Chapter 25

Vance

Her husband's fight dissipates in my grasp. Bella's expression hardens. She looks as though she doesn't believe what she sees in front of her. As her lips tighten into a hard line and her eyes widen with uncertainty, I can't help but wonder how this will turn out.

Will she run into my arms? Or will she run away from me?

She says nothing, but then the corners of her lips draw upward in the most intoxicating smirk.

"Kill him," she whispers.

I planned to do it anyway, but hearing those sadistic words roll from her pretty mouth fills my head with a dizzying euphoria.

The words have the opposite effect on Antonio. He goes into a blind panic, renewing his fight. He flails against me, gripping my hands and pushing off the wall in a pathetic attempt to break free. Everything about him is pathetic.

Her dark eyes flash up at me, and she climbs out of bed and comes toward me. She's a wildcat, stalking toward her prey. When she reaches the sniveling man in my grasp, she runs the back of her hand down his cheek.

"You are worth so much less than you think," she says, her lips pinching at the end. "Isn't that what you said to me? You must have been projecting because I'm clearly worth something to someone. Who has come to save you from this marriage, husband?"

He said that to her? My blood simmers to a boil. She's worth so much more than he ever deserved. More than I deserve.

She looks at me. "Turn him toward me."

I spin him around so that he faces her, then wrap my arm around his throat in a chokehold. She draws back her leg and knees him so hard in the nuts that I feel it in my own junk. Breath rushes from my lungs at the sheer force of the impact.

Her eyes meet mine again, and she gives me a quick nod. I don't need much more than that to know what she expects next.

I tighten my grip on Antonio's neck. Tighter. Tighter. I squeeze as he struggles against me, then he relaxes as the oxygen flees his brain. Though he's relaxed, I don't release him. I wait for that final push his body will make when he realizes the end is upon him.

The way a person fights when they stand at the precipice of death is something I can't explain. Then it happens. He bucks against me, clawing my hands until he breaks off a nail in my skin. His legs kick and scramble for an escape he won't find. Then they flail at nothing, slowing to weak jerks and jolts. Feeling his fight seep from his body is almost as euphoric as her homicidal words.

Antonio goes limp, and his hands drift to his sides, the fingers still curled in that desperate pose. I hold him for another minute, waiting for the violent and involuntary contractions in his chest that herald the final moments of death. When those gasping motions cease, I drop him to the floor and step over him.

I pull Isabella into me, and her lips meet mine with an intensity I don't expect—a hunger I thought I'd fabricated in my mind. No, this hunger is real, and she's shoving her tongue in my mouth like she's been thinking about it just as much as I have.

I moan into her mouth as her lips spread on mine. "Bella," I growl, fisting her dark hair in my hand. I never thought she'd be back in my grasp. Something I could touch again. Now I never want to let her go. "Will you come with me?"

"Wh-what?"

"Will you leave all this behind to run away with me?" I ask again.

My heart sinks in my chest as my fears take physical form on her face. Instead of a spirited look, an excitement at my proposition, she looks as if I just asked her to give me both her fucking kidneys. It's a look that strips the worth from the efforts I've made to reach her.

Her mouth opens and closes. "Vance..."

I grab her by the shoulders. "I didn't kill everyone standing between me and you to hear my name. I came for a yes. I came for you. All of you."

"You don't even know what you're asking! It's suicide to?—"

"Then I'm suicidal, Isabella. I don't want to leave here without you."

Her lips tighten. "I've thought of no one but you since they took me away from my house. I thought of you as I struggled through that awful wedding. You got me through all of that." She points to the bed. "But you can't just leave a family like mine. Love isn't an out. The only way out is in a fucking coffin!"

"And I will put every single member of both of these families inside one if it means I can have you by my side." I take a deep breath. " I will do whatever it takes to have you."

Her eyes narrow. "And what if I don't willingly come with you? Will you just abduct me?"

A deep laugh vibrates my throat. "No, I won't. I'm saying that if you choose to come with me, I'll do anything in my power to protect you and keep you safe. I can't lose you again."

"Protect me? It won't be me who'll need protecting. My god, Vance, are you thinking with the right head here?"

A smirk tugs at my lips. Of course I am. Her tight little pussy hasn't had the opportunity to taint the head on my shoulders, because I haven't even been inside it yet.

I draw her lips close to mine. "Neither head guides this decision, little girl. This does."

I grip her hand and place it on my chest. My heart thumps against her palm, rabid for her. And I think it just might shatter if she tells me no.

"I'll leave you here if you want to stay. I won't throw you over my shoulder and take you away. It's not my style. I won't beg for your affection, either, but I'll ask for it. I'm asking for it now." I swallow. "Will you come with me and let me protect you the way I know how?"

She throws her hands into the air. "I don't know. I just?—"

"Let me lay you on this bed and spread your thighs, little girl. Let my name be the only one you scream out."

She closes her mouth and stares at me, the wheels turning in her mind. This is my final plea. If she says no, I'll leave and never look back, taking only her memory with me. But if she says yes, I will fuck her in a way that ensures she'll never consider letting me go again.