“I deserve this for betraying you,” she says, her voice airy and weak, “but I tried to make up for it by coming back. I left my sister foryou, Rafael.”
“I fucking hate you.”
She nods slowly, her eyes filling with moisture. “Tell me what I can do to make things right between us.”
“Absolutelynothing.”
Carina inhales a shuddering breath and when she squeezes her eyes shut, tears leak onto her lashes and then drop onto her cheeks. I’ve seen her cry before and I’ve never been under the impression it was to manipulate me, but this wouldn’t be the first time a woman has tried using this method to gain my sympathy. It doesn’t work with her either.
At least not enough to move me to compassion.
I glide my index finger across the skin directly at the corner of her eye, wiping away a tear, and her eyelids lift to follow the motion of my hand. Then I rub my thumb and index finger together, spreading the moisture over my fingertips, and then I lick one.
Her lips part and she stares at me in complete and utter shock, but also with a hint of confusion.
“Theatrics taste different,” I say with a sardonic brow raised, “but that emotion from you is genuine. Which is fortunate for you because had those been fake tears, I’d snap your neck.”
She drops her head in defeat and rests her chin on my hand wrapped around her throat. Then she lowers her arms, letting them fall listlessly to her sides. It’s as though she’s giving up. I’ve always wanted her surrender, but this is something else and I’m not sure what to make of it.
I’m still mulling over her show of emotion when she slowly raises her gaze to mine. The fire in them is nearly as stoked as mine, burning with a brilliance that causes her eyes to take on the look of flames.
“Fuck you,” she hisses.
Carina
“What did you just say to me?” Rafael asks.
I glare at him with all the anger bubbling inside me, hoping it will light him on fire. “Absolutely nothing.”
Those words—hiswords that broke me—are bitter on my tongue as I fling them at Rafael. I was willing to do anything,anythingto earn his forgiveness, no matter how long it took or what it cost me. But he said there was no way he’d move past this, regardless of the fact I was ready to be at his mercy.
Every part of my body is on alert, waiting for violence to appear. A turbulent storm of fury has been gathering under the surface of his composure and it’s about to be unleashed. On me. Will I survive it?
I have no idea.
But what I do know is my sense of hopelessness and despair gives strength to my anger, and with it the necessary energy to keep the shards of my broken heart from killing me.
Maybe damage has already been done because I can’t breathe.
Rafael may have his hand on my throat, but it’s not enough to keep me from inhaling. So I do, and when I speak again it’s from the depths of my soul, the very essence of me that now hates him as much as it loves him.
“Let go of me.”
He digs his fingers into my skin, making me wince, and then brings his face close to mine. “How long have you been planning this with Nardone?” His voice is dangerously low and it takes every bit of my fury to keep his cold gaze from freezing me where I stand.
“What?” My brows snap together. “I hate my father and you know that. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t have left with Violetta. And how do I know you’re not lying about my sister? Where the fuck is she?!”
Just the sound of her name sets me off and I join Rafael in the pool of rage he’s lingering in. I jump in, aiming for the deepest part, and let the streams of emotion flood me. And like a tidal wave it slams into me; I’m swept away.
I grip his forearm and rake my nails down the length of it, so when he scowls at me, I use that distraction to ram my knee into his groin. Rafael blocks the move, but not completely and that contact forces him to release my neck. I spin to the right and grab the first thing I lay my hand on. A lamp soars in his direction.
“You’re fucking crazy,” Rafael says. He ducks and the object misses him, but I’m already launching another. This time it’s a vase.
“I could’ve lost everything!” I scream. “I risked my life, my sister, and my chance at freedom, all foryou!” My subconscious is aware of the items crashing into the walls and the destruction of property, but I don’t care. Anything I can pick up and throw is fair game. “Why did I even fucking try if there’s nothing I can do that’ll get you to forgive me? You’re an ungrateful asshole who can’t see past his own pain to know when he’s hurting someone else. I should’ve let my father kill you!”
Rafael charges me and I shriek. Without anything left to defend myself with, I run. He tackles me to the floor and knocks the breath out of me. Then he flips me onto my back and I stare up at him, struggling to pull air into my lungs.
“I’m the ungrateful asshole?” he roars in my face. “You have no idea, no fucking clue what I’ve done and would do to keep you safe. I made sure to have every trace of your dark web transactions erased so Nardone would never find out it was you. When you ran away, I came after you and killed those enforcers who were in your apartment. And I brutally tortured and killed that motherfucker who assaulted you. He died begging and crying for your forgiveness, and that was after suffering forhours! Which still wasn’t good enough for what he did to you.”
