"You will not sway me," I tell him. "There is nothing you can say that will stop me from killing you and going back to Bella."
River sighs. Then he stops tossing the apple between his palms to meet my gaze.
"Nothing?" he repeats. "Oh but Jav, I'm afraid you're wrong about that."
Chapter Forty-Two
The scentof tobacco is the first thing to hit me. Tobacco and pipe smoke.
I see his shoes before I ever see his face. It's always the shoes that I remember. The shoes that have walked in and out of my life over the years. Shoes give away so much about a man. The way he wears them. The way he maintains them.
And in Ray Rossi's case, it is the way he shines them so meticulously. Cleaning up the evidence of where he's been. The things he has done.
My mother always told me that if someone’s shoes were too clean, it was because they had something to hide. In that respect, I believe she was right.
Ray has many secrets and many faces.
He hides his true nature well. Especially now, in his older years. Beneath the fuzzy gray of his mustache and the softness in his fading eyes, there lurks a master of exploitation.
I was only a boy when he came for me. A boy who had lost everything. A boy who the world believed had viciously killed his own mother. And Ray was the only one who looked at me as if I did not.
He disguised himself. A wolf in sheep's clothing. I wanted to believe he would help me. But once upon a time, I wanted to believe that my mother would get better too.
Now here we are, years later. I am a man, and he is old and gray. I intended to exact my revenge. I planned it out so precisely. But instead, I fell in love with his daughter.
"Surprised to see me, Javier?" he asks.
I do not reply but instead look to River. He remains by the door, silent. The friend I trusted, working with my enemy all along.
"You should not be," Ray says. "You must have known this day would come. You must have known the moment you touched Isa, you would die."
This time, I do meet his eyes. And I make it known that I am no longer a boy. His threats mean nothing to me, and Ray must know there is nothing he can do that is worse than what I put his daughter through.
I was a monster to her. And still, she fell in love with me. I smile, thinking of her beautiful face.
"It was worth it," I tell him.
He clocks me with the pair of brass knuckles he reserves for such occasions. Ray is weak in his older years. He relies on weapons because his muscles fail him.
Blood leaks from my mouth and I spit it onto the dirty floor. I can't help myself. I can't help but long for his suffering.
"She still wants for me," I say to him. "She will always want for me. I am inside of her. In her mind. In her heart. She will never be free of me, even in death. Your beloved daughter fell for the monster you created, Ray. How does that make you feel?"
He hits me again. Three times. Until it becomes too much for him. Until a coughing fit seizes him and spittle flies from his mouth.
"I will rid her of your poison, even if I have to cut it out myself."
The world around me falls silent, and River turns his gaze to the floor. My vision clouds and adrenaline floods every fiber of my muscles, straining against the chains that bind me.
I will slaughter him with my bare hands. I will drain the remaining light from his eyes, and I will not regret it. Not anymore.
"That's right," Ray taunts. "I will be the one to take that child and destroy it the moment it is born. Now tell me how that feels."
I struggle against the chains until I no longer can. Until I am out of breath myself. Until I am bloody and spent and completely at his mercy. Ray merely laughs at me.
River remains motionless by the door. And I cannot believe I have been so blind. I allowed my own love for Bella to influence this grand illusion. I mistakenly believed that as sick as Ray was, he still loved his own daughter.
Now I know that I was wrong.