Page 39 of Claimed By the Silver Fox

Andreo raises his gun, a glint of dark metal in the dim light. I don’t move a muscle. He has it trained on me. It’s hard to believe he would pull the trigger on his own father, but then, he has revealed himself to be anything but the man I imagined him to be. My son would never betray me like this—but this man, I’m not so sure.

“Out of my way,” Andreo snarls.

“I’m not going anywhere,” I say.

He takes another step toward me, his voice dropping to a menacing growl. “Out of my way, old man.”

I don’t move an inch. If I let him think he has managed to take control of this situation, then I’m going to lose her. I can feel Julia staring at me, willing me to do something, but I’m utterly helpless. If I make a move, he will shoot, and then there’s nothing I can do to help her. But if I don’t…

He will take her. And our child. And I know I couldn’t live with myself if I let something like that happen.

He presses the gun against her, and she closes her eyes, her knees buckling, as if she’s trying to take herself anywhere other than in this moment. Terror courses through me, a desperate need to protect that I don’t know if I can control.

“Out of my way.”

This time, I know I will cost Julia her life if I don’t obey. I let out a long breath and force myself to step aside. If I’m alive, then I can come find her—chase them out of this mansion, shoot out the wheels of his car, anything to make sure she comes back alive. But if he shoots me⁠—

He pushes Julia past me, and just as they reach the end of the hall, he turns to me once more. And there’s that mad smile on his face again, a grin that seems to speak to something darker beneath the surface.

To my horror, he raises his gun once more. “I like it when you do what I tell you, Dad.”

And with that, he pulls the trigger. Sound deafens me, ears ringing, and a shock of pain thunders through my body before I drop to the ground. I don’t even know where the bullet hit.

The only thing I care about, as I force my gaze upward again, is the terror in Julia’s eyes as she’s dragged out of the corridor—and into whatever nightmarish plan my son has for her.

20

JULIA

“Let go of me!”

I try to shake Andreo off as he manhandles me through the door of the apartment. I don’t recognize this place, or maybe I’m just so shaken by everything that happened that I can barely take it in. My eyes are burning with tears, and my body is rushing with adrenaline—but more than that, I can’t stop playing out what I saw back in the mansion, when Andreo fired upon his own father right there in front of me.

I just can’t wrap my head around it. None of it makes sense. My chest feels like it’s going to burst, the pain of holding myself back more than I can take. I was so shocked when it happened, my ears starting ringing, vision blurring helplessly, and I could do nothing but go along with what Andreo was demanding from me. He bundled me into a car, put his foot down, and stuffed his gun into his pocket, hitting the early morning roads like he had a vendetta against them personally.

And all I can think about, all that’s going through my mind, is that Antonio is dead.

Dead. The thought thuds in my mind like a heavy weight, and I can’t even make sense of it. Someone so full of life, so protective, so passionate, just…gone? Like that?

It doesn’t make any sense. I feel like I’m going to throw up every time I think of it, the horror clutching at my chest, and I want nothing more than to turn back time and plead with Andreo to leave his father out of it. I want to tell him that this has to do with me, and nobody else, and to please spare Antonio, spare the father of my child, because I can’t stand the thought of losing him before I’ve so much as had a chance to⁠—

Andreo slams the door behind him, nearly making me jump out of my skin. My head whips around, and I wrap my arms around myself protectively as he stalks toward me, his gaze traveling up and down my body.

“I knew you were a whore, Julia,” he spits at me, venom leaking from every word he speaks. “But marrying my father? Even for you, that’s bad.”

“I—I only did it because you⁠—”

“Oh, come on,” he laughs, holding his hand up to stop me in my tracks. “You expect me to believe your excuses? You wanted the money, was that it? Or the prestige?”

“I just wanted to be safe,” I whisper, but I doubt that he’ll believe me. He hasn’t trusted a word that has come out of my mouth, after all, and I don’t see why that would change.

I want to scream, to tear my hair out at the roots, to fight with him and tell him that he doesn’t know a damn thing and that he needs to let me out of here before the stress starts to harm the baby. But I know he would never let me go.

Even the version of him I knew before was not as cruel and wild as the one staring me down right now. I can tell something has shifted, even if I’m not entirely sure what it is—something within him taking on a different form, like he has gone crazy with the newfound power he’s gotten his hands on. No longer an heir, but a force in his own right.

“And you are safe,” he tells me, as he closes the distance between us. He takes my hand, and I stand there, staring down at it uselessly, wishing I could whip away from him but knowing it would only cause him to do even worse to me.

“Please, Andreo, just let me go,” I plead with him. “I won’t tell anyone—I’ll make sure nobody comes after you. I just want to go back⁠—”