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He carried me back toward the bed in a few long strides. The suddenness of his movements and the tightness of his grip around my body made me breathless. I tried to kick my legs free but he had them completely restrained with his arm, making it impossible for me to get out of his grip.
I drummed my fists onto his back, but my hands just connected with more hard muscle, and it was as if he hardly felt my blows. Arriving at the foot of the bed he flipped me back down and I tried to spin away from him.
“Stop struggling!” He grabbed both my arms and whirled me around to face him. His charcoal eyes were wild. “You need to learn how to obey,” he growled.
My breath was coming in heaving gulps now, but I still felt like I couldn’t get enough oxygen into my lungs as tears spilled down my face.
He released me. “Get into bed.”
I was paralyzed.
“I said, get into bed.”
But I couldn’t move. I could barely keep myself standing and it felt as though my legs were about to give way under me.
“This is the last time I’m going to tell you…” His voice was deadly quiet now, dripping with unspoken threat. “Get into that bed—now. We’re going to sleep.”
My mouth fell open. “We’re going to…sleep?” I stammered.
“Yes, sleep. It’s been a fucking long day and we both need to get some rest.”
“We’re going to get some rest?”
He reached behind me and turned down the comforter and sheets. “In.”
I hesitated, but having run out of options, I did the only thing I could and climbed beneath the cold sheets.
He turned off the lamp on his nightstand, shrouding us in complete darkness. My fear wouldn’t stop its rampage through my body—in the darkness the unfamiliar room seemed even more foreboding, as did the monster next to me.
MARCO
After breaking the news of my soldiers’ deaths to their families, the last thing I felt like was consummating my relationship with Juliana.
Three men dead. Three faithful soldiers from loyal families who had long served the Fratellanza. Despite my hard front, I was not immune to the grief of their families. We would look after their dependents and they would have no financial worries, but nothing could bring back their loved ones. And their loved ones had been my responsibility. It had been my duty to protect the Fratellanza from our enemies.
But I had been deceived by the Società, fooled by their lies and blinded by my attraction to the beauty they had flaunted in front of me.
Fuck. They would pay, and she would pay, if it was the last thing I did.
I turned my eyes to Juliana. She had scooted across the bed and lay as far away from me as possible. I’d give her that much tonight. I didn’t have a handle on my rage, and she was right to keep as far away from me as possible.
How easy it would be to fuck my anger out of my system, punishing her for her treachery and the Società’s treachery. Once she had signed the contract, she had been mine, and she should have been loyal to me and me alone.
This little traitor could wait for now. There was nowhere for her to run to. She would receive her punishment soon enough.
It was dark in the room as I lay down in bed. She was faced away from me and laid rigidly on the edge of the mattress, obviously not trusting what I said to her about my intentions for tonight. I could tell she was trying to stay awake until I fell asleep—as if I might take advantage of her while she was sleeping. Not that it would be difficult to take her. Her wedding lingerie had been chosen to arouse her husband—the wispy nothings made of lace were a complete tease, just like the girl laying next to me.
I listened to her rapid breaths slow down, and after a while, I heard her breathing change into the steady rhythm of sleep. The drug I had knocked her out with earlier would still be working its way out of her system and it would make her drowsy until tomorrow at least. I should have given her a lower dose, but the syringes we kept prepared in all our medical kits were dosed for their normal target of large strapping enemies, not small, fragile girls like her.
It was strange having someone sleep with me in my bed. I hadn’t had anyone sleep the entire night in my bed since the kids had been young.
My chest ached as I remembered Debi and Danio sneaking into my bed when they couldn’t sleep after our parents had died.
Debi used to slip quietly into my bedroom, clinging onto her fluffy toy puppy as I would lift her onto my bed. Debi had been five then and Danio had only been a year older than her. They used to come to my bed and cry themselves to sleep. I remembered how Debi’s small body had snuggled into mine and shaken with sobs until she would fall asleep exhausted, still tightly holding onto her favorite toy. And for every one of those moments, I would berate myself.
She had been too young to have to deal with such loss. Her hands against me had been so small, and each tear rolling down from her huge brown eyes would kill me just a little bit more.
Trying to comfort the kids had never made the pain any less—either for them or for me. I knew that I hadn’t deserved absolution from my sins, but I would have done anything if it meant my siblings hurting less.
