Page 11 of The Queen's Serpent

“Sir, I… it’s…la mierda,“ a frustrated and frightened Raphael utters as he meets my gaze. His face is all red on one side, and I can clearly see the imprint of Issy’s fingers on his olive-toned skin. Looks like she got him good. An irrational sense of pride fills me at the sight of the damage my girl has caused.

Raphael takes a deep breath and tries once again to get his words out, as he shifts nervously on his feet. His dark eyes meet and hold mine, even though I can see fear across his face and in his demeanor. “Jefe, with respect, sir… I… theseñoritaIsabella… there is a problem.”

“A problem?Estás bromeando?I’ll say there is a problem; she just attacked him because he wouldn’t give her the drugs he has,“ Santiago lets loose with an irritated snark, his large body tense.

A feeling of trepidation crawls up my back as I move closer to Raphael. What the fuck is he blabbering about? Drugs? What fucking drugs? “You have thirty seconds to tell me what the fuck is going on, before I have both your heads ripped from your fucking bodies, and put on spikes in the jungle.”

My heart is thundering so loudly in my ears that it’s starting to drown out all the other sounds. A wash of heat cascades down my back as I repeat Santiago’s words in my mind.No, he hasto be fucking wrong. Not my Issy, not my perfect broken doll.Rage starts to rise within me, from the soles of my feet and crawling up my limbs with licks of pure fire. They are lying, slandering my Issy. I’ll fucking kill them both.

“Dios perdoname. Isabella… is… an addict… or at least is addicted to the morphine I have been giving her. She tried to get me to give her a shot today, begged in fact, then tried to… to seduce me, and when I wouldn’t, she attacked me and tried to take the vial herself.“ His words tumble from his lips in a high-pitched voice filled with terror.

He should be fucking terrified, because his words trigger my anger further. The desire to snap his neck for calling her an addict makes quick work of my steps, as I wrap my fist around his neck and tighten, until his breath gasps out of him. He tries to fight my hold, clawing at my hand in a useless attempt to remove my grip, while his eyes widen dramatically with the realization that I will end his fucking life right here. I lift him by his nape from the ground, and he makes a choking sound as the air is cut from his lungs.

“You lie,” I seethe through clenched teeth. “She must be in pain; she wouldn’t beg if she weren’t.”

“He’s not lying,Jefe. Please, Diego! She attacked him for the drugs, and not because she is in pain… at least not that type of pain you speak of.Joder, she did try to seduce him into giving them to her, knowing that I was in the room watching, and… it didn’t work. She was desperate,Jefe. She has all the signs of a person with an addiction.“ Santiago drags his scarred hand roughly through his short hair, as my attention shifts to him instead of the man being deprived of oxygen in front of me.

She tried to seduce him? My fucking Issy? My prize, with this piece of shit, all while another man watched. Does she crave death so badly that she knows her actions would cause me to strangle the life from her? She doesn’t want to be mine, butwould she use this as an opportunity to leave me permanently? Is death preferable to spending a life with me?

Deep in my soul, I hear the confirmation of my fears. She has already tried to leave me, back in Casbury, and would not have agreed to come to this jungle and be with me, unless under force. She doesn’t want to be mine, and death for her at my hands or through some vile fucking drug, would be preferable to life with me.

“She couldn’t even keep her eyes off of the bottle, and she was behaving erratically, like…mierda… like an addict coming down from a fix.“ Santiago’s words have me pausing my tightening grip on Raphael’s neck, who is quickly turning an alarming shade of puce.

Raphael struggles in my grip, and I push him away, releasing my brutal grasp and sending him crashing to his knees. “Explain, fucking now,” I demand. “Leave nothing out, or I will crush your fucking skull with my bare hands.”

Raphael attempts to clear his throat while getting to his feet unsteadily, and recovering his breath. “I… I don’t…” he coughs and tries again. “I don’t think she became addicted here. I… she has all the signs of being a recovering addict, one who has fallen off the wagon. If I had known, I wouldn’t have given her anything for the pain.”

A rough, sarcastic laugh leaves my lips, “You think Isabella Stratford is an addict?” I take a menacing step forward as he takes one back, “that her grandmother, the powerful Stella Stratford, would have allowed that to happen?”

He swallows the lump in his throat and takes another step back from me.Smart man, I’m sure he can see I am moments away from murdering him, here in my den, for accusing Issy. Could there be even a morsel of truth behind his words? Doubt begins to slither through my mind, a snake just waiting patiently and silently to attack.

“Diego… whether herabuelaknew or didn’t, she has issues with addiction. Right now, she is coming off the high from the powerful shot I gave her a few hours ago, a shot that should have lasted longer than it has before she stopped feeling it. I had noticed yesterday that the dosage wasn’t having the effect it should. That’s because she’s conditioned her body to… need more of it.”

Raphael waves his hands warily in front of me as if he could ward me off with them, if I decide to end his fucking life right now. “Kill me if you must, Diego, but it won’t change the fact that she has a substance use disorder. She will get worse as she comes down, more violent and desperate. She will get sick as her body goes through withdrawal.”

Doubt clouds my mind, even though I hear the belief of truth in Raphael’s words. He believes she is an addict. He believes that she tried to seduce him for the drugs, not because she was interested in him. That helps to fight back the monster who is trying to claw its way out of me and rip him to shreds. She doesn’t want him. She isn’t trying to replace me, just to fucking leave me.

“Jefe, please, Raphael is not lying. Look at his face; she attacked him because he wouldn’t give them to her. She tried to take them from him without thinking of the consequences; she’s unstable.“ Santiago approaches me, his face filled with worry and sincerity.

“Is she still locked in the room, or did she manage to get past you two fuckers?” I question with a nervous energy soaring through my body.

How could this be? How could my Issy be an addict like these two are claiming? I would have seen the signs before this. I was with her for weeks, locked in her sister’s mansion. Wouldn’t I have noticed if she had a problem?

How?Her grandmother had everyone under lock and key. She couldn’t escape to procure drugs, and no one was getting into the property under Stella’s army’s watch. What if she is a recovering addict? Then she would have been managing it before we started pumping her with fucking morphine here in the jungle. Just one hit would have been enough to push her back over the edge. To make her crave her next hit.

FUCK!God fucking dammit, what if I did this? What if she was in recovery before I kidnapped and brought her here, and now she’s spiraling? I never truly wanted to hurt her; I just wanted to make her stronger, so she could survive a life with me that is filled with danger.

I didn’t want to be what ended up killing her.We should let her go. We should send her back to her grandmother, where she can get the help she needs, and the support to fight off the cravings that we have reintroduced, my mind begs with rational thought.

NO! I will never fucking let her go. Not even when her last breath leaves her body. Not even if she is a fucking addict. She is mine, and she will always be mine. She wants to crave something, let it be fucking me. I won’t allow her to desire anything else; she wants a drug, here the fuck I am.

“Give me the morphine,” I demand with my hand outstretched, my glare meeting the shocked faces of the two men before me.

“Sir, please, you can’t give it to her,” Raphael begs as he removes the glass bottle from his pant pocket.

I disregard his words even though they burn through my veins, causing me to want to bloody him for telling me what I can’t do withmy prize, my Princesa, my whore. No one will make decisions for Issy Stratford but me. Santiago’s words tumble back through my mind that she tried to seduce Raphael into giving her the drugs.

My littlePrincesawants to behave like a drugged-out whore, selling herself for the next fix. I’m about to fucking show her what that life looks like, and it won’t be pretty. The only person my little whore will ever beg is me.

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