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First, I have to focus. I have to fight through the cobwebs of crazed jealousy that obscure my reason. I have to make sure my little traitor isn’t also a liar.
I direct my question at the vicar. “Did they say the vow?”
He shakes his head with fervor.
Not turning the gun away from his head, I say, “Swear it on the Bible.”
“I swear.” He lifts trembling hands in the air. “Check for yourself. They haven’t exchanged the rings.”
I shift my gaze to Sabella’s hand. All her fingers are naked. But under the dress, she already carries my mark. She had no right to give it to another man. How was she going to explain that to herhusbandon her wedding night?
Fuck.
The thought makes me put pressure on the trigger. I dispel the image that takes shape in my mind lest I kill the motherfucker behind her without making him suffer.
My command is cool and controlled, not giving away how close I am to snapping. “Step out of the way, Sabella.”
“No, please,” she says in a tremulous voice. “Don’t hurt him.”
She’s pleading for him? She’s begging me on his behalf? That does it.
“Take the women and the kid outside,” I instruct the guards.
“No.” Sabella jumps forward, pushing her chest against the barrel of the gun. “It was my idea. If you have to punish someone, kill me.”
My eyes tighten, narrowing involuntarily to slits at the sight of the hard, black metal of the pistol caressing the silk of the wedding gown right between her breasts.
“Have you forgotten?” I ask with an icy inflection. “Your life belongs to me.”
Her soft brown eyes glimmer with tears. “Please, Angelo.”
The sound of my name on her lips gives me pause. It jars me, just for a second, but she senses it, because she continues quickly.
“Let them go, Angelo. They had nothing to do with it. They’re innocent. I’m the guilty one.” She leans into the gun, putting her weight behind it. “I’m the one who asked them to do this.”
“I’m not leaving my husband,” a woman says in a shaky voice. “If he stays, I stay too.”
Celeste. The sister-in-law.
Stupid woman. Stupid but loyal.
Her husband, Ryan, grips her bicep and gives her a slight shake of his head.
Sabella’s voice pulls my attention back to her. “We can get married. Right here.” Her gaze is pleading. “The vicar can do it.” She even manages a quivering smile. “Please, Angelo. Let’s do it here. Now. Everything is ready. Let the others go.”
She’s offering me an exchange—her vow for her family’s lives. Only, her vow was always supposed to be mine. She can’t bargain with something that already belongs to me.
What I’m really interested in is, “Did you kiss him?”
She stares at me, her expression baffled. “What?”
My nostrils flare when she makes me repeat those blasphemous words. “Did you fucking kiss him?”
Catching on, she blinks. “No.” She speaks fast. “No. It’s not like that.”
I apply pressure, feeling the resistance of her breastbone against the gun, feeling the cruel smile that manipulates the stiff muscles of my mouth, curving my lips as if they belong to a puppet and not to me. My words are measured, spoken softly like a dirty caress. “Did you fuck him?”
“No,” she exclaims, fear bleeding into those expressive eyes. “Colin and I never…” She licks her lips. “I swear it.”
