Page 126 of Drawn Together

An eye for an eye. Now I understood.

“That’s why they want to kill me.”

He nodded silently and took two steps toward me.

I raised a hand to stop him. “Don’t come any closer.”

Sebastian seemed prepared for my rejection, but even so, I could tell my words pained him.

“So they’re the ones who kidnapped me?” I asked, although it didn’t make sense. “They could’ve easily killed me.”

I caught a glint of something in his eyes, but he quickly hid it.

“We still don’t understand the kidnapping. We’ve even considered the notion that it was someone else. But it’s obvious that you are in real danger, and that’s why your father has alliedwith Marcus Kozel. He’s the only one who can take on the Russian mafia.”

I shook my head, unable to believe what he was saying. I had thought my father might’ve defrauded people, owed them money, which was why he needed Marcus’s help. But the Russian mafia? Narco trafficking?

“What the hell are you telling me, Sebastian?”

“The truth.”

“The truth is shit!” I said tearfully. He stepped closer. “Don’t even think about touching me, fuck!” I shouted, turning to the door.

I needed to get out of there. I needed to get away. I would go to London. I could ask Tami to let me stay at her house. Her parents would take me in, yes…

He stopped me before I could unlock the door. “You wanted the truth, Marfil? This is the truth,” he said, squeezing me to his chest.

I tried to pull away. I wanted to leave. I couldn’t trust anyone. I couldn’t trust anything Sebastian or my father or anyone in my family told me… My God, my sister!

“Gabriella!” I shouted, terrified.

“Your sister is safe. She doesn’t know any of this. It’s not about her.”

“Let me go, dammit!” I shouted.

He released me, but he stood in front of the door to keep me from trying to leave.

“How can you tell me all this and stand there so calm? How have you been able to lie to my face for months?”

“I was doing my job,” he said, and that made me so furious that I shot out a hand and slapped him across the face.

He held his breath and clenched his jaw tightly. I stared at him, unable to believe what I’d just done.

“Do you want to do it again?” he asked.

I took a step back and a sob escaped my throat. “I can’t believe you lied to me like that… that you let…”

“What I feel for you is no lie.”

“But you aren’t even capable of telling me what you feel for me!”

“Because I never should’ve touched you, Marfil!”

“But you did!”

Sebastian was losing his cool, and I felt like I was suffocating.

“I never planned to fall in love with you, Marfil. Ever.”