I Survived His Enemies But Not His Love For Another Woman Chapter 03
“That slap, Dominic.” I wipe the blood from my lip and stare straight into his eyes. “I owe you for that one.”
“You and me? From this second forward?”
“Only one of us gets out of this breathing.”
The words barely leave my mouth before he snaps. He grabs my wrist and hauls me around the corner, shoves me into an empty hallway where nobody can see.
He pins me against the wall and crushes his mouth onto mine.
It’s not a kiss. It’s violence. He bites into my lip like he’s trying to tear something out of me.
“Sera, how many times do I have to say it. You’re the only one I love. Mia’s a kid. She got jealous and did something dumb. The video was stupid, yeah, but that’s all it was. Why do you have to turn everything into a goddamn war?”
There it is.
My body on a screen. The worst night of my life played on repeat for a room full of killers.
And he calls it “something dumb.”
My heart is already dead. But somehow it still hurts.
I shove him off me hard enough to send him back two steps. I wipe my mouth with the back of my hand like his kiss is something I need to scrub off.
“She played my rape tape in front of every boss in this city, and you’re standing here telling me I’m overreacting?”
“You forget whose war put me in that chair, Dominic? I was eighteen. Your enemies grabbed me to hurt YOU. They did that to me because of YOU.”
I close the gap between us. Press my finger into the center of his chest so hard he has to brace.
“You want your heir? Go ahead. Knock her up. But you never should have let that bitch anywhere near my wounds. And you damn sure shouldn’t have helped her dig in deeper.”
I turn and walk.
I don’t look back. I don’t care if his head drops or his fists shake or his eyes go soft.
His voice hits my back anyway.
“Sera. Don’t touch her. I mean it. Or there’s no coming back.”
I laugh. It sounds like something dying.
I grab Tessa and cut straight through the room. Every set of eyes in that place is on me. I feel them all like cigarette burns.
The handprint on my face is throbbing. It’s nothing compared to what’s going on inside my chest.
We barely make it two blocks before the car gets boxed in.
Three black SUVs. Blocking the street. Nowhere to go.
Mia’s standing out front with a crew of soldiers behind her.
“Boss.” Tessa’s voice is wound tight. “Most of our people are still back at the sit-down. What do we do?”
I look through the window at that smug little face and feel something cold settle into my bones. Dead calm.
“It’s fine.” I push the door open. “Stay in the car.”
“If this goes sideways, you know what to do.”
“Yeah.”
My feet hit the pavement and Mia’s already strutting over. Grinning ear to ear like she just won the fucking lottery.
“Oh look at this. The big bad Sera Valentino, all alone. You were so scary back there at the table. What happened to ripping my mouth off? Come on then. I’m right here.”
I look at her. Dead flat. Not a flicker.
“You came here to do something, then do it. I’m tired of hearing you talk.”
Her grin goes crooked. Wrong. Unhinged.
“Oh honey. You really think I’d do my own dirty work?”
Before I can blink she pulls a knife from behind her and slashes it across her own cheek.
Deep. Fast. Didn’t even flinch.
Skin peels apart. Blood rushes down her jaw, soaking into the white of her collar.
I’m frozen. I didn’t see that coming. Not in a million years.
And in the split second I’m standing there processing, she throws the bloody knife at my feet and starts screaming. Loud. Hysterical. Pouring on every ounce of performance she’s got.
“DOM! DOM HELP ME! I came to check on Sera! I was being nice! She grabbed a knife and slashed my face open! PLEASE HELP ME!”
Footsteps. Fast. Heavy. Coming from every direction.
Dominic rounds the corner with a full squad at his back. His eyes find Mia first. On the ground. Bleeding. Then me. Then the knife at my feet.
His face shuts down completely. Goes cold as a morgue slab. He looks at me like I’m vermin.
“Sera. I told you three times. Don’t. Touch. Her.” Barely a whisper. The kind of quiet that comes right before someone dies. “You gonna handle this yourself? Or do I gotta do it for you?”
Everything in me goes cold.
“Dominic. I didn’t touch her. She sliced her own face open and dropped the knife at my feet. I’m not confessing to shit I didn’t do.”
“SHUT UP!” His voice cracks through the air like a gunshot. Nothing in his eyes but raw contempt. “When the hell did you become this? This cruel? This pathetic? You can’t even own your shit anymore?”