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I looked up at him for a long moment, trying to figure out if he was upset or if he just didn’t comprehend why Ryan hurting was more painful for me than my own pain alone. Something in his voice threw me off, made me unable to decipher which it was, so I tried to explain it to him. “Because his pain is mine. That’s what happens when you really love and care about someone. When they hurt, so do you. Their loss is your own. I’m mourning the death of my loved one, but I’m also feeling the agony the person I love the most is experiencing.”
“The person you…love…the most.” He repeated it slowly, enunciating each word, and I knew. It wasn’t that he hadn’t comprehended why it hurt me more that Ryan had lost Nova than my own loss of my beloved cousin. He wasn’t just upset. Now he was practically vibrating with rage. “Ryan Vitucci is the person you love most?”
Bain’s obvious anger only spiked my own. “Yes, of course he is. Ryan is my best friend. I would do anything for him.”
“But the same can’t be said for me? You wouldn’t do anything for me?” He lifted a brow at me, taunting me to answer. “You no longer love me?”
“No,” I snapped. “The same cannot be said for you. Ryan has done nothing but show me how much I mean to him our entire lives. I know that he loves me. That he would put his own life on the line to protect me. Just as I would for him.”
“He’s coming here to take you away from me,” he growled. “You’re not going with him. You’re mine now. He can’t have you.”
“Okay, one—I’ll go wherever the fuck I please. And two—you are making this sound incredibly disgusting.” I touched my stomach as it started to roil again. “Ryan is my cousin, my honorary twin. I consider him just as much my brother as Zayne, Vito, or Bennie. You’re making it seem like…like…” I gagged.
“I didn’t mean it that way,” he muttered, rubbing his hands over his jaw in frustration. The scruff had only gotten thicker the last few days. I kind of liked it, not that I was going to tell him that. But it was definitely unlike Bain to go without shaving for more than a day. “He’s going to try to take you from me, Ciana.”
When I continued to sit there, unspeaking, unmoving, just staring up at him, he exploded. “You won’t go with him. Do I make myself clear? If you even think about it—”
“What?” I demanded. “You’ll what?”
“I’ll kill him.”
Everything inside me went cold. “No, you won’t,” I denied. “Killing him would only start a war. If they really are all coming for me, then you must know it would only lead to a free-for-all. If anything happens to Ryan, Anya will kill everyone.”
“That’s a risk I’m willing to take to keep you with me,” he said in a cold tone. “But are you willing to take it?”
“I-I…”
“This place is impenetrable. No one comes or goes unless I give the word. Ryan will be the only one allowed inside when they get here. And I will put a sniper on him from the moment he steps inside the property walls.” He crossed his arms over his chest and cocked his head slightly to the right, almost smirking at me. Because the asshole knew he had me right where he wanted me. “You even suggest that you’re going to leave with him, and it’s over. He will have a bullet in his head the minute you take a single step in his direction.”
“No, please,” I whispered, blinking back tears. “Bain, don’t do this. Don’t threaten him. Don’t… Don’t make me hate you more than I already do.”
He flinched. “I don’t want your hate, mo chroí. Only your love. But if I can’t have that, then at least I will still have you.”
I closed my eyes. “Ryan will never just leave me here.”
“He will if you convince him we’re madly in love and want to live our lives in peace.” I lifted my lashes to find him staring down at me intently. “Make him believe that we are playing happy family, Ciana. I think I’ve proven to you by now that I don’t like games. When I say I will do something, I do it. War means nothing to me. Keeping you with me, that is all that matters. I’ll kill anyone who tries to take you from me. Including your precious Ryan.”
“You’re a monster,” I whispered, losing the battle against my tears. “You wonder why I hate you? You’re nothing but a sick monster just like Sheena.”
His face drained of color. “Mo chroí—”
“Stop calling me that!” I screamed. If I’d had the energy, I would have jumped to my feet and punched him in the face. But as it was, it was all I could do not to pass out while sitting down. “You lost the right to call me that a long time ago, but to threaten Ryan like this… I hate you!”
“No,” he denied, desperation thick in his voice, making it even harsher than it had been only moments ago when he was threatening my loved one. “You just hate that you love me.”
“I hate you.” It came out like a vow, my voice clear and cold as I glared up at him. “If it weren’t for Ryan, I would—”
“Say his name again, mo chroí,” he dared, bending so we were closer. Jealous possessiveness flashed in his eyes. “Say it, and I promise his head will be in the next box I bring to you before I have it delivered to his mother.”
“Bastard,” I spat at him, my heart breaking all over again. Why did I continue to let him have the power to hurt me? “And you wonder why I hate you? You’re nothing but a sick monster, just like Sheena.”
“I’m the monster she made me.” He turned away from me. “But this monster loves you.”
“Someone once told me there is a fine line between love and obsession. Both had the potential to consume a person. But while love is selfless, obsession is nothing but selfish. What you feel for me, that’s not love, Bain. You don’t do these things to someone you claim to love.” I watched his head lower, his chin nearly touching his chest. “All you care about is yourself. Even the health of these babies and me, it’s all for your own sake, not ours. What I want, or need, that doesn’t even cross your mind, does it?”
He was quiet for a long moment before lifting his head and turning to face me. “Believe what you want, mo chroí. I don’t wish to argue with you about it. Get dressed and come downstairs. We have to be prepared to show a united front when your family arrives.”
