Page 187 of Bitter Poetry

I blink rapidly. My chest is heaving. I suffer an insane urge to roar and lay waste to the apartment.

Leon is a dead man—I’m going to strangle Cherry myself.

I punch Leon’s number and lift the cell to my ear as I stride back into the lounge. “She's gone.”

“What?!”

“Have Cherry brought in now. She was the only person beyond Christian, you, and me who had the entry code for this apartment. There’s no sign of tampering. Whoever got in used it.”

“Fuck! Fucking hell! I’m on it.”

I need to tell Christian… But I don’t want to compromise him.

Think, damn it!

I shoot off a text message.

Dante: I’ve lost that book you left in my apartment. If you happen to find it, let me know.

I’ve got tunnel vision when I stalk back through to the lounge area. My chest is heaving and sweat breaks out across my skin.

“This can’t be happening,” I mutter. She must be here somewhere. She can’t just be gone. “Think, Dante!”

Sunlight glints off something on the table.

My gut tightens. My steps slow.

I swallow hard as a draw near.

There on the coffee table is the necklace I gave her.

“Lie for me.”

She did. The whole time she was with Ettore, even after she learned I was marrying Helena, she kept it on, wore it for me, my good girl. So fucking hot and filthy, so perfect with her sassy mouth.

The more I learn about her, the deeper I go for her.

I can’t lose her.

My fingers shake as I pick up the heart shaped diamond pendant and enclose it in my fist.

God, I have so many fucking regrets, and I should burn in hell for most of them.

Last night was wild. But the things she said afterward linger. I’ve forced myself to bury what Ettore did with her because I’d have lost my fucking sanity if I didn’t. After last night, I can’t hide from it, nor the terror she lived with.

I left her there.

It doesn’t matter how I try to spin it. I fucking failed her.

Now I have failed her again.

She clung to us this morning—she didn’t want us to go, almost like she knew this was coming for her. Maybe something was off with Cherry, and she was worried about telling me. I only know she kept this necklace on all this time, wearing it, a symbol of us. There’s no way she would have taken it off willingly.

Unless she was leaving me a message.

I’ve failed her too many times. I can’t fail her again.

CHAPTER 56