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“I’ve taken you for myself,” Dante hisses, curling around the bed like a snake. “Isn’t that what girls like you desire? To be taken? That’s how my brother got you, after all...”
What the hell is he talking about? “Dante, what’s—” my words suddenly catch in my throat.
All of a sudden, my mind is filled with a single troubling thought.
What is Dante doing here?
I was stolen from Angel by his enemies, the same enemies who toppled his empire, the same enemies who brought me back to this overrun mansion and locked me away...
The sudden implication of Dante’s unbothered presence burns through my heart. Angel’s younger brother has scared me from the start; I don’t like him one bit... but he’s family... So, what is he doing here with Angel’s enemies?
Unless...
“You betrayed him?” I ask, just as the horrible thought explodes into my head.
“He betrayed me!” Dante shouts back. He straightens up, catching his rage in his fists. “And now it’s time I get my revenge...”
I flinch away from the monster at the end of my bed, but there’s nowhere to go. My back hits the headboard as a slimy smirk crosses Dante’s thin lips. “Don’t worry, my love, you’ll be fine... if you obey my orders. It’s not your death I’m after... You will be my queen...”
“Never!” I shout. The words come out of me like fire; there’s no stopping them. They hit Dante in a rush and nearly knock him off his feet. It takes the thin young man a second to recover, but when he does, I can practically see the temperature rising in his skull.
He lunges forward and his bony fingers wrap around my throat. I gasp in surprise.
“Never defy me again!” he hisses from inches away. His spittle splashes over my face and I retch in disgust. Dante tightens his grip, then pushes my head back against the headboard, finally letting me loose.
I turn away from him as he straightens his poorly knotted tie and wipes his lips clean. The man-baby tries to compose himself by looking away from me and out of the nearest window. “Your fire will be extinguished soon enough,” he whispers. “Your boyfriend has been chasing you all around the world, but I wasn’t ready for him to find you yet. Now, I am. Now, it’s time I get my revenge.”
“My boyfriend!?” I hiss back, filled with indignation. “He’s your brother!”
“Barely,” Dante growls.
“Right,” I snarl, unable to hold back my disgust. “You’re not half the man he is.” I force myself to laugh. “If you’re trying to draw Angel home, then you’re even dumber than everyone says. He’ll kill you.”
Dante sneers and seems to consider choking me again, but this time he holds himself back. “He’s weak. Weaker than I could have ever imagined. But my eyes have been opened—”
“You idiot,” I snap.
Dante is immediately back in my face. “If I was so dumb, then how was I able to pull all of this off!” he gestures wildly around the empty room and his cold eyes slither down my throat. “I came at the king and I didn’t miss. Now, I’m the king and you’re my queen, whether you like it or not. I shouldn’t have tried to buy you all those years ago... I should have known that real men take what they want; they don’t barter.”
His words confuse me. “What do you mean?” I ask, remembering back to how oddly familiar Dante had seemed the first time I saw him in the compound’s ballroom. “When did you try to buy me?”
“There will be time for your questions when the traitor is dead. His life is the last thing I have to take.”
“You are the traitor,” I accuse.
Dante just shrugs. “You’ll learn to see things differently. I know I did.”
“You’ve been played,” I sneer. “You couldn’t have done this by yourself.
Dante seems to calm, but his movements are still disjointed and jittery. He cracks his neck and looks towards the door. “Maybe, maybe not, but I can tell you what I can do by myself. You. I can rule an empire and I can rule my wife.”
Dante turns around and heads for the bedroom door. I jump off the bed, my legs are wobbly but I can’t back down. “I will never marry you!” I scream after him. My words fall on empty ears as my bedroom door is slammed shut and locked.
Fitful nights of restlessness follow me around like waking nightmares. Bloody visions of my past and my future swirl in whirlwinds of violence and misery behind my twitching eyelids, leaving me sleepless and exhausted. I wake up before dawn every morning and puke my guts out in disgust at what my life has become.
For a while there, out in Ireland, it almost felt like I had a chance to change my fortunes. I had a strong, focused man who made me the object of his desire, and I had peace without wanting—well, without too much wanting.
I wanted to go home, back to Colombia, but other than being stuck in a foreign country, things weren’t so bad.