Page 57 of Taunt Me (Dark Odyssey 2)

I’m not alone.

Tessa said she would be here in twenty minutes, and that cough sounded like a man. So who’s here?

She never said anyone else would be here.

The crunching noise sounds again, like someone chewing through bone. I hate that sound. Antonio was always doing it like the animal he was.

The sound is coming from the dining room.

I walk in there, against my instincts which tell me to run. My instincts whichscreamat me to run and hide come full force but I’m here and it’s too late to do anything when I get to the door and see Tobias Antonella sitting at the dining table with what looks like a human finger dangling between his thumb and forefinger.

Holy fuck!

Bile rises in my throat and stays there because I’m too afraid to breathe much less vomit.

He smiles at me and crunches on something that sounds an awful lot like … bone.

Until he confirmed it to Father Rosario that he ate people I thought that whole thing was a rumor. I didn’t think it was real. I just thought it was some scare tactic to freak people out.

It freaked me then to hear him say it and it fucking works now, because… the thing in his handslookslike a human finger because it is one.

“Nice placeBellezza,” Tobias grins, slanting his head to the side so his blond locks drift over his shoulder. “This where you chose for us to celebrate? I’m not keen about fucking against glass windows, but I’m game if that’s what you want.”

I’m shaking and the bile starts to burn my stomach when I think of all this man did to me. How I had to let him fuck me with the threat of people I loved dying if I didn’t let him.

That’s what happened and everybody knows this man is one crazy motherfucker. Even Antonio did but it never stopped him, not for two million dollars. That’s how much Tobias paid to be with me.

I’m shaking but I ball my fists at my side and try with everything inside me to stay calm.Stay calm Charlotte… stay calm.

“What do you want from me?” That is the question I must ask. It’s the question of the hour and one I knew I should be asking after he allowed me to live.

Was it really that though?

Him allowing me to live.

He clears his throat.

My heart… God… I swear my heart stops beating as I wait for his answer.

“I want you.” Comes his simple answer accompanied with a smile. “So, it’s not what I want from you per se. I want you,Bellezza, the widow of the late Antonio De Lucca. That is what I want. You to come live with me. Not in this place, it’s far too small. You live with me, teach at your little school and I’ll … do whatever the fuck it is I want to do.”

I steady my breath to keep from crying out.

This can’t be happening, it can’t.

But… what did I expect was going to happen to me?

I’m so stupid.

I didn’t escape.

It wasn’t freedom. Not by a long shot.

Everything was part of his game. Part of his plan. He knew what I would do and he’s just following through on the path of shit.

I’m so very foolish.

I actually allowed myself to hope that leaving Italy would leave him behind with the shit.

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