Page 115 of Diary of a Mafia Princess

His arm reached through the bars so quick I didn’t even see it. Or maybe it was because my head still spun and my reflexes were slow. His fingers wrapped around my throat and squeezed tight.

“You don’t get to say no to me, slut. You’re in a fucking cage. I own you. My name is right there on your chest.” He pressed a finger to the burn.

His fingers around my throat were the only reason I didn’t scream. It wasn’t for lack of trying. It was because I physically didn’t have the air.

He let go just enough that I managed to jerk myself out of his grip and staggered away from him, so my back pressed to the other side of the cage. I sucked in sharp breaths; sure I looked like a wild animal.

Voices outside the door floated through, and this time, I was sure it was Luca’s. So sure I was shocked I’d even thought for a second that Enzo’s voice was his. And this time, when I screamed Luca’s name, it wasn’t with the anger that I’d screamed his father’s.

It was with the desperation of a woman who suddenly knew the man standing in front of her was evil. “Luca! Help me!”

Better the devil you know.

Raised words came from the other side of the door, a thump and tussle. Enzo just shook his head at me, and then the door slammed open.

Luca’s dark eyes took me in, completely naked, burned, face bleeding and swelling.

And then his uncle standing on the other side of the cage, as if this was just a regular Tuesday.

Luca’s anger exploded. “What the fuck, Enzo!” He shoved past him and grabbed the bars. “Jesus fuck! Nyah, are you okay?” He whirled to glare at him again. “Did you do this to her?”

Enzo just raised one eyebrow.

Luca snorted. “Of course not. Because you wouldn’t have the spine to do anything other than exactly what my father tells you to do, would you?” He sneered at him in disgust and held his hand out. “Give me the fucking key.”

Enzo fingered it, twisting it over and over, the silver glinting like his rings. “You aren’t exactly in a bargaining position, nephew. Remember, I know things—”

Luca lunged for him. “I don’t fucking care, Enzo! Tell my father I fuck men. See if I give a shit. Give me the damn key.”

He snatched it from the man’s grasp and faced off with him, breathing heavily.

Enzo just smiled smugly at his nephew and leaned in. “You wish I would play that card, nephew, don’t you? But then I’d have nothing to hold over you. Now, I have two things.” He glanced at me. “I do assume your father doesn’t know about the little crush you clearly have on his future wife? Wouldn’t he be interested to know about the way you stormed in here just now, trying to be her knight in shining armor?”

But Luca was done listening to it. He shoved the key in the lock, frantically trying to twist it to get it open.

Enzo didn’t wait around to see if it did. He walked out, head held high, stepping over the unconscious body of the guard at the door who Luca must have knocked out in order to get in here.

The padlock clicked open, and Luca quickly threaded it through the bars holding the cage shut. The cage door opened, and we stared at each other through it.

And for all that I wanted to be a warrior, for all that I wanted to scream and fight and curse him and his family to Hades, I recognized something else in the son of the man I was supposed to marry in a matter of weeks.

And I fell into his arms, tears rolling down my cheeks.

He caught me, holding me up, arms wrapping around me so protectively I could pretend he actually cared. My head was so dizzy, my face and chest sore, and my heart so damn broken I couldn’t even function.

He pulled his shirt off with one hand, refusing to let go of me with his other. He fit the shirt down over my head to give me some privacy, then swept me up into his arms. Stepping over the man unconscious on the floor, he carried me up the stairs and into my bedroom.

He laid me out on the bed, and I didn’t fight him. I just lay there, staring at the ceiling, wanting to be anywhere other than this fucking house, surrounded by these men who saw me as nothing but their property.

I wanted Dax. To be back in his arms before any of this had happened.

“Nyah,” Luca said softly, standing at the side of my bed, staring down at me.

I didn’t answer him.

What was there to say? Thank you? Thank you for rescuing me from the cages your father used to hold and torture women?

I wasn’t going to thank him for that.