Total pages in book: 115
Estimated words: 107402 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 537(@200wpm)___ 430(@250wpm)___ 358(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107402 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 537(@200wpm)___ 430(@250wpm)___ 358(@300wpm)
Walking around the corner, my palms begin to sweat and my heart rate kicks up a few notches. My father is behind me, and I'm scared of what is going to happen. Once we’re completely out of the room and away from Nico, my arm is yanked, and I'm shoved into a wall. I'm surprised the thud of my body didn’t make as much noise as I assumed it would, alerting Giulio or Nico.
“You have failed to provide me one single fucking piece of insight. And that just won’t do, Emelia.”
I try to walk away, but he pushes me back into the wall.
“No, you are going to stay right here and listen to me.” His eyes bore into me, and years of fear and pain come flooding back to memory.
“You are failing to do your job, Emelia. The family can’t keep waiting while you play house and become his whore.”
“I don’t want to do your dirty work.” He slaps me so hard my vision blurs.
“You will do it. Or so help me, Emelia, I will kill you both myself,” he threatens.
“Father, this isn't going to work. He’s smart and doesn’t plan to tell me anything. So you’ll have to do it yourself.” I try to sound like I'm not afraid, but that doesn’t work.
He begins to choke me, and before he smashes my windpipe, I cry out.
But unlike before, Nico never comes.
No one does.
My father’s eyes turn a darker hue, and the evil grin on his face widens as he squeezes tighter. My hands claw at his as I fight for air, but I fail, and with each second, his face becomes more and more blurry.
Suddenly, I'm floating above myself, looking down at my lifeless body and my family laughing sinisterly.
I jolted out of the nightmare. My entire body is covered in sweat, and I look over at the time. Seeing it's 11:00 p.m., I turn to Nico, but he isn’t there. Curiosity hits me, overtaking the awful dream, and I go in search of him, checking his office, but it's locked, and I don’t see light seeping from beneath the door. The living room and kitchen are next, and it's empty except for James and Farren.
“Ma’am, is everything okay?” Farren asks.
“Yes, um… has Nico come home yet?” They shake their heads at the same time, and I drop mine. “Okay, thank you.”
Why am I so upset that he's gone? I wasn't planning to apologize or talk to him; I just wanted to see if he came home or if my suspicions were right. He’s most likely at the club, doing God knows what.
Making my way back to bed, I slide under the thick comforter and wait until I can’t anymore. I swear Nico never made it home by the time dawn comes, the bed empty still. He has to be with other women or avoiding me.
Either way, neither option should bother me, but they do, because I’m stubborn and know I don’t deserve the treatment he’s dishing out. I deserve respect after what I did to my father. There was a small glimpse of hope with him, and I clung way too tight to it. I looked deep in his eyes as we had sex and thought I saw something there. Then he took me to watch him torture my ex-lover for doing terrible things to me.
But I was a fucking fool.
I won't do that ever again.
The line has been drawn.
CHAPTER TWELVE
NICO
I’m avoiding Emelia. I don’t want to see her when we are both fully alert, because whatever I saw in her eyes the other night is something I don’t want to happen again. And until I can get control of myself, I will avoid her while she’s awake.
The fight we had showed me she felt the same thing I did when we had sex. The sensation that scared me. And clearly I wasn't a complete idiot for feeling it. But we both need to be able to differentiate between lust and love. If we don't do that, then we will just keep fighting.
It's noon, and I am in an abandoned warehouse on the docks. This is a building I own to conduct the kind of business that requires a lot of clean-up and easy access to my boat. It’s also close enough to the highway so we can get rid of any… problems. I have cops in my pocket and on my payroll, but I try to only utilize them when the time calls.
It was just days ago that I was here watching Emelia take control of her life. It aroused me, and I know it aroused her too. I thought I would come home and we would chase that high together, but she turned it into something… something that left me feeling confused and messed up over.
Do I care about Emelia?