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Tears of desperation stabbed my eyes. “Because I wanted to learn about the monastery, and it was nice having someone to talk to.”

“You could have asked me.”

“You were working,” I countered.

Jacob released a disapproving sigh, reaching a hand into his pocket. “I thought by now you would know that you will always come first, angel. If you wanted someone to talk to, you should have come to me. Instead, your conversation with him led to him touching what belongs to me. Perhaps, though, you need to be reminded of the fact that you are my wife.”

As quick as a flash, he leaped forward, pulling his hand from his pocket. I had all of a few seconds to acknowledge the syringe in his hand before he plunged the needle into my neck. My legs buckled, and it was only Jacob’s strong arms catching me from hitting the floor.

Ice flowed through my veins, and I was helpless but to gape at Jacob, stunned by the stab to my neck. I tried to speak, to ask him what he’d done, but before the words could come out, my world turned black.

Chapter 28

A sharp, stinging pain stabbed me just above my left breast as the sound of a thousand bees buzzing nearby reached my ears. My eyes fluttered open, and I was hit with a bolt of shock at finding a woman leaning over me, her attention fixed on the area where the pain was radiating from.

‘What’s going on?’ I asked, only the question didn’t leave my mouth.

A frown wanted to crease my brow, but the muscles in my face didn’t get the message. I tried to ask the question again, but upon realizing my mouth didn’t even move to form the words, panic tore through me.

Fear propelled my arms to lift to push her away, but they failed to move, as did my legs. My wide-eyed gaze darted around—seemingly the only part I was able to move—and I found that my hands were stretched above my head, and I was lying on a bed with a blanket over me, only just covering my breasts.

The woman’s hazel eyes met mine, the rest of her face covered by a surgical mask. She lowered the mask and spoke in Italian, words I didn’t understand but could at least hear. As she leaned away from me, another face appeared on my other side; his warm, joy-filled smile stretched across his face.

“Angel, you’re awake.” Jacob lowered himself to sit next to me, and my gaze tracked his movements as he took my hand to his and pulled it to his lips, kissing the back of it.

Despite not being able to move, I could still feel his gentle caress on my skin. When he lowered my hand, my gaze dropped to his shirtless chest, my eyes almost popping from their sockets at the new tattoo covering his left pec, right where his heart was.

Noticing where I was looking, Jacob chuckled. “Do you like it? I got it for you, angel.”

I could only stare helplessly at the old script writing spelling out my name in thick black ink. Tinges of red outlined the words, showing how fresh the tattoo was. My heart raced as something clicked in my head, and my eyes slid over to the woman.

Now that she was sitting back, I could see the tattoo gun she held in one hand, and the pots of ink on a little table. My attention was pulled away from her when Jacob moved my chin back to him.

“Marianne is nearly done with yours, angel. It’ll match mine, and then everyone will know you belong to me, and I belong to you.”

An evil glint flashed in his dark eyes, and tears started welling in mine. He was branding me with his name, and there wasn’t a single thing I could do about it. Wanting to convey my fury through my eyes, Jacob smirked before releasing my chin and standing. “I’ll be back when Marianne is finished. I’ve got something I need to take care of.”

He addressed Marianne in Italian before putting a shirt on and taking several strides out of the room that I was only just realizing wasn’t the bedroom on the boat. When the door slammed behind him, I tried to catch Marianne’s attention and hoped she could see the plea for help in my gaze.

She paused for a few seconds, and I allowed myself to believe that she was having an attack of guilt and would help me. But she released a heavy sigh and pulled her mask back up. I had my answer.

“I can’t help,” she muttered under her mask. “He is paying me too much money for me to walk away from. It’ll change my little boy’s life. I hope you can forgive me, signora.”

A tear slid down my cheek, and inside my head, I spoke the words I couldn’t say aloud. ‘No. I won’t ever forgive you.’

When Marianne started tattooing me again, I was helpless to focus on anything but the pain, which could only be described as a hot knife scratching my skin over and over. Finally finishing, she held a mirror over my chest, allowing me to see the mark that would mar my body for the rest of my life.

Jacob’s name was written in curls and swirls of black ink, just like his had been. It stretched across the top of my left breast and was big enough that, unless I spent the rest of my life wearing roll-neck jumpers or high-collared tops, it would be visible to the world.

But that was what Jacob wanted. He wanted everyone to know that I belonged to him. His possessiveness over me had boiled over into insanity, and I had no clue what I could do to escape it. Once more, the reminder of a missed opportunity to escape flashed before me, I silently cursed my stupidity.

I would never get away from him now, and yet, as I thought that, there was a part of me that wasn’t sure I wanted to escape him.

Yes, he had this crazy side to him, but when I was behaving and being the good girl he wanted me to be, I got to experience a whole different side to him. That was the part of him I craved; the part I desperately wanted to please so I could be showered in his affection.

There must have been something wrong with me. Surely it wasn’t right to love someone who was part normal and part monster?

Once Marianne removed the mirror and began clearing her belongings, I could do nothing but stare at the ceiling. I’d long since concluded that when Jacob stabbed me in the neck when we were on the boat, he’d pumped me full of drugs.