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“War.” I snapped. “Dress sexy and try to pretend to like me.”
“Like hell.” She jumped to her feet and charged me, slamming me against the door, my head hit the back of the metal with a thud. Her hands moved to my neck, strangling me. She was strong, but not as strong as me. “I hate you!”
“Do it.” I taunted. “Kill me. I won’t even fight back.”
Her fingers deepened, until I started seeing dark spots, before she jerked away from me and collapsed to the floor at my feet. I slid down the door and stared at her.
She was prettier when she was angry, stunning actually.
I’d vowed never to kiss that mouth out of pleasure, I never thought that I’d end up kissing it to bring her pain.
“Why?” She stared down at her shaking hands. She wasn’t a killer, she would never be a killer. I breathed a sigh of relief. Good. That was good, not for my sake, but for her own sanity. Then again… I didn’t want to think about what could potentially happen if she actually did defend me or any De Lange, would her father disown her? Would he abide by the archaic rules our forefathers set up all those years ago?
I was told that loyalty came before everything, that blood was law, law was blood, and I was banking on it in order to stay alive.
“Why does anyone who wants power take it, Bella? Junior outlived his purpose, and I took back what’s mine, besides, what do you think they prefer? Him? Someone who wouldn’t even listen to their demands and was still under Abandonato Family rules? Or me? Someone who doesn’t give a shit and is willing to let them run wild and restore what was taken? Your dad, your uncle, both of them helped cleanse the Family lines, they barely left any survivors… children, Bella, children. And you think that’s so easy to forgive for some of those men? Knowing that they lost brothers, sisters, wives?”
Bella lifted her head. “Rules are rules, if you sell drugs, rape, murder without reason, look at another man’s wife and—”
I held up my hand. “I know the rules, they were basically cut into my skin the minute I was technically saved. Imagine watching everyone you love get slaughtered right in front of you, then moving in with the very monsters who did it. Not exactly the bedtime story your parents told you growing up, was it spoiled little princess? I’m sure you cried yourself to sleep afraid of the monsters lurking outside at night, not realizing they were the very fucking ones tucking you in.” I scowled, growing angrier with each word I spoke. “Like I said, get ready, look hot, show some leg, and attempt to wear makeup that doesn’t make you look like a pre-teen.”
“Embarrassed I’ll look too innocent for you?”
“Nobody wants to screw the Sunday school teacher, Bella.”
“Oh? Because they want the easy whore?”
“No, because they’ll feel too guilty going for it, so yeah, be the whore, because looking too pure is going to make everyone think you’re not on my side and I need you to look like you belong exactly there.”
“So, by dressing and acting like a whore, I belong next to you, wow, that might be the first real thing you’ve ever said since that’s all you surround yourself with. I can’t wait.”
I could.
My stomach dropped when I thought about what life would look like for us within the next twenty-four hours. Into the lion’s den, make enough noise, and you’ll get devoured. And we were about to go out screaming at the top of our lungs.
I hope you were right, I hope you were right.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
“Revenge trumps love every time, it’s an uncontrollable driving force that leads to nothing but insanity but once that road is taken, it’s rare, for the person to acknowledge how blinded they are until either they sacrifice everyone, or they become the sacrifice.” —King Campisi
Bella
I’d never felt so isolated in my entire life. Ivan refused to leave the room. Didn’t he have to use the restroom or anything? I spent an hour glaring at him, then crying, followed by looking for one of my knives, only to realize he was already casually searching the room for my weapons and picking them off one by one.
“Here.” He tossed one of my daggers onto my bed, the one my dad gave me when I started dating at sixteen, the one he said to use without asking questions first. It bounced next to my thigh. “You can use that tonight.”
“To carve off your pretty hair?”
Ivan grinned and peeled his shirt over his muscular body and tossed it onto his bed. “Aw, you like my hair?”
“It’s really your only strength since your personality matches up with the devil, so sure, your hair’s fine.”
My phone started buzzing.
He stared at it… then back up at me, his green eyes cruel. “Aren’t you going to answer Daddy?”
Throat dry, I shakily reached for my phone.
