Page 97 of Sin & Secrets

“You…stole me from my home,” my words tremble in disbelief. “You seduced me and brought me here on purpose.”

“We fell in love!” Claudio’s voice booms in my ear. “It wasn’t part of the plan, but it happened, didn’t it? Don’t act like I’m some kind of monster.”

“That is exactly what you are.”

I can see the rage building behind his eyes and know instinctively that he’s about to hit me again. I flinch away the best I can, closing my eyes.

“Touch her, and you’re dead.”

Time freezes. My heart pounds rapidly. My breaths come out in rapid, short bursts.

When I look up again, there’s another figure standing there behind Claudio. His hand is wrapped around the arm about to strike me

He’s tall, dark, and menacing. His hair falls over his deathly gray eyes. His shirt is ripped across his chest, revealing the dented bullet-proof vest beneath.

His scent hits me a second later, and I sob at the familiar comfort it brings me.

Alive. Rocco’s alive.

Claudio startles. “How the fuck?”

Crunch.

Rocco punches him square in the jaw, sending him crashing to the floor.

“Rocco,” I breathe through my tears.

He’s alive, he’s alive, he’s alive.

His gaze softens the second he lays eyes on me. “Angioletta.” Relief, pain, and worry lace his tone.

He’s by my side a second later, knife in hand. He plants a gentle kiss on my cheek as he reaches around to cut away my bindings. “I thought I’d lost you.”

A cruel, near-hysterical laugh booms from behind us, and we both tense in unison as Claudio rights himself from the floor.

“You thinkI’mthe monster?” Claudio’s manic eyes glance between the two of us. “I guess he didn’t tell you, then.”

“You’re dead, Lazzaro,” Rocco snarls.

“Ask him, Cas. Ask him what happened the night your father died.”

Something numbingly cold begins to fester around my heart. Nothing Claudio said about my father could be true because that would mean Rocco would have lied to me.

And Rocco had never lied to me.

Yet…Rocco is shaking, visibly angered by Claudio’s words.

The numbness only grows.

“Rocco?” I whisper.

But Rocco just cuts away my last binding and stands, looming over Claudio with his knife now pointing at his throat.

“Consider your next words carefully.”

Claudio steps back, but that manic grin doesn’t fade. “He’s been lying to you, Cas.”

“Rocco,” my voice is desperate. I’m teetering on the edge of my own mania.

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