Chapter 27
CHAPTER
TWENTY-SEVEN
LUKE
BOOM!
It was like a ticking time bomb had just exploded in my fucking face.
I couldn’t believe the words I just heard.
She’s his fucking wife!
My heart started beating rapidly against my chest. It felt as if it was racing a mile a minute. The instant hatred I had for her was something I couldn’t, for the life of me, comprehend. She’d used me since day one.
The secrets…
It all made sense now.
How could I have been so stupid? How did I not see it?
It was right there in front of my eyes the entire time.
Her feisty demeanor.
The fighting.
It was in her blood to be a headstrong woman in this seedy environment.
If Vince motherfucking Del Toro thought he could use his wife to take me down, he had another thing coming. He was the one who started this war with me, and now that I knew he was the puppet master, all that was left was to kill him. Except I couldn’t do it right now as much as I wanted to.
I’d do the next best thing; I’d take his wife and kill her first.
All the emotions.
All the thoughts.
All the plans I had for a future between us was now over.
I was a pawn.
A toy.
A fucking enemy.
“You need to get your ass to that party and be the gracious woman I know you can be, or you’re going to live to regret it,” Del Toro spewed like this was the millionth time he’d said this to her.
Duchess quickly shook her head. “You said Jameson would be the last one I’d have to fuck.”
Her words tasted like acid against my tongue.
“If I want you to fuck the whole room of men in a gang bang while I watch, then that’s what’s going to happen. ?Me entiendes?”
“No!” she shouted. “I don’t understand because that wasn’t our agreement!”
“You need to watch your tone with me…”
“Then you need to keep up your end of the bargain.”
“Sloan…” he stressed in a voice that meant business. “You’re testing my patience.”
“Yeah?” She hesitated for a moment, and I knew whatever was going to fly out of her mouth wouldn’t end well for her.
“I’m done being your fucking whore!”
I watched through the cracked door as he backhanded her across the face so hard that her body spun with a force that knocked her to the floor, face-first.
My jaw clenched, and my hands fisted tighter. Despite wanting to hurt her, I also couldn’t stomach watching someone else hurt her. It was too hard for me to watch.
“Do you see what you make me do to you?” He walked around her, looking down at her with nothing but disappointment, like it was her fault that he decided to bitch slap her. “You make me mess up that pretty face.”
Her lip split open and she spit blood as she sat up onto her hands and knees. A massive welt was already forming on her cheek.
The son of a bitch crouched to the ground in front of her, roughly grabbing her chin to make her look at him. “I hate hurting you, Sloan. You know how much I love my favorite girl.”
She tried to yank her chin away, but he gripped it harder. “Now, stop being difficult and go play your part. Understood?”
She roughly tried to yank her chin away again.
“Sloan… it could be worse for you. Do you want to go back in the cage?”
I jerked back, immediately feeling sick to my stomach.
She reluctantly shook her head, cowering down to him in a way I’d never seen from her before. He’d broken her so badly, that she didn’t even fight him on it. It was obvious this kind of violent exchange was common between them.
“Good girl… see…” He released her chin and started patting her on her head instead. “Do you see how easy that was? You know what happens when you fight me, Sloan. I don’t want to have to keep you locked up and sedated until you cooperate again. That’s no fun.”
I could see it in her defiant stare that she wanted to spit in his face. One thing was for sure—she didn’t love him. But who the fuck could blame her when he treated her like she was just another slave to him…
It was sick to watch their fucked-up marriage. Especially coming from two parents who were literally still obsessed with each other. I immediately felt bad for her. However, that didn’t take away the desire to want to make her pay for deceiving me.
The irony was not lost on me.
“Tell me you understand?” he demanded, continuing to pet her like she was his fucking dog.
“Mm-hmm…”
“Tell me you know how much I love you, and how you’re the most important woman to me.”
“Mm-hmm…”
He reached into his suit jacket, pulling out his gun before waving it in the air. That action instantly made her back away from him.
“I need to hear you say the words. Don’t make me repeat myself again. You know how much I hate that, baby.”
“Yes,” she softly rasped. “I understand, and I know.”
“You know what?”
“How important I am to you, and how much you love me.”
He skimmed his gun down her wounded cheek, and she hissed loudly upon contact before she slowly shut her eyes as if this was a game she hated playing with him. Her fear got him off. It was obvious how much he loved baiting her to react to him, giving him a reason to abuse her.
Whether it was emotionally, physically, or mentally, he enjoyed breaking her down. I knew men like him. They were the worst kind. This kind of animal didn’t give a fuck about anyone but himself.
“Tell me how much you love me, Sloan.”
Her fingernails dug into her skin behind her back. “I love you.”
Laying the barrel over her heart, he added, “With all your heart and soul…”
Through slightly trembling lips, she repeated, “With all my heart and soul.”
“Good girl…” Gesturing his gun to the bathroom, he ordered, “Now, go clean yourself up and get your ass back out there. You have twenty minutes, understood?”
She nodded again, and he turned and left. I quickly backed away, hiding behind one of the columns next to me as he rushed out of the room.
Just when I thought I could start a new life with her…
It was more like my death sentence.
She wiped her lip with the back of her hand, and only then did I notice what she was wearing now that the black cloak and lace mask I saw her in were on the bed. She was dressed in a small black corset top and even smaller panties. She was dressed in thigh-high black stockings with black heels that made my blood burn.
She looked like the whore her husband made her to be for him.
“Great…” she hissed again, shaking her head before lightly touching her cheek. I was sure she had a splitting headache he caused with that strike across her face.
“Just fucking great…” she repeated, annoyed.
She abruptly stood, trying to find her footing as she made her way into the bathroom.
I slowly opened the door, careful not to get her attention. I didn’t exactly know how I was going to get her the hell out of there. It wasn’t like I thought ahead of time. I was only half expecting to find her there.
I didn’t think.
I just reacted.
There was no second-guessing as to where I was going with this because I was suddenly standing behind her as she stood in front of the bathroom sink, splashing water on her face.
Three…
Two…
One.
She looked up, and we locked eyes through the mirror. Her mouth parted while her wide gaze flew from my face to the gun in my hand that was firmly pressed against her back.
“Hello, darlin’. You brought this on yourself, and now you’ve left me no choice.”
She snapped around, trying to catch me by surprise and take the gun out of my tight grasp, but she wasn’t fast enough. Using her own momentum against her, I pistol-whipped her to knock her out, and her world went black in an instant. I caught her body before it hit the floor and threw her over my shoulder. Thinking quick on my feet, I laid her on the bed and put the cloak and mask back on her, making sure to cover her face with the hoodie.
I had minutes to get us out of there without someone coming to look for her and find her missing. Once I’d covered her with the cloak and hoodie, I threw her over my shoulder again and sped through the house, praying that no one would stop me. I counted on everyone thinking I was just carrying my slave home with me. Luckily, I saw some men carrying theirs like that earlier, and all I could do was hope I’d blend in with them. The party was still packed, and that worked to my advantage. As soon as I made it out of the house, I breathed a sigh of relief. However, my relief was cut short when I walked past a man who eyed me skeptically for a second.
My body clenched when he questioned…“Whatcha got in there?”