Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 81887 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 409(@200wpm)___ 328(@250wpm)___ 273(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 81887 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 409(@200wpm)___ 328(@250wpm)___ 273(@300wpm)
My blood turns to ice. People saw us. Of course they did. A party full of strangers, all of them potential witnesses.
“Maybe he left the island,” I suggest weakly. “Found a tourist to go home with.”
“Liam wouldn’t leave without telling me.” He slides his hand lower, over my hip. “He wouldn’t leave his bike behind. His house. Everything.”
I try to twist away, but he’s too strong, pulling me against him. “What do you want from me?”
“I want to know what happened that night.” His voice drops lower, more threatening. “And I think you’re going to tell me. After we have a little fun first.”
He shoves me backward until I hit the stone bench. I stumble, falling onto the cold surface. Before I can scramble away, he’s on me, pinning me down with his weight.
“No!” I thrash beneath him, but he’s twice my size, easily holding me in place. “Get off me!”
“Feisty,” he says, sliding one hand up my thigh, pushing my nightgown higher. “I can see why they both want you. But I get to have you first.”
Panic surges through me. This is Liam all over again. Same place, same situation, same family. Is this my punishment? Am I doomed to repeat this nightmare?
I claw at his face, my nails catching his cheek, drawing blood. He curses, grabbing both my wrists and slamming them above my head, held in one of his massive hands.
“You’ll pay for that,” he growls, fumbling at his belt with his free hand.
I can’t breathe, can’t think. My condition makes fighting even harder, my lungs already burning from the run through the maze. But I can’t give up. I can’t let this happen.
“You won’t get away with this.” I gasp, still struggling beneath him. “Damiano will—”
“Damiano will what?” Viktor sneers. “That gardener who took my brother from me? I’ve been waiting years to make him pay for Erik. And now I’ll take something from him, too.”
His words hit me like ice water. The confirmation that Viktor suspects Damiano’s involvement in Erik’s death sends fear coursing through me.
I feel the cool night air on my thighs as Viktor pushes my nightgown up to my waist. His hand is rough, callused as he slides it along my inner thigh.
“No,” I plead, feeling tears spring to my eyes despite my determination not to show weakness. “Don’t do this.”
“You should have thought of that before you got involved with my brother.” He leans down to bite my neck hard enough to make me cry out.
I close my eyes, turning away my head, trying to retreat into myself as his fingers hook into the elastic of my underwear. This can’t be happening again. I can’t kill another Bastian brother. I can’t.
But suddenly, the weight on top of me is gone.
I open my eyes to see Viktor being lifted bodily off me, then thrown to the ground with brutal force. Above him stands Damiano, his face a mask of cold fury, fists clenched at his sides.
“Don’t. Touch. Her.” Each word drops like a stone, precise and deadly.
Viktor scrambles to his feet, wiping blood from his mouth where he hit the ground. “Well, well. The gardener to the rescue.” He spits red onto the gravel. “Just like old times.”
I pull down my nightgown, sitting up on the bench, still shaking from what nearly happened.
“Get out,” Damiano says. “Now.”
Viktor laughs, the sound chilling in the night air. “Or what? You’ll kill me, too? Like you did to Erik?”
Damiano stands there, chest heaving, eyes blazing with fury in the moonlight. Before Viktor can recover, Damiano charges, tackling him to the ground with a feral growl.
The two men collide with the sound of meat hitting stone. They roll across the gravel, a tangle of limbs and violence, each fighting for dominance. Damiano gets in the first solid blow, his fist connecting with Viktor’s jaw with a sickening crack.
But Viktor is bigger, stronger, trained in security. He absorbs the hit and counters with a knee to Damiano’s ribs that makes him gasp. They separate momentarily, circling each other like wolves.
“I’ve waited a long time for this.” Viktor spits blood onto the gravel. “Should have done it years ago when you took Erik from me.”
“He attacked me,” Damiano growls. “Just like Liam attacked Briar.”
Viktor’s eyes darken with rage. “So you admit it. You were involved in Liam’s disappearance.”
Instead of answering, Damiano lunges again. The fight turns brutal, primal. They crash against the stone bench, then against the hedge wall. Fists connect with flesh, grunts of pain fill the air. Blood spatters across the white stone, black in the moonlight.
I scramble to my feet, desperate to help but unsure how. These men are evenly matched in their fury if not their size, and the violence unfolding before me is terrifying in its intensity.
Viktor manages to slam Damiano against the ground, straddling him, hands closing around his throat. Damiano thrashes, his face beginning to turn red as Viktor applies pressure.