Total pages in book: 41
Estimated words: 38723 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 194(@200wpm)___ 155(@250wpm)___ 129(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 38723 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 194(@200wpm)___ 155(@250wpm)___ 129(@300wpm)
On the day of our sham wedding reception, she’d told me that she hated me for what I’d done to her.
I’d pulled her into this conflict. Dante would’ve had no reason to involve her in my torment if I’d never married her. If I hadn’t become attached to her, obsessed with possessing my pretty wife and making her happy.
Had any of that even been for her? No, it’d been for my own selfish ends. I hadn’t wanted to spend my life in a bitter marriage, so I’d resolved to make her happy.
The memory of how she’d clung to me and wept after Dante had used us both for his own sick amusement clawed through my mind.
My fault. Her suffering was all my fault.
I threaded my fingers through my hair, maddened by my dark thoughts. My self-loathing.
I pressed against the tender spot where Dante had hit me with his gun, and the flare of pain through my skull sent a wave of dizziness washing over me. The moment of lightheadedness wasn’t nearly reprieve enough.
The creak of a door opening and scuff of footsteps at the top of the stone stairs grated down my spine, sending my body on high alert after the interminable silence. Light flared, searing my eyes. I blinked rapidly to clear my vision, intent on assessing the approaching threat.
The footsteps quickened down the stairs.
“Luca.” She gasped my name, and a fresh wash of shame swept through me in a searing wave.
The last time she’d called out for me, Dante had held a gun to her head. I’d been armed, but again, I’d failed to save her.
Unworthiness crushed my chest as she rushed to the bars that kept me caged. Her lovely hazel eyes were wide and a touch wild, roving over my body and catching on my cheek and wrists. I knew she must be taking in the dried blood that caked my skin, and a grimace twisted my mouth.
So weak. Having her see me like this made my insides writhe with humiliation.
Dante wasn’t even present, and he managed to bring me lower than I could’ve imagined before storming his estate and stumbling into the trap he’d set for me.
Nora’s delicate features were pinched with concern. For me.
The shame of it was almost too much to bear.
Still, when she reached her hand through the bars, seeking mine, I grasped her tightly. The tender connection after the silent darkness was a soothing balm to my soul.
“Nora.” I rasped her name. “I’m so sorry.”
Her brow furrowed. “You’re hurt.”
She ignored my apology and focused on my wounds, the marks of my failure and weakness. My insides squirmed.
“I’m fine,” I gritted out. She wasn’t confined like I was. She might have a chance at escaping. “You’re the one I’m worried about. Leave me and get out of here if you can.”
Her spine straightened, and she met me squarely in the eye. “I won’t leave you. And there’s no way out for me, anyway. There are guards at the doors and at the perimeter.” A shiver raced over her skin. “I’ve tried to run from him before. I won’t give him an excuse to toy with me like that again.”
“I’ll get you out,” I vowed. “I swear, I’ll find a way to get us both out of here. Dante is a dead man.”
She nodded in grim agreement. “I’ll kill him myself if I can. But he’s so much stronger than I am. I have to be sure I’ll succeed. Or he’ll…” She shuddered again. “He’ll do something terrible to punish me. Us.”
Her hand closed around mine like a vise, as though I was her lifeline. “Let me treat your wounds.”
I noted the first aid kit in her free hand for the first time. I’d been so focused on her face that I hadn’t noticed what she was carrying.
I tried to pull away, but her grip tightened.
“You can’t do that,” I reasoned. “He’ll know you helped me.”
“You have to be fit if we’re going to fight back,” she said firmly. “He told me I could go anywhere I want inside the house. I knew you were hurt, and I decided to come and help you. I found this under the bathroom sink,” she hefted the first aid kit, “but then it took me hours to find you. This basement is within the mansion. I’m not defying his orders.”
I fixed her with a forbidding frown. “You know he didn’t mean for you to come down here. And if he did, it’s another one of his sick games, an excuse for him to hurt you. You saw how he lost control when I talked about taking you away from him. He’s a possessive, jealous bastard. He won’t want you to help me. He won’t want you to touch me.”
Despite the truth of my declaration, I didn’t let go of her hand. I couldn’t.