Total pages in book: 108
Estimated words: 105679 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 528(@200wpm)___ 423(@250wpm)___ 352(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 105679 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 528(@200wpm)___ 423(@250wpm)___ 352(@300wpm)
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Serafina
The car jolted to a stop, throwing me forward against my seatbelt. Adrian was already out before I could process what was happening, his door slamming with a force that made the entire vehicle shudder.
I sat frozen for a moment, my heart hammering against my ribs.
Did I provoke him too much? No… I didn’t really say anything that bad.
Our verbal sparring had become habitual now. Adrian and I have both been arguing, insulting each other since we had gotten married. He said maddening things that made my blood boil, and I said things that made him angry. Our marriage had been built on this, our mutual resentment for each other.
But nothing I said has ever garnered such a reaction from him.
The darkness that had flashed in his eyes in the car, the look of pure insanity that could burn everything in his path, that was a danger I had never seen before.
With trembling fingers, I reached for the door handle, pushing it open and stepping out onto the gravel driveway. Adrian stood before me, his expression a cold mask of indifference that sent ice through my veins. His eyes were empty, devoid of any real human emotions—no anger, no hatred, nothing but a terrifying void that made my blood run cold.
He looked less like a man and more like a statue carved from marble, beautiful and utterly heartless.
The night air was cool against my flushed cheeks, but it did nothing to calm the storm raging inside me.
“Adrian?” I whispered, my voice barely audible.
He didn’t respond.
Instead, his hand shot out, fingers wrapping around my upper arm with bruising force. He jerked me forward, and I stumbled, one of my heels catching on the uneven ground. The shoe came loose, falling off my foot and pain shot up my ankle as I tried to regain my balance.
But Adrian didn’t slow his pace, pulling me behind him as I limped along.
“Let me go!” I cried out, trying to wrench my arm from his grip. “What are you doing? You’re hurting me!”
He didn’t acknowledge my words, didn’t even look at me as he dragged me across the driveway. My bare foot scraped against sharp stones, pain shooting up my leg with each step. We weren’t heading inside.
“A-Adrian…”
He didn’t respond, his grip only tightening as he pulled me around the side of the house. I realized with growing horror where he was taking me…to the back of the property where I knew his dogs were kept.
His three massive Dobermans that terrified me beyond reason.
“No,” I gasped, digging my heels into the ground and tugging against his iron grip. “Adrian, please. Why are you taking me there?”
Fear clawed at my throat, making it difficult to breathe. The memory of those large dogs, their dark eyes and sharp teeth, flashed through my mind.
I’d been terrified of them since the moment I’d seen them, and had avoided any part of the house where they might be.
I stayed in my bedroom most of the time, so it hasn’t been hard.
Sometimes I felt them behind my closed door, a soft bark, a little whine.
But I never, ever dared open the door.
And now… Adrian was taking me right to their lair. Inside their territory. Away from my sanctuary.
“Please,” I begged, tears streaming down my face. “I’m sorry. Whatever I said, whatever I did…I’m sorry. Just don’t take me there.”
He continued to drag me forward, his hold unrelenting.
“Adrian!” I pleaded.
His silence carved a crippling fear inside my soul.
My husband has never been silent. His arrogance never allowed him to be. He always needed to have the last word. Always needed to insult, to argue, to say the meanest things that made you want to cry.
But his silence?
It was utterly terrifying.
We rounded the corner of the house, and the backyard stretched before us, dangerous and ominous in the darkness of the night. I could hear the dogs before I saw them—low, rumbling growls that sent shivers down my spine.
God, please no.
What have I done?
All defiance bled through my pores, leaving me with nothing but absolute terror.
Adrian stopped abruptly in the middle of the grounds and released me with such force that I fell to my knees on the damp grass. Pain shot through my legs, and I looked up to see Adrian standing over me, tall and big, his face illuminated by the moonlight, jaw clenched.
He didn’t look human.
The coldness in his eyes, the way his jaw clenched, the mask of indifference, as if I was nothing… as if I was worthless to him… the mere image of him looming over me like that, he looked every bit of The Reaper he said he was—a dark avenging angel that had come to collect my soul.
My vision blurred with tears.
A low growl made me turn my head.
Thud.
Dread slithered through my veins.
Thud.
Three massive black dogs emerged from the shadows of their kennel.