Page 181 of The Wicked
Elio took the guns from me, handing them to one of his men, and then he grabbed my hand. “You could have been killed just now.”
“Better that than being in the same space with you at this point.”
His jaw clenched as he pulled me back down the stairs with him.
“Let go of me.” I tried to wrench my hand out of his hold, but he held firm as he pulled me past a back room, out of the building, and towards the parking lot where he had left the car earlier.
He opened the door and finally let go of me. “Get in.”
“And what about the others?”
“We have the building secured, get in.”
“No.”
“Get the fuck in the car, Zahra, or I’ll force you into it.”
I ground my teeth, glaring at his unwavering stare. I knew he would do it, so I got into the car and bottled my pride, clenching my jaw hard.
He slammed the door beside me and rounded the car. My eyes followed his movements as he entered; he looked at me while he started the engine and then looked away when he drove out of the parking lot to the private road twenty minutes away from the main road, I’m guessing to avoid any of our lingering attackers.
I let out a sharp breath and shook my head, looking out the window, the anger in my stomach spiking at intervals. The frown I had worn before entering the car didn’t let up. I needed to let it out, yell, bash his head against the steering wheel. “I shouldn’t have told you anything about myself. If I’d known you’d treat me like this afterward…”
“Don’t play the victim.”
I snapped my head to him. “Iamthe victim! I’m the one getting accused of attempting to kill your underboss. If anything, he was the one who threatened to kill me before dropping me off yesterday.”
“Casmiro would never threaten you unless he had a good reason to. You knew he was on to you, so you ordered the hit.”
“What the fuck? You’re delusional, Elio—for someone who’s running a whole fucking criminal family, you are so fucking shortsighted.”
“Am I?”
“Yes. Now I see why your father sent you to the army; you needed to get your fucking crazy head in check.”
He glanced at me, a fire in his eyes like none I’d ever seen before. He looked away, swiveled the car to the side of the road, stopped the engine, and turned to me. “What the fuck did you just say to me?”
I shoved my middle finger in front of his face and quickly exited the car, slamming the door harder than he had slammed it before, then I walked down the road.
I would get a fucking bus ticket and head back to Milan if I had to.
I heard the car door opening and closing, but I didn’t turn back, even as footsteps came behind me.
He caught up quickly, a strong hand encircling my arm, pulling me back and swinging me around to face him. “Where do you think you’re going?”
“If you don’t let me go, I swear to God, I will hit you.”
He didn’t respond to my threat but dragged me back, and I tried to free my hand. “I’m warning you, Elio.”
When he got us back in front of the car, he let me go. “You don’t—”
I swung a blow at him, but he quickly shifted his head, catching my wrist and pushing me away like a bug in his face.
The action only made me more furious, and I charged for him, hoping to land a kick to his stomach, a blow, or a slap, but fucking hell, he wasn’t playing either; he avoided every one of my attacks with hard pushes that only fueled my anger.
On my last attempt to get my fist to the side of his face, he grabbed my wrist and pushed me forcefully, slamming my back into the side of the car. A sharp pain exploded at my side, but my adrenaline dulled it.
I moved to push back but he’d already pinned me with his body, one knee between my legs, the other successfully caging me.
