Page 58 of Thorns of Silence

Where were you?That was the question she asked me. Did I know her? Did I do something to her? That would explain her hate for me. But I asked Amon, and he claimed we hadn’t run into the Romero girls since we visited their father in Malibu.

Maybe I’d run into her when I was visiting my cabin by Lake Tahoe or the vineyards I owned in California.But if you ran into her, you’d have told Amon.

Maybe it was a dream, though I could almost smell the pine needles on the ground. And the woods looked so similar to those of my property in Tahoe.

My lips twitched, imagining what it would be like to honeymoon with her there. She’d probably murder me and bury my body where nobody would find me.

I decided at that moment I’d take Nix there when she finally saw reason and caved. We’d probably never get out of bed. No complaints though. I was all for it, if only she’d stop fighting me—stop fighting us, because there was definitelyus.

Where were you?Those words were nagging me. Three simple words and the look of desperation in her eyes haunted me.I screamed until my throat bled. You weren’t there.

I clenched my teeth, snapping out of my head. I didn’t know what was real and what wasn’t with Nix, but her words knotted in my gut. Fuck, I was losing my marbles. This obsession with Nix was fucking with my mind, and it was already damaged to begin with.

A commotion pulled me out of my dreaming, and I spotted Reina.

“What the fuck,” I muttered under my breath.

She was talking to my father and mother, and the former was staring at her like a wolf ready to tear into his next meal. No woman ever came away from my father’s attention unscathed. Didn’t Reina know to keep the fuck away from monsters?

Just as I was about to storm over there and yank her away, she took a step away from them. Then another. Reina’s eyes were focused on Amon across the dance floor, where he was dancing with a model.

Fuck, what was her name?

It didn’t matter. What mattered was that if Amon fucked up even more, my chances with Nix would blaze into ash. I made my way through the crowd when she whirled on her heel, her pink dress flowing through the air as she bolted for the exit.

She bumped into Illias Konstantin, exchanged a word, and then she was on the move again.

“Dante, how are you?” Konstantin stopped me.

“Good.” My eyes were on the small blonde woman who was moving with surprising agility and speed.

“Don’t tell me you’re leaving?”

My eyes flicked to him. “Maybe. Excuse me.”

I brushed past him and started barreling through the crowd. “Reina.”

She didn’t turn. I didn’t think she heard me. I made it out of the venue, my eyes darting left and right until I spotted her. It was raining and her clothes were drenched, sticking to her slight frame. Fuck, why did it always rain when you had to go after someone? I followed after her just as she turned the corner and disappeared from my sight. She made it less than a block when I spotted her crossing the street.

From the corner of my eye, I spotted a truck charging down the narrow road. Reina seemed to be lost in her thoughts, furiously swiping at her face, not seeing as it approached her with alarming speed. I started running, but it was too late. The grind of metal on metal.

One minute she was standing, and the next her body was crushed between the truck and another smaller vehicle. It happened in slow motion, but at the same time too fast. I ran at an impossible speed, then lowered to the ground next to her limp body as I roared, “Call an ambulance!”

The doors of the vehicles opened and both drivers took off. Fuck, I should go after them, but I couldn’t leave Reina alone. Not in her state, her limbs splayed in unnatural directions.

I scooped her bloodied body into my arms and fear I hadn’t felt in a long time gripped my chest. If she died, so did any chance I had with her sister. Yet, not even that seemed as crucial as keeping Reina alive.

“Don’t you fucking die.” I cradled her to my chest, applying pressure to her abdomen. There was so much blood, I didn’t know where it was coming from. For a second I was sure she was dead, terror rippling through me. “Reina, keep breathing or I’ll have to resort to drastic measures,” I rasped.

Her face, surrounded by crimson-stained curls, was deathly pale.

“Ambulance,” Amon bellowed, his own face a stark white in the light of the streetlamp overhead. “Someone call an ambulance.”

“It’s on the way,” someone answered.

I raised my head to find him falling to his knees on the other side of her limp body. “What happened?” He pulled her gently from my arms, his hands shaking. Amon’s hands never fucking shook. “Where in thefuckis Darius? He’s supposed to be watching her.”

I gritted my teeth. Amon had had Reina under surveillance ever since he found out some girls at college were bullying her. Personally, I would have taught them a lesson, but he thought putting Darius on the job was better.