Page 111 of Beautiful Dangerous

I just shake my head, push myself away from the wall, and walk toward him, he doesn’t scare me. He doesn’t intimidate me. He doesn’t get to control me, I’m done with that. I’m done withhim. This is over. I’m fighting for the life I want now, not the life he wants me to live.

“I’m not having your child, Javier. I’m not playing any part in bringing another version of you into this world, it’s not happening.”

“Olivia, please, come on, this is stupid…”

The fact he’s calmed down, his speech slow and steady, that just makes me all the more determined to finish this. Because I know what he’s doing. If he’s calm, he’ll assume I’ll think twice about what’s happening here, about what I’ve started, but I know him too well now. I know the man he is, how long has he really been controlling me?

“I was willing to compromise.” As I speak his dark eyes burn into mine, but he’s not winning this one. Not anymore. I’m tired of the games and the lies, I want something different. Something more. “You and I, running the cartel together, in Mexico, I would’ve happily gone with you if that…”

“Liar!” he hisses, grabbing my wrist, but his attempt to throw me back against the wall fails as I yank my arm free of his grip, he’s underestimating the strength anger gives me. “You were never willing to compromise, you were plotting to leave me, forhim, you ungrateful bitch!Igave you all of this. You didn’t earn it, you don’t deserve it,Iput you where you are today…”

“And where am I today, Javier? Hmm? Where am I? Trapped in a marriage I don’t want to be a part of anymore, in love with a man who betrayed you, surrounded by people twenty-four-seven, never alone, and yet I’m so fucking lonely. Does that sound like something I should be grateful for?”

He moves toward me, and I stay still, I let him come closer, I’m okay. I’m good. I’m in control of this.

“I loved you, Olivia. The night I left you, it was the most painful thing I have ever done, leaving you like that, because I loved you, so much. And I knew I was hurting you. I knew what it was going to do to you, but I trusted that you loved me, too. That you would wait for me…”

“I did love you, Javier. I did. But how could I wait for a man I thought was dead? What did you want me to do? Remain in mourning forever?”

“I didn’t expect you to screw my best friend. I didn’t expecthimto betray me.”

The look in his eyes is pure anger. Red hot, seething anger, but behind that I can also see a sadness that’s verging on heartbreaking. “How much of what we had was real?” I whisper, reaching out to touch his cheek, a reflex action I couldn’t stop myself from doing. And his fingers grasp my wrist, gently, and for a moment the anger slips from his eyes and a snapshot of the man I thought he used to be appears, and I take a breath and close my eyes and let the memories flood my brain. Let his mouth brush the side of my neck, his breath warming my skin as our fingers slide together, but that was a mistake. Letting that happen, was a mistake, and as he spins me around, so fast my face slams hard against the wall, the pain causing me to cry out in both shock and surprise, I know I’ve just lost that control I had. Thought I had…

“You are my wife, Olivia, do you understand that?” He’s spitting the words out, his voice low; sinister. The mask has finally fallen and I’m now seeing the man I really married. “And from now on things are going to be very different. Your choices, they will be few and far between, but your life will still be a good one.” I close my eyes and try to breathe as he keeps me pinned against the wall; bite down on my lip as his fingers slide under the sides of my panties, pushing them down. “And you’ll be grateful for it.” In one harsh tug he tears my panties away, the sound of the material ripping filling my ears, but not loud enough to drown out the violent beating of my heart. “And despite everything you are now, everything you seem to have turned into in my absence, you’ll still be a good mother to my child. My heir. Do you hear me, Olivia?”

I try to buck my hips back, to push him away, but he’s stronger than me, now. For some reason, all my fight is seeping away as his fingers brush my thigh, moving around, touching me where I don’t want him to go, forcing my legs apart. It’s only when the gunshot rings out that I can breathe again…

Lucca

“Come on.” I grab her hand and drag her out of the room, we don’t have a lot of time.

“What – what have you done? Lucca…?”

I don’t answer her question, like I said, we don’t have a lot of time, and I’m practically dragging her behind me but we need to get out of here. And as I run I pull out my phone, call Eddie, I need help. So much fucking help…

“Get in.”

I open the passenger door of the truck and push her inside before running around the front and jumping into the driver’s seat, the tires screeching as I pull away.

Keeping my eyes on the road I drive out of the estate, I need to stay focused, now more than ever.

“What have you done?” she asks again, and I glance at her, quickly, before checking the rear-view mirror, but we’re okay. For now. No-one’s following us. Yet. But that gun had no silencer. Celine, the guards, some member of staff will have found him by now, and raised one hell of an alarm. And I’m just praying it wasn’t Celine, she doesn’t deserve that. “Lucca, what the fuck is going on?”

“I didn’t kill him. He’s not dead.”

“Jesus…”

She throws herself back in the seat and rakes a hand through her hair.

“I heard you both, heard the raised voices. I knew something wasn’t right…”

“So, what? You came in all guns blazing like my knight in shining armor?”

I look at her, and I can’t work out what she’s feeling here. “He was about to rape you, Olivia, or are you gonna sit there and tell me you wanted that?”

She turns her head away from me, her shoulders sagging, and I know she’s crying. I know all this shit has finally caught up with her, but she won’t want me to see her like that.

“I’m sorry,” she murmurs, keeping her head turned away.

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