Page 91 of Eden's Deliverance

I make it to the last house in our row, but there’s no signs of life, so I turn the corner and start walking through the back area by the forest.

“Dario!” Still, there’s no answer.

Crack.

A branch snaps among the trees to my left so I carefully step towards the noise, but I don’t see anything. The only other sounds come from a few owls and chirping crickets.

“Dar—” A body darts out from the shadows and collides with me, a hand quickly cutting off my scream before I can cry out.

“Hello, mydiavolina. Did you miss me?”

Dario slams my back against the tree he was hiding behind, the rough and cracked bark digging painfully into my sore back. My limbs are still so numb, and none of my muscles have recovered from their abuse over the past few days.

I shake my head frantically, but he presses further into me, his hot breath stinging my nostrils with the scent of beer. A rustling of leaves to our right has me hopeful that Skylar is here to save me, but a different man emerges. I don’t recognize him, though he bears a striking resemblance to Dario.

He must see the confusion on my face because he gives a chuckle at my panicked look. “One of my brothers,” he explains, “I told you about him, remember?”

I realize he’s actually expecting me to give an answer somehow, so I nod my head, turning back to meet his eyes.

“I’ve told him all about you, too. Isn’t that right, baby brother?” he asks, and the man nods in response with a malicious grin. “See, Renzo has expressed the desire to know more about you,diavolina. And you’re going to show him.”

He’s not making any sense, and I have no idea where he’s going with this until the hand on my mouth disappears, returning a second later with a straight razor clasped between his fingers.

“I know you left me for those two pieces of shit,bellezza. I know you put on a red mask for them. I know youletthem fucking kidnap you. I know you let them fuck you,” he spits out, slamming his fist into the tree above my head. “I know you didn’t run from them when you should have, but I’m going give you that chance. So run,diavolina, because when we catch you, we’re going to fucking ruin you.”

“Dario, pl—” I try to plead with him, but this isn’t a game like with Casanova and Broody. This is a threat.

“Dieci, Nove, Otto…”

Not wasting another second, I shove his chest and sprint through the trees. My feet are bare, and I only have on some night clothes along with my cardigan, so I’m fucking freezing. My legs still don’t work properly, so I stumble with every stride, cursing Skylar for taking his sweet time. The ten seconds must be up by now—if he even bothered to finish the countdown—but it’s too dark to see anything beyond the few trees surrounding me. The new spring leaves are blocking the moonlight from shining through, so I’m on my own.

I can’t do this.

I’m going to die in these fucking woods, and Skylar will have been the last person I texted, and I’ll have gone weeks without talking to my best friend, and I’ll have never reached my dream to become a tattoo artist, and…if I die now, I’ll never seethemagain.

I’m not ready to die.

Dario doesn’t know that, or he doesn’t seem to care. Barreling into me, he sends me crashing to the ground before mounting my waist with the razor held to my throat.

I’m not going without a fight, though. If I’m going to die today, I’m taking him with me.

My hips buck wildly like a bronco trying to throw off its rider, and my nails rip at the skin of his arms and hands. My legs thrash out to get any kind of traction against the leaves and dirt to give mesomesort of advantage here, but Dario is huge, and my body is weak.

Renzo rushes over to us, and when Dario orders him to grab my legs, the tears finally come. No matter how hard I push, shove, scratch, kick, or try to throw them off me, it’s not enough. Renzo manages to rip my shorts off and starts digging into the skin of my hips to get a grip on my panties, but a shouting in the distance distracts them.

“Go! Make sure no one comes this way, I’ll take care of it,” he commands his brother, and Renzo halts his efforts to run through the woods, back from where we came.

“You’ve become so much more of a problem than you’re worth, you know that? But you already soiled this for me once, and you’ve been marked, so there’s no letting it go.” Dario slices the razor across my collarbone and down my chest, forcing a scream to burst from my lungs. My fighting already caused the blade to cut into my neck a few times, but the adrenaline stopped me from feeling that. “Don’t cry now, Scarlett. I still have you until the summer solstice. Then, you’ll be free of all your worries.”

“Scarlett!” Someone calls through the trees, and it’s enough to make Dario spin around—finally giving me a moment of advantage.

I spot a decent sized rock near my shoulder, so I grab for it and immediately swing. It lands against his temple with aTHUD, and just like that, his body rolls off me and falls to the dirt at my side.

In a sheer moment of overwhelming panic and anger, I hover over him and slam the rock against his head a few more times until I’m sure he must be dead. His body lies frozen, his knees still bent from straddling me and his arms limp at his side. An enormous gash across his brow is pouring dark red blood that would normally make me sick…

But I don’t mind blood. Not anymore.

Skylar finally arrives, panting loudly as he keels over in front of me to catch his breath. “Are you okay? Did they hurt you?” he asks, but I see his head spinning when he notices I have no pants on.

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