Page 45 of Psycho

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

ANASTASIA

“You’re being relocated,” Psycho says, with about as much emotion as if he were saying we’re having eggs for breakfast. His words don’t make sense to me. Am I moving rooms?

“Relocated?” I ask, as I stare at him with confusion.

Staring down at the floor, like he can’t even look at me, he nods slowly.

“You’re being sold.”

I try to make sense of his words. Massimo Bonetti is capable of many things, things that would terrify anyone, but selling a person? No. He wouldn’t.

“This is our last night together, Anastasia. Tomorrow, Jimmy will pick you up.”

“No!” I scream. My heart is thundering in my ears, and tears I’ve fought so hard to prevent, spring to my eyes. I tell him I’m falling for him, and he sells me? Fucking sells me?

“We made an agreement. You have to let me go after thirty days, because I’ve done everything you wanted me to. Everything, Massimo.”

A sorrowful expression crosses his face, but it’s gone so fast, I think I may have imagined it.

“I know. I am truly sorry for not honoring my agreement, but this is happening.”

The urge to shake him, and demand to know why he would do this to me, is strong, but I also know Massimo will not tell me more than he wants to. “He’s going to kill me.”

I already know that has to be the plan.

Psycho steps closer to me, placing his hand on my face, as I lift my gaze to his.

“Maybe. He’s far more violent than I am, so be a good girl. Don’t give him reasons to hurt you.”

Mimicking his actions, I place my hand on his face, feeling his beard under my fingertips.

“Don’t do this.”

He closes his eyes before he re-opens them, the quick flash of regret showing through, before he hides it away. This man is a master at hiding his emotions, but I know he has them. Meanwhile, mine crash into my chest, feeling like a freight train slamming into me.

“I can’t let you live after coming for my family. This is the only way. I am a fucking coward, and I can’t be there to watch you die.”

“If you love me, you can’t do this. You feel something for me, Massimo, I know you do. I have to believe you won’t do this to me.”

He shakes his head in refusal.

“I don’t love you, little lamb. Did I get addicted to your pussy? Maybe, but I don’t love you. I feel nothing for you.”

I sigh a shaky breath, and drop my hand from his face. I try to stay strong, but it’s difficult, with a million conflicting emotions running through me. Processing one thing is hard enough, but the anger, heartbreak, sadness, and pure devastation, all at once, is so overwhelming I can barely see straight.

“You’re lying, Massimo. To me, and to yourself.”

He chuckles, but there’s no humor behind it.

“Little lamb, I don’t lie, and I don’t love.”

Do I love him? I do, but there’s no coming back from this. I was so close to the month being over, and now he’s selling me? Like I’m nothing. Not a human being with any worth whatsoever.

I still don’t understand. He said he’d let me go, if I did everything he told me to, and like the stupid girl I am, I believed him. I killed a man, and for what? I’m going to go from a bad situation to something of my worst nightmares. I did my thesis, when I got my master’s degree, on human trafficking. It’s the most brutal, inhumane treatment a person can go through. And the man I think I’m falling in love with is the person doing this to me?

“Why are you doing this to me?”

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