“Perhaps if I kill you, my dear brother might finally deign to visit me.” Julian’s tone is conversational, light.
Amused.
My vision is starting to dim, the blood pounding through my head as I kick desperately. But worse than the sensation of slowly dying are the words he pours into my ears, a litany of horror and sadistic pleasure in my torment. All I can think of is how much I wish I’d obeyed Alessandro, how much I wish I was still there in bed with him…
But at least my last thoughts will be of him.
CHAPTER23
SANDRO
I wakewith the chime of my alarm, alerting me to the fact that someone had entered the secret passage from my father’s study to the cells below. I pick up my phone slowly, not wanting to see what I already know is happening.
Teddy.
I’ve been leaving the study door unlocked since I gave him the run of the house, just to see. Just to test him. Tonight is the first night he’s found it—or the first night he felt safe enough to enter it, perhaps, after bedding me.
The sick twist in my gut turns to something much more familiar and comfortable: anger.
But isn’t this what I’ve been waiting for? I open the app with the cell cameras and listen in. They speak so softly that I don’t catch half of it—but when Julian grabs Teddy by the throat, I throw the bedclothes off at once and take off at a sprint.
* * *
I burst through the still-open sliding door and charge without thought. My fist connects with Julian’s nose through the bars, despite his attempt to duck; my aim is true and clean, and a satisfying crunch is followed by a spray of blood that only makes me want to kill him more.
But I have more important things to worry about right now.
Teddy has slumped to the ground, unresponsive. I drag him away from Julian’s cell and check his pulse, his breathing...
He’s alive.
Relief makes me furious, and I turn on Julian. “You must want a very painful death,” I hiss out. “And I will be delighted to provide it.”
Julian is chuckling, holding his nose to stem the bleeding. “Oh, Sandro. We both know you’re not going to kill me, not before you have this Ciro thing worked out.” I have turned away to tend to Teddy, but when I look back at Julian, his eyes widen and he backs away from the bars. “Ah,” he says. “Well, maybe I’m wrong about that. But Sandro,please. I can help. Ciro confided in me. And when he didn’t, I listened at doors.”
In my arms, Teddy murmurs something. The blue eyes open, filled with terror. “You’re safe,” I tell him softly, and stand him up carefully, keeping my arms around him. “As for you,” I throw over my shoulder on the way out, “I have been restrained by our blood ties up until now.” I turn at the door, let him see that I mean what I’m saying. “But no longer, Julian. Those ties are gone.”
* * *
“Alessandro?”
I’ve been sitting by the bed, slumped in the chair, waiting for this moment. I promised myself I would tamp down the anger, would remain calm and rational, ask Teddy to explain himself.
But I break that promise the moment I hear him say my name.
“What in the hell were you thinking, you foolish child, to go into those cells?” I shoot across the room, standing over him where he is lying on my bed, itching to shake him but not daring to touch him. I don’t know how badly injured he is after Julian’s had his hands all over him.
Teddy barely reacts, blinking once or twice. “He said we should look at your mother, or Ciro’s lover.”
“I don’tcarewhat he said!” I rage on, pacing the room, explaining to Teddy—mostly in Italian, because I need the fury of that language—exactly how stupid he has been.
He struggles to sit up, and I rush over to help him, thumping the pillows with more force than is necessary. “Alessandro,” he croaks, “I’m sorry. I really am.”
I thrust a glass of water into his hand. “Drink.”
He drinks the whole thing down, watching me the entire time over the rim of the glass, and then he sighs. “Thank you.”
“I was too angry to listen before. What did he tell you?”
