“My father was a monster who didn’t give a shit about me. Why should I give a shit about him?” But he did care. I could see it in his eyes and the tightness around his mouth. “In any case, we don’t have time for this right now. You can beg my forgiveness later. Go get yourself cleaned up, then take those clothes outside and burn them.”
“Luca—”
But he cut me off. “You’re covered in blood, Enz. Go.” Taking the phone with him, he headed to his office, his shoulders slumped with grief he wouldn’t acknowledge.
Turning on my heel, I went to do as he’d ordered. As I climbed the stairs, I lifted my hands out in front of me.
They were shaking again.
CHAPTER7
Serafina
Iknew he would come and find me, so even though I desperately wanted to take a shower and change into the clothes Veda had given me, I sat on the bed and waited after washing the smears of blood from around my mouth.
The ring that was still on my finger sparkled in the light. I’d become a wife and a widow on the same day. My husband—I choked down the hysterical laughter that rose in my throat—killed in cold blood right in front of me. And I felt…nothing.
No anger. No regret. No relief. No joy.
Nothing.
Time slowed as I heard Enzo’s footsteps approaching the room we’d shared before he so carelessly discarded me. They stopped right outside the door.
My heart too loud in my ears, I watched the doorknob. It seemed to take forever, but finally, I heard the slight rattle of metal, the knob turned, and the door opened.
Enzo strode into the room as though he hadn’t had that moment’s hesitation before he came in. What was he afraid of, I wondered? His eyes found me immediately, sitting there on the edge of the bed, waiting for him. He was still wearing the bloody clothes he’d shown up in.
He stopped just inside the door, reaching behind him to close it. “How are you feeling?”
Nothing. I felt nothing.
When I didn’t answer him, he chewed on the inside of his cheek, studying me. His eyes, completely visible without his sunglasses, roamed over my face before they dropped down to the rest of my body. Though my skin burned everywhere they touched, I held perfectly still. There was no way in hell I was going to allow him to see how much he affected me. Not if I could help it.
“Did he hurt you badly?”
“Yes,” I told him. There was no reason to lie about it. My body still ached everywhere Luigi’s belt had struck me. I’d probably be black and blue in the morning if I wasn’t already.
The muscles in Enzo’s jaw flexed. “I wish I could kill him again. Only this time I wouldn’t let my temper get the best of me and I’d break him apart, piece by piece.”
“Why did you come there?” I asked him, despite the promise I’d made to myself to hate him. But I wanted to know. Ineededto know. Was this some stupid macho man bullshit? Or was it something more?
“Because you’remine, Sera.”
I did laugh then. It was an ugly sound. “Yours?” I repeated incredulously when I could speak.
His eyes narrowed in on me. “Yes.”
I was so fucking confused. “Do you always give away your property and then kill the man you gave it to and take it back?” A thought occurred to me. “Is it the hunt? Is that it? Does the chase excite you? And then once it’s over, you lose interest?”
He was shaking his head before I finished speaking. “No, baby. That’s not it at all.”
I would’ve stood up then so he could feel the full force of my disgust with him, but my back ached from the beating Luigi gave me. “Then explain it to me,” I told him. “Explain to me why a man who was willing to pay an ungodly amount of money just to talk me into spending time with him and who would go all the way tofuckingMexico to save me suddenly wants nothing to do with me.”
“It was safer for you to go back to your father than to stay here with me.”
“Why?”
He stared at me, his dark eyes burning with so many emotions they seared me through to the bone and made me catch my breath.
