we desperately try to fend off the approaching army.

“Not quite,” I sputter. “But I’ll get the hang of it.”

Standing shoulder to shoulder, we begin to mow down our enemies. I get to feel the warmth of Gabriel’s flexing muscles as he kills for me. I get to touch my man again. Finally. And all while killing in his name.

But the longer we shoot, the less exhilarating it all becomes. We’re quickly being overwhelmed. My broken body is failing. And it’s not long before we both have to jump behind the nearest corner just to take a breath… and to reload our smoking weapons.

“Where the fuck are they?” Gabriel curses, as he hands me a fresh clip.

“Who?” I ask.

Even through all of the pain, reloading my gun is easy. I can still remember just how I did it back at that secluded cabin. I can remember how I figured it out all on my own. How good that felt.

My heart thumps against the inside of my chest.

This is where I belong.

If I have to die, let it be like this.

Covered in blood. Killing for love, right next to my man.

“Your cousin was supposed to be my back up,” Gabriel grumbles. “But I don’t see—”

Just like that, the tunnel is filled with a new roar.

Peaking around the corner, I see more bodies hit the ground. The men who were just chasing after us turn to face a new foe.

“Rian?” I ask, gazing back at my dark wolf.

It’s the first good look I get at him.

My stomach drops.

He’s in rougher shape than I expected.

His handsome face is stained with dark crimson splashes. There’s a deep scarlet imprint wrapped around his throat. Steam rises from his every pore. Blood drips from his lips.

Still, I don’t spot any pain in his features. All I can see in those stunning green eyes is relief… and a slight annoyance.

“Finally,” Gabriel grunts. “Why are the Irish always so late?”

I’m not given a chance to reply.

Without hesitation, Gabriel slips a hand behind the back of my throbbing skull.

Then, he pulls me in for a kiss.

All of my pain and fear seem to evaporate as I sink into the power of his tender lips.

I kiss him back.

It’s heaven in hell.

Peace in chaos.

Love in hate.

The passion of our kiss intensifies.

I thought he was dead. He must have thought I was a goner too.

We have a whole future to make up for.

With a savage thrust, Gabriel shoves me against the tunnel wall. I can feel his bulge. Taste his desire.

We’re both wild with lust.

But my body is so frail right now.

I can’t help but whimper into his mouth.

“Shit, sorry!” he curses, hand easing around my skull.

“Don’t let go,” I beg.

“I’m never letting go of you again, baby girl,” Gabriel promises. “I fucking love you.”

He steals the breath right out of my bruised lungs.

That’s all I want to hear.

It’s all I’ve ever wanted to hear.

“I love you too,” I rasp.

Gabriel presses his bloody forehead against mine, and I swear his soul seeps through my skin.

He eases my pain. He protects me from my fears.

He makes me feel loved.

For what feels like an endless moment, we don’t move. We just feel each other.

The approaching violence doesn’t bother us. Neither does the encroaching darkness.

Together, we are comfortable in this world.

Together, we can conquer it.

Rule it.

Love it.

Still, something tugs at my soul.

“Drago got away,” I whisper.

“I don’t care,” Gabriel tells me, shaking his head. “All I care about is you.”

“What about Krol? He’s so much closer. We could catch him.”

“We’ll get him another day. I don’t care about him either.”

But my blood lust is quickly returning.

“I care,” I croak. “I want him to pay. I want to taste his blood. He…” I can hardly articulate what that snake was about to do to me. “He wanted to burn away any trace of you from my body.”

“That fucking bastard,” Gabriel growls. Hesitantly, he pulls away from me. But he doesn’t seem convinced. “You’re in rough shape, myszko.”

“I can take it,” I promise him, even if I’m not sure I can.

My body is falling apart. And we’re not out of danger yet.

Just around the corner, a bloody battle is playing out—it hardly even registers.

Gabriel and I are lost in our own world.

Slowly, my dark wolf withers against my determination. I can see the protective fire burning behind his hazel-green eyes. But I also see the pride… and the blood-lust.

It’s a blood-lust we share.

A panty-dropping smirk finally lifts his thick red lips. Hoisting his gun, Gabriel cocks the chamber.

“Fine. Let’s go hunting, babe.”

I’m instantly wet.

God. I fucking love this man.