Page 119 of Beautiful Sinner

“Yes. You are never going to have Julia for your own.” And then I whip out my own gun and shoot him in the leg. He lets out a scream as he topples over.

I run away as best as I can with a fucking bullet wound to my stomach. Connor keeps shooting at me but I managed to dodge out of the way and get into my car.

I have to tell Viktor. He needs to know that I don’t have Julia. That Connor does. That I made a mistake but I want peace too.

But I don’t get the chance before my vision turns blurry and I swerve my car into another car. Everything stops moving. I hear honks and screams.

And the last thought I have is that I failed Julia. I could not protect her.

Chapter Twenty

Julia

Connor returns, breathing heavy, and limping even more. Blood trickles down his leg. He was shot, that much is obvious.

“What happened?” I ask. I tried and failed to get out of the ropes tying me to the chair and now that Connor is back, I’m out of options.

“Your fucking husband shot me.”

My heart rate spikes. “Did you kill him?”

He smirks. “You’d hate that, wouldn’t you? Maybe I did kill him. Maybe not. You’ll never know because you’re mine now.” He limps over to me and grabs my face and before I can evenreact, slams his lips down against mine. I rip away from him. “I am going to make you mine the moment my leg feels better.”

“You mean… rape me?”

“It’s not rape when we’re married.”

I shiver. This cannot be happening. I want to save myself but I can’t. Not when I’m tied to this chair.

And I’m not even sure if Matteo is coming.

Matteo

I wake up in the hospital. I jerk upright when I realize, wondering how I got here. My stomach is bandaged up. I feel a little woozy but I’m alive.

A doctor comes into my room and explains how I was shot in the abdomen but that I got lucky. It missed all my vital organs. I should be back to my old self within a few weeks.

Lucky. Right.

Connor has Julia and I have to stop it.

“How long was I out for?”

“A few hours.”

“How did I get here?”

“You were in a crash and someone called the police. Paramedics brought you here.”

So if it’s only been a few hours, then maybe I have a chance to save Julia. I just have to get to Dante. I’ll need his help since I’m wounded now.

But Dante is meeting up with Erik and Viktor.

Viktor. I’m going to have to face him. There’s no one more who will fight to save Julia than me. I have to make things right with him.

“I want to be let go,” I tell the doctor.

“But you need to stay here for at least the night. We want to make sure they’re no other complications.”