Total pages in book: 34
Estimated words: 32346 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 162(@200wpm)___ 129(@250wpm)___ 108(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 32346 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 162(@200wpm)___ 129(@250wpm)___ 108(@300wpm)
“Actually, I would like a moment alone with my brother, please,” Dom says, looking at both of us with a grim expression. I don’t like that he’s leaving her out of it.
“You can say it in front of her,” I say.
“No, I can’t.” I wonder if they’ve killed her father already. He escaped as I protected his daughter, but then the other guy met Enrico’s bullets.
“It’s okay, Niccolò. I need to use the bathroom.” She kisses my cheek and then stands, brushing her clothes down. I notice her clothes are different, but I suppose she was covered in my blood earlier. I hope she’s still wearing her cum-stained panties. Fuck, how can I be thinking of taking her at a time like this?
“Enrico,” Dom calls out.
“Yes, boss,” he says from the doorway.
“Show Ivy the restroom down the hall.”
“Ma’am.” She follows him out, and I want to yell at my brother for doing that. He closes the door behind my bride-to-be and then comes to sit on a chair that someone put near my bed.
“We have to kill him for what he did, but you need to decide what she must know. This is one road I cannot retreat from. You know damn well what Cormack had to do, and this was worse because you could have died. And that’s fucking hard for me to say. My wife was in danger, and Peter deserved his fate; this asshole almost killed his daughter.”
“You don’t have to convince me. Her father will die, but how do I tell her he signed his death warrant?”
“I don’t know. If he’d waited until the girls had been together… I can’t even process that bullshit. By the way, Mom wants a word with you. She’s panicking.”
“That’s because she loves me more.”
“Ha, keep believing that, kid. I’ve got to check on my wife, who’s worried about Ivy. She really likes your girl.”
“I don’t know what I’m going to do, but since I own her, we’ll just have to come to some sort of understanding.”
“You could kidnap her like Nero did.”
“This is a little more complicated.” Nero didn’t have to kill her only family member.
“I’ll tell her if you’d like.” Dom won’t mince words which could hurt my sweet Ivy. I wouldn’t do a thing to upset her, so I have to figure out how to make her understand that his death must happen.
“Nah. I’ll do it. It has to come from me.”
Chapter Ten
Ivy
I get confused after stepping out of the bathroom, but Enrico isn’t there anymore so I try to find my way back. I stumble on an open door and then I hear, “I can’t believe her father tried to kill Nico in the middle of a busy area.” It was my stepfather? Is that why Dom wanted to talk to Niccolò alone? Icing me out, so they can decide my fate.
“Her father’s a sick fuck, Mariana. Domani told me that they offered him Ivy as payment, but he told him to fuck off because he’d never betray me.” I’m mortified by every word that comes out of her mouth. I learned that my stepfather was capable of using me like that, but to hear it from someone I consider a friend and almost family, it hurts.
“Yeah, Domani probably wanted to kill him for that,” Mariana adds. From what I’ve learned of the Don, I don’t have a doubt that he would have killed my father for insulting his marriage like that. The man is obsessed with his wife.
“He wanted to, but he felt bad for the girl since he believed she was sick and needed the money for her medical care. We know it was total bullshit, but now this; it’s just too much. That asshole almost killed Nico. There’s no coming back from that, and now we’re going to have to go to war with the Denali family, according to Domani. He’s worried about Luca and my safety and wants to send us into hiding.”
My heart falls into my stomach, which is moving around like a damn washing machine with every word. “Oh my goodness. Do you think we’ll be going to war?”
“Her father’s going to be a dead man and so is whoever he was working with. Dom will settle for nothing less. I don’t know if it will start a war, but the gauntlet’s been thrown.”
“Well, they’re lucky they haven’t married yet. Walking away will be easier.” My heart cracks at that moment, and my ears ring.
Leaving is the only thing I can do. I have to get out of here. It’s for the best that I never see him again. I don’t want to be the reason they go to war, and she’s right. It’s best that we’re not together. How can he ever forgive me for my stepfather?
I walk out the back door and nearly run into Enrico. He freezes, arching his brow with suspicion, and then he asks, “Ma’am, do you need something?”