Love Scars: Bad Boy's Bride(28)

His story pierced every part of me, a waking nightmare that added a whole new fucked up dimension to this joke I called a life. For me, irony was never funny. It was always savage.

No, no, no...it can't be true. It can't!

But it was. Dad had no training in the fine arts. He never acted with raw emotion like this in front of me – never. For once, he was letting his true heart spill out, monstrous secrets shaking apart the small, distant love I tried to cling to.

God. God damn! How could I keep loyal to David's heart when his family killed Mama? How?

“Thank God. I knew he was lying when he said he'd defiled you.” Dad stood and approached me, offering a hand on my shoulder. This time, I didn't push him away.

“Things have been dark and dangerous for a long time, Annaliza. You've had enough to last a lifetime in just a few short days. I promise you this: the light's coming, daughter. With Strelkov dead, we can put this behind us. The way you've changed through all this is proof it's time to make you a proper businesswoman.” His hand tightened, and I shuddered beneath his fingers. “You know how badly I've always wanted you to flourish? You have a soft heart, my daughter, so much like your mama.”

He waited until I looked at him. It was hard to stare without my vision going blurry with tears.

“But there's a lot of me in you too. If your eyes will just open a little wider, you'll see. You'll understand. You'll be able to handle all this with a level head and a stone heart. Someday when I'm gone, Annaliza, everything our family's built will be in your hands. The business – our enterprise – is greater than both of us. It's what makes all the blood and lives we've lost worth it.”

I pushed him away. Had to make it stop. The anvil in my stomach was dragging me down, and every terrible word he spoke added another pound to its bulk.

“I can't deal with this right now,” I said, throwing one arm out to the wall for support, resting my head there.

“Of course,” my father said softly. “Take some time to rest your eyes and think about all this. No big decisions need to be made until we're home. You've been through quite an ordeal. Thankfully, as soon as we pull anchor and go home, all this nasty business will be behind us.”

He closed the door softly, leaving me alone.

Behind us? Is he fucking serious?

I wondered how I'd ever see this dark cloud behind me. I couldn't forget David, much less the whirlwind emotions he'd sparked in me. But now that my family's vicious secret was out, I couldn't forget it either.

Strelkovs and Rossinis were naturally enemies. My tragedy was just the latest chapter in a blood war that seemed destined to go until the end of time.

Hell, even now with the horrible truth out, I still loved him. But I didn't want to.

How could I love him when the universe and my own DNA screamed how wrong it was? But how could I just forget and let him die when he'd claimed me without a second thought about names?

My brain struggled for answers as I laid down, listening to the gentle clap of the ocean near my window. If I didn't find them soon, they'd find me.

If there was one thing that was clear in all this, it was that the world never waited for things to be easy. And I couldn't let it break me either, couldn't let it suck the color away forever and turn everything dead and gray. I'd rather die of passion a thousand times over before I stopped breathing with a dull, disinterested heart.#p#分页标题#e#





VI: Room for One Grave (David)


I woke up to thunder shattering the whole damned world. Metal burst open just a few inches above my head, shredded like the shit was butter hit with a hot poker.

A man screamed. His heavy weight fell on my back. I jerked up, pulling at the chains around my hands. Fuck, I was bound. No way to get his asshole off me except by pushing.

I rolled, twisting on the ground to knock his ass off. When he hit the floor next to me, I saw his dead eyes through the little slit in his black mask, a neat cherry hole above them where his brain used to be.

Where the fuck am I?

It took several seconds to feel my senses rushing back. Knocked out cold, captured, thrown in a truck for transport...Anna! They knew I'd go after her, so they'd thrown my carcass in a truck to haul me as far away from her as I could go.

The bastards wouldn't have been shooting while I was down unless there was damned good reason.

It had to be my boys. I grinned, listening to the other asshole screaming several feet away. Sitting up for a better view, I noticed his arm was all fucked up. Must've been shot in multiple places, too many places to reach for that big fucking rifle next to him and retaliate.

When he saw me awake, starting to sit up, he really struggled. I inched my way toward him, shirtless torso slapping the metal beneath me like the world's most dangerous fucking snake, chains clacking as my hands bounced above my ass.