Total pages in book: 118
Estimated words: 109674 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 548(@200wpm)___ 439(@250wpm)___ 366(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 109674 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 548(@200wpm)___ 439(@250wpm)___ 366(@300wpm)
I nodded. He gave me a slight smile and led me into the enclosure. The cheetahs raised their head and looked our way, but they didn’t come closer. They had lost interest in Lev.
Nestore made a slashing motion at the window, and the machine stopped. Lev looked our way, and his eyes grew wide when he spotted Nestore. He wound himself and then cried out in pain. Nestore shook his head as he led me toward the dangling Lev.
“You broke your arm and wrist in several places. This must be painful,” Nestore said matter-of-factly.
“Yes,” Lev gasped, his expression lighting up with hope as if he thought Nestore pitied him.
I almost rolled my eyes at him.
“The pain you’re feeling now is nothing compared to the agony I’ll inflict on you for attacking my wife.”
Lev blinked, then stilled like a scared mouse when Nestore stopped in front of him. Disgust and rage twisted Nestore’s regal features. “Pathetic. You really thought you could kill a Romano? The woman destined to be at my side?”
Lev didn’t say anything. His pants turned dark in the crotch area as he peed himself.
Nestore’s lips curled. “Let’s see if we can make the cheetahs take notice.”
Nestore bent forward and sliced his blade along Lev’s calf in several fast, slashing motions. Lev jerked and screamed. Nestore motioned toward the window, and the steel wire began moving again, dragging Lev behind. The gashes in his calf dripped blood on the ground.
The cheetahs sniffed the air, and finally, one of them began to trot after Lev.
I watched the elegant cat as it sniffed at Lev’s leg. He screamed and kicked out. The animal was too quick but obviously didn’t like resisting prey.
“I guess you’ll have to toss him into the tiger enclosure,” I said.
Nestore turned to me with a curious look.
I shrugged. “He tried to butcher me with a meat tenderizer.”
Nestore’s eyes flickered with bloodlust, and his answering smile scared even me a little. “I need to get a few answers out of him before the tiger enjoys him. He tends to kill them before I can question them.”
“He said the Bratva told him to kill me.”
Nestore nodded. “I want more names, and I want to make him pay for what he’s done.” He cupped my cheek. “Go, dove. I don’t want you to watch. You’ve seen too much blood in your life.”
“I can handle blood,” I reminded him.
“I know. Nobody knows it better than me.”
I stood on my tiptoes and kissed his lips. “I’ll be waiting for you. Come back to me soon.”
“Trust me, I need your closeness more than you can fathom.”
He kissed me again, then stepped back. I turned around and left the enclosure. Rodolfo, pressing a hand against his shoulder wound, and two other guards joined me as I walked up the path toward the house. I glanced at Rodolfo. “Shouldn’t you get this treated? You’re bleeding a lot.” The entire left side of his shirt was covered in blood.
He grimaced. “Your safety is my top priority, or my life is forfeit.”
A sudden fear struck me. “Did someone alert Flavia’s bodyguards? The Bratva could target them as well.”
“They were notified,” Rodolfo said in a tight voice. I still made a mental note to call her as soon as I got my phone. On my way to the primary bedroom, I grabbed the vase with the bouquet. I needed something to lighten my mood. I put it down on the small side table beside the sofa, then grabbed my phone from the nightstand and sank onto the sofa. I called Flavia, but as Rodolfo had said, she was safe and had additional security for the time being.
I moved into the bathroom to shower away the memories of what had happened. A glance at my face revealed the skin right beneath my lower lip was still tinged red from biting Lev.
Maybe I wasn’t so different from Nestore. The time in the basement had shaped us both, but I could hide the effects better.
I dragged a limp Lev by the meat hook wedged into his shoulder toward the tiger enclosure. He was whimpering but otherwise not moving. The last hour in my hands, he’d learned the true meaning of agony, and I made his withdrawal symptoms seem like a walk in the fucking park. I couldn’t believe this worthless piece of shit had dared to attack Amelia.
I shouldn’t have left her this long. I had been filled with the need to destroy, to overcome this feeling of powerlessness I had had since Achille’s death, but I should have returned to her sooner. She was my wife. She was my everything. If something had happened to her…
I jerked at the hook, and Lev’s eyes jerked open, then rolled back again. He was a wimp. The tiger watched me from its resting place on a boulder. He’d enjoy this extensive meal. I unlocked the door in the fence, then ripped the hook out of Lev’s shoulder before I shoved him inside and locked him in.