Total pages in book: 73
Estimated words: 70225 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 351(@200wpm)___ 281(@250wpm)___ 234(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70225 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 351(@200wpm)___ 281(@250wpm)___ 234(@300wpm)
A smirk sweeps across his lips. “Did you read the initials?”
“Initials?”
TTR.
“Who is TTR?”
He holds the skull by the back of the head and puts it right in my face. “Take a wild guess. It may be familiar to you if you actually look at it.”
TTR…TTR…TTR…
“It’s someone you knew…but not as well as you’d like to think.”
I pick my head up rapidly and glare at him.
“Toni?” I whisper. “Toni!”
“Trigger Toni Ricci.” He releases a throaty chuckle. “I scalped his head myself. Scooped the eyeballs out with a hot spoon. Cut off the skin with some of my best knives. Had some of my men clean it down to the bone and then bring it back here.”
“You are a sick fucking bastard!” I shove him against the chest and then smack a hand across his cheek. The action is so swift that I don’t have much time to process what I’ve just done.
Draco doesn’t react much, but his nostrils do flare at the edges and his head dips. A shadow is casted over the top half of his face. His lips are thin and pressed flat.
“Why would you bring that here? Why would you bring me here? Why would you mutilate him like that and then shove it in my face!”
“He should be glad I didn’t do worse!”
“Are you so fucking crazy and evil that you have to keep a man’s skull over a little bit of fucking territory?! Is that what this is about?!”
He takes a step closer, looking me right in the eyes. “You have no fucking idea what this is about,” he grumbles through clenched teeth. “You are too fucking blind, thinking he was perfect. Thinking he actually fucking loved you,” he spits out.
“He did love me,” I fume, rage filling my voice.
“That’s what he wanted you to believe.” Draco’s head barely shakes. “This skull? It’s a reward for myself for finally getting rid of that piece of shit. He was a fucking disgrace.”
“Just tell me what he did!”
He steps back, bends down, and places the skull beneath the flowers again. When he’s upright, he mutters, “I don’t have to tell you shit, Gianna.”
“You’re a fucking monster. You are the disgrace. I can’t believe I let you fuck me,” I spit at him.
“You know why you let me fuck you. You can’t resist me. You can’t deny me, even if you try to. You know that I fucking own you and that you aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. I don’t answer to you, Gianna. You answer to me.” He takes a sly step forward. “And the next time you talk that way to me, I will be sure to keep your skull as my keepsake too. Now get your ass back to your room and shut the fuck up before you piss me off.”
He has a stern finger pointed at me. Those dark brown eyes seem to have grown multiple shades darker, even with the sun directly on us. He doesn’t let up, and I don’t want to run away, but I refuse to stay here.
Next to Toni’s skull.
Next to these beautiful flowers of betrayal.
There has been enough fucked up shit for one day. There is only so much I can take. Seeing this skull—knowing Draco gets pleasure in shit like this—it proves that I don’t belong here.
I don’t belong to him—a man that is proud of killing loved ones.
I don’t know what the fuck Daddy saw in him, but I just don’t see it. And I don’t fucking get it. I’m starting to think Daddy was a fucking fool. Anyone can clearly see that Draco can’t be trusted.
For all I fucking know, he killed Daddy and is trying to pretend he was close to him. He and his mother could be lying just to keep me on a leash, but what would be the point of that?
I don’t say another word. I turn with haste and storm away, and I don’t stop until I make it up to my bedroom, have curled up beneath the blanket, and have cried myself to sleep.
I don’t care that I miss dinner.
I don’t care that my stomach growls with hunger.
I just don’t fucking care anymore. I can’t take this. I can’t do it—constantly betraying a husband that was nothing but good to me, in order to survive.
I miss him so fucking much.
Why did he have to be involved in this crappy drug and mafia business? Why couldn’t he just be normal?
Oh, that’s right.
Because normal men don’t excite me.
Normal is boring.
Normal has never been a part of my life.
Normal, just like love, is fucking useless.
Chapter Sixteen
Day 13
I’m dreading this morning.
Yesterday was a horror fest and I don’t think I can stomach much more, but I have no choice right now.
There was another note in my room when I woke up, no flowers this time. The curtains weren’t drawn open either.