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Screams ring through the room once more but become louder when the door opens. My gaze snaps over to the man who steps inside, I’ve never seen him before. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure it out, though.
Cesare Gheata.
I’m surprised at how much he doesn’t look like his brother. This I find is a good thing. The only reason I would say this man is Cesare Gheata is due to the description Cedric gave me one night while telling me about how he’s glad he doesn’t resemble any of them. The only thing they have in common is the darkness of hair, and maybe their height. But Cedric has him in build. This guy is lanky. Cesare comes closer, and behind him, the door opens again.
One of his men steps through, and I gasp as he tosses Mara-Lee’s naked, beaten, and bloody body to the floor. My eyes stay locked on her as she curls into herself.
“Leelee,” I whisper, wanting to go to her.
“I see you like my gift.” Cesare chuckles, stepping into my line of sight. “This is part of your punishment and his.”
I shake my head, trying to understand him.
He must not like me shaking my head, because the next thing I know, he moves in to slap me hard enough to cause the chair to fall backward. A sharp pain shoots through my body. My wrists ache, and I swear one of them is broken. I also feel pain in my head where I hit it with a thud.
Cesare moves in, puts my chair on its side, and cuts me from my restraints. I make the stupid mistake of trying to crawl away from him when he drags me backward by my ankle and straddles me. His hand going to my throat.
“You were mine, and yet you gave that half breed what belongs to me,” he snarls, his face twisting in fury. The hand at my throat tightening.
I fight back the ache in both my wrists and try to claw at Cesare’s arms, needing to break his grip.
“I will teach you again and again for what you’ve done. Your body is now tainted more than it already was in the first place.” He sneers and spits in my face. “You will pay just as your friend over there will pay some more before my brother gets his whore back.”
“Go to hell,” I croak, gasping for breath.
“Not without you, sweetheart,” he says, leaning forward and licking my face from my chin up to my hairline.
A commotion from the other side of the room draws Cesare’s attention, and suddenly he is thrown off me, and gunfire fills the room.
Without thinking, I get to my hands and knees and crawl to Mara-Lee. My only thought is to make sure she is safe, and no one else hurts her. It’s because of me she’s already been hurt as much as she has.
Dark spots are fluttering around my vision by the time I make it to her, and I use the last of my strength to shield her with my own body. Because of me she was hurt, I won’t let anything else happen to her. They’ll have to kill me first, and I’ll gladly die to be with Cedric again.
Without him, nothing is worth living for. He’s my raptureThe one who breathed life into my lungs when all I wanted was to end it all. Escape the grasp of pain that I’ve known for far too long.
CHAPTERNINE
CEDRIC
Two Days Later . . .
With my legs propped up on the coffee table in front of me, I slouch back, resting my head on the back of the couch. The weight of Arwen’s head in my lap as I stroke my fingers through her hair. I don’t have to look down to know she’s finally dozed off. This is a good thing. She’s not slept much since the accident, and she refuses to allow Mara-Lee to be far from her. No matter how many times any of us tell her it’s not on her what happened.
They’d both had to go to the hospital after we found them. I hate the thought of what could’ve happened if we’d been just a few minutes later than what we were.
Fuck.
I wish I’d made sure Cesare died, but I needed to see to Arwen.
I glance from the TV down to Arwen’s peaceful yet bruised face. I don’t know the exact details of what happened before we got there, but I know both women went through hell. If I could go back in time, I’d stop it all from happening to either of them.
In the midst of the commotion, my woman crawled to Mara-Lee and shielded her using her own body. I’m blessed they’re both here still with only the injuries they took.
It took both Colton and Link to pull me away from Cesare, to break through the red haze that was my vision. Seeing him hover over Arwen’s body the way he was—choking the life out of her, I flipped. Nothing was going to stop me.
Once they got me focused again, I rushed to my woman’s side and all but pried her away from Mara-Lee. Both of them needed help. But Arwen’s sobs when she saw me were my undoing. All she kept crying was it was all her fault and that she thought she lost me. She was willing to die because she thought I was dead.
Closing my eyes, I lean my head against the couch and release a heavy breath. The very idea of losing her is like thousands of knives stabbing into my chest and wrenching my heart out. She means everything to me. Everything.
