“One thing I will give that pig is that he was good at protecting his family. I had people watching him and never caught a glimpse of you or even his mother until the wedding, and even so, my spies couldn’t catch a clear photo of you. You were guarded well…for the most part.” He smirks. I try not to grimace. “I eased up on purpose about a month before the wedding and he took that as a sign that he was safe. He was wrong. Marrying you here on my territory - in my country.”
“Getting married here was my idea,” I snap at him.
“Then perhaps he was weaker than I thought, letting you call the shots while knowing he’d been on dangerous ground with me.” His lips press agitated.
“But then you saw me and realized I am Gianna Nicotera. Of course he would listen to me.”
“A fucking Nicotera,” he scoffs, shaking his head. “What were the fucking odds? If I’d known, I would have gone about it a little more carefully. But seeing as I didn’t give a fuck about him or his unknown bride, and I had an important deal to handle, you could rot until I returned. I saw no need to rush as long as he was gone. Trust me, I wanted to kill that fucker myself, but I had business to take care of. My money is more important than that piece of shit.”
I narrow my eyes. “You weren’t expecting him to marry someone like me?”
“I wasn’t expecting anyone that worked with Lion to get anywhere near his damn daughter. He was strict about that, but Toni clearly broke that commandment. Fucking pig. That was his problem. He didn’t know how to fucking listen.”
My eyebrows dip as I look up at him. “He was still my husband.”
“For less than a fucking hour. And does it look like I give a shit?”
“You should,” I retort. “I loved him.”
“What did I tell you about love?” He clasps my chin in his hand. “Love is fucking useless, Gianna. Get rid of the fucking idea. It won’t get you anywhere while you’re around here.”
I narrow my gaze. “Why do you hate him so much?”
My question obviously triggers something within him. He rapidly pulls away from me, looking me over. He then extends his arm to hand me the flower.
I frown down at it, but I take it, hoping it will get an answer out of him.
It doesn’t. And his silence really ticks me off.
His cellphone rings and he finally pulls his eyes away from me, fishing it out of his pocket. He answers right away, lifting a finger in the air at me before walking off and speaking in his native language.
I sigh and lower myself to my knees. I twirl the flower by the stem, getting a whiff of it. They all smell so lovely.
Such beautiful flowers. I don’t get how all this beauty can survive around people so rotten.
I lay the loose flower down and then bend down to pluck another one out.
I pluck out three more, laying them on top of each other, but when I come across the fourth one, my finger hits something hard.
I jerk away rapidly, waiting to see some kind of creature or animal pop out.
But nothing happens. No movement. Nothing.
I glance at Draco. His back is facing me. His tone is calm.
I lean forward again and dip my fingers beneath the petals of the flowers. When I feel the hard surface again, I run my fingers over it. Maybe it’s a weapon… a gun, hopefully?
Nope.
As my fingers continue to glide, I realize it’s roundish and smooth. My hand clasps around the object and I yank it up.
When I see what it is, something between a gasp and a screech shoots in the air. Shocked, I jump up to my feet, releasing the object and backing away. It lands on the ground with a thunk, but my feet don’t stop moving backwards.
I stumble into the fence and Draco hears the commotion, turning his head to peer over his shoulder. His eyes are hard.
Mine shift back over to the skull that’s lying on the ground. Its eye sockets are dark and hollow, the teeth formed in an eerie sneer that I will never be able to get out of my head.
My heart thuds against my rib cage and I step to the left.
The skull is sideways, facing me, but I notice an imprint on the back.
Letters.
I drop to my knees with shaky hands and roll the skull onto its face.
The letters are TTR.
A shadow hovers above me and then the skull is snatched up. Draco holds it by the empty sockets like a bowling ball, studying every aspect of it.
“I see you found one of my most prized possessions.”
I swallow the bile in my throat. “Prize,” I whisper. I wobble to my feet. “Whose skull is that?”