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I don’t know how many steps it takes to cover the distance to the door, but it’s fast enough that the room around me blurs.

“Where the fuck is he taking her?”Why is she letting him?

I’m in the hall, searching for the crimson color of his suit and coming up empty until Delilah’s laugh pulls me up the staircase and back to a room a lot like the one I found her in with her brother the night of the auction.

For a tense second, I stand at the door, obsessively observing every interaction until my fingers curl around the butt of my gun, pulling it from the holster under my suit jacket.

My thumb comes down in a familiar motion, disengaging the safety.

Then I tilt my head, listening to Delilah’s fake laugh and the arrogant notes of Percy’s voice until the curve of my pointer finger around the trigger is a reflex instead of a decision.

The bullet hits his knee just like I intended, so when I walk in the tight space, Percy’s hobbling makes it feel even smaller. His bitch ass screams don’t help either. But all I care about is the woman watching me with a scowl on her face and fiery fury filling her eyes.

Tucking the gun back in its rightful place, I pick Delilah up and throw her over my shoulder before walking out.

Chapter 33

Second Time For Everything

DELILAH

“Adonis, you just shot somebody!” I hiss, my hands striking his back in hits that don’t faze him as he walks us to an unknown destination.

“Don’t worry, he won’t die. Unless you want him to.”

With one hand holding my glasses in place, I use the other to catch my clutch before it falls to the ground behind him and wheeze out another breath.

The world sways as I go from over his shoulder to upright again, and the queasy feeling in my gut gets tamped down when I see my surroundings.

We’re in a room that could be a carbon copy of the one we just left. My heart knocks in violent beats in my chest, an unfamiliar and unwelcome hurt spreading through my upper body.

Adonis corners me, using his towering height and muscular frame to cage me against the wall.

I’m dizzy.

More lightheaded than I’ve felt in a long, long time. But I don’t tell him that. I don’t want to tell him anything.

“What the fuck were you thinking, Delilah?”

“I was thinking that you’re getting married.” My throat burns as the words slip out and I hate that ball of emotion sitting in my throat.

“Why would you bring me here, knowing people would laugh at me?”

Shame singes my skin until it feels like a million fire ants are crawling over me. And I don’t want to look him in the eye. Don’t want to see him sifting through what’s in his mind to come up with a lie when he could have just told me the truth.

“Nobody’s laughing at you, Delilah.” His angry voice gentles as he steps in closer. “And if they did, tell me who it was so I can shoot them.”

“Get away from me, you’re a liar.”

My mind is stuck on the interaction with that beautiful woman in the bathroom before it skips to the moment he shot Percy in the fucking leg.

What is this night and why does it feel like a nightmare I can’t wake up from?

The last time I was here was fucked up, but at least I hadn’t walked in with a man who was about to get married.

More pain stabs at my insides, and it takes everything in me not to double over.

“Delilah, what’s wrong?”