Page 116 of Taunt Me (Dark Odyssey 2)

I have to sit here and wait. That is what I have to do.

I just wish I had the sensation of having done the right thing.

I’m still waiting for that part just like I was when Antonio took me. I knew I was with him to keep my family alive. I’m here for the same thing, it’s just that Gabe is in the mix now.

The handle on the door turns and Tobias comes in.

He tilts his head to the side and I noticed earlier that he walks with a limp now, pretty certain that being shot in his dick must have taken a toll on him.

Must have weakened him.

I don’t know. His attitude hasn’t changed and even if I were to entertain the possibility of him having some weakness he has so many men around him.

I wouldn’t stand a chance.

“The room suits you. It belonged to my sister,” he says and makes his way over to the bed to sit on the edge. All the while he keeps his gaze trained on me.

I remain silent although he’s looking at me like he seriously expects me to engage in conversation with him.

“She would have been twenty five this year. Few months’ time,” he adds. That part… there it is, it fits the eeriness of the room, it fits because it definitely feels like it belonged to someone. “She died when she was six years old.” He smiles and I don’t know what about that is funny.

“I’m sorry that happened to you,” I tell him. I’m just talking because of the intensity of his stares. I have no sympathy for this man.

“You aren’t sorry for me. Nice of you to try though. My father Severus Antonella is one sick bastard. It was my fault she died and everything that happened that year was all my fault. This….” He motions around the room “...Is my family home. The place I grew up. On these very grounds is where I grew up. My mother was having an affair with my uncle and I knew about it. I was ten years old and I knew well enough to know what they were doing was wrong. They were together on the day my sister died. My mother was supposed to be watching her but she ventured to the lake and drowned. Mother was far too busy fucking Uncle Roberto to watch her child.”

Christ… I may not have any compassion for him but that is awful.

“The way my father saw it was this... I knew about the affair and had I said something my sister, Sophie, wouldn’t have drowned. She’d still be alive. So when he killed my mother and my uncle he made me watch and fed them to me. I then endured years of torture. Years of it. I wonder sometimes, if the whole ordeal is why I am the way I am. But then I don’t know if I’d want to be any other way. I am vengeance and a fully-fledged assassin. I am an Antonella in every essence.”

I release the breath I was holding on to. “What is your point in telling me all this.”

“You… the explanation of you. You are purity, goodness.”

It’s so strange hearing him say that to me when all this time he’s been so vile.

“I thought I was a whoring slut. Isn’t that what you called me?” I throw back.

The corners of his lip quirk. “You are my something good. Pet. You are just like a pet. Beautiful, and if I do the right things I can make you love me. It felt so good to be inside you. It felt so good to fuck you. Fuck purity. Pure, purity. That is why I want you. You will be my pet and I am going to be sure that I eradicate all threats to my property the same way you guard a house.”

“What do you mean? There are no threats. I did what you said.”

“When my father tortured me it enhanced everything about me to the point where I’m past feeling. It made me clever. I turn everything into a game to make it easier.” He chuckles and stands up. “Ten lashes so I need to count to a hundred, on the count of a hundred the lashes will stop. Beheading my best friend so his sister could live was a game of swapping. One punishment swapped for something. A life.”

I can’t listen to any more of this. I bite down hard on my back teeth and swallow past the lump that’s formed in my throat. He said he’ll protect his property - what did he mean?

“No one knows I’m here,” I point out and ignore the rest of his comments. He doesn’t like that I did that, the hardness in his eyes shows his annoyance.

“No one knows you’re here but we’re in the height of the gameBellezza. I’m still waiting to see how this day plays out. We’re simply in the waiting stages. Like pieces on a chessboard waiting to make their play.”

“What are you talking about? I did everything you said,” I repeat.

He nods. “Oh you did, you were the good little slut. You definitely followed orders correctly, but what you failed to notice is Gabriel Giordano is as obsessed with you as I am. Do you seriously believe he’s just going to let you go?”

My eyes widen and I shake my head at him.

I open my mouth to speak but nothing comes out.

He comes up to me and crouches down. “You’re so beautiful, so beautiful and you look even better when you don’t know what the hell is happening to you. The mistake was yours in involving him in the first place, you shouldn’t have done that. But it’s fine. I get to eradicate the pest. It’s that age old battle of two men fighting over a girl. Except I’ll win.”

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