Page 217 of Plunge into Obsession

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BIANCA

Back inside the house,Gabriel pulled me tighter to him as my body convulsed with a powerful shiver.

I sat on Gabriel’s lap, trying to stay as close to him as physically possible.

Gabriel had called his men, and they were working on the…cleanupright now.

It included Lucinda’s body.

I closed my eyes, trying hard not to think about that, but all I saw was the image of her falling to the ground, blood dripping down her face.

Her eyes were still open.

“Mi corazón?”

I opened my eyes to find four sets of eyes on me. I turned and focused on one pair: deep, honey-brown eyes. They glinted with concern, and I tried to offer him a reassuring smile.

Judging by the dark shadow in his expression, I’d say it didn’t work.

“Perhaps we should talk about this later,” a man with dark eyes and a huge frame said.

I searched my memory for his name…Damien Vasiliev.

He was every bit as intimidating as I imagined the pakhan to the Vasiliev Bratva to be.

I shook my head. “No. I want to hear it.”

“Are you sure?” Damien asked. “It doesn’t make you weak to not want to hear the details, sweetheart.”

Gabriel tightened his arms around me when Damien called me “sweetheart,” though I didn’t think Damien meant anything by it other than comfort. He was a married man, after all.

“I need to hear,” I said, trying to sound firm.

All I managed to do was sound like a lost little girl trying to butt into an adult’s conversation.

But it didn’t matter that my voice shook as I said it. I didn’t want to be left out or protected from the details. Especially not when it came to the woman I’d spent years trying to find.

Gabriel made a slight noise in the back of his throat, and I knew they weren’t going to make me leave.

Though I could probably guess how it all went down.

“Lucinda was alive this entire time,” I said softly, looking down at my lap.

She hadn’t been suffering. She was thriving.

I could have said her actions were from her simply needing to survive, but I guessed that wasn’t the case.

She had been infatuated with Luis before her disappearance. I could only imagine that had turned into love.

She’d loved his darkness and hadn’t minded that he hurt other people for profit.

Gabriel tightened his arms around me. “I know.”

“And she tried to kill me… and our baby.”

“I know,” Gabriel repeated.

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