Page 41 of Bittersweet Endings
I could have crossed the dance floor in seconds. Could have wrapped my hands around her neck, pulled her close, and she would have remembered. There was no other way she couldn’t. She’d have to remember. Otherwise, I’d have to remind her…
But thenhearrived.
That asshole Ragetti moved into my field of vision like a shadow crawling across the wall, stepping towardsmywoman. The bastard had no right to even breathe the same air as her. When his arm slipped around Octavia’s waist, his disgusting fingers touching her, my stomach lurched.
What would she do? That animal had fucking stolen her from me. She was mine.Rick said so.I had done everything right. I’d stolen her virginity, marked her as mine.
She stiffened. I saw it. I saw a flicker of defiance in her eyes. She was angry. She didn’t want this. She still knew who she belonged to. I practically jumped into the air with excitement. My girl was ready to come home.
Until she wasn’t. Until she melted into his touch.
Melted. Into. His. Fucking. Touch.
My breath caught as the club blurred around me, burning bright red like the end of a cigarette. The lights flashed, resembling bloody streaks across the walls. Identical to the marks I’d left on her sheets. I swayed on my feet, desperately trying to calm myself when rage was all that coursed through me.
My mind rejected what I was seeing. It wasn’t real. It couldn’t be real. Octavia wouldn’t let another man touch her. Notwhen she used to scream for me. Not when she used to tremble beneath my hands.
But there she was. He’d managed to steal her from me.
I never stopped looking for her as I chased them down. I’d fought with her family to get her back. And I was going to kill him.
Why was she doing this to me?
This was a goddamn joke my brain was playing on me. Carmine’s lips were tender against her neck. His touch had to be forceful because she wouldn’t willingly sink into his touch. And then she turned. Not to Carmine. To me.
Her lips parted as if to form words, but they didn’t. Her mouth opened and began dripping. A slow trickle of blood, the same hue as her lipstick. It trailed down her chin and onto her neck. Then it started spreading. Staining her dress, her hands, and pooling around her stomach—over the marks he’d left on her skin.
I blinked and the world tilted, the music transforming into a strange buzzing noise. She was speaking. She was too far for me to hear, but the blood kept dripping as her mouth curved and rolled. Then I saw it.
Peiro.She was calling out for me.
One step. And then she was reaching for me. Her bloodied hands outstretched, until the darkness dragged her back. No, not the darkness.Him.
Carmine’s arm wrapped around her, and when she fought, his fingers turned to claws. Rising into the air as he threatened to mark her for himself. To ruin what was mine. His talons curled into her flesh. His eyes darkened into something dangerous and yet excited.
He was ravaging her. The blood blossomed, consuming her entire body. And she was letting him. Letting him touch whatdidn’t belong to him. She was letting herself fall for the man who had stolen her from me. Who had kept her from her family and done God knows what else.
Something inside me snapped. My drink slipped from my fingers and shattered at my feet. The wet pieces scattered across the floor and shimmered in the overhead lights. Things came back into focus, but only at the edges of my mind.
Carmine was still there. Holding on tomyOctavia. And she didn’t even realize that I was here. That I could save her. My hands trembled as I forced down my rage.
If she wouldn’t wake up from this nightmare, I’d have to fucking wake her up myself. And if I had to tear off Carmine’s arms to do it, I would. She needed to get away from him to clear the poison he had forced into her mind.
She was mine.
Sheismine.
And I didn’t fucking care what it took to make her see that.
Chapter Thirteen
CARMINE RAGETTI
Istepped out of the bathroom, still tasting her on my tongue. The way she had come undone under my hands, the way she had gasped my name like it was the only prayer she knew. I should’ve felt satisfied.
Instead, I felt like she had her hands wrapped around my fucking throat. Even though I’d just buried myself inside her, I wanted more. I was losing my goddamn mind. Too many things were happening outside my control. My calm was slipping.
And now, standing in the hallway, was the man who wanted to take it all away. JP. The bastard who’d been avoiding me was goddamn here. In the flesh.
