Love Scars: Bad Boy's Bride(27)

“What have you done to him?” I asked, far more concerned about my love than my own fate.

“Strelkov won't suffer long. Torture is only a means to an end, and it's a dead end with a man like him. There's nothing to do but snuff him out and send his flesh beneath the waves where he can join the rest of his vile blood.”

I shook my head. Insane as it was, I hoped against hope that he was wrong, overconfident. Surely, it couldn't be that easy to capture me and kidnap David on his own turf?#p#分页标题#e#

“His blood is on my hands, Annaliza. I have to live with it. The very same as my attempt to kill you. I admit my mistakes. Go ahead.” He puffed out his chest, taking another revolting step forward, too close for comfort. “Slap me across the face.”

My palm twitched. God, the temptation was strong. I wanted to slap him silly and then do worse, cut out his tongue and gouge out his eyes, especially if he was telling me the truth about murdering David.

But he wanted me to hurt him, and doing anything Dad wanted me to ever again made my stomach churn.

My father relaxed when he saw I wasn't moving. He stepped closer still, pushing one hand against my cheek, scratching at the dry salty lines left by faded tears.

“What will it take to make things right again? I want us to be normal again. You understand why I had to do it, don't you?”

“Yeah!” I spat, jerking away from him. “You and your stupid pride, your honor. Everything you love about this evil fucking business. Spilling more blood means nothing to you. Neither does ripping my heart out!”

His eyes blazed at me, no doubt pissed that I'd dropped an F-bomb on him. My father was a ruthless man, but so squeamish about his perfect daughter using rough words. I wished those words could've hurt a fraction of what he was doing to me.

His face twisted, anger contorting his features. “Damn! How have I raised a girl who understands nothing? You're not a dense girl. You just like to play stupid.”

I watched his fist tighten. Shit, if he hit me, I wouldn't be able to resist diving at him and doing as much damage as I could, anything I could for David.

“Blood is everything to me, my daughter,” he said, a little more softly. His voice was almost sad as he turned away from me, gazing at the calm waves out the small window. “Do I really have to spell it out? I gave up your own mother for this family, for our future...”

Blood throttled my brain. What the hell was he talking about? Mama died in a skiing accident in the Alps, or so he'd said since I was six. That was when he returned alone, and I never saw the bright, beautiful woman who held me and sang to me ever again.

When Dad turned to me, eyes full of pain, my heart nearly stopped. I'd never seen him look so awful...so hurt. I stumbled backward, lips cracked, muttering as my world broke apart.

“No...no...you can't mean...”

He nodded. “Yes, my daughter. Your mama was seized by a demon from Strelkov's European branch when we were celebrating our anniversary. The things they did to her...”

His eyes flashed, red and dark and evil. He sucked in a sharp, shaky breath. For a second, I wanted to reach out and comfort him, and then instantly recoiled at the thought. I'd hear him out, but I had to remember the old fraught, but loving relationship between us was dead. It had to be!

“My men found her two days later. She'd been beaten, raped, and shot in the back of the head. Execution style. A note was tucked beneath her broken skull, written in crabbed Russian and broken English underneath it.” Dad cleared his throat, swallowing the rock in his throat. “Ignatiev Strelkov told me to back off and never set foot in Europe again. He tried to scare me off our ancestral holdings in Florence, the place where your ancestors bled and died. He twisted my balls by killing my fucking wife!”

I gasped. Dad never used coarse language. The memory had broken him, wiping the calm, cool, wolfish veneer he'd always shown me before. He was shaking while he stepped to the small bed and sat, burying his face in his hands.

“I'm so sorry, Annaliza. Perhaps I should've let the man you're so taken with slit my throat when he had the chance. It would've been better than involving you in all this, trying to put a bullet in your head before he did the same thing he did to my precious Cora.” Dad's face was red and crystal tears were thick in his eyes when he looked up. “Did that bastard touch you?”#p#分页标题#e#

I wanted to be sick. My heart was torn, blown apart, its bloody pieces scattered to two worlds.

All I could do was shake my head, a lie and a nightmare in one. Except I wasn't sure anymore who the hell I was trying to hide from. Was it Dad, or was it me?