Chapter 43

FORTY-THREE

Laura

M y palm was sweaty as I reached for a syringe, trying not to alert Massimo to my movements.

Phoenix's tortured face killed me. None of it was true, but I needed Massimo to believe me long enough to stick the damn needle into him.

Phoenix cocked his gun, taking aim, but Massimo was ready. He fired two shots, hitting Phoenix right in the torso. I screamed, trying to break free of Massimo. Phoenix's body hit the floor, his legs crumpling beneath him.

My soul all but ripped from my body, rage filling me and exploding from every fucking pore.

‘No,' I screamed, grabbing the syringe from the back of my dress and turning, aiming it right for Massimo's bollocks.

He caught my wrist, crushing the bones in it, sending horrific pain radiating up my arm. The syringe fell to the floor, useless.

Massimo lifted one perfectly polished shoe and crushed the syringe, its paralysing liquid seeping away into the concrete.

‘Oh Laura,' Massimo tutted, pulling my body flush with his. He reached around my back, finding the final syringe and tossing it to the floor. The crunch a moment later stole away the last of my hope. ‘You could have had it all, and you threw it away for what? An ugly loner?'

‘He's more man that you could ever be,' I spat at him, all pretence gone. Phoenix died thinking I had turned my back on us, and I'd go down taking as much of Massimo to the grave as I could.

Lashing out with my teeth and nails, I scratched at him like a cornered animal, taking chunks of flesh from him under my nails. Letting all the anger and torment slide out of me in an outpouring of pure rage.

‘You stupid fucking bitch,' he said, slapping me so hard across the face it left me seeing stars. ‘Just like your useless fucking family. I've never been so glad to have removed people from my world.'

Using his pistol, he whipped me across the face, an explosion of pain filling my head. I stumbled and fell backwards, landing hard on the cold concrete. One of the machines loomed over us, and I tried to shimmy back between its wheels. My body ached, feeling broken in a hundred places. Tears stung my eyes. For the pain. For the loss. For Massimo winning.

It wasn't fair.

‘Don't cry Laura, I'll make you come over my cock before I blow your brains out. You'll get to know what a real man feels like before you die. '

‘If you were the last man on earth I wouldn't fuck you,' I said, my voice quavering.

‘I'm not giving you a choice in the matter, sweetie.'

Flailing my legs, I fought him off as he neared me, but he hit me with the gun again, dazing me. I tried to pull myself up and failed. I had nothing left to give.

It had all been pointless. My whole life had been nothing but a giant waste of time. Trying to fill other people's expectations. Expectations that had driven me into the arms of the one man who'd truly loved me as I was. Not for my connections, or my clothing. Not for what he could gain by my family name. I'd come to Phoenix with nothing, and he'd made me feel like the wealthiest woman in the world.

I closed my eyes as Massimo kicked me, his sharp brogues inflicting yet more pain upon me. I let myself leave him. Leave the warehouse and find Phoenix back on the island. Back in the place I hoped to spend eternity.

‘Come with me,' I whispered, seeing Phoenix's ghost appear over Massimo's shoulder. ‘It's time to go.'

Two shots rang out above me, dull and tinny from my place in the fantasy world I'd escaped too.

‘Not yet, my love.'

Not yet.