Page 83 of Kissing the Villain

“Not real, Alex,” I whispered. “Not real.”

“What you did was real,” Luca snapped in his deep, murderous tone. “You need to face it, Drea. Until you do, you’re stuck here with us.”

“No,” I muttered. “I want to go back. I have to find Aiden.”

He shook his head. “Aiden can’t help you, baby girl.”

“Give him back!”

Luca’s devilish grin twisted into a pained look that broke my heart. He leaned forward, grabbing his side. Blood soaked through his shirt and spilled onto the pavement.

“You did this,” he choked out between breaths.

He staggered toward me and pushed up his shirt, revealing his chiseled abdomen and the gash on his side. Blood coated his olive skin.

A knife slipped from his grasp and bounced a few times. An S wrapped around the silver handle, curved like a snake—the Salvatore crest. Luca carried the knife with him at all times. It was a gift from his grandfather, the last thing he’d given Luca before he passed away.

“Pick it up,” Luca ordered.

Hunched in front of the knife, I glanced up at him. “Why?”

He hissed as more blood poured out of the wound. “You know why.”

I felt the knife’s weight in my hand and the blood coating my palm. A metallic scent penetrated the air like perfume.

I closed my eyes, reminding myself this wasn’t real. Any minute, I would wake up. But as I cut into my skin, blood slid down my hand.

This was very real.

“Open your eyes, Drea,” Luca snapped. “Face what you’ve done.”

No, please don’t make me.

“Open them,” he demanded.

As if I were under his spell, I followed his command and saw my blood dripping onto the pavement.

“Look at me,” Luca said through clenched teeth, still clutching his right side. “Look at what you did.”

I inspected the knife wound on his tanned, muscular stomach. It stood out against the rest of his scars, the fresh blood making his skin glisten crimson.

“No,” I cried out. “No, I couldn’t. I would never hurt you.”

His jaw ticked. “But you did.”

I shook my head in disbelief. “You’re not real.”

“I’m real, baby.” He bent down before me and slid his warm fingers beneath my chin. “Do you remember what you did?”

A sob escaped my throat. “Yes.”

The events of that night flashed before my eyes. We argued about Aiden’s disappearance, and I grabbed the knife from his waistband. I stabbed him in the stomach. Luca dropped to his knees, clutching his side as a pool of blood enveloped him.

The Serpents were asking me what I had done, covered in Luca’s blood. I couldn’t move or process a single detail of that night—until now.

My legs wobbled, unable to hold my weight anymore. I fell sideways onto the pavement.

Luca lifted me from the ground and hooked his arm around me. He muttered something, his words a dull hum over the ringing in my ears.

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