“Dom… Listen to me…” I choked trying to breathe with his powerful fingers crushing my throat. “Believe me… No one is going to hurt Ariana.”
“Give me one reason I should believe you!” he spat. “You don’t give a fuck about her! You don’t give a fuck about anyone but yourself!”
“You’re wrong!” I panted. “I… I love her!”
He froze, but his fingers didn’t relax around my neck. If anything, he glared at me even more furiously. “You liar!”
“I… Please… I…”
He ripped his hand away so hard it hurt more than when he was choking me. I buckled and wheezed on my knees, trying to catch my breath.
“You better not be lying to me, you fucking bastard!” he snarled.
I struggled to my feet to face him. “Listen to me, man. When I first told you to kidnap her, I didn’t care. I didn’t care if she got hurt when the Vittorios took her. I thought I’d be paying Matteo back.”
“You fucking cocksucker…”
“Things changed, okay? Things changed when I saw her. I… remembered her. I remembered…” I looked away. “I remembered that I loved her.”
He compressed his lips, and his expression changed, but he didn’t soften at all. Would he ever believe a word I said ever again?
“Listen to me, man,” I told him. “No one is going to hurt her—ever. We won’t let them. The Vittorios—they’ll try it, but we won’t let them take her. I swear it.”
“You better not be fucking with me,” he growled.
“I wouldn’t do that. I would never play games with her safety—not now. I thought…” I stopped myself again. Should I tell him, or would he think I was weak because of how I felt about her? “I was only thinking about Matteo when I came up with this plan. I didn’t think about her. I didn’t think she’d be the same as… as I remembered her from before.”
He stood there studying me for way too long. Did I blow it with him? Would he leave the family because of this? I wouldn’t blame him if he did.
He stabbed his forefinger in my face. “If anything happens to her, I’m holding you personally responsible. Are we clear on that?”
“Yes, man! Absolutely! Nothing will happen to her. I won’t let it.”
He snorted once and stormed off.
I held myself upright until he passed around the corner and vanished out of sight. Then I collapsed against the wall, panting and shaking. Thank Christ no one was in the security office to see that.
Plenty of enforcers and hitmen in the family would cap Dominic for laying his hands on me like that, not to mention threatening me, but I couldn’t see it that way.
I really fucked up making him turn on me like this. He and Dante were the only people alive who could get away with that, but Dante would never stand up to me like that.
Some people thought Dante was the smart, level-headed one, but that was a mistake. Dominic had a foundation of character his brother could only dream about. Dominic knew what was what, and he wasn’t afraid to act on it.
He had every right to come after me. I might be the king in this family, but he was my cousin, and we grew up as equals. Wewereequals when it came to Ariana.
If anything happened to her, I would answer to him, and I wouldn’t enjoy the result at all.
I wouldn’t just answer to him, though. I’d answer to myself. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if anything happened to her. I wouldn’t be able to survive that.
Chapter6
Ariana
Iopened my eyes in the dark and instantly knew where I was, even though I couldn’t see anything. I was at Archhurst.
Archhurst. That name sent a prickle up my scalp. How did I know? What told me I was here, in the place where so many memories lay buried for so many years?
I rummaged in my memory, and then I remembered. It was the smell. I could never forget that smell if I lived a million years.