Page 142 of The Serpent's Bride
“Let go of me,” I bit out. For one second, he didn’t. His thumb brushed the inside of my wrist, right over my frantic pulse.
“I understand why he lost his mind over you,” he murmured. My stomach dropped. There it was. The thing beneath his charm. Rotten. Hungry. Entitled.
I twisted hard, ripping my wrist free. “Don’t touch me.”
Something sharpened in his face. Edoardo chuckled from the bar. “She has spirit.”
“She has more than that,” Angelo said.
The way he looked at me made my lungs shrink. I backed toward the door.
“No one is annulling my marriage,” I said, though my voice shook. “No one is giving me to you. Or him. Or anyone.”
Edoardo took a slow sip. “Little girls make such dramatic declarations.”
“I’m not a little girl,” I reminded him.
“No,” he agreed, his eyes dropping again. “Clearly not.”
Bile rose in my throat. For the first time since I had run from Leo’s penthouse, I understood something with brutal clarity. Leo had been a monster. But he had never looked at me like that. Not like merchandise. Not like meat. Not like a prize passed between men while I stood in the room listening. He had wanted to own me. These men wanted to use me until there was nothing left.
“I want to go back,” I said.
Angelo’s face changed. Just slightly. But I saw it. “You don’t mean that.”
“I do,” I said fervently.
“To Leo?” he asked, voice soft with disbelief.
My throat tightened. Did I? I saw Leo’s hands. His mouth. His fury. His coldness. His heat. His lies. His ring. His face when I said I hated him. I saw my father in a hospital bed. I saw Angelo smiling while Edoardo walked into the room.
“I want to leave,” I said instead.
“You are not leaving,” Edoardo said.
The words cracked through the suite. Final. My hand found the door handle behind me. I pulled. Locked. Of course. My breath started coming too fast.
Angelo sighed. “Chiara.”
“Don’t say my name,” I yelped.
“Stop panicking.”
“I am not panicking,” I said, trying to regain some sense of composure.
“You are,” he said, almost gently. “And Leo will be here soon.”
My heart stopped. “What?”
Angelo smiled then. Not charming. Not beautiful. Cruel.
“You think we didn’t know he would track you?” he asked. “You think Sergio’s phone was the only thing you stole?”
I went cold all over. “What did you do?”
“I gave you an escape,” he said. “A believable one. Enough rope to hang him with.”
Edoardo laughed again. “Leonardo will come in wild. Emotional. Violent. In front of witnesses, if we are lucky.”
