Page 31 of Venomous Vows

“Was the sock necessary?” I solicit, attempting to keep up with the theme of how awful it was and that he did it in the first place.

“You kept screaming.”

“You were hurting me.”

“I apologize,” he emits softly. “But you were a strong thirteen-year-old.”

At least I had that going for me.

“If you’d had them take me, you could’ve been rid of me,” I disclose simply. “It would’ve solved all your problems.”

“So we couldn’t end up here?” he vouches as if that’d be the worst thing in the world. “Now, why would we ever want to do that?”

Is he teasing me?

“Stop playing, Adrian. There has to be something else you want from me.”

“Nothing comes to mind.”

“Think harder,” I chide. “There’s no point in ruining our lives.”

“On the contrary, Elena. I plan on making you the happiest little mob wife in the world.”

I roll my eyes because the idea of jewelry and lavish cars isn’t appealing to me. “Hard pass.”

“How do you know if you haven’t tried it?”

“If I do, and I don’t, can we end it?”

Adrian doesn’t falter when he says, “No.”

This guy is impossible.

And I’m really starting to see that there is no light at the end of the road.

“I give up,” I say with a lift of my arms. “You literally want to kill me.”

“I don’t need your life insurance policy,” Adrian replies flatly. “What I want is hopefully worth so much more than that.”

I scoff. “What? My heart?”

Adrian shakes his head, which gives me some relief. “No,piccola diavola.Your soul.”

I step back, but Adrian’s fingers curl around the fabric of my shirt and yank me back toward him.

“Think of all the things we might be able to do together, Elena,” he utters over me. “I protected you once upon a time, regardless of how you look at it. Every time I told you to stay away from my house, it was for a reason.”

I swat at his hand to release me but to no avail. “You could’ve just told me.”

“Did you even know what sex was back then?” he questions with a lifted brow. “I wasn’t about to havethe talkwith you.”

“You could’ve said it differently.”

“You could’ve just listened.”

Maybe.

But, at the time, it still didn’t make sense to me.

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