Until Forever Ends: A Dark Mafia Romance by Adelaide Forrest (free children's ebooks online TXT) 📕

Releasing me suddenly, he ducked low and pressed his shoulder to my stomach. Lifting me over his shoulder so my head dangled and blood rushed to my brain as he carried me back to the house. I didn't struggle, knowing it would be entirely futile. I had to hope the nightmare I'd seen at the fire had been a glimpse of El Diablo, of a man who wouldn't really brand me for leaving him. Regina stared on in horror as he strode past her and made for our bedroom, hurrying toward the doors as I watched her leave. The house was silent in her absence after she made herself scarce in the face of Rafael's anger.

He smacked my ass sharply as he walked. "Never question me in front of my men again," he growled, a tight warning in the words.

"Then you'd better hope you never fuck up in front of your men. I won't just sit quietly and look pretty while you torture people," I argued, wincing when another sharp swat burned my skin. The glove he wore dropped to the floor as he turned the corner to the bedroom, turning the knob and stepping inside the private space that must have been his oasis from prying eyes.

It was nothing even close to the sort for me.

He flipped me over his shoulder, dropping me to my feet as I fought to find my balance and my blood fled my head finally. "It isn't torture when they're willing, Princesa," he said. "I will give you leeway where I can in finding your place in my life, but I will not tolerate what happened tonight. Those men are my concern. They are mine to keep obedient so that I can keep you safe. If the consequences for betrayal are too lenient, that is when men come to my home and think they can get away with spying on me. That's when your life is in danger."

"You expect me to believe you give a shit if something happens to me? You said you would brand me!"

His face twisted, a moment of regret slipping into the fierce expression. "And I will when your time comes. Even the devil is a product of other people’s expectations, Princesa. I have to do to you what I would do to others."

“When?” I asked as tears stung my eyes. “When will you—”

He studied my face, watching my reaction with a gentle expression. “Tomorrow night.”

My jaw dropped as my breath caught, my eyes immediately drawn to the brands on his chest. To the marks that scarred his skin and the knowledge that he could do that to me settled over me. "No," I mumbled, shaking my head furiously as he wrapped his arms around me and clutched me to his chest. "You can't!" I screamed, shoving against his body as his face touched the top of my head.

He surrounded me. Overwhelming me with his presence as if he should be a comfort.

But he couldn't protect me, not when he was the one who would hurt me.

"You can't," I repeated, the words coming on a whisper.

He held me still, wrapping my hair around his fist and tilting my face up to meet his intense eyes. He searched my gaze, sighing into the void between us. "There are pains worse than the physical. Give me a different scar. Show me the ones on your soul," he murmured.

"What are you talking about?" I sputtered, reaching up to wipe away one of the tears that stained my cheeks.

He raised his hand to the space over my heart, the beating of it muffled against his palm. "Why does Odina hate you so much, Princesa?" he asked, watching as I drew in a ragged breath. Disbelief consumed me that he would ask such a thing of me in that moment.

I sniffled back my fear, pressing my lips together as I glared up at him. To use my terror against me, to pry to get inside my head in such a way was diabolical.

Given everything Hugo knew about my life, there wasn't much I had left that was safe from Rafael's invasion of my life. There was nothing left that was just mine.

But this one thing, the shame I felt for my actions as a child?

That was mine.

And I'd be fucking damned if I gave that up for anything. Even if I should have told him, because he'd never want to be with someone so fucking stupid.

I glared up at his hopeful face, at the confidence he felt that I would do what it took to avoid the branding, and I took joy in denying him something that he wanted. Something he couldn’t know without me giving it to him. He might be able to take everything else.

I’d be damned if I gave him the last piece of me.

"No."

15

Rafael

Her mouth formed the word. Her eyes glared up at me. But my brain struggled to wrap around the strength in her voice.

She defied me so beautifully, even knowing it would end in nothing but pain for her. I'd known men to promise me the lives of their children to avoid a brand if they hadn't been raised on the island and in the culture that dominated our community. For a moment I wondered if she thought I wouldn't do it.

If she suspected that my obsession with her would be enough to save her from the pyre. But the steel to her green eyes and the posture of her spine as she squared her shoulders left little doubt. She knew I would do it.

She believed me when I said I'd hurt her. She just didn't care.

Her secrets were more important to her than protecting her flesh.

It confirmed something I'd always known about Isa. She felt safe inside her mind. Whatever had happened in that river, she knew her body was just flesh. That the core of who she was lurked deeper within,