Page 45 of Borrowed Bride

“Simone?” I choke on the word as Leonardo bursts into my mind, “Leo is your brother?”

“Yes. But he thinks I am dead too, and I plan on keeping it that way. You see, I was training to be an assassin under my father’s instruction when I was just a teenager. I was pretty good at it, and still am.”

From how effortlessly that knife dances around her fingers, I have no cause to doubt her.

“And I was given a task. A simple task that I had done a hundred times before. Kill Marco Barrone.”

My heart skips a beat.

“But instead, I fell for that bastard’s sickening charm and chose love over death. How fucking foolish.”

As Fawn talks, I subtly pull on the chord and draw the crib closer and closer to me. I need Freya as close to me as she can get. “Marco told me you both fell in love. He called you the love of his life, but you were there to kill him?”

“Of course he did,” Fawn scoffs darkly. “That man is a fucking puppy.”

“I don’t understand. You were there to kill him, and you…didn’t?” Marco never mentioned any of this. If anything, it sounds too far-fetched to be real, and I get the impression she is toying with me.

“Is it really that hard to believe?” she says. “You know the little crooked V-shaped scar Marco has on his hip?”

I frown at the thought, distantly aware of the scar. As much as we fucked, I never spent much time exploring his body.

“That was from an attempt. He thought I was into knife play, so I let him think what he wanted. And then he seduced me.” She speaks as if recounting something affectionate, and then her voice hardens to steel. “I thought we were going to be together forever until he sold me into the sex slave trade, and my life turned to hell.”

“What?!” I balk at the accusation and a sickening coldness seeps through my gut. “You lie!”

“Do I?” Fawn snarls slightly. “Do you think Ichosea life of prostitution? I was sold into it by Marco Barrone as punishment for being sent to kill him. Any decent man worth their salt would have challenged me in a duel, but not that fucking scum bag. And I knew! I knew about the rumors surrounding his family and the whispers in the dark, but I was fooled by his dreamy eyes and that fucking smirk.”

“No,” I whisper, and the sting of bile crawls slowly up my throat. “This can’t be—no, he would never!”

In all our talks and everything I overheard while at the mansion, I never once got any hint that Marco had anything to do with human trafficking.

“I don’t believe you,” I spit at her. “You could say anything and then stand there, expecting me to believe the word of a stranger?”

Fawn is over me in an instant—she moves so fast I scarcely even see her. She grips my throat with unexpected strength and shoves me back down against the pillows.

“Don’t youdarecall me a liar,” she hisses in my face. “Are you really so blind? Did you wander that estate with your eyes and ears closed? Everyone knows the reputation of theBarrone family. Their reputation and his presence are tied to the disappearance of countless women and children, with their men slaughtered so no one goes looking. The Barrones are balls deep in the skin trade, Gianna, and your ignorance doesn’t change that. Even his ownsisterwasn’t safe from their twisted ways!”

I almost blurt out the truth about Emilia in an attempt to save myself from Fawn’s claws, but I stop myself just in time. Despite everything, I can’t betray her like that.

“No,” I gasp, gripping Fawn’s rigid wrist as hard as I can. “You must be mistaken.”

“Stop being so foolish!” Fawn snarls and she rips herself away from me, leaving me gasping for air as the phantom pressure of her palm clings to my throat.

I gasp for air, massaging my neck as I slowly sit back up. “When we met,” I say raggedly. “Were you in the sex trade then? Four years ago?”

Fawn scoffs. “If I say yes? You can’t pick and choose what you believe to be the truth, Gianna. I tell you yes, and you believe me, but you refuse to see what’s right in front of you about Marco. He’s dangerous. No one touches the skin trade but the lowest of low scumbags, and Marco Barrone is one of them.”

My heart races so loudly that my blood roars in my ears. Marco. The man I fell for, who was so painfully gentle with his sister? It doesn’t fit. I can’t believe it.

And yet, Fawn is real. She is right there and it’s clear she has been through hell.

“You know.” Fawn begins to pace. “It was you that spurred me to grasp for freedom. I saw what you did to Cherry and Mango, turning on them like that?” She lets out a low whistle. “It was the wake-up call I needed. I killed my captors, freed myself, and spent the past four years hunting down and killing all the powerful men that purchased me. All of it has been practice. A way to hone my skills.”

“For what?” I ask, still massaging my throat.

“To come back and kill Marco. The fucker that started it all. But imagine my surprise when I saw you hanging off his arm all of a sudden. You know, it was me that got Cherry out of prison. She might be a bitch but she’s fucking skilled and exactly the type of woman that could get close to Marco. And instead…”

Fawn’s eyes glint at me through the low light and finally, she slides the knife into a sheath on her thigh.

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