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“Because that’s what I am, Liliana. I’m what nightmares are made of. I revel in it, clutch it close to my heart.” His nostrils flared, and I saw aflicker of emotion move across his face. “The world will eat you up and spit you out, so being a mean son of a bitch who kills before being killed is the only way to survive.”
He started drumming his fingers on the arm of the chair again. The sound would’ve been hypnotic if I wasn’t already trying to calm my racing heart and dry my sweaty palms.
“My death is the only outcome in this situation.” I shook my head, but I didn’t know what I was denying, didn’t know what I was trying to convey.
The rest of the words were right at the tip of my tongue, ready to spew forth like a slap to his face.
“I won’t become someone you sell… another whore in your ledger of money-making schemes.”
“Liliana dolce e vulnerabile. Non voglio ucciderti.”Sweet, vulnerable Liliana. I don’t want to kill you.His smile was slow and big, and it terrified me. “Voglio farti mia.”I want to make you mine.
Chapter4
Matteo
For long seconds, she didn’t respond, just stared at me as if what I’d told her hadn’t clicked, like she didn’t understand the words I’d just said.
Finally, she took a step back and then another one. I let her retreat, although there was no place for her to go. I wouldn’t let her leave, even if there had been a way she could run.
I waited several days after killing her brother and father and buried them in shallow graves on the outskirts of Desolation to come here, to look her in the face and tell her myself she would now be mine.
Having their blood on my hands didn’t bother me. In fact, I felt stronger because of it.
Taking out, torturing them, watching the life fade from their eyes, and hearing the last breath they took was therapeutic… cathartic.
I contemplated not telling Liliana I was the one who tortured and killed her family. They’d just never come back, never bother her again.
But I couldn’t deny the sick satisfaction in wanting to be the one to tell herItook care of her problem. It probably wasn’t the way she ever imagined, although I knew it wouldn’t come as a surprise. I was a coldhearted bastard… and her father and brother were pieces of shit.
She knew the outcome of Desolation, of being one of its citizens and rotting from the inside out.
She eyed the front door but was smart enough not to make a run for it. It wouldn’t have mattered, anyway. Even if I didn’t have Luca waiting right on the other side, I’d track Liliana, hunt her down like the predator I was.
Thrump-thrump. Thrump-thrump.
I drummed my fingers on the armrests repeatedly, watching her, knowing what her next moves would be and anticipating how I’d counteract them.
“Might as well relax,” I said low, deep. “You know you can’t run from me, so you might as well be at ease.” She snorted, and I smirked.
“Be at ease? Around a man like you?” She exhaled shakily, her shoulders sagging slightly, but the tenseness and awareness still wrapped around her.
She was smart. Liliana knew not to let her guard down when a monster was right on her doorstep.
And that monster was me. But what she didn’t know was I’d never hurt her.
In fact, the strongest part of me wanted to protect her, save her, even if I should have stayed away because I was the biggest danger of all.
Her bruise was healing, but I didn’t mention that. She noticed where my focus was, trained on the side of her face by her eye. She looked away and lifted her hand, her fingertips touching the fading mark.
I wanted to kill those bastards all over again, to smell the coppery scent of their blood fill the warehouse, to feel the warmth of it spray across my arms and neck as I gave them their final death blow.
I was a sick motherfucker, but it was the only way I’d been able to survive, the only chance anyone had in a shithole like this.
The little wince that covered her face when she slid her fingers along the mark had me clenching my jaw.
I wanted to dig up those douchebags. My fingers itched to take a knife and go to work, chipping away—piece by piece—their worthless hides. I’d feed them to my dogs, but my Tibetan Mastiffs deserved quality, not the scum that Derek and Logan were.
Fuck those bastards.
