Page 71 of Desire and Revenge

“Since the fire at the Villa, I've been more cautious about Vittoria,” my husband explains. “When I noticed a shadowy entourage monitoring her every move, my suspicions grew. I traced them back to you. Initially, I assumed you were just protective of the woman I love like the family I thought you were. But then, the news of Tony's boat catching fire piqued my interest. I had people investigate.

“It didn't take long to discover that you were spotted at the scene during the explosion. That's when I became more determined to uncover your connection with Tony.”

“You bastard,” Nero barks. “You’ve been playing me from the start. That dinner where you let me hear all about your shipment plans?—”

“It was a bait, and you took it, hook, line and sinker. I knew you wouldn’t be able to resist. Especially when I had my hands all over what you’ve already started to consider yours.”

Chills sweep through my body. He meansme. A bitter, hysterical laugh fills the inside of the shipment crate. Of course, I was only a pawn in the game. When am I never?

“Get him,” Sebastian spits, and I hear the sound of hurried footsteps, followed by a groan of pain, bone crunching, a thud of a body falling.

My stomach curdles and squeezes painfully as I imagine the pain he must be going through.

“Get the bitch out!” my husband barks at someone, and mere moments later, footsteps approach the crate that I’m lying in and there’s the clinking sound of a padlock being undone.

Light assaults my eyes a second later, and it takes me a while to adjust to it after being stuck in the dark. My eyes roam around the dock, taking in my surroundings and how close to the edge the crate I’m in is positioned. I shiver at the fact that I could have easily been dropped into the inky depths of the ocean and left to an uncertain fate.

I finally look over at Nero and what I see makes me reel in shock.

I assumed that he was getting the beating of his life, but instead, he’s throwing men off left and right like some kind of mindless beast.

Three men charge at him, and I watch as his fist cracks against one’s face, his other plants inside another’s stomach and the third he kicks in the knee, when the man stumbles, he falls into Nero’s ready elbow. God, he’s magnificent.

My mouth starts to pull into a smile and that’s exactly when Sebastian’s cruel eyes land on mine and narrow.

“The fun is over,” he says in a low voice and crosses the space to where I’m standing, frozen to the ground by both terror and shock.

He grabs me roughly by my hair when he’s close enough. Then digs out a gun and presses it right into my temple.

“There’s only one of two ways this can end, and unfortunately, neither of them involve the little, cheating bitch getting away with her brain intact.”

Nero’s dark, intense gaze falls on me, dragging down my body and back up. They zero on my bleeding head and harden.

He takes one step toward me, but Sebastian must have been expecting it, because he cocks his gun.

“Uh-uh-uh,” Sebastian tuts. “You could never get to her in time, Castello. You may think you’re invincible, but she’s not, and I’d like nothing more than her brain to go splat.”

“I will kill you,” Nero roars, the words ringing with certainty. “If you lay one?—”

“Oh, come off it.” His hand curls around my waist, the cold barrel of the gun still pressed insistently against my flesh. “I’m sick of the empty threats. You are defenseless. Face it, Castello, it’s over. You’ve lost this round, and I’m going to make you watch me kill her before I kill you, too. I do love repeating history, don’t you? Wiping off the Castello clan off the face of this Earth. Just like my father did.”

Nero snarls, gaze flying around wildly. A cornered dog. Tears streak my cheeks because I know that he can save himself. If he chooses to leave me to my fate, he can live to fight another day.

“Go,” I sob. “Please, go.”

He stares at me for one heartbreaking moment, and I begin to think that, for the first time in the history of Nero and I, he’s going to listen to me instead of being a bull-headed idiot. But then his hands drop laxly to his sides in clear surrender.

“You stupid man!” I scream. “What do you think you are doing? Don’t be crazy, you’ve waited for this day for?—”

The butt of Sebastian’s gun whips against my cheek and my face snaps to the side. I feel blood pool in my mouth, but I don’t feel the pain. The only pain I can feel is the one burning in my chest at the knowledge that the man I love is going to die right here, and it will be because of me.

“I’ll never forgive you,” I whisper.

“I don’t need your forgiveness, you slut,” Sebastian laughs.

But the words aren’t for him. They are for the beautiful man who a few hours ago told me he would never give up his revenge for me.

I watch with agony as he drops to his knees as blow upon blow are rained down on him. All I can see is blood, and I can’t look away. I want to, God, I’ve never wanted anything more in that moment than control of my own body so I can look away from the horror.

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