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He doesn’t answer but he shakes his head infinitesimally.
“You don’t have to hurt me,” I tell him.
“But the alternative is to hurt him. And you wouldn’t want that, would you?”
“I don’t understand. Why do you have to hurt either of us? He loves you.”
“And like I said, I love him. And that’s why I’m choosing you. Because if there’s no baby, he doesn’t have to die.”
“What?”
He grins a grin that is not smug, not happy. Not remotely. He looks the opposite actually. Like he’s in so much pain.
“The will. The exact words Brutus Augustine chose. Only an Augustine by blood can inherit. That’s not me, sweetheart,” he says and squeezes his eyes shut.
“Because you’re the Commander’s son,” I say.
“How did you figure it out? I’m curious. I mean, thank goodness I don’t share any physical similarities.”
“Caius, please—”
“How?” he barks, making me jump.
“It’s the way you stand sometimes.”
“Ah.”
“Does Santos know?”
“He does now. But it doesn’t matter anymore. Oh, by the way, Uncle Jax? That was me. I sent you the photo too. Early wedding gift. Not nice, I know.”
“You? You k-killed my uncle.”
“Leverage. Anywho,” he says, casually playing with the word. “Back to the matter at hand. The fact stands that I can’t inherit a fucking penny. He cut me out. My mother too. If it weren’t for Santos’s generosity, we’d be out on the street.”
“Then why would you do what you’re doing?”
“Do you have any idea about the scale of the Augustine fortune?”
I shake my head. “I don’t care.”
“Yeah, you do. Money makes the world go around. And you can say you don’t care all you like, but you’d care if it impacted your day-to-day life. Since you don’t know, though, let me tell you. My brother, mother, and I couldn’t spend it in a thousand lifetimes. But the old man set it up the way he did to protect his son. His only son. And his son’s descendants, of course. And to punish my mother.” He shifts his gaze to my stomach. “You can imagine how that’s gone over with her.”
When he tugs me out of that cottage, I know this is it. I know what he’s going to do once I’m on that beach. I open my mouth to scream, but he’s fast and in an instant, he pulls me to himself and clasps a hand over my mouth.
“Shut up. Just shut the fuck up. You don’t want me to hurt that poor vicar or whatever the fuck he is do you? I took the time to put the silencer on for his sake. Don’t make me regret it.”
I try to shake my head but he’s holding me too hard, and I can’t.
“If I see him, I’ll kill him, Madelena, and it’ll be on you. So, are you going to shut up or not?”
I try to nod.
“Fucking answer me.”
I make a sound and nod harder.
“Good.” He moves his hand from my mouth but wraps it over my arm in a death grip. “Let’s go to the beach.”
