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I gathered her see-through dress and bunched it up in my hand until I could reach beneath it.
Touch her soft skin.
I let my fingers skim over her thighs, then her stomach. Could feel the welts and the scabs where her skin cracked. “Watching what, Stellina?”
She’d been whipped or caned. I once witnessed an informant of mine getting whipped in Afghanistan. I’d seen his dead body—similar marks.
She winced when my finger skimmed over another scab.
White-hot rage torpedoed through me and left a blazing fire behind. “Did he do this to you?”
A single sob escaped her throat, and the sound almost killed me.
Something inside my chest suddenly shifted as if giving way to make space for her where there’d only been emptiness before. “He did this.” I didn’t even need her answer. I just knew. “What else has he done to you, Stellina? Trust me, and I will take care of you.”
She sighed and lowered her head. “I can’t.”
“Can’t what?”
“Trust you. You’re one of them.”
I pressed my lips into a tight line, then nodded once. She couldn’t trust me, but I wouldn’t leave her.
“You’re wrong,” I whispered into her ear, could feel her shudder, which made adrenaline rush through me. “I’m not one of them. I’m far worse. But I’m willing to make you a deal.”
She shook her head. “Just let me go, please.” Her voice was shaky, and my dick stirred to life.
Never.
I would never let her go.
Deep in my chest, possessiveness awoke like a sleeping dragon breathing fire, and one word reverberated through my skull.
Mine.
I wrapped my arm around her neck and squeezed. She struggled until she lost consciousness.
Mia Stellina.
She was mine, if she wanted to be or not.
And I would take care of her—if she wanted me to or not.
CHAPTERTEN
After she lost consciousness, I took her in my arms. She was way too light.
Skin and bones.
Anger formed into a big, burning ball in my stomach.
Fausto would pay, even if he wasn’t my father’s killer.
Nobody was allowed to treat her like this.
He had his death coming. And I would be the one to take his life. While looking into his eyes—up close and personal.
A calm expanded through my body, and I exhaled.
