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“What?” I ask, sparing her a glance since Stone is there as backup. I frown because she’s lifted her veil. Her face is just as beautiful as I remembered—fuck, probably even more so—except, there’s a large bruise under her left eye that also darkens part of her cheek. She has make-up on but it’s still very apparent. At this point, it’s a good thing Stone is here because I lose it. I turn completely into her, giving Kelly my back.
“You can’t talk about stuff like that. Not in front of these people. My brother is here!”
I run my fingers over the dark area on her face that is bruised. My hand trembles while anger like I’ve never known builds up. Until this moment, I didn’t take Melina in—at least not fully. Now, I can tell that she’s lost weight. There are heavy circles around her eyes that once again, make-up doesn’t fully disguise. Hell, even her hair has lost some of its shine. Her beautiful caramel eyes that have haunted me, don’t have the intense, vibrant color they once had either. I’ve dreamed for weeks about the way they would warm and deepen with her passion and now they just seem tired.
“Did he hit you,il mio tesoro?” I keep my voice quiet and deceptively mild as I deal with the emotions running through me.
“What?” she asks confused.
I kiss her forehead. I don’t miss the way her body trembles or the way she jerks in shock when I get close to her. Did he hurt her so bad that she’s afraid of men now?Is she afraid of me?
I turn back around and pistol whip Kelly in the side of the face with more force than even I could have imagined I was capable of. While he’s distracted with that, I bring my knee up and nail him in the balls. The bastard falls down to his knees, groping himself and Stone lets him go. I press the nose of my barrel right between his fucking eyes. “You dare touch what’s mine? You dare raise your hand and hurt her!”
“Antonio, stop!” Melina cries.
I hear Killian, curse somewhere close by. I thought he was going back to check on the others, but I guess he changed his mind. I don’t actually see him, however. I don’t see anything. I’m too furious. Melina is tiny. A hit like the one it would take to make that bruise could have killed her.
“I never touched the bitch. I didn’t know she was yours. I paid for a fucking virgin.”
“It wasn’t him…You what?” Melina screeches.
“Who hit you, Lina?” I growl, trying to hold on long enough that I don’t kill the bastard right here and now.
“What do you mean you paid?” she cries, ignoring me and sounding panicked.
“Your father sold you to me,” Kelly sneers. “I only paid the price because you were supposed to be a virgin. I was going to teach you how to please a man and then train you to keep my associates happy. You need to tell your father I want my money back, boy,” he adds talking to the man beside Melina. Now it clicks who he is. Until now, I’d been so wrapped up in getting her safe and then, seeing her bruises, that I didn’t fully realize who was standing beside her. I just knew it wasn’t Dracos.
“I’m not a fucking boy,” the man growls and I take him in. He’s older than me. I met him during my meetings with his father, but he was silent and seemed bored.Melina’s brother.
Melina is shaking her head no and looks at her brother. “Marco, tell me that our father didn’t do this. I know he’s a bastard and I hate him, but tell me he didn’t sell me to a man who had plans to make me…” Her face goes pale, and she has trouble getting the words out. “Marco, tell me our father didn’t know what was planned for me when he agreed to this marriage.”
“Melina,” he says but even I can hear the truth in his voice. Her father knew all along. I’m going to kill him and I’m going to enjoy every second of it. As I look at the tears that are sliding down my woman’s beautiful face, I make myself a promise. I will put a bullet in him for every tear she sheds over the miserable piece of shit.
“He knew,” she whispers. “He sold my virginity and didn’t care what would happen to me.”
“I took your virginity,” I growl.
“I told you not to talk about that here. I don’t want my brother to hear about what we did,” she insists, while doing her best to wipe her face with the back of her hand and to collect herself enough to stop crying.
“Stop testing me, Lina. I will talk about whatever I want to when it comes to you. You belong to me.”
“I’m so tired of men thinking I’m a possession. I’m not! I’m a person with my own mind and my own feelings. I don’t belong to anyone!”
I use my free hand to hold the side of her neck and pull her to me. She gasps, her body going rigid as she tries to resist. “Bullshit,” I bark. “You are mine, Lina. You gave me your innocence and left me wanting more. Did you really think I would give that up? I’ve been looking for you and now that I have you, I’m not letting you go. You need to come to terms with the fact that you are mine now.”
“I’m not having this conversation here. Not now. Not in front of my brother and this pig that my own father apparently sold me to so I could become his whore.”
I don’t like seeing her like this. I’d rather she be holding on to her anger instead of being broken. So, I say the first thing that comes to mind that will piss her off. “You wouldn’t be a whore.”
“I would apparently be trained on how to please all of his buddies,” she hisses, motioning toward Kelly. “That would make me a whore.”
“Whores usually fuck because they want to. You’d be a sex slave, which is what your almost-new husband specializes in.”
She flinches like I hit her. “I would never allow that to happen!”
“None of this would have happened if you had stayed in my bed where you belonged,” I counter.
“I…You… I don’t belong there,” she sputters.
