Page 17 of Midnight Rose

"Why?" That is all I ask.

"She was to marry my cousin. You took her and thought there would be no retaliation?"

How did it get past me that he was a cousin in the Gallo family? A problem for another day.

Then I pull out my knife and strip off his white button-down shirt before I carve into his chest. He screams worse than a woman in labor, and blood starts pouring from his chest. Reaching in, I drive my knife into his heart and pull it back out. Using his shirt, I wipe my hands and run right to Ruby.

"Rapunzel, it's me," I say as I untie her hands and legs. Then I use my body to block the room as I remove the bag on her head and her gag.

"Are you okay?" I ask, and she nods, a bit dazed.

I tuck her head into my neck as I pick her up.

"Don't look, Rapunzel," I whisper, and she nods.

"Clean this up. The Gallos have signed their death warrant. I want all the intel we have on them. We will dismantle them and burn their lands to the ground. The head of the family will meet the same fate as those on the boat here today." I issue the orders to my men and then go with Ruby back to my car.

She keeps her face hidden the whole time and doesn't speak, but I’m thankful she listens and does as I ask so she won't see the worst of it.

But maybe I should have been more focused on her silence.

Chapter 15

Ruby

Until I heard my name, I'd been blocking out everything going on around me, trying to focus on possibly loosening the ropes around my wrist.

"Ruby!" It's Orlando, and I try to yell at him, but the gag in my mouth muffles my words.

Then his voice turns cold, talking to someone else in the room.

"Why?" The one word sends chills down my back. This is the family leader everyone else knows, but this isn't my soft Orlando. This Orlando wants revenge in the form of blood.

My heart races as he gets the information he wants. Apparently, this guy is from the family my dad was going to make me marry into, and the news makes me force myself not to be sick.

I'm distracted until the man on the other side of the room starts screaming like a little girl, and I know Orlando is making him suffer, and I pray he kills him. After the way he talked to me, there had never been a time before now I prayed for someone's death.

Then footsteps head my way. I freeze, not sure who won the battle.

"Rapunzel, it's me," Orlando says softly again. A moment later, his hand is messing with the rope around my wrists. When my wrists are free, he releases the one around my legs, and then he removes the bag from my head.

Even though we are inside, the light is so bright it hurts my head.

"Are you okay?" he asks, and all I can do is nod as he removes the gag. Even though I can't see the room, I can see Orlando and a few splatters of blood on his shirt.

He picks me up and tucks my head into his neck as I wrap my arms around him.

"Don't look, Rapunzel." He says, standing.

I hadn't planned to, and I'd tell him so if my throat didn't feel like sandpaper. When we get to the car, I don't move, and he doesn't seem to want to let me go either. Placing me on his lap, he keeps his arms around me as he gives orders, and information about the family who took me starts rolling in.

My head is still spinning by the time we get home, and he carries me upstairs, where it's finally quiet. He bypasses the bed and heads right for the bathroom, and sets me on the cold countertop.

He turns and starts the bath without a word, adding in some things from the shelf nearby before turning back to me. His eyes roam over me, and I know he's taking count of all my injuries. I don't know what I look like, and I certainly don't want to look in the mirror.

Slowly he steps forward, and when he runs his hand down my cheek, I flinch because it hurts more than I expected. Something clouds his eyes for just a moment before he gently removes my clothes. He runs his hands over every bruise and injury until I'm sitting on the counter naked.

Then he strips out of his clothes and carries me to the bathtub, and we slide into the warm water that feels amazing on my sore muscles. I sink into the water and lean my back to his chest as he slowly washes me.

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