Page 59 of Beautiful Vows

“Fuck Cade. I thought you were someone else.”

He sighs. “Ricardo Bianchi?” he asks. “Because that’s who kidnapped Rafe.”

Chapter 20

Rafe

Stay alive.

I don’t know how many times I have to tell myself that help will come soon. But now the pain is all-consuming as my body slowly sinks into a sea of agony. It’s so bad, I feel like I’m drowning.

My lungs feel like they are struggling to take in air, and now every breath, every movement, every heartbeat is a torturous assault on my battered body.

Ricardo is pacing around me like a lion toying with its prey, his boots scuffing against the concrete floor as he watches and waits.

“Today is your last day alive, Rafe, unless you tell me what you know,” he says, the words dripping with an icy indifference that chills me to my very core. “Now stop boring me and tell me why Dante saved the girl? Why is she so important he killed my brother?”

His voice is matter-of-fact, devoid of the menacing undertone from before, as if he’s simply stating an inevitable fact—my impending demise, unless I comply with his demands.

“Just tell me.” The ease of his tone sends a shiver down my spine.

I had thought it was his voice when I had no sight. I’m not sure why he kept me blindfolded. But that’s stupid fucking Ricardo. I also knew the moment he removed the blindfold that he knows he’s going to kill me.

“No comment,” I grunt through gritted teeth, my throat raw from lack of fluids. He’s only given me enough to stay alive—barely.

“Hit him,” he commands with a dismissive wave of his hand.

Thud!

But I’m so weak, the thrust of the fist merely causes my head to loll, the impact no longer eliciting the same agonizing pain as before.

I no longer brace myself, somehow it helps.

A large part of me wants to surrender to the darkness that beckons, to let oblivion claim me and take me forever. I have an overwhelming temptation to give in, to slip into the sweetest embrace of unconsciousness, but that would be so damn easy.

Yes, it’d be a blessed relief from this never ending torment. But the fighter in me knows my time isn’t over yet; I’m not ready to leave this life.

Not when I have an anchor in Cade. We've fought for so long to be together that I can’t leave him or let him down now.

And then there’s beautiful Lia. The only woman who has taken a piece of my heart, as she has with Cade. The woman who Ricardo desperately wants to know about. The woman he wants to eliminate.

My head drops heavily as I consider everything. Once I’m gone, Dante will be hunted next. And while he’ll protect Lia with his life, I don’t know if Cade has the strength to endure.

The notion sends a pang of despair through me, and I force myself to focus. To clasp the delicate threads of my life with every ounce of my being.

Little by little, I work to loosen the ties around my wrists, picking at the restraints on what little strength remains.

Through narrowed slits, I watch him pace around me, his fists clenching tightly, as his calculating glance behind me quickens my heart rate.

“And again!” Ricardo barks, his voice edged with frustration when I don’t even make a sound as another blow connects, this time with my chest.

I sense his impatience intensifying, but other than gritting my teeth, I don’t react.

And suddenly, his voice takes on a sinister tone that sends a chill down my spine. “You’ll talk, you bastard. You’re not dying until you give me everything you know about her.”

He rushes behind me and before I can react, his arm encircles my neck, the crook of his elbow digging into my windpipe as he chokes me with a vise-like grip.

“Why did your brother kill my brother for her? Tell me who she is and where she is.”

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