Page 116 of Maddest Temptation

“Good boy,” Mikail taunted.

He stepped behind me, placed his gun against my head and leaned in to kiss my cheek. I hated the tears that fell from my eyes. I wanted to be strong for Cassio, but I was so afraid. “I’m going to love making you mine. Maybe I’ll do it right here in front of him.”

“Are you going to let him do this to your daughter? Shame your name like that?” Cassio pleaded with Donato.

“She has already shamed my family,” he said, but then added. “We had a deal, Grigori, your son would wed her first, and I would kill Cassio.”

Neither Cassio nor I breathed. “Fine, fine,” Mikail complained. “You can have him if you wish.”

I watched as Donato raised his gun and pointed it at Cassio. He was about to shoot when something in me snapped. I jumped from the chair, the tape pulling at my skin. I fell before Cassio and used my body as a shield to protect him.

FRANCESCA

“Don’t shoot!”

Panic like I had never felt in my entire life took hold of me and pulled me under. One moment she was tied up, and in the next, she was kneeling before me. Her beautiful face was shrouded in fear.

I watched as Francesca fought the vise-like grip Mikail had on her. Francesca twisted and turned but he was pulling her by her hair until he managed to snake an arm over her chest. I moved instinctively, but when I did, Donato had his gun trained on me. Son of a bitch. Mikail was hurting his daughter, and he didn’t even care.

“Let her go!” I shouted.

“I don’t think I will.” His grip tightened around her enough to make her cry out.

“I will fucking kill you,” I warned him. God, I didn’t even know what I would do to him if he harmed a single hair on her body.

Mikail’s laughter echoed in the room. The fucker thought I was joking.

With the gun trained on me, I didn’t want to do anything stupid. My priority right now was to get Francesca out of here in one piece. Francesca surprised me and Mikail as well when she bit him hard on his forearm, and when he let her go, she head-butted him.

“You fucking bitch.” He held his bleeding nose.

Francesca wasn’t fast enough to escape him; he gripped her by her arm and spun her, hitting her with the back of his hand. She fell to the floor with a loud thud.

“I wouldn’t.” The barrel of the gun connected with my head when I tried to move.

“She’s your fucking daughter,” I roared, almost begging him to see it.

“That’s enough,” Donato ordered.

Mikail stopped moving toward Francesca who was slowly sitting up. “She’s my wife,” he said simply.

“Not yet.” Donato pointed out.

Francesca finally sat up and wiped her bleeding nose. I never thought I would be this angry in my life. There had been moments when I lost it, but now looking at her large, scared eyes, and the blood running down her nose and forehead, I knew right then I was going to skin him alive, slowly, so that he felt each agonizing press of my blade to his skin.

Her eyes found mine and then followed them to where the gun was pressed to my head. She turned so white that I thought she was going to faint. I shook my head urging her to look away. She did, but what came later, scared me even more.

She slowly crawled toward me and kneeled before her father, tears already trailing down her face. “Don’t kill him,” she begged. “Please, please let him go, and I will do anything you ask.”

“Francesca.” I tried to stop her, but she wasn’t having it, she didn’t listen to me, she kept on going.

“Please. I promise I’ll behave, that I will… that I’ll marry you.” She turned to Mikail. “I’ll marry you and I’ll be an exemplary wife. I’ll do what you ask of me, and I will never speak up, I will never try to run or disobey you.”

What is she doing?

“I’ll marry you right now. There… are witnesses and—just please,” she cried. Still on her knees, begging.

I had been hurt before, I had broken bones, been cut by knives, and then stitched up, I had been shot and watched as they used tweezers to remove the bullet from my flesh, but nothing, and I mean nothing, prepared me for what I saw before me.

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