Total pages in book: 118
Estimated words: 109674 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 548(@200wpm)___ 439(@250wpm)___ 366(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 109674 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 548(@200wpm)___ 439(@250wpm)___ 366(@300wpm)
My heart clenched thinking about him like it did every time he crossed my mind, which happened daily, but I still knew it was the right decision. My panic attacks had stopped despite our life on the run.
I dreamed about him every night. Sometimes those dreams were visions of a happy future we would never get, and sometimes they were nightmares filled with Nestore’s rage and images from the past.
Sometimes I dreamed of finishing school, of opening my own floral store, of a bright future without fear of being caught. On occasion, I had searched the net and the darknet for information about Nestore, hoping to find something that would give me hope. But last time I had checked, six months ago, Nestore had fought in a cage in Las Vegas and brutally killed his opponent. His eyes had been full of bloodlust, rage, and madness. He’d terrified me.
After that, I had stopped looking. Nestore wasn’t on a path into the light. He had gone further into the dark.
Because you left.
My belly turned with acute guilt, but I shoved it back. “Are you listening to a word I just said?” the woman seethed, eyes narrowed in reproach.
“I’m sorry. It’s been a long day,” I said with an apologetic smile.
She tossed her blond hair back. “That’s hardly my problem.”
The bell over the entrance rang as the door opened. I must have forgotten to turn the sign in the window that said we were closed. “I’m sorry—”
I felt the color drain from my face. My fingers went numb, and the bouquet fell to the floor, the binding bursting open and flowers spilling everywhere. Peruvian lilies, white hydrangea, red roses, and eucalyptus spread on the floor.
“What are you doing? You ruined my bouquet! I won’t pay you a cent. And believe me when I tell you I’m leaving a scathing review. Because of you, I won’t have a gift for my mother-in-law.”
I was barely listening. I had trouble breathing. Everything around me seemed to still as I watched a familiar, impossibly tall form fill the entranceway. Was this reality? Or a daydream?
Nestore Romano stood in the flower shop, flanked by two muscled men dressed in all black. He was even more beautiful than I remembered. I didn’t have a photo of him, but my memory hadn’t done him justice. He was far more terrifying than I remembered, too. He towered over the two men flanking his sides.
He wore a long-sleeved black linen shirt, black pants, and black combat boots. His shoulders had broadened, and his muscles now defined his body. His face had sharpened and lost any boyish trace even though he had gained weight and no longer looked emaciated. He looked like a man who carried power, a man who wielded it without hesitation or mercy.
I swallowed thickly when his furious eyes met mine. Nestore had always gazed upon me with reverence and love. Now there was only triumph and fury. He had found me.
The woman followed my gaze, her brows furrowing. “It’s my turn.”
Nestore’s rageful gaze landed on her, and his lips curled with disdain. “Leave. Before I see if your blood is the same color as the roses on the floor.”
He stepped farther into the shop, opening up the doorway for her to leave.
The woman blinked, glanced at me, then she grabbed her purse from the counter and rushed outside, leaving me alone with Nestore. His men had stepped out and closed the door.
“Eight hundred and one days, Amelia,” he murmured in a voice that made the little hairs at the nape of my neck stand on edge. He took a couple of steps closer. I was frozen, barely able to breathe, overcome with fear. Nestore looked like a man out for revenge.
“Did you read my letter? I explained everything,” I whispered.
He bared his teeth. “I read it and tore it apart. You betrayed me.”
“I needed to leave. That house and your obsession with revenge were unbearable for me. I had constant panic attacks. The dark was swallowing me whole.”
His rage burned brighter. My words were making it worse, and I wasn’t sure what to say to make him understand. He bridged the distance between us, and the full force of his wrath washed over me in a wave of almost unbridled aggression. “Another Lamorgese who betrayed me.”
I shook my head. “I didn’t—” He took a step closer, and I backed away until my back hit the wall and Nestore towered over me like a wrathful Greek god.
“Don’t insult me by lying.”
I shivered. I wasn’t lying. I never meant to betray him. I simply couldn’t watch what he had become. It pained me to see him now when I remembered who he was. He grabbed my chin between his forefinger and thumb, tilting it up so I was forced to meet his gaze. My skin tingled from the contact, as if whatever bond we’d shared was awakened by the simple touch. “Eight hundred and one days. Did you ever think of me?”