Page 78 of Midnight Revelations

The fabric of my top ripped to expose my bra and his fingers roamed. Papa’s chair rattled as he struggled to free himself. The man pulled the gag from my mouth. “Maybe I should start with your mouth since you won’t possess a head for much longer. When I fuck your ass, I want your precious papa to hear you scream.”

I lunged forward and headbutted him in the face. He cursed, blood spurting from his nose.

“You fucking bitch!”

He backhanded me and sent me flying across the room to land on the floor. My head smashed into the hard ground and pain erupted in a blaze down my neck.

“You really better have a good reason to be here and touching what belongs to me.” Ash’s voice sounded calm, but the fury in his blue eyes said he was possessed by the devil himself. He paced forward dressed only in his sweatpants like an avenging demon summoned from the depths of Hell.

“What are you doing here?” the man replied, his gaze flashing to me for a moment.

Ash’s lips tipped up in a lazy smile. “I asked first, Marlow. So I expect an answer.”

“I answer only to your father.”

Ash shrugged. “And that’s your first mistake. The second was thinking you could touch Lucrezia and live to steal oxygen.”

For such a large man, he moved with speed and precision. Since we were restrained, he’d left the gun on the shelf. Ash crashed into Marlow, his fist connecting to his face before he kicked and his foot sent him stumbling back. He quickly cut the tie on Papa’s right hand and handed him the knife before launching himself back into the fight.

Papa sawed at the rope on his other arm while Ash grappled with the madman who liked to decapitate people. He kicked Ash away and cut him with a blade he had strapped to his leg. Ash used the heel of his hand to break Marlow’s nose with a horrifying crack. The trickle of blood turned into a river pouring down his face. Ash took his momentary distraction to grab his wrist and twist his arm behind his back. Another crack echoed out.

“I will fucking tear you apart limb by limb for touching her,” Ash grated out. He kicked behind his knees to bring him to the floor.

Another crack and this time Marlow groaned. Both his arms flailed uselessly at his sides. “Matteus will skin you alive for this. Being his son will not protect you.”

“Being his son never protected me. Being my mother’s son put me in Dad’s firing line.”

Ash threw him to the ground and paced back toward the staircase, returning with a meat cleaver. Papa reached me, using the knife to cut through the bindings on my hands and feet. The creature of darkness who stalked toward Marlow was not the same man who held me as if I would break. He was who he needed to be to protect us. I hated myself that he had to be burdened with this responsibility.

“Dad will think you double-crossed him,” Ash said in a low, cold tone. “I’ll make sure that he thinks the worst of you until he finds your head when he least expects it.”

Marlow cowered back, shaking the aforementioned appendage. “Matteus and I are closer than family. Our bond has travelled a lifetime together. He would never believe you.”

A smile that made my stomach cramp danced on Ash’s lips. “He would because since you threatened Aaron, I’ve been filtering money from Dad’s account into yours. He’ll think you were stealing from him.”

“Never!” Marlow gasped.

“What was it you taught me?” Ash mused. “An eye for an eye…”

The meat cleaver came down on Marlow’s legs and he howled.

“That is for the wound on Aaron’s leg that may mean he loses it.”

I winced with the blade came down again. This time to his groin.

“That is for even thinking of raping my fiancée.”

Papa’s arms tightened around me. He tried to force my head into his chest so I wouldn’t see this, but Ash was my future and I needed to know every aspect of him. When it came down a third time, I refused to cower back. Marlow’s hand lay twitching on the floor.

“That was for touching her.”

The other hand followed. Blood seeped across the floor.

“Give the devil my regards,” Ash said in a dead tone. “Tell him to prepare a place for Dad because he’ll be joining you very soon.”

The blade came down, and this time, my entire stomach recoiled in horror. Margo always kept her blades razor sharp, but the fact that it decapitated a man with a single blow both horrified and fascinated me.

The clanking of the meat cleaver hitting the floor made me jump. Ash turned slowly to face me, his torso covered in blood.

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