Filed To Story: Pretty Poisoned Novel by Elle Mitchell
I stand on my toes and press my lips to his.
“You’re sweet, baby,” he says. “I’m sorry I yelled at you, Teag.”
“It’s okay, Luca.”
I take his hand, and when we step back into the room together, Declan and Sebastian are stuffing the last pieces of a dismembered body into two black garbage bags. Declan crosses the room and picks up Travis’s head by the hair.
“Where’s the rest of him?” I ask.
“In the trunk of the other one’s car,” Declan says. “We’re going to get rid of itthe car and the leftovers.”
He picks up the bloody machete and tosses it in the garbage bag, too. He’s in his elementI can see it in his eyes. He enjoyed hacking that body to pieces.
I bite back a smile, and, noticing, he laughs.
“I know what you’re thinking, and you’re right,” Declan says. “We’re still the same, Teagan.”
It’s sexy as fuck. And not just the laugh, but that, too. He doesn’t do it often, and when he does, it’s usually disingenuous. But Declan wielding a machete, bloody from cutting up the body of someone who tried to hurt me with his estranged brother it’s fucking sexy.
It’s fucking poetry.
“Let’s go,” Sebastian says.
He doesn’t look at me; he doesn’t acknowledge me before walking out the door.
“We’ll be back soon,” Declan says. “Bye, sweetheart. Don’t leave the room.”
“Bye.”
He grabs a bag from the floor and turns off the light as he walks out the door.
Luca grabs another one of those mini liquor bottles from the cabinet and then pulls an orange pill bottle from his bag and shakes a couple out in his hand.
“Hey,” I say. “Come here let’s go to sleep. You don’t need that, do you?”
He pops the pills into his mouth and washes them down with a shot of whiskey before sitting at the edge of the bed.
“I’m crippled, Teagan,” he says, dropping his head into his hands. “I think this is as good as it’s going to get, and I’m fucking scared.”
“Even if you are, that’s okay.” I lean against his back, wrap my arms around him, and rest my head on his shoulder. “I know you’re hurting, but we’ll get through it.”
“What if I can’t?”
“Well then I’ll lie down and die with you so you don’t have to sleep alone.”
“Teag ”
“I mean it. I don’t want to live another day without you. My heart can’t take it.”
He turns, facing me with watery eyes, and wraps his arms around me.
“It’s okay, Luca,” I tell him. “We’ll be okay. And if we aren’t, then that’s okay, too. We tried.”
“You’re so good to me, Teag,” he says. “I missed you so much. You’re the best thing I’ve ever had.”
“I missed you, too. Lie down, okay? I’ll rub your back until you fall asleep.”
He pulls back the covers and climbs into the bed. I rub his back and shoulders and run my fingers through his hair until I hear snoring.
Which luckily doesn’t take long. My own eyes are heavy, too.
Idon’t think it’s been longmaybe a couple of hoursbefore I awake to the sound of the hotel room door slamming shut.
Before I have a chance to panic, I hear Declan’s deep, hushed voice. I bury my face against Luca’s back, my arm still draped over his body.
“I’d leave around eleven. It’s a forty-minute drive,” Declan says.
“Fine,” Sebastian says.
“You sure you’re going to bring her?”
“I’m not going to kill her or let her die.”
“You know”
“I’m done talking now.”
Declan walks around the side of the bed. “Luca, wake up. We need to gothe sun will be up soon.”
Luca gets out of bed, dresses, and throws his bag over his shoulder. I notice his cane sticking out of the top; he doesn’t want to use it in front of Sebastian.
He watches Sebastian hang a garment bag in the closet, his lip turned up in disgust.
“What’s that?” Luca asks him.
“It’s a fucking suitwhat do you think it is? I’m invited to the wedding.”
“That’s a joke, right?” Luca scoffs.
“No, not at all. The Townsends love me,” Sebastian says. “I’m going to take a shower.”
He pulls his shirt over his head before entering the bathroom, ensuring that Luca sees my full name carved into his chest before he turns away.
But Declan just stares at the mutilated skin on his back until the door closes behind him. I know what he’s thinkingit could have been him.
“Luca ” I pull the cane out of the bag and hand it to him.
“Give me the bag, too,” Declan says.
“I’m fine,” Luca says. “I need to get used to it.”
“No, you don’t,” he says, taking it from his shoulder. “Bye, sweetheart.” He leans in and kisses me on the lips. “I love you. I’ll see you so soon.”
“I love you, too.”
“I don’t want to leave her with him,” Luca says.
“She wants to go to the wedding and say goodbye,” Declan tells him. “We can’t staywe need to get the plane ready. Besides, we can’t risk being caught on camera the day she disappears. The police think you’re dead and I’m in Russia, and they’ve stopped looking for me. I want to keep it that way. She’ll be okay.”
“Can I walk with you?” I ask.
“No, kitten. I’m sorry.”
I sigh. “Not one single day, Luca.” I stand on my toes and press my lips to his. “There’s nothing wrong with you.”
New Book: Returned To Make Them Pay
On her wedding anniversary, Alicia is drugged and stumbles into the wrong room—straight into the arms of the powerful Caden Ward, a man rumored never to touch women. Their night of passion shocks even him, especially when he discovers she’s still a virgin after two years of marriage to Joshua Yates.