THE POWER OF BETRAYAL
The D’Luca mansion didn't have the warmth of a home; it was a gilded cage with elegant steel bars, where I had become the creature that finally learned how not to bleed against them.
That morning, the Tuscan air didn't carry the scent of olive trees, but the stench of vengeance.
I looked at myself in the full-length mirror. Aaron had made me dress in black—a silk dress that clung to my body like a second skin, with a slit up the thigh that revealed a lace garter where a small, poison-tipped dagger now rested.
"Venomous and beautiful," Aaron’s voice vibrated behind me.
I didn't hear him enter. I never did. He was a shadow, a predator who enjoyed stalking even what he claimed to love. His hands, large and marked by the scars of wars I was only beginning to un
