Page 155 of Condemned By Pain
“Killing innocents. I know what you did in Naples. I need you to never do that again.”
“Innocents.” He scoffs, snatching his hand away from mine. “Where were those innocents when my grandfather was selling my mother to that monster don? Do you know how many innocents were there? Every person from their neighborhood. At least fifty of them.”
My heart clenches, beating loudly under the weight of his rage.
“What were those innocent maids doing when seven men were raping my mother and me?” He pauses, letting the horror of his words sink into me. “They were watching.”
His face twists further into anger and pain.
“My mother was innocent. And what happened to her? She was beaten by her husband every night. After his death, she was treated worse than an animal. That’s what happens to innocents in this world, Princess.” He heaves. I reach for him, he pushes my hand away.
“You are fucking innocent. And you know why you get to stay that way? Because there’s a man in this world who would reduce it to ashes if anyone so much as laid a hand on his daughter. If you can’t protect an innocent, it’s better for that innocent to die.”
“But killing them won’t bring her justice. She wouldn’t want this.” The words come out as a desperate attempt to reach through the rage.
“I don’t give a fuck about justice. Justice wasn’t listening when my mother begged. So now I don’t listen to it either. It goes both ways. You create a monster and expect it to never bite? You’re fucking delusional.”
He laughs, a voided, bitter sound. “I was also an innocent, Princess. I never wanted to become a killer. I wanted a peaceful life. I wanted to give my mother a happy life. They fucking killed those dreams. They fucking murdered the boy.”
He goes still, like an ocean swallowing its own storms in a single breath.
“I burned Naples five times. And if I live, I’ll burn it a hundred times more.”
My lips tremble, but I force the words out. “Fine. If you want to do that, then know this, the next time you burn that city, you’ll be burning me inside it.”
His brows pinch together. The maddening rage in his eyes intensifies.
“What the fuck are you saying?”
“I can’t live with myself knowing the man I love is out there killing innocents. The guilt will eat me alive.”
I stand from the couch. Tears prick my eyes.
“I won’t force you to change your mind. I don’t know how much importance I have in your life, whether I’m important enough for you to stop—”
He pulls me down onto his lap before I can finish, holding me tight enough to suffocate, and silences me with an feral kiss. One hand fists in my hair, pressing me to him; the other bands across my back, crushing me against his chest.
I push against him. He doesn’t let go. Just keeps kissing me like a madman. I surrender to his force and let him hold me, let him kiss me with whatever intensity he needs.
“Are you out of your fucking mind, woman?” He grits out, breathing hard through flared nostrils.
I gasp, lungs burning, struggling to pull air past the iron grip of his arms.
“How many times do I have to tell you that you are my fucking world for you to understand your importance?” His words are harsh, his arms coiled so tightly around me that one more squeeze and he’ll break my bones.
“You’re hurting me, Salvario.”
He loosens his grip slightly.
“You’re hurting me too, Elowen.”
“By asking you to stop the butchery?”
His face clenches further. “By saying you’re ready to end your life for some useless people. You’re ready to die for someone else, knowing full well it would destroy me. Andthen you say, so ignorantly, that you don’t know how important you are.”
I move my hand from his shoulder to his face, cupping his cheek.
“You can stop doing this, can’t you? Is it the boy making you do it?”
