Page 51 of Ruthless God

He nodded and moved away.

I didn’t say any more. It was taking everything in me to fucking stay awake.

“Take me back home,” I gritted out.

If any of my brothers responded, I didn’t hear. I couldn’t bring myself to care anymore. Not with this fucking blinding pain.

Fuck.

13

LUNA

I walkedaround the house like a ghost, feeling like an unwanted guest in a place that was supposed to be my home.

It didn’t feel like my home.

The staff mostly ignored me, which would have been ideal over Elena and Lettie’s obvious disdain that they didn’t even bother hiding anymore.

I hadn’t eaten much, afraid Elena might have done something to my food because of her feelings toward me. What I did manage to eat were things I prepared myself late at night when no one was around. Luckily, Massimo’s schedule was long, leaving him coming in and out of the house at odd hours. It made it easier for me to avoid him, which was what I had been doing since that day I caught him in the shower… pleasuring himself and muttering out my name.

His hours also made it impossible to predict when he would be coming home, and I dreaded the day when I would no longer be able to avoid him.

How would I be able to meet his eyes?

My cheeks tightened just from the thought. The book I had been reading lay open, face down on my lap. I had given uptrying to read when I found myself rereading the same sentence for the fifth time.

It was just as well, considering I had read the book before.Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. It was the kind of book I always thought I would read to my children when I have them.

My hands moved over to my still-flat stomach. It wasn’t like I was pregnant after that one and only time I had sex, but protection hadn’t even come up in the conversation. Did this mean Massimo wanted me pregnant?

How could I be pregnant when I still felt like a child?

Twenty-three wasn’t young, especially when it came to the women in my world. The only reason why Andre hadn’t made me marry a made man the moment I turned eighteen was because he didn’t care. No one had even known I had turned eighteen that year, and even if I had felt hurt over that, I was also relieved. I never mentioned it, and neither did anyone else in my family. Then the years just passed, and I really thought I had the chance of getting out of an arranged marriage, unlike most of the girls in similar families around my age. That was until the De Lucas decided they wanted an alliance with us.

And now…

Perhaps I was being fanciful.

I always wanted an enduring, lasting love. Even if that hadn’t seemed possible. I didn’t see that to be the case with Massimo.

I startled in my seat when a loud bang came from the front of the house. Commotion rang out, making my heart thud in my chest. I jumped out of my seat and ran out without thinking, pulling up short when I found Romeo coming inside the house first, a fierce expression on his face, followed by Matteo, then lastly, Elio and Massimo. I gasped, drawing the attention of the brothers, when I found Massimo draped around Elio, almost as if he couldn’t stand on his own, blood dripping from his body.

I didn’t know where he was injured, as the blood seemed to be everywhere. Massimo’s face was pale, his eyes nearly drooping shut, but at least he was awake. They moved to me suddenly, making me freeze on the spot. “Get Luna out of here,” he said.

I frowned. Did he think I was going to hurt him at his most vulnerable? A small pinch started in my heart. We didn’t know each other very well. He had no reason to trust me, but he had been sleeping by my side every night.

Matteo came up to me, holding out his hand as if to touch me, but changed his mind at the last minute.

“Come on. Let’s get out of here.”

I nearly let him convince me to leave. I shook my head and took a step away from him.

“I’m not going anywhere. He needs help.”

“And we’ll help him,” Matteo said gently as if he were speaking to a child.

I looked over Matteo’s shoulder to see Elio helping Massimo up the stairs. I cautiously ran around Matteo and followed Elio. Luckily, Matteo didn’t try to stop me. I would have been no match for him, and I didn’t want to be stopped. I wanted…