Total pages in book: 115
Estimated words: 107402 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 537(@200wpm)___ 430(@250wpm)___ 358(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107402 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 537(@200wpm)___ 430(@250wpm)___ 358(@300wpm)
“I won’t live life without you, baby. I love you too much. So what do you say? How about I meet you in hell, my wife?” He tightens his hand on the trigger, and I call out for Giulio.
“Giulio, help! Nico, please! I love you. Stop!”
“Yeah? You do?” Spit flies from his mouth, and his face is so red it matches the shade of blood I fear I’m about to see.
“Yes, please, I love you!”
“Good!” He clamps his eyes shut and I scream, dropping to the floor with my eyes closed as he pulls the trigger.
Someone enters the room hurriedly, too late, and I don’t need to look up to know it's Giulio.
But it's then I realize I didn’t hear a thud in front of me after the blast.
Crying and gasping for air without any sense of control, I slowly look up and see Nico standing over me, breathing hard. His gun is now at his side, and I fall back against the wall when I see he shot the one to the left of us.
I scream through my cries.
How could he have done that to me?
I wrap my arms around myself and wail so hard I don’t think there is an end in sight for me.
“Giulio, get my plane ready. I’m going to New York.”
He walks away, and I begin to choke, coughing so hard I can’t catch my breath. The door shuts, and I try to stand, but my legs give out and I fall, still sobbing and choking. Soon enough, my body gives out completely. Everything goes black, and I pass out with a whimper for my husband.
“Nico….”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
NICO
I watch her sleep in the back of my plane. She looks tortured even in slumber. But I don’t feel remorse. I want her to feel pain for betraying me. Is it hypocritical, as I hid my plan from her all along? Yes. But nowhere in that plan did I even consider her death an option. She was put in this marriage to make sure I only made it out in a fucking body bag.
But that ship has sailed, and Giuseppe’s plan has backfired, because I will be the one who ends him. When I heard those words leave Emelia’s mouth on the phone, I felt everything in me disintegrate into a rage so deep I could taste it and feel it traveling through my blood.
I knew her father was behind it, but I never thought Emelia would have known or been in on it. Even if what she said back home was true, it still didn’t sit with me as the truth. When she passed out, I carried her to the car and onto the plane. She hasn’t woken since, and I’m thankful for that, because I don’t know what the fuck I’m going to say to her when she wakes up.
What happened before we left was insanity. There were two sides of me that collided and couldn’t overrule one another. The killer in me who would end anything and anyone who fucked with him. And the man who loves the woman who hurt him.
I would have rather killed myself than her. Because I couldn’t watch the life leave her, and I couldn’t imagine a life where she wasn’t in it. The twisted, fucked knowledge of that ate at me since I pulled that trigger. Now, I watch her sleep and have no idea what to do when she wakes. But I do know what I plan to do when I get to New York.
Start. A. War.
Emelia doesn’t get a say anymore.
Leaving her to rest, I head to the front of the cabin and sit next to Giulio. The whiskey I asked the stewardess to prepare is waiting for me, but instead of downing it, I take my sweet time. Looking out the window at the dark vastness of the night, I think about everything that has played out in the past couple of weeks.
“You trust that she didn’t plan to do what her father asked, right?” Giulio implores.
When I first heard what she told her father, I would say yes, I did believe she would have done it. But once the dust settled, I remembered how much Emelia despises her father, and she wouldn’t hurt me to help him.
I shouldn’t have reacted so madly, but I couldn’t help it. Something took over me, and I had to do what needed to be done. The only way I would be able to see her true loyalty was in the way she begged with the fear of losing me in her eyes.
Fuck, I’m a prick.
“Yes, I know she wouldn’t,” I hiss.
“So what is the plan then, boss? We just going in, guns blazing? You know that won’t work. We have to have a plan.”
“I’m aware. I’m working on that, but I can’t think with you incessantly talking, Giulio.”