Page 75 of Taking Adalisa

“Matthias?” My brother’s interest is piqued. “Matthias, as in the one who works for Ethan?”

I nod. “Yes, he’s my husband.”

Margery’s head turns to me, shock written all over her face. Right. I forgot to tell her we are married.

“No, there is no way you are married totheMatthias. There is no way he lives here with Ethan.” My brother shakes his head. “You are just trying to distract me so I don’t do anything to you.”

I shake my head. “I’m really not. Matthias is my husband, and if he finds out you are holding a gun against Nala and threatening me again, he isn’t going to be happy.”

I don’t know where the confidence came from to say that. Maybe it’s knowing Matthias is going to take care of everything. He has to. He promised.

“Let me take her place. You can have the knife pointed at my neck, so let Nala go,” I try to reason with him.

“Adalisa,” Margery hisses, and I hold my hand up, silencing her.

“Come on, take me instead,” I urge him. “You won’t get any satisfaction in killing her. You want me. She’ll just be a waste. Take me instead.”

My brother eyes me for several seconds, and I take a step forward. He doesn’t say anything, and I take that as a sign to take another.

“You can have me. You can have the knife to my neck until Matthias and Ethan arrive. Or you can have it at my neck and take me away,” I tell him, giving him some options.

I take one more step, getting within reaching range. Before I can do anything, he lets go of Nala and grabs my arm, yanking me closer to him and jabbing the knife against my neck. I take a shaky breath in. This is what I wanted. I wanted Nala out of harm’s way, but I thought Matthias would be here by now. Save everything before the knife was touching my neck.

“Let her go, and Matthias won’t do anything,” Margery suggests. “We can say it was all a misunderstanding, that you thought it was someone else. We can come up with an excuse he’ll believe. But you need to let her go now.”

“No!” he yells. “Shut the fuck up!”

“Who are you telling to shut the fuck up? It better not be my wife,” Matthias booms.

CHAPTER 30

ADALISA

My body relaxes as I hear his voice. Matthias is going to take care of everything. He’s going to make sure all of us come out here alive.

“Who the fuck are you?” my brother spits out. “Don’t you dare come closer or she dies.”

Balling my fists, I clench them tightly as the blade touches my neck again. The cold metal makes me shiver. Everything is going to be okay. Matthias and Ethan are going to make sure everything is okay.

Matthias’ eyes narrow on the blade, and part of me feels worried for my brother. He has no idea what he has done. He should have believed us when we told him Matthias and Ethan were coming. Now, he isn’t going to make it out alive.

“Matthias,” he replies. “And let me guess, you’re Adalisa’s brother?”

My brother's body stiffens behind me. So he has finally realized that Margery and I weren’t bluffing.

“Such a shame,” Matthias says, taking a step closer. “I was hoping to meet somewhere that I could hear your screams, but no one would come looking for you.”

The knife presses into my neck, and I lock eyes with Matthias. What is he doing? Is he trying to get me killed? One wrong move and my brother could kill me within seconds.

“Don’t take another step!” my brother yells.

I wince, but I don’t take my eyes off Matthias. If I am going to die, he’s the last person I want to have my eyes on. Did we get to spend a lot of time with each other when I wasn’t fighting him at every turn? No, but the little time we did was amazing and I wish we could have had more.

“I love you,” I whisper for the first time.

“Adalisa,” Matthias growls.

“Shut up!” my brother screams, the knife digging into my neck.

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