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“Clean yourself up,” he said. “And if anyone asks, you tell them the truth. You’re a rancid little whore who needed putting in her place.”

I didn’t argue, nor did I move.

“Get up,” he barked, his voice sharper.

It took everything I had, but I pushed myself upright, my body protesting the movement in sharp, jagged bursts of pain that made it hard to stay steady. The room tilted slightly as I found my feet, one hand bracing against the wall to keep from falling straight back down again.

Nico watched the entire thing.

And I knew, with a clarity that settled somewhere deep and immovable inside me, that nothing about tonight had gone unnoticed.

“You don’t get another mistake like this,” he said. “The next time you step out of line Iwillkill you. But before I end your pitiful existence, I will hand youandyour mother over to every man in this club and give them free rein to do whatever the fuck they want with you. And I’ll record the entire thing and send it to your precious biker, just so he can see your last, pathetic moments on this earth.”

It wasn’t a warning.

It was a promise.

“Yes, Nico,” I murmured, slipping right back into playing the role of the woman he wanted me to be.

And then I left, because there was nothing else left to do, other than force my legs to carry me out of the room and up the stairs. Each step hurt. Each breath dragged. But I kept moving, because stopping wasn’t an option anymore.

It never had been.

By the time I reached my bedroom, my vision had started to blur at the edges, pain settling deep enough into my body to make everything feel distant and too sharp all at once. I pushed the door open and stepped inside, closing it carefully behind me.

For a moment, I just stood there.

Then I moved to the bed and sat down, because my body had reached its limit.

My hand came up to my mouth, brushing against the split in my lip, and when I pulled it away, my fingers were streaked with blood.

It should have been enough.

It should have been the moment everything snapped back into place, where regret flooded in and wiped the memory of Vienna clean, where survival reasserted itself and reminded me exactly why I had kept my distance for so long.

But it didn’t.

Because even now, even like this, I didn’t regret going.

Chapter 34

Vienna

Now

“Where the fuck is your cut?” Dante snapped at me, followed by Rachel slapping me round the back of the head and calling me an idiot.

“Misplaced it,” I muttered into my brew, my head throbbing—not because of the slap, but because of everything else.

I could still smell her on my skin. Still hear her breathy moans in my mind.

“Misplaced it or gave it to the woman I saw sneaking out of here last night?” Rachel asked, busying herself with making the kids some lunch.

“It was cold and—hey!” I snapped as she swiped my cup away from me. “I was drinking that.”

“You were looking into it as though the tea leaves were about to give you some guidance. I can do that instead. You’re an idiot and you’re fucked. Good morning.”

“Why was Gabby here?” Dante asked, putting Axel down on the floor and leaning against the counters.