Page 28 of Brutal Legacy

I glanced at him but found his face still as impassive as ever.

We started up the stairs to the top floor. He was right behind me the entire way, breathing down my neck.

“What’s going to happen when we get inside?” I asked, risking a glance over my shoulder.

“I wouldn’t like to spoil anything… You’ll just have to wait and see.”

His uncaring tone nearly brought tears to my eyes. I forced them back.Get a grip! Don’t let this asshole see you cry.He had to lower his guard at some point, and then, I’d be ready.

We got to the top of the stairs, and I fumbled for my key, taking way longer than I needed to, putting off the moment when we’d be alone.

“Don’t drag it out, Georgia.” His tone was lethal.

I grabbed my key and put it in the lock. The damn thing jammed, because of course it did.

I wriggled it around as my captor watched me in stony silence.

“What did I just tell you?” he growled when I’d failed to open the door for several moments.

“I’m not dragging it out, it’s broken.” I jiggled the key in the lock.

He sighed and brushed past me, taking the key from me and trying himself.

The door swung open.

“I made it easier for you,” I said, about to brush past him and go inside.

He took a step back, and the position put him near the top of the stairs.

I didn’t even think about it. My survival instincts were pumping. I just acted.

I twisted and shoved him as hard as I could, both hands to the solar plexus. He swayed back. The stairwell below him was steep and long. A fall would injure him, maybe even render him unconscious.

At the last moment, his hand snaked around my wrist and pulled me with him. I don’t know how he managed it. The speed of his reflexes had to be otherworldly, because he didn’t fall. Instead, he grabbed me and used the momentum to spin us both around on the top step. My back slammed into the wall, and then he was there, pressing me against the tile without mercy. Somehow, his hand had ended up behind my head, thank God, as it cushioned the blow of the wall.

Now, he used that grip to tilt my head back, exposing my throat to him.

“I told you not to fuck with me, Georgia. You’re out of your league. Accept it now, or the future is going to be difficult for you.”

“Like you care about my future,” I snorted.

I needed him to back up and get away from me. His rigid body leaning into mine was a display of power I didn’t need. I already knew how outmatched I was. And his scent… this close, there was something disturbing about it. It was almost too nice to inhale. It was too pleasant… It made me forget what he was. I needed space from it.

“Don’t try and play games with me… you won’t like the games I play back,topolina.”

The nickname froze me to the spot. A bucket of ice water over the head.

The voice clicked into place in my head. It all went together. The way he carried himself… it was different, and yet, the same. There was a new predatory grace and trained precision to his movements that he hadn’t yet developed in his reckless youth. His face, once just bearing the promise of the man he would become, had embodied every drop of it. His scent. The way it called me closer… even after all these years.

The smell of home.

His sunglasses hadn’t budged an inch, even in our tussle. I reached for them, and he knocked my hand away. If I could see his eyes, then I’d know for sure. No one had eyes like Elio Santori.

“Elio?” I whispered.

It was hardly audible, yet as loud as a gunshot.

He stilled. An eerie kind of absence of motion. He didn’t breathe. It seemed like his heart didn’t even beat.

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