Page 34 of Say You're Mine

"Is that all you've got?" I rasp, my voice a ruined husk of its former self. "A few cheap tricks and mind games, trying to turn me against the woman I love? You'll have to do better than that, you pathetic worm."

Faulkner's face contorts, ugly splotches of red marring his pallid cheeks. He opens his mouth, no doubt to spew more of his venomous bile, but I cut him off with a harsh bark of laughter.

"You think you've won, don't you? Think you've broken me, molded me into the perfect little puppet for my mother to play with. But you underestimate me, doctor. You underestimate the sheer, unrelenting power of what Cara and I have."

I lean forward, my eyes boring into his with an intensity that makes him flinch back. "I will get out of here. I will find my way back to her, to our child. And when I do... there will be a reckoning. For you, for my mother, for everyone who dared to stand in the way of our love."

Faulkner's mouth works soundlessly, his earlier bravado withering under the force of my conviction. He takes a stumbling step back, his hand fumbling for the remote as if it were a talisman to ward off evil.

"You're insane," he whispers, his voice thin and reedy with fear. "You're fucking insane, and we're going to burn the madness out of you if it's the last thing we do."

I smile then, a slow, feral baring of teeth that makes him blanch and cross himself. "Oh, doctor," I purr, my voice a silken threat. "I'm not insane. I'm in love. And that's a far more dangerous thing."

With that, I recline back on my cot, folding my hands behind my head in a deliberate show of nonchalance. "Run along now, Faulkner. Go tattle to the warden like a good little lackey. But know this - no matter what you do to me, no matter what fresh hells you dream up to break my spirit..."

I turn my head, catching and holding his terrified gaze with an implacable stare.

"I will never stop fighting. I will never stop loving her. And I will never, ever, be the obedient little pawn you so desperately want me to be."

Faulkner flees then, the door slamming behind him with a crash that echoes through the room like a gunshot. And in the ensuing silence, in the yawning void left by his absence...

I allow myself a small, secret smile. Because even now, even with my mind in tatters and my body battered and broken...

I know my own truth. I cling to it, a life raft in the churning sea of madness and manipulation that threatens to pull me under.

Cara is my heart. My home. The beginning and end of everything I am, everything I've ever dared to dream. And no amount of torture, no spider's web of lies and deceit...

Will ever make me stop fighting my way back to her.

So do your worst, doctor. Unleash the full might of your sadistic bag of tricks. But know that in the end, when the dust settles and the final battle is won...

Cara and our baby, will be in my arms.

Chapter ten

Cara

The world feels wrong, a funhouse mirror reflection of the life I knew. Colors are too bright, sounds too sharp, every sensation a razor blade against my raw nerves. It's like I'm walking through a waking nightmare, a hellscape of my own making, and the only thing tethering me to sanity is the tiny spark of life growing beneath my heart.

I press a hand to my stomach, feeling the gentle swell that's just beginning to show. "We're going to get him back," I whisper, a promise and a prayer. "Your daddy's coming home to us, little one. I swear it on my life."

But even as the words leave my lips, doubt coils in my gut, insidious and cold. It's been weeks since June was ripped away from us, weeks of dead ends and false hopes, of mounting despair with every passing day. The police are useless, hamstrung by the long arm of Elaine Deveaux's influence. And my own efforts have been met with stonewalling and thinly veiled threats at every turn.

I'm at the end of my rope, my resources and my sanity stretched to the breaking point. Which is why I find myself here, in the sprawling manor of the most notorious crime lord in the city, preparing to barter my soul for the man I love.

"Cara?" A gentle hand on my shoulder startles me from my dark reverie. I look up to see Natalie watching me with concern in her warm brown eyes, her brow furrowed. "Are you sure about this? We can find another way, something that doesn't put you at risk..."

I shake my head, a bitter laugh escaping my throat. "There is no other way, Nat. You know that as well as I do. Elaine has her claws sunk too deep, her web spun too wide. If I want to save June, if I want to keep our child safe, I need the kind of power and resources only Dante can provide."

Natalie sighs, but there's understanding in the set of her mouth, a gleam of steel in her gaze. "I know. I just wish it hadn't come to this. When I left all those years ago, I was swept into this life – this darkness that follows the Corleone name. And now, here I am, dragging you right into the thick of it."

"You're not dragging me anywhere," I say fiercely, gripping her hand in mine. "I'm walking into this with my eyes wide open, Nat. For June, for our baby...there's nothing I wouldn't do, no line I wouldn't cross. Elaine wants a war? Well, she's got one. And I'll burn her whole fucking kingdom to the ground if that's what it takes to get my family back."

Natalie's eyes shine with unshed tears, her smile tremulous but proud. "There's the Cara I remember. Stubborn as a mule and twice as fierce. Elaine won't know what hit her."

A soft knock at the door interrupts our moment, and we both turn to see Dante's new Underboss, Luca, poking his head into the room. "Boss is ready for you," he says, his gravelly voice carefully neutral. "Conference room three."

I take a deep breath, squaring my shoulders and straightening my spine. It's time to face the devil and strike a deal. For June, for our future, I'll gladly walk into the flames.

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