Page 141 of Heart of a Villain

Adrían pointed to Lorenzo. “Chefe, I told you. I told you. This is why I switched your glass.”

“You switched my…” Cipriano stared at his empty goblet, his hand shaking, before facing Lorenzo. “You son of bitch.”

“Chefe, I didn’t do this,” Lorenzo pleaded.

Several others had gone down, some on their knees, while others had already made it to the ground.

“Chefe, I didn’t do this. It was for Gano. I only poisoned Gano.”

Alessandra left her seat, stumbled over to her father, and clutched Cipriano’s shirt. “Father?”

“Alessandra? You poisoned my daughter, you piece of shit?” Cipriano scooped Alessandra up off her feet and rushed toward the exit. “It will be okay, Alessandra. It will be okay, baby girl. Somebody get me a doctor! And whoever lets Lorenzo leave here alive, I will fucking kill them myself!”

Lorenzo dashed from the room.

Adrían staggered to a door on the other side of the dining hall. He stumbled through the mansion, making his way down corridors and through hidden entrances until he reached a specific segment of the basement. Small renovations had been made here and there, but every trap door, nook, and cranny remained the same.

His gasping suddenly disappeared, his death conveniently no longer imminent—as if it ever was.

The door in front of him opened, and Lorenzo barely had time to register what was happening before he retrieved a needle and stuck it into the soft notch at the base of Lorenzo’s neck.

CHAPTER

THIRTY-EIGHT

If I’m not back before that phone goes off, leave without me. I’ll find you. This is all part of the plan.

Trust me.

I love you.

Sayeda read and reread the note, turning her wrist for the toothbrush to reach her molars.

In total, she’d slept for roughly ten hours. Between her legs, her shoulders, her thighs—everywhere—was tender. A good kind of tender. Evil Adrían was insatiable, and as much as she loved being drilled until she was begging for him to go easy on her, Evil Adrían worried her.

However, there was nowhere he could sink to where she wouldn’t crawl to him and pull him back to her.

I drew you a map.

I love you.

She snorted. “Doesn’t this man know I can’t read a map worth a damn?”

Under no circumstances do you go into the rainforest.

“I wasn’t made for anything but the concrete jungle,” she mumbled. “One mosquito bite, and that’s my ass.”

She flipped the note over.

I love you.

Smiling, she set it aside and bent over to spit in the sink. She never thought about the fact that the first time she told him she loved him, he didn’t hear it. Back then, it hadn’t mattered to her that he might not have felt the same way. All she’d wanted was to make sure they didn’t get split up or split apart without him knowing the profound effect he’d had on her in life and in love.

She washed the toothbrush and set it aside.

The front door opened and shut.

“Baby?” She slipped into a pair of shorts and tossed on a loose-fitting shirt over her tank top. “Did you get the coffee? It’s okay if you didn’t?—”

---