Dirty Revenge (Dirty 3)

He tries to comfort me but can’t because he’s still tied up, but I can’t leave him for a second right now to grab the key from the bathroom.

So I lay my head on the uninjured side of his chest. I need to get Michi to help me get him to a hospital soon, but right now I can’t move him.

“I’m so sorry,” I whisper as tears stream from my eyes to his chest.

“You have nothing to be sorry for; you saved me.”

“No, I didn’t. I almost killed you.”

“No, you killed Dante. You killed the pain in me for what I let happen to you. You let go of your own trauma. And now, we can survive so much stronger. We helped each other heal.”

I nod, not believing he is comforting me right now after I just killed him.

“I almost let you die; you almost killed me. I saved you; you saved me. I think we are even now. We can move forward and decide our future without anything holding us back.”

I know his words are true. And I wish he was right. That we are even now. But we aren’t even close to even. He might have been selfish, but everything he did was for Clara Conti, a woman who deserved his love. I may love Caspian Conti, but I don’t deserve to be loved in return. I don’t know if he heard any of my words when he was out. I hope he didn’t because I don’t want him to love me in return.

He may have hurt me, but I’m the real monster.

17

Caspian

Gia almost killed me. Sometimes I wish she had. Then the pain would finally be gone.

She has taken care of me these last few weeks. Life has been normal. My wounds have healed, and we don’t talk about that night at all. We don’t talk about Dante or the pain we caused each other.

All we do is heal, together. It’s taken time, but we are finally healed. At least as healed as we can be.

But we can’t continue like this.

“We need to talk,” I say to Gia. She’s sitting next to me on her patio chair reading. The last time we talked out here, it ended in her stabbing me. This time, I hope it ends better. But I’m still dreading the conversation I’m about to have because it’s the beginning of the end.

She looks up from her book, her eyes big. “Maybe we should go somewhere else to talk first. The last time we talked out here, it didn’t end well.”

She kisses me softly on the cheek. “What’s up?” she says more calmly.

“I have a plan to kill Dante.”

She folds her book and puts it on the end table before turning her feet to the side to give me her full attention.

“When?”

“Next week.”

She nods then smiles. “Good, I can’t wait to have him out of our lives for good.”

“I need your help though.”

Her smile brightens. “Anything.”

“I want to fake your death. That will make him suffer the most. You may not realize he loves you, but he does.”

“He does not love me.”

“Not in the typical sense. He loves owning you. He loves hurting you. He would hate if anyone else were the one to break you.”

She thinks for a moment. “Okay, I’ll do it.”