Page 23 of Red Retaliation
“Leave her to get on with it, Liam,” Oscar warns.
I hear him speak. He’s referring to Liam bunching up my skirt; his hands on my legs...
My face feels wet, and I guess it’s tears, but I’m not sure why I’m crying.
I plunge my fingers into the dead flesh and concentrate not on that, nor on the calloused hand moving higher up my leg to pull at my panties.The sooner I find the rings, the sooner I can...
“What the fuck is going on?”
I don’t associate the voice as being part of reality. I don’t put two and two together or acknowledge anything around me because I can feel one of the rings. There’s metal at the tip of my finger, so if I just reach a little further, I can...
My horizon shifts as I’m lifted off the floor. My skirt is yanked back into place, and I vaguely register Red searching my face as he drags me away from Roberto’s body. I also dimly acknowledge sagging against the wall and vomiting just before Red slams his fist into his brother’s jaw.
Then it goes black.
CHAPTER
15
Red
“KEEP YOUR ARMS around my neck,” I mutter, clearing the last few steps. Arianna is now conscious after hitting the deck, but she’s far from all right.
My whole body thrums with anger. My knuckles are bleeding, and I think I’ve knocked one of Liam’s teeth out. I should have beaten him to a pulp and left him down there with that dead cunt, Bristoni.
Carrying Arianna into the bedroom, I kick the door shut and lay her on the bed. She’s as light as a feather, and if it wasn’t for this completely fucked up scenario, I’d question why having her cling to me feels so natural. I’d also question why the surging need to protect her is so strong.
But regardless of the situation, Iamquestioning these things. Itisn’tnatural. I shouldn’t want to help or protect an enemy. Ariannaisan enemy, and that’s why I’m rescinding my protection. I’m retracting my plan to keep her here. I’ll screw her family and the Bristonis without that.
Depositing her on the bed, I bend over her, my mouth inches away from hers as I gently untangle her arms from around my neck. I’m trying my hardest to ignore her eyes searching mine, but, Jesus Christ, I could just kiss her and be done with it. Get the urge out of my head once and for all.
The pull to do just that crushes me. It’s so strong to follow what my body and soul needs that I barely take in anything else in the room. I could be in the middle of a packed tube station and all I would see is her.
No! I am better than this. I have the utmost control - more than anyone else I know, so what the fuck am I thinking? I will leave now. She is safe.Safe from mybrother.
I pull away and straighten up, my jaw clenching as my internal rage builds.
“Did I get them?” Arianna gasps. “The rings? Did I get them out? I shouldn’t have put them there in the first place, I...”
“I don’t know,” I mutter. And I don’t. The moment I entered the cellar, all I saw was Liam’s hand around the nape of Arianna’s neck, holding her down like an animal. I didn’t take notice of the rings or the moldering corpse. I didn’t take the opportunity to feast my eyes on Arianna’s exposed flesh where my fucking brother had yanked her skirt up around her waist either. All I focused on was his hands on her.
And my sanity went bang.
Arianna looks at me in a way I can’t explain. She’s frightened, although she pretends not to be, but she’s also devoid, like she’s to blame that my brother was about to...
Without thinking, I brush a smudge of mascara from her cheek, but when she flinches, I retract my hand.
How the fuck did that wanker lying dead on my cellar floor treat her? And what would have happened had I not been informed my brothers had taken her to the cellar?
Adrenaline pounds as something primal surges within me. I want to kill Liam and Oscar for this. While Arianna is under my roof, she belongs to me. I am duty-bound to protect her.
Was it seeing her husband’s dead body that made her cry? Was it being forced to retrieve those fucking rings or was it Liam treating her like a whore? Perhaps it was all of these things?
A small growl rumbles from the back of my throat. “You shouldn’t have been instructed to find those rings. Nor should you have been taken to the cellar. It was not my order.”
“You... you hit your brother,” she says. “You shouldn’t have. I’m not worth losing family over.”
She’s desperate for me not to hear the slight whimper of fear in her voice, but Icanhear it. Her acting isn’t that good. “I find Liam pawing you and you think I shouldn’t hit him? I don’t know what you think I am, but I don’t take kindly to women being touched against their will!”
