Page 67 of Promise Maker

“Where’sFattore?” Mr.Martelli barks. “I brought her. Now tell me!”

“Who isthat,Mathew?” Iask in a shaky voice.

“Their cousin.” He manages a gravelly chuckle. “Hekilled Bishop…because of them.”

I gasp and snap my head to Domenico.

He clenches his jaw and fists. He’s a loomingcloud of fury, visible under the dim lighting.

Enraged, I jump to my feet and step up to him. “Isthat true? Did your cousin kill my dad?”

“Get out of here,” he demands.

“Soyou can keeptorturing Mathew?” I reproach through clenched teeth. “You enjoy it. You lovetorturing and killing people!”

Mathew laughs, coughing at times. I can’t look athim, stuck between hurting and hating him for betraying my dad.

“I don’t know…where Luca is,” he forces out. “Butthanks…for bringing her. Now…she sees you….”

I scream as Domenico pulls out his gun, firing asingle shot.

“No mercy for the dishonorable,” he firmly states.

Quivering, I turn to look at Mathew.

My legs give out, and I fall to my knees.

Blood is oozing from the bullet hole between hiseyes.

Tears stream down my face, but no sound leaves mymouth.

I chance a look at Domenico.

His gaze seems so far, sheathed in darkness.

How could he be so brutal?

The eighteen-year-old that approached me in thegarden eight years ago seemed different.

The man that charmed me and pleasured my bodyseemed different.

Now, I wonder if that person even exists.

Perhaps it was allpretense.

He must have created a persona to conceal his truenature because the brute standing before me seems more real than anything else.

Without a word, Domenico marches from the room.

Mr. Martelli calls out, “Take her back.”

The guard that drove me enters and grasps my arm.I don’t protest as he tows me from the floor and ushers me out of the room.

I glance back at Mathew’s lifeless body one lasttime before the guard leads me up the steps, carrying me away from the Martellidungeon.

19

It’s dead quiet at the house when I return.

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