My Stepbrother's Dirty Little Secret novel Chapter 328

Chapter 328

“No,” she whispered, her voice shaking. “No, Raphael. I can’t do that. I can’t pick one.”

I tilted my head, watching a stray lock of hair that was brushing against her neck, “Why not? You know how they work, right? I mean, you’re Gianna Toricelli.”

“It’s not that,” she said, “I’ve never… I’ve never killed anyone. I’m not a murderer. I can’t just take a life. I won’t do it.”

I stepped closer, closing the gap until I could smell the vanilla on her skin and the cold wind still clinging to her clothes.

“You think I’m asking you to kill people?” I asked. I leaned down, my face inches from hers, “We aren’t going out/ there to hunt men, Gianna. Those things aren’t human. They’re the trash of the earth. The ones who touch what isn’t theirs. The ones who hurt children. The ones who think they can take whatever they want from the weak.”

“The sex offender list?” she asked and I nodded.

I reached out, my thumb grazing the soft skin of her jaw, “They don’t deserve the air they breathe. I’m not asking you to kill a person. I’m asking you to help me take out the garbage.”

She didn’t pull away from my touch. Instead, she turned her head slightly, her gaze drifting past me toward the far wall.

She went completely still.

Hanging on a back-lit panel of dark velvet was a weapon that didn’t look like the others. It was my high-tech compound bow, made of matte-black carbon fiber and shimmering silver cables. Beside it were rows of arrows tipped with different heads.

Gianna walked toward it as if she were in a trance. She reached out, her fingers trembling as she brushed the curved limb of the bow. She looked at the smart-tech sights and the laser guidance system built into the grip.

“This one,” she breathed, “It’s… it’s amazing.”

I walked up behind her, my chest almost brushing her back, and looked at the bow.

“Good eye,” I murmured, the heat of my body wrapping around her, “It’s silent. It doesn’t make a mess, and it never misses.”

I leaned in closer, my lips brushing the shell of her ear, and for the first time in a long time, a real, genuine grin tugged at my mouth.

“It’s my favorite, too.”

“It’s beautiful…” she whispered, “So beautiful, but made for nothing but murder.”

“It’s more than just murder, Gianna,” I said, as I watched the blue light reflect in her eyes, “For me, this… all of this… it’s a form of therapy.”

She turned her head to look at me, her brow furrowing in confusion, “Therapy?”

“Think about it,” I said, tapping her temple with one finger, “When you grow up in a house where the walls are built on bones, violence isn’t a choice. It’s the air you breathe. It’s the language we were taught before we could even read. You don’t just walk away from that. It stays in your blood, looking for a way out.”

I straightened up, walking slowly toward the rack of silver-tipped arrows.

1/2

+15 BES

“My brothers… they all found their own ways to let the pressure out,” I continued, “Luca, Vincenzo, and Adriano, they like the sweat and the noise. They go to the cage matches. They want to feel the skin hit skin, the bone break, the crowd screaming. It’s raw and it’s messy.”

I pulled an arrow from the rack, turning the point over in my light.

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