Chapter Twenty-Eight
Quiet.
I'm wrapped around a house that is so quiet that I can hear my thoughts. Everyone is sleeping, feeling calmer for the first time in two days.
While I'm not.
My mind is relieved that Pablo and Teddy got the death I imagined. I always thought that they'll die by my hands, but something took over me. I couldn't be in the same room as them. The last time I saw them was when they took my body and destroyed every ounce of power I had. With Enrique is different. I was forced to see him every damn day because he is Hanibal's right hand.
It took me two years to not flinch around him, to not feel his dirty hands on me. Out of all three of them, Enrique was the roughest. His touch, his words, his slaps. He made sure he ruined all the four rooms of my heart and my body.
And I'll kill him.
I'll make sure he dies under my wrath. Not Everette's.
My heart beats faster when the feeling of his belt
slaps on my ass invades my body.
He fucked me so good that even now I walk limping. Everything he did to my body was like a touch of reality.
Everette's sinful body covered in blood is what made me realize how much I crave this man. His green, hungry eyes were looking at me with so much desire and his tight body made me a mess.
My fingertips are begging me to take the brush and paint the god who is haunting my dreams. To paint him with the bloody sword on him, full of sweat and muscle.
I almost moan at the thought. It's insane how this man makes me think with my pussy and not my brain. If he asks me for a favor, I'll get down on my knees for him faster than anyone. And it's not because he killed my abusers and Hanibal. I don't feel attracted to him because he lifted the burden from my shoulders.
Everette Keaton holds a part of me since the beginning of everything. Keres owned him. He was her fiancé and I stood nights awake because his eyes haunted me. And the guilt was always there.
It's still there.
I was never a choice in this match. Everette came to ask for her hand in marriage because she saved him, and he became fascinated by her. I was never in their bubble.
But I was dreaming about him being mine. Dreaming of the idea of me saving him and be his first choice. It's the second reason why I started taking sleeping pills. I needed something to take the illusion from me and wake me to the real world.
The guilt ate me alive when Keres was in the same room as me and when the bet happened, I lost every emotion and feeling I had.
I enter the kitchen, taking an empty glass from the
drawers and fill it with sparkly cold water. After the best sex I had ever with Everette and we showered, he asked me to stop taking the pills. And exactly what I said earlier, I stopped.
"Can you do something for me?" He whispers as the hot water relaxes our bodies.
"Anything." And I mean it.
"Stop taking the sleeping pills. If you have nightmares or you feel like you can't sleep, wake me and I'll be there for you. I'll annihilate every bad dream and I will stay with you as much as you need to fall asleep. Just, please, stop taking them."
And here I am, alone in the kitchen because I don't want to wake him. He's been so busy with finding Ivan, Enrique, dealing with the mafia. He needs his time to rest.
Althea from a month ago would've smacked me if she saw how mesmerized I am by my husband.
I step back when I hear a door opening. Is Everette awake? Or maybe Vincent?
I drink the water left in the glass, feeling it slipping from my hold when an arm catches my head in a painful position and another hand covering my mouth.
My gasp and stuffed screams are making him hold me tight and I feel teeth biting my neck. I close my eyes at the stinging and with anger I haven't felt in a while, I bite his hand. His silent grunt makes me smack my head on his nose and when his arms leave my body, I turn to face my attacker and I'm left speechless.
"Ti piace mordere ora, puttana?" Enrique asks with anger.
I put my hand on my neck and hiss when I feel a rush of pain coming from there. The fucker bit my flesh until it bled.
Before I have a chance to answer him, I hear a door slamming and I smirk.
"I'd start praying if I were you." I say and see my beast coming with speed, eyeing the gun in my attacker's direction.
When Enrique turns, Everette's face reddens and he drops the gun on the floor. Enrique tries to run, but I extend my leg quickly and he stumbles, falling to the ground.
My husband doesn't waste a second and he grabs his hair, yanking him back until he looks in his eyes.
"Welcome to your personal hell, motherfucker." Everette says to him and he punches him. I hear the crack before I see that he broke his jaw.
My chest moves fast and I look at the guards, who take Enrique and bring him outside. I feel my legs move, following the man who will die tonight.
I'm stopped by Everette's arm and he looks at me with dark eyes. His torso is bare and his legs are covered in black sweatpants. His jaw is tensed and his gaze is stuck on me.
"I need to be there. I need to watch him suffer." I say and he keeps looking at me. Everette grabs my neck and I hiss when his fingers touch the bite.
He puts his attention on my neck and his eyes flare when no doubt, he sees the teeth marks Enrique did. Everette releases my neck and he moves toward the exit. I run after him and realize that the guards took the Italian man in the garage.
I enter the room with a blush on my face when I see the blue BMW.
This isn't the time, Althea.
The guards nod when they see me, but my focus is on Enrique. He sits on a woody chair, his arms and legs
tied with rope. He looks angry at all of us, but the fear in his eyes makes my blood run wilder in my veins.
I waited for this moment for three years. To see him at my mercy. To see him crushed like the rat he is. I look fascinated at him. His jaw is mutilated and there's blood coming out of his mouth. The pain he's experiences is imaginable. To feel your jaw numb, but tight in pain is the worst your muscles can go through.
