I said nothing as he left. I didn’t even move for several long minutes. After a while, I finally drew in a full, deep breath. The monster was gone. For now.
I had to find Luca and do what I could to help him.
Chapter4
Luca
Of course the bastard had prison cells in his basement. I had dank spaces beneath my own home where I could detain my enemies before I tortured them. I wasn’t surprised that Dante’s fortress was no different.
Only, he had that awful room where he’d debased me in the most depraved way. Despite the clothes that’d been provided for me—gray sweats and a basic white t-shirt—I shivered as though I was still stripped naked.
I gritted my teeth and shoved the dark memories away. It could’ve been worse. Surely, having my skin slowly peeled off would be more agonizing. It would be more difficult to recover from that kind of torment. It would be harder to find a way to free myself and Nora.
The wound Dante had carved into my pride could be ignored. I swallowed against the acid tang on my tongue and buried the humiliation down deep.
I rubbed at the abrasions on my wrists, focusing on the physical pain to distract me from my cyclical thoughts. In the darkness of my underground cell, I had no concept of time. Somehow, I’d managed to drift into a semblance of shallow sleep for a while on the stiff cot in the corner of the cramped cell. Otherwise, the silence tormented me. I’d never been isolated before, utterly alone with my thoughts.
And my shame.
For the thousandth time, I wondered where Nora was, what he was doing to her. My fragile wife.
Dante might hate me as his rival, but Nora had done nothing to deserve the horrors he’d put her through. She was completely innocent, drawn into this feud against her will.
A different flavor of shame burned my veins.
I’d kidnapped her and forced her to marry me. I’d made her a prize for Dante to steal, bait for him to use to lure me into a trap.
I tried to save her from him,I reasoned, but the twist at the pit of my stomach didn’t ease.
Yes, I’d tried to keep her from marrying the sadistic bastard in the first place, but that’d been for my own ends, not her benefit.
On the day of our sham wedding reception, she’d told me that she hated me for what I’d done to her.
I’d pulled her into this conflict. Dante would’ve had no reason to involve her in my torment if I’d never married her. If I hadn’t become attached to her, obsessed with possessing my pretty wife and making her happy.
Had any of that even been for her? No, it’d been for my own selfish ends. I hadn’t wanted to spend my life in a bitter marriage, so I’d resolved to make her happy.
The memory of how she’d clung to me and wept after Dante had used us both for his own sick amusement clawed through my mind.
My fault. Her suffering was all my fault.
I threaded my fingers through my hair, maddened by my dark thoughts. My self-loathing.
I pressed against the tender spot where Dante had hit me with his gun, and the flare of pain through my skull sent a wave of dizziness washing over me. The moment of lightheadedness wasn’t nearly reprieve enough.
The creak of a door opening and scuff of footsteps at the top of the stone stairs grated down my spine, sending my body on high alert after the interminable silence. Light flared, searing my eyes. I blinked rapidly to clear my vision, intent on assessing the approaching threat.
The footsteps quickened down the stairs.
“Luca.” She gasped my name, and a fresh wash of shame swept through me in a searing wave.
The last time she’d called out for me, Dante had held a gun to her head. I’d been armed, but again, I’d failed to save her.
Unworthiness crushed my chest as she rushed to the bars that kept me caged. Her lovely hazel eyes were wide and a touch wild, roving over my body and catching on my cheek and wrists. I knew she must be taking in the dried blood that caked my skin, and a grimace twisted my mouth.
So weak.Having her see me like this made my insides writhe with humiliation.
Dante wasn’t even present, and he managed to bring me lower than I could’ve imagined before storming his estate and stumbling into the trap he’d set for me.