Page 95 of Savage Enemy

“I hear Northwestern has an order to call the cops the second you arrive. Something about drug-seeking behavior.”

“Fuck you,” Aris snapped.

“Not on your fucking life.”

Then Marco slammed the door in his face.

After a minute of silence, after Aris’s pounding footsteps disappeared, Marco tilted back his head, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath. Then he turned and looked at me.

“God, I hate him. I know I should love him because he’s my brother, but I don’t.”

“How do you think I feel? He shared a womb with me.”

“Christ, girl, you’re a fucking mess.”

I flipped him the middle finger, and his easy smile appeared. The smile few people ever got to see.

He extended his hand to help me up.

“Let’s get you cleaned up before your… auction… examination… I don’t fucking know what to call this bullshit.”

“Let’s just call it what it is. It’s deeply misogynistic.”

My ribs screamed in protest, and my stomach turned and burned. My head swam, the ringing in my ears sharper, the pain throbbing harder than before.

But I was still alive and even conscious.

Yay me.

Marco guided me to the bed, disappeared into the en suite bathroom, returned with a washcloth, and began dabbing at my bloody mouth.

“Why do you go along with it all?” I blurted.

He stopped and stared at me but didn’t say anything.

Why the fuck didn’t my big brother do something about all the cruelty against women, the “bullshit,” as he’d called it?

“So,” he finally said. “Father didn’t take your man’s offer.”

I sucked in air through my teeth and continued to focus on my brother’s eyes. They always told me the real story.

“Didn’t he offer enough?”

Marco nodded. “In fact, I think he offered too much, and if I’m being honest here, sorellina, that was my fault.”

“How? What did you do, Marco?”

God, my head hurt. The pain made it hard to reach the thoughts and words hiding in the pulsing corners of my mind.

“I misread the situation. I told him he needed to offer something impressive, not just money. Vignali did that, but I never expected it to make Father believe it made you worth even more to the Russians than he originally thought.”

“What does that mean?”

“The Russians said they were interested again after seeing you, so Father raised the price. He told them you’re worth more now than when you were innocent.”

“What?”

It didn’t make sense.

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