Total pages in book: 94
Estimated words: 91164 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 456(@200wpm)___ 365(@250wpm)___ 304(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91164 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 456(@200wpm)___ 365(@250wpm)___ 304(@300wpm)
“Traitor,” I mutter. It’s all I can do. All I can think. He betrayed Cassian and he betrayed me and that betrayal will cost us dearly. I know it in my bones.
I glance down at my butchered hands with their missing digits. What will Malek take from me next?
Malek steps closer, grips my chin and forces my head backward. His fingers dig into my skin as he looks me over, a triumphant grin on his face.
I want to get up, to stand and face him, but with my ankles tied as they are, I can’t.
His gaze zeroes in on my hands. His grin vanishes, replaced by pure fury. He bends to grab my hands and roughly pulls Cassian’s ring from my finger. He looks at it in his palm, a sneer on his face.
“Where is the ring I gave you, wife?”
“Don’t call me that!”
He makes a fist around that ring and leans close, close enough that when he speaks, spittle lands on my cheek. “But you are that,” he hisses, and throws Cassian’s ring across the room. It bounces off the wall and lands in a pile of dust and debris. “I thought you would cherish such a prized possession as your mother’s ring, but I see I was wrong.”
“Don’t you dare speak of her, you fucking murderer. Don’t you fucking dare!”
He snorts, grin returning, eyes narrowing. “My contrary, unruly wife. I will take you in hand soon enough.”
“I will be a widow before the night is over,” I hiss.
He collects himself. “Not if I make myself a widower first.”
He looks at the soldier who’s holding his nose, his head tilted back to staunch the bleeding. “What the hell?” Malek asks him.
“She head butted me. It came out of nowhere.”
“I’m surrounded by idiots,” Malek mutters. “She was unconscious, you fool!” He shakes his head.
“Where the hell are we?” I ask.
“You don’t recognize it? The house belongs to you. Well, to us, technically, since I’m your husband. Although, it hasn’t been used in over fifty years.”
I don’t know this place. I glance over his shoulder, but nothing is familiar. I’ve never been here.
“The lake house,” he says.
“Lake house?” I recall my father mentioning a lake house a long time ago. I’m not sure he’s ever been here. It’s dilapidated. Unusable. Because it’s butts up to land that has been disputed between the Trevino and the Moretti families for as long as I can remember and it has a violent history for both of our families, but especially ours.
I recall something Cassian said a long time ago. Something I hadn’t understood then, but I do now. We’ve danced this dance before. Battles between the families have played out here. Inside this house, victory was declared and not by us.
“I’m going to re-write history tonight,” Malek says as if reading my mind.
“What does that mean?”
Just as I ask it, a man walks into the house. He looks at me, holding my gaze for an angry moment.
“Vincent?” I ask, it’s stupid I’m surprised. Why am I surprised? What did I expect when I walked into my father’s study with Cassian Trevino at my back? It wasn’t me they feared in that room. It wasn’t me they bent their heads to. It was Cassian. Vincent has clearly chosen his side. He saw what Cassian did to Joseph. How many others have switched sides? How many are loyal to Malek? Although can it be switching sides? Malek has been a part of the Moretti family all my life.
In their eyes, it’s Cassian who is the usurper. Me who is the traitor.
“Soldiers are on their way. Delayed, but coming,” he tells Malek.
Malek nods, looks at me and I want to lunge at him. I want to claw that smug grin off his face. “What does it mean that I’ll rewrite history?” he asks me. “Two families cannot rule our territories. There can only be one ruler. This piece of land is the perfect place. Tonight, we’re settling the dispute once and for all. When I’m finished, the Trevino family will bend a knee to a new leader,” Malek says, glancing at Enzo. “Or they will die. See, when Cassian kidnapped you, wife, he broke the peace treaty.”
“No. Michael had already broken the treaty.”
“Michael made a mistake. He paid Cassian what Cassian demanded, extortion though it was, and yet, your lover still took what was never his. Bringing him into your father’s home, thinking they’d bend a knee to him, or to you, that was a miscalculation on his part.”
“You planned it all along, didn’t you? You planned this whole thing.”
“Well, honestly, it did fall into place nicely, but I’ll admit I was happily surprised. Didn’t expect your Romeo to fall in love. I mean, who knew he had it in him? When Cassian almost killed your brother that day at the house, he gave away his hand. Not the best poker player if you ask me. I found his weakness, Allegra. His Achilles’ heel, if you will. It’s you. Can you believe it? Very cliché.” He shakes his head with a false smile of utter enjoyment on his face.