“I thought you cared…because I did. I wanted to believe there was something human in you.” I jab a finger at him.
His eyes flash, shoulders stiffening, but I see nothing past the fury in my eyes. There’s an ache in my chest…a heat in my blood, and for the first time, I want to let it out. I want to put him…no, every-fucking-body, in their place.
“Tell me, Dominic.” I try to scoff, but it comes out as a sob. “Have you no decency at all?”
“Bella, don’t,” he steps forward, nostrils flaring. I take one step backward.
“Answer me! Have you no shame at all? Tell me what was running through your mind while you were fucking her!”
“Damn it, Bella. I said stop!” He lurches forward and locks both of my wrists in his hand, the force sending my bracelet onto the ground. My chest rises and falls against his, and I can feel the heat radiating off him. Seconds pass, and I find myself foolishly waiting to hear something…anything. But instead, what comes next freezes the blood in my veins.
“What the fuck?”
Before I can think, he pulls away from me and walks to a spot on the floor where my bracelet had fallen, picking it up from the floor.
When he turns to me, his brows are knitted tightly as he dangles the bracelet in one hand and pinches something tiny in his other hand. Disbelief clouds his eyes.
Slowly, confusion replaces anger in my chest.
“You were the mole all along,” he breathes, inspecting the bracelet closely.
“W-what?” I stutter, staring at him for some sort of explanation. But he gives none. Just a cold, deadly stare that hits me with blunt force—enough to make me stagger.
“You were the fucking mole,” his voice is louder now, sharp and unnerving as he strides toward me.
“I-I don’t understa—”
“This!” He shoves the bracelet in my face and reveals what he’d been pinching between his thumb and index finger. My eyes widen when I see something very tiny. Something like a lithium battery? A normal piece of jewelry would definitely not have that.
I snap my gaze toward the bracelet again and see a little circuit box and wires that only belong in electronics. That can only mean one thing. It’s a recorder or something along those lines. Shit.
“Is this what you’ve been using to spy on me?!”
For a second, it feels like the world stops, my breath seizes, and before I know it, he slams me into the wall, his hand tightening around my neck. No!
“No, I-I don’t know anything about that, I swear.” My heart pounds in my chest as I watch fire rage behind his eyes. “I swear on my life. Dad gave it to me and I-I just never…”
I trail as the pieces slowly fall into place…So this was what Dad’s sudden interest in me was all about? Using me as an unwitting spy to get information? And I was foolish enough to fall for it.
“You fucking traitor,” he growls raggedly, ramming a fist to the wall beside my head and I flinch. “Was this Dean’s plan all along? To use one of his daughters as a means to get to me? And you executed the plan so damn well, you unsuspecting little snitch.” He eyes me with a look that guts my stomach. Fuck.
My throat tightens. “Dominic, please, believe me. I had nothing to do with that.”
“Tell me, Bella. Was this the plan from the beginning, or did you see that I let my guard down and then decide to play me for a fucking fool?”
“If I knew that shit was there, I wouldn’t have brought it anywhere close to you.” I manage to find my voice, but the empty smile I get in return almost makes me shrink back.
“I don’t believe traitors,” he growls.
Horror fills me and I desperately search his eyes for anything that could disprove the fact that he really thinks I’d betray him like that. But his eyes hold every confirmation of his words and that, more than anything, hits me like a punch to my chest.
“You know what I do to them? I kill them.”
The calm that replaces his fury is the kind that has nothing to do with mercy. And somehow I sense what’s coming next before he speaks.
“Please…” My voice cracks, but his jaw hardens as his gaze clashes with mine. He throws the whole lot on the floor.
“Leave and never come back.”
