CLICK!
The gun goes off.
But the fact that no bullets exit makes everyone, including Jill, stare in complete shock.
Except for me, of course.
I smile at the thought she actually believed she could kill me … and that she wanted to. Still the same spicy girl as I remember.
I snatch the gun from her hand and grab ahold of her wrist, forcing her to crash into me. “You thought I loaded that thing with actual fucking bullets?”
“I’m disappointed in you,” my mother seethes under her breath, and she gets up and walks off into the same door my father disappeared through.
It doesn’t matter to me, and I don’t fucking care who she’s disappointed in. I already knew long ago they preferred my brother over me. He was the perfect one, and I’m the fallen son who wants nothing more than to watch the world burn.
But right now? I want nothing more than to watch Jill’s eyes burn with a fire so bright it could set this whole church aflame.
“Fuck you.”
Jill spits in my face.
I close my eyes for a brief second and wipe it away before I throw her a final devilish glance.
“Yes … wife. I will fuck you as I wish in every goddamn orifice.” Then I pick her up and throw her over my shoulder.
She screams while I march toward the exit, but I ignore it.
I have other things on my mind that involve getting her chained up and on her knees.
Her side of the family gets up to watch us leave, mournful looks adorn their eyes, but none of them dare to say a word, let alone act. They know their place.
Their family owes ours, and this is the price they’ll pay.
I don’t care about their judgmental looks.
All I care about is that I’m going to make her pay for what she did … and mark her as mine.
Chapter 3
Jill
* * *
A reception has never felt like a prison party until the day I got married.
Everyone is huddled in their own corner in the De Vos mansion, clutching their champagne glasses while eerily staring at the opposite side of the room where the other side of the family is standing. It’s a sullen, bleak party with no semblance of festivities whatsoever.
Lights are flickering all around us as the music blasts through the speakers, but no one is dancing. It’s like they’re all waiting for something … or someone to start.
I stare down at the drink in front of me and all the delicious food that’s going untouched. My stomach can’t handle a single bite. All I can think about is running away through the door in the back leading out into the forest beyond.
Maybe if I run hard, I’ll make it out.
But then I look at my family and at Jasmine, who’s standing in the corner, watching me every other second to see what I’ll do. And it reminds me of the reason I came here.
If I go, he’ll take her instead.
I can’t let that happen.
The De Vos family has a vendetta against mine, and they won’t rest until the debt is repaid, whether it’s with a ring or by blood.
I jolt up and down when a hand suddenly lands on my shoulder. “Jill. Or should I say Mrs. De Vos.” It’s Lex, Luca’s father. “Come walk with me. I’d like to show you something.”
I swallow and put down my champagne to follow him into a hallway and out of that snore-fest. But the longer I walk with him, the more the silence begins to overwhelm me. There’s a clear tension between us, especially when he stops to gaze at me.
“I wanted to show you something,” he says, opening a door. “In here.”
A staircase leads downstairs into the dark basement.
The mere thought of going down there gives me the creeps.
Why does he want me to go down there?
Is he planning to do something to me?
I look back at the party, where Luca is standing with a champagne glass in his hands.
“Don’t worry. My son knows,” he says. “I’ll go first.”
He goes down the stairs and looks back up at me until I finally decide to make the first step. I follow him down into the grimy-looking basement. It’s too dark to see anything.
Until he switches on the light.
Revealing a cage right in front of me.
There’s a giant, muscular, half-naked man hiding in the corner behind the bars.
“What … What is this?” I mutter, unable to look away because of all the scars on his body.
Lex grabs an iron poke and stuffs it through the bars, prodding the man.
Lunging up from the ground, he growls like a beast, fisting the bars while shaking the cage. I jump back at the size of him so close to me, wild eyes penetrating my soul as my heart races.
“That,” Lex says as he fishes something from a mini fridge, “is the Beast.”