by Shandi Boyes
Ignoring the dread in the lower half of my stomach, I slip into my dressing gown and cinch it around my waist before following Dimitri’s stalk out of our room. My pace is a little slower than his. Although our tryst didn’t end as I was hoping, pain is still being felt.
The atmosphere in the lower half of the compound is starkly contradicting to the party-like one I faced only hours ago. All the guests have gone—even the scantily clad ones who were hoping to occupy Dimitri’s bed for the night.
A worry that Dimitri no longer needs me skitters through my veins when our descend down the stairwell is quickly chased by another decline. We’re heading toward the basement—the dark and dingy basement Dimitri had Rocco order for me to stay away three times earlier tonight. He was adamant I wasn’t to go anywhere near it. Now he’s walking me right into the underbelly of it. It has me sick with worry.
I didn’t think my life could get any worse until Dimitri swings open a door at the end of the corridor. My father isn’t bound to a chair by rope, chains, or any humanitarian way to keep a captive hostage without carnage. He’s nailed to the wood. If that isn’t bad enough, almost every inch of his skin is covered with a range of bruises, nicks, and cuts. However, they aren’t the cause for the sob racking through me. It’s the low hang of his head. The purple mottling of his skin. The evidence he’s dead even without seeing the bullet pierced through his skull.
When I take a stumbling step back, Dimitri grips the tops of my arms, forcing me to stay in my nightmare longer than necessary for him to get across his point. I said he wasn’t a monster, that he was just tired and angry. I realize my error now. He’s a cruel, vindictive man who’d rather cut out someone’s heart than have it handed to him willingly.
As I’m forced to scan an image too horrifying to share, I choke through the ragged breath I scarfed down to swallow the vomit racing up my throat. I can’t believe I gave myself to him, that I thought he was misunderstood. He killed my father, my flesh and blood, all because he tried to sell me just like he did.
“I hate you.” I’m sobbing now, full-on crying. Tears stream down my face as my body uncontrollably shakes. “Rocco said you wouldn’t kill him. He promised it would be my choice.”
“Is that why you helped, Roxanne, because you thought it would see your father’s life spared? Is that why you almost gave yourself to me?”
“Almost?” His words make me sick. “I didn’t almost give myself to you. I gave myself to you. There was no almost. I was yours! I would have always been yours!”
I push him off me, hating that I ever felt an ounce of anything for him. Remorse, lust, I’m disappointed by them all.
He’s a murderer.
A cheat.
He doesn’t deserve to get his daughter back.
When I say that to Dimitri, he gets up in my face in an instant. He pins me to a blood-splattered wall, towering over me like he’s seconds from crashing my windpipes with his bare hands. “I should kill you where you stand.”
“Then do it,” I snarl in his face, my fear non-existent. “Kill me like you’ve threatened time and time again. Drain the blood from my veins and parade my dead carcass like you are my father’s so your enemies will see you as a real man.” The way I spit out the last half of my sentence reveals I think he’s anything but a man. “But remember, no matter what you do, and no matter what you say, one thing will never change. I’m someone’s daughter. I’m someone’s Fien, so when Karma responds to what you’ve done, you better pray she doesn’t gnaw the wrong ass.”
Dimitri leans into me deeper, fully stilling me. His large, teaming-with-anger body isn’t solely responsible for my frozen state, though. It’s the words he screams into my face, “He cut my daughter out of my wife’s stomach! He held her like she was a fucking animal. He deserved to die!”
When he shoves a freshly printed piece of paper into my face, my stomach heaves. I feel like I’m drowning like my worst nightmare is coming true. The image of my father sitting lifeless in a pool of blood is horrific, but this is ten times worse.
Not only does Dimitri have undeniable proof my father was a part of the backyard operation to remove his daughter from his wife’s stomach, he has evidence I was there too.
Dimitri and Roxanne’s story continues in the next explosive episode of The Italian Cartel Series. It is titled Roxanne - you can find it here:
https://books2read.com/The-Italian-Cartel-3
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Isaac, Nikolai, Trey, and Enrique stories have already been released, but Rocco, Maddox, and all the other great characters of Ravenshoe/Hopeton will be getting their own stories at some point during 2020/2021.
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Also by Shandi Boyes
Perception Series
Saving Noah (Noah & Emily)
Fighting Jacob (Jacob & Lola)
Taming Nick (Nick & Jenni)
Redeeming Slