Page 76 of Sin & Sapphire

“Allez! Vas-y! Démare!”Go go go!

Before I realized their intentions, my hands and my feet were cuffed together.

“Stupid fucking girl,” Valentin swore. “Tchérnov has been tearing the country apart looking for you. This morning, Angelo murdered one of the assholes who was there on the yacht while Grégoire raped you. And instead of waiting in the apartment like a good girl, you ran off.”

All I caught was that Angelo had killed one of the men who’d raped me. “Who?” I asked, staring into his stormy grey eyes.

“Dario Fontana.”

Satisfaction swelled in my chest.

“And you’re going to pay for that too, angel.”

Valentin’sprivate plane hammered home the difference between a billionaire and a family like mine, who was rich in contacts but cash-poor and trying desperately to pretend otherwise.

Angelo deposited me in a wide leather seat, neglecting to unbind my wrists and my ankles.

I struggled in my bondage, and all it did was turn his eyes dark with desire as he buckled me in.

“Angel,” he rasped. “Sit still.”

I did, and to my surprise, he kissed my forehead before standing up.

“You’re in so much trouble, little girl,” he murmured as he straightened. “I can’t wait to see you squirm.”

Valentin dropped into the seat across from me and strapped himself in.

“Would you please uncuff me?” I asked, embarrassed at how weak my voice was. As the adrenaline from my escape wore off, exhaustion ripped through me, leaving only resignation to my fate in its wake. “Sir,” I added ruefully.

Valentin scoffed as Angelo took a seat beside me, facing him. “Do you think you deserve your freedom?”

“That’s a pretty existential question,” I snarked. He raised a black eyebrow, and I flushed. “Maître.”

Valentin held up his fingers and ticked them down one by one. “You blew up a Russo-Franco bratva’s yacht, causing a hundred million euros of damage.”

True.

“You were engaged to that man’s son?—”

“Not my choice, not my fault,” I snapped back.

Angelo tilted his head and grinned before dragging my face to his and planting a wet kiss on my forehead. “True.”

Valentin cut a furious look at his lover, but I couldn’t stop smiling. “You distracted Angelo from consolidating power in Yorkfield after his brother died.”

“You mean after my father wasmurdered,maître?” I responded, unable to keep my fucking mouth shut.

Valentin’s cruel amusement made me feel three inches tall. “Don’t pretend you mourned that man for a minute.”

I hadn’t. But he was still my father.

Valentin held two fingers up and continued to count down. “You put yourself in danger when you ran—the bratva almost caught you at that train station. And the bounty on your head means others will be looking for you too.”

He was right.

So fucking right.

I felt so fucking small, so fuckingstupid.

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