This was me embracing the mess, embracing that I was capable and entitled to causing destruction. I wanted it here and I wanted the man who could do that with me. Dante accepted me for who I was and I accepted him too.
Dante nodded, his jaw working up and down as he got up from kneeling before Izzy and me. When his hand left my face, I immediately missed his touch on my chin. “Tell me, Lilah. What happened? And then I want you to watch what happens to them. It’ll be a lesson for you to never risk the life of my lamb again. These are the consequences of your actions as much as theirs. And these men, for the time they are still breathing on this earth, need to know what happens when you mess with an Armanelli’s Untouchable.”
Iago’s eyes widened. He shook his head fiercely. I squinted at what he meant, whether he was talking about Izzy or me or maybe himself.
The other guy tried to argue through the duct tape, and he kept saying in a muffled tone, “You? You’re an Armanelli? Well, we didn’t know she was yours. We didn’t know. We didn’t know.” He started to cry then and looked to me for help.
“You know, it would be one thing to take a shot at the person undercover working against you. It’s another to take an innocent bystander and cause her pain. Did they know you were innocent, Delilah?” Dante asked, but we’d lost him. His voice was monotone as he twirled the knife in his hand.
I bit my lip, my brows furrowing. I nodded yes.
The sound that came from him was animalistic as he stopped the knife from spinning and drove it down into the man’s hand.
Flesh being stabbed sounds a lot like meat being thwacked with a mallet. It has that wet, squishy sound, like you're ridding it of blood.
Iago’s scream must have been heard throughout the cruise ship. Both Izzy and I jumped, but I didn't shut my eyes. They were on him.
Glued to him.
Mesmerized by him.
Before I knew what I was doing, I’d grabbed the phone from my back pocket and found the soundtrack Dante had played for me during my massage. Dante stopped for a split second to whip his head around and stare at my phone. His brow furrowed, and a small smile teased his lips. “Little Lamb,” he murmured, and I thought I caught what I felt for him in those green eyes of his.
Love.
Hope.
Comfort.
Then he turned and stabbed the second guy.
The music mingled with the screams and whimpers.
“Damn, this is going to be bloody,” Izzy murmured.
I shrugged. “You need to report Iago’s assault on you, Izzy.”
I felt her body tense, and I didn’t ask for more information. She’d share when she was ready.
All she said now was, “There will be nothing to report on a man who's gone, Lilah.”
I chewed my cheek, not sure what to make of it all. For some reason, my body didn’t reject what was happening in front of me. I knew the man I loved planned more torture. I knew as he sucked in air nice and slow like it was feeding his soul that he was going to truly enjoy what he was about to do.
I knew it all.
And it made me love him more.
He hummed as he bent down to glare at both the men at their eye level, just inches from their faces. “Did you think the Armanellis would let you get away with drug smuggling in our territory when we cleaned this up years ago?”
He ripped off the duct tape from Iago’s mouth. The man had long since stopped talking; his groaning was all that could be heard, just louder now without the barrier of the tape.
“Now,” Dante snarled, and I found my body reacting in a way it shouldn’t have to all this.
My mind swirled at seeing my wolf take his territory back; all of my insides tingled with a newfound kink completely unlocked.
“I should ask Lilah and Izzy what part of you they want as a gift, but I can’t bring myself to let any part of you remain. So instead, Cade, call the police. I need acid for Iago.”
“Wait!” he cried. “I know where the drugs are. Only half are on this boat. Please!”
Cade stopped him. “Police already found both locations. We got it all.”
Dante chuckled.
It sounded so far away, though.
The tingling didn’t seem very pleasurable anymore, either. It was like I was losing the feeling of myself, like my mind was running away and I couldn’t catch it.
“I don’t feel right,” I murmured to Izzy.
I heard her mumble shit and something about the back of my head bleeding, but I lost that running mind.
It got away.
And everything went black.
I’d handled brain traumas in my nursing career. I knew what they were, knew they could affect speech and cause paralysis, comas, death.