Page 109 of Deadly Vows

“Who?”

I pull away from Luca so that I can look into his eyes.

“Alexander. Did you kill him?” I ask.

Luca looks briefly at the monitor before looking back at me.

“You were watching?” he asks.

I smile. “Of course.”

Luca doesn’t react, but I can tell his mind is racing as he looks down at me. He gently runs his hands over my arms, pulling me with him.

“Let’s get you to bed,” he says as he tries to lead me out of his office, but I stop him.

“Luca. I need to know if he’s still alive,” I say firmly.

Luca watches me carefully, and I don’t know if it’s because he doesn’t want to tell me or if he fears my reaction.

“Barely. He should be dead by morning,” he says.

I look at the window.

“Why wait?” I ask.

Luca doesn’t respond, so I turn to look at him, reaffirming my sentiment.

“I want him dead now, Luca,” I say.

Luca’s expression finally changes, and he takes a step toward his door.

“Your wish is my command.”

We don’t speak as he takes me to the annex. I’ve only ever seen it from the outside. I’ve heard the screams of the men dragged to their deaths. And once, I was in one of the rooms, after Luca managed to track me down after I escaped and left him for dead.

It feels like a full-circle moment as we approach. In the beginning, I couldn’t stomach it. In the middle, I was threatened with it. And now, I enter of my own accord, desperate to see the death of a man who tried to break me. But he could never break me. Not when Luca Pasquino is my husband.

The annex is large and partly underground. And as we enter, I see that each room has a torture chamber attached to a control room. I keep my eyes down until we reach the room I’m dying to see.

Alexander’s.

Luca continues to watch me cautiously while leading me into the room that observes the torture. It has a two-way glass so I can see as Alexander sits on his blood-soaked cot, bleeding profusely, his body swaying lazily back and forth. Luca was right. He’ll be dead by morning.

And still, being this close, I feel no disgust.

My heart beats slightly faster as my breathing speeds up. The fear I feel in his presence is something I’ve become accustomed to due to the torture I endured. But he can’t hurt me. Not here. Not anymore.

Luca gently wraps his arms around me, holding me close.

“Just breathe, Elise,” he coaxes.

Alexander slowly lifts his head, his face barely recognizable. He’s missing an eye, and his teeth are all but gone as he smiles.

“I was wondering when you would come to see my death sentence,” he says.

The microphone relays his voice perfectly to us even though we are in a separate room, and I fight the chills from hearing his voice so close. My back pulses in pain in reaction, but I ignore it.

He can’t hurt me.

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