"Ti-i ha detto c-che sanguina ogni volta?" He asks and I freeze.
He hardly can speak and it seems he wants to die faster. My palms turn into fists, my body losing control. He thinks he'll embarrass me?
I take the gun from Harper's torso, shooting Enrique right above his pelvis. He groans and the blood intensifies.
Everette comes in front of me, his eyes wide. He takes the gun from me and asks slowly, "What did he say?"
I continue to look at how miserable Enrique looks, anger filling my being. For him, everything he says is a fact at why I am a whore.
Enrique broke my anus and didn't stop until he put me in a hospital. Sometimes, I feel the same numbness taking over my body, feeling like I want to die, while he stays in front of me, laughing at the memory.
"What did he say, Althea?" Everette raises his voice.
"He asked if you know that I bled every time he-he," I can't say it. Everyone looks at me and I feel so weak. I feel their pity, their indifference.
Everette snaps and he goes straight to Enrique. I gasp when he takes the chair in which Enrique is and smashes it to the floor. The guards position my rapist on his stomach while Everette stays in front of him.
I feel a hand of my shoulder and I flinch at the touch. I turn my head and see Allan who winks at me.
What is he doing here?
Behind him, I see Orion with a sharp, long piece of wood in his hands. I let my eyes roam his big, tall body covered in leather skin and dark tattoos.
"What are you both doing here?" I ask and their eyes are on their Boss.
"Who do you think found Enrique so quickly?" Allan asks with a big smile. My first answer is Venus, but I know she's searching for Ivan.
I nod slightly at Orion and he nods back, going to assist his Boss.
"You're not going in there?" I ask and wave at whatever will happen to Enrique.
"Nah, I rather stay here with you. Plus, I just showered. Your hot water is amazing." I look at him with narrow eyes.
I put my focus again on the scene in front of me and I widen my eyes when I see the pliers from Everette's hand. He has Enrique's face in his other hand, and because his jaw is broken, he has easy access to enter his mouth with the pliers.
"You made so many mistakes, dear Enrique." Everette tsks and I see his arm muscles tense and, in a blink, he pulls a tooth from his gum. "Marking my wife is one of them." He whispers.
Enrique yells from pain and he trashes under the guards. His blond hair is sweaty and his arms are tied on his back.
"Shh, if you wake Vincent from his sleep, I'll make sure you won't have a voice anymore." I look panicked at my husband.
He's losing it. He's losing his control and he sounds
like a crazy person. His face is relaxed but his eyes flare at the person in front of him. He whispers like he says a lullaby.
I take a few steps forward but Allan stops me.
"Let him." He says to me in a serious tone. I look desperate at how Everette pulls out another tooth.
"He's turning into a madman." I say to him. Everette wasn't like this with Pablo and Teddy. He came to me angry and tired, but not like this.
"That's the beast inside him, Althea. Not what you think you saw with the other two. That's why we call him Ruthless Beast." I look back at Everette who has a wicked smile and my heart beats faster.
Don't you dare remain like this, asshole.
His darkened eyes move to Orion and he smirks again, nodding. The hunter's mouth turns into a wicked grin too, making my skin on fire.
Orion doesn't smile. And he especially doesn't grin.
With the long wood, he directs the sharp point to Enrique's lower body.
My heart stops.
Would it be weird if I stop everything and kiss the hell out of my man? Because the urge to do that is huge.
Through his pants, Orion starts digging the sharp wood into Enrique's private part.
He starts yelling and groaning as much as his jaw lets him. He's desperately shaking his head, the fear in his body making his body tense. The terror from his eyes is making me tremble.
He finally feels what I've felt too.
The torture.
The pain.
The terror.
The helpless.
I almost fall on Allan's chest at the wave of emotions I'm feeling. He tortured me for years and now?
Now I'm free.
Before breaking the pants and go further, Orion stops. Everette laughs at Enrique's face, taking his hair in his grip. He slams his broken jaw on the ground, blood flying everywhere.
"You don't get to cry, scream or beg, because you put her through worse than I ever could do you." He slams his face again, and for a second, I think he killed him, but the groan is there.
Fucker is hard to kill.
"But at least I can watch you die worse than anyone." Everette spits him.
The door opens and I see Scarface entering the garage with slow steps. He's growling and his senses are smelling the blood.
I look at Everette and I realize he looks at me too. He smiles and stands from his position. Everyone lets the panther walk by them, while he comes to smell me.
I don't pet him. He's hunting, feeling the tension in the room.
"Everette, he's not eating human meat." I say and look at Scarface who gets more impatience. Everette shakes his head and comes toward me with small steps.
"No, but he can tear him apart." He says to me and I inhale, feeling a wave of dizziness coming over me.
When Scarface sees Enrique, he steps closer and smells him. His teeth are out and his growl is terrifying. He remembers Enrique's smell.
When they started tearing me apart, I gave Scarface all their smells so he could keep Vincent safe.
And now, he does what I told him.
Tears him limb by limb.
The sounds make my skin goosebumps but I put my attention on my beast, who thinks I'll run away after what I witness.
I run to him and wrap my arms around his neck, burring myself in his embrace.
He kept his promise.
He annihilated my worst nightmare, freeing me from his shadow.
Now, the only question left is...
...will he understand?