Total pages in book: 25
Estimated words: 22968 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 115(@200wpm)___ 92(@250wpm)___ 77(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 22968 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 115(@200wpm)___ 92(@250wpm)___ 77(@300wpm)
He doesn’t have to tell me twice. My ass gets up so fast that I am light-headed. He grabs Luc by the neck and lifts him; I watch as his legs dangle in the air and his face goes red from Enzo cutting off his airway. “When I say she is to be unharmed, that means not one thing on her body can be touched by your dirty fuckin’ hands. Every single part of her body belongs to me. You thought you’d sample my belongings and walk away with no sort of punishment? How stupid are you, Luc?”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t think,” Luc squeaks. The Zippo flicks on and off in Enzo’s hand, and Luc’s eyes go wide. “What are you gonna do, Enzo?”
Enzo grins, displaying straight, pearly white teeth. “You’ve heard the stories, haven’t you?”
Luc shakes his head, making him look like a defected bobble head.
Enzo brings the Zippo to Luc’s dick as the stench of burned hair fills the air. “You know what I’m capable of?” Luc’s eyes go wide at Enzo’s words. “You laid your hands on her.”
“No, please. I didn’t touch her, I was just messing with her,” Luc begs.
Enzo laughs. The sound is manic. “Is that why she has a mark on her face? Because you didn’t touch her?'“
Luc shakes his head, eyes going wide. When he speaks, his voice is shaky. “It was just a little tap.”
Enzo hauls Luc over to me, pushing his face so close to my face that I wince. “That little red mark you left on her face. Does that look like just messing around? You marked her, Luc, and now I’m gonna mark you.”
“Please, Enzo. I’m sorry. I made a mistake. Let me make it up to you.”
“I don’t do second chances, Luc. You know that” A blond guy who looks like Charlie Hunnam in beast mode with a giddy smile and large silver chains around his neck moves beside Enzo and pours a clear liquid on Luc’s dick. Lighter fluid. Bile rises in the back of my throat mixing in with the morbid satisfaction of the fucker getting what he deserves. “You tried to take something precious from me, and now I’m going to take something precious from you.” The flame from the Zippo moves along Luc’s dick, and the deafening sound of his screams reverberates in the room.
Stumbling back, I try to compose myself. My hands run down my body, as if I am trying to smooth out invisible wrinkles. “Well, thanks for the help.“
As I reach the door, a firm grip grabs my wrist. “Not so fast, princess.”
I try to shake his hold off me, but his hand just tightens; I wince from the pain. “It’s sweet that you want to make sure I find my way home, but I’m good.”
Amusement flashes in Enzo’s eyes before it disappears under a cold exterior. Something tells me this man is used to looking cold over anything else. “I’m not your savior, princess. I’m the monster that’s lurking in the dark.”
“It’s you,” I gasp.
“Hello, principessa.”
Chapter Two
Six Months Ago
REESE
“The auction is next week,” my father says, his icy hands playing with a loose strand of my hair. I hate when he touches me. It is never the touch of a father, but that of someone who wants something a father never should. Something seedy and vile.
My eyes search my mother’s face. She can’t meet the ones of her almost twenty-one-year-old daughter, her gaze fixed on the intricate patterns of the rug beneath her feet. “You gonna say anything? Or are you okay with me being sold like some sort of street hooker?”
She stands beside my father, wringing her hands, looking like the perfect little mafia wife—complacent, quiet, taking all his punches and abuse without saying a damn word.
My father steps between us. His body brushes against mine, making me feel sick to my stomach. “She does what she is told, just like you will if you know what’s good for you.”
That is the thing about caged animals: they either get defeated or they learn to be darker, worse than their captor. I’m not the creature that wilts away like my mother did; I’m the fighter, the one who will chew off her own limb to get the fuck out.
Over the years, I had a front-row seat to my father peeling my mother’s layers until only an empty shell remained; her eyes that used to shimmer with light as we played and sang our songs started vanishing, only leaving behind a void of fear.
Don’t worry, Mother. Soon he’ll take you to the slaughterhouse and find himself someone new to ruin.
Back straight, head held high, I glared my father down, refusing to look away from his intense stare. “I’m never gonna let you sell me. You’ll have to kill me first.”
Vincent Ferreri cocks his head as if examining something strange and foreign. I guess no one had dared to challenge him before. They’d groomed my father to run the empire from the moment his chubby face came out screaming from my grandmother’s womb. He steps closer to me before bending down and whispering, “Don’t think I won’t consider that, amore.”