Total pages in book: 132
Estimated words: 127249 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 636(@200wpm)___ 509(@250wpm)___ 424(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 127249 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 636(@200wpm)___ 509(@250wpm)___ 424(@300wpm)
Jasper sniffs. “I’ll go help with lunch.”
When she turns to leave, I hold her back with a hand on her arm. “I saw the scars.”
She tips her head up quickly. A look of regret mixed with hurt washes over her features.
The tightening of my fingers on her wrist is involuntary. “You know about that.”
She flinches. “Let me go, Dante.”
Obliging, I loosen my fingers and release her wrist. “What happened to Tatiana?”
She sucks her bottom lip into her mouth.
“Tell me, Jasper.” I bite off every word. “I need to know so I can hunt down the motherfucker who did that to her.”
“I’m sorry. If Tiana wanted you to know, she would’ve told you.”
With that statement, she turns her back on me and walks to the door.
This isn’t a conversation I want to have in front of Tatiana, knocked out cold on a tranquilizer or not. I wait until Jasper has left the room before I go after her and corner her in the hallway.
“I admire your loyalty to Tatiana, but you will tell me.”
She purses her lips.
The sight of Tatiana’s back drifts into my mind.
Slamming a fist into the wall next to Jasper, I order through gritted teeth, “Fucking tell me.” It’s all I can do not to unravel and do something Tatiana will hate, such as torturing the truth out of Jasper.
Jasper jumps. “Jesus, Dante. Get yourself together.”
Pain flares in my knuckles, but I barely feel the discomfort. “I need to know who did that to her because I’m going to kill that fucking son of a bitch.”
“You already did,” she cries out, her eyes flashing with anger.
The moment the words have left her mouth, she clamps her lips together. Regret replaces the anger she can’t contain.
I go still. I’ve fought a few wars in my life, and I’ve killed my fair share of enemies.
Moving closer, I tower over her. “Who?”
She looks away, unable to hold my gaze. She’s said too much in the heat of the moment, and now she blames herself for slipping up.
“Shall I name the candidates?” My smile is taunting. “It’s a long list.”
She jerks her head back to me, animosity clear in the pinched lines of her face. “Her father, okay? There. Are you happy now?”
I stumble back a step. She might as well have punched me in the gut.
Clenching her hands into fists, she continues in a heated tone. “On the night you blew up his convoy, Tatiana told him she couldn’t marry Joni because she was expecting another man’s baby. She thought he’d see reason, call off the engagement, and let her marry you. Instead, her father took a whip off the wall and tried to beat the truth out of her. Milena didn’t go into the sordid details, but she told me enough. He demanded Tatiana tell him who’d made her pregnant so he could kill that man.” She watches me with contempt. “She didn’t break. She refused to tell him.” Her expression turns sad. “She protected you right to the end.”
The unsaid rings loud and clear.
Whereas I betrayed her.
That’s the real reason Tatiana didn’t want me to know about her scars. She didn’t want to tell me that she was ready to die for me, to be fucking tortured to death, while I’d used her in the most despicable way. To do so would’ve meant confessing just how deep her feelings had gone for a man who didn’t deserve her loyalty. Tatiana has always been proud. Telling me the truth would’ve hurt her pride deeply.
Losing some of her steam, Jasper hugs herself. “Milena booked her into a private clinic under a false name. She didn’t want Tatiana’s father to find her. He would’ve forced her to get rid of the baby and to honor the marriage contract he’d signed with Joni. That’s why you couldn’t locate her.”
The pieces of the puzzle click into place. “Then she found out about the explosion that killed her parents.”
“And she realized you’d played her. Like I said, we thought you were only after the money and territory.”
So she ran.
The facts rain down on me like bullets, each one cutting through flesh and splintering bone.
Tatiana endured unspeakable suffering to protect me. In turn, I added to her pain. I might as well have held that whip in my own hand. Now the pain is mine, the knowledge a torment I’ll live with for the rest of my life.
Staggering like a drunk man, I clamp my hands on my head as if it would help if I crushed my skull like a nut when the image of those scars is burned into my brain. “I always cared about her.”
Jasper’s chuckle is wry. “I’m not the one you have to convince about that.”
She turns on her heel like a person who can’t look at my face for another second and walks away, leaving me alone with my gut-wrenching guilt.