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Snapping my head over my shoulder, I looked at Ivy. Her face was filled with sadness, eyes large in shock and disappointment. I never meant for her to find out about the offer I gave Remo.

I just wanted to find a way to keep her. It wouldn't have mattered how much Remo wanted, I would've paid it.

But I fucked up.

Ivy knew now, she knew I had tried to buy her just like he had. I knew she wasn't some ornate object that you could trade and barter for. But I did it . . . I tried.

And I failed.

Remo gave in, he wanted her. The idea of her being back in his hands made me sick to my stomach. He couldn't have her, there was no way in hell I would do that to her again.

“Dad—”

His hand flew up, palm almost smashing into my nose. “Shut up, Dante. I don't care what excuse you want to give me, this girl is going back. I hope you got your dick wet enough to forget she ever existed.” Circling in front of me, he kept glancing at Ivy.

Pacing, he took a lunge toward the bed. Ivy's body was trembling as she held the covers up to her chin. She was watching him with desertion, reading him, and trying to read me. Her eyes were begging me to help her, but they also turned sour, hating me for what I had tried to do.

Her skin had turned milky, muscles convulsing under the blanket. Her jaw was askew, chattering her teeth together as if she was outside in the cold.

And the worst part of it all was I could feel her pain. It cut me deep, making me hate myself for what I wanted so badly.

I had never truly felt sorrow or disgrace before in my life for anything I had done in my past. But right then all those feelings ate me from the inside out. My heart was being stabbed repeatedly over and over, my stomach was curdling and leaking its hate into the back of my throat.

What have I become?

My father tapped the bed frame with the end of his gun, humming under his breath with an evil laughter. “And as for you . . .” Bouncing the gun in the air in her direction, he shot a glare at me over his shoulder. “I know what you're trying to do, don't think I don't. He can't help you, you're going back to Remo, you're going back to your owner.”

“Wait!” I exclaimed in confusion. “You knew? You knew he owned her?”

“Dante, I know a lot of things. And there's a lot of things I don't tell you.”

“How could you know that and not do something about it? You know he's a fucking bastard and you bend over backwards to keep his dirty secrets. Why, why would you let him do this? I thought you were human in some form, what would Mom think if she saw you today?”

The words barely left my lips before my father whipped the gun across my face. “Don't you dare do that! Don't you ever use your mother in our business!”

I knew he expected me to cower, to bend my head and lower to a knee to show repentance for what I said.Fuck that, not this time.“Look at her! Look at her scars, look at her bruises!” Yelling, I stepped into him and not away. His gun was pointed at my chest, finger tucked snugly around the trigger. With the barrel flush against my skin, I pushed back, causing it to dig into my flesh. “Do it. If you can stand here and tell me you're alright with what that man has done to her . . .” Holding my breath for a second, my face softened. “Then kill me now.”

I knew my dad was hard, I knew he held very little sympathy for human life. I'd seen it enough times. But he was always fair. He never harmed someone who wasn't involved directly with fucking him over.

Ivy was innocent in all this. She had no part in anything that Remo owed us, and she never deserved what he put her through.

My father's brows dipped in, wrinkles forming across his forehead. “It's not my business, Dante, and it's not yours. I only get involved when it concerns me, she doesn't concern me. But now that you obviously took what he wanted her for, I hope you know what his punishment could be.” Lowering the cold metal, it flashed and twinkled as the sun beat against the steel.

He can't do it.

“He's not going to fucking touch me, I'll kill him.”

An evil smile filled his face as he laughed softly. “Not to you . . .To her.”

I felt the air leave my lungs as my father just stared at me. The room seemed to fade in and out, his face turned fuzzy and gray. The idea of Remo killing her . . . That hit a nerve.

No. I won't let that happen.

He can't have her and he can't kill her.

Tears streaked Ivy's cheeks, her chest rising and falling fighting for air. Her quiet breaths turned into loud sobs. The silence she kept slipped away into tiny droplets and desperation.

Everything I wanted was right there, right there in that woman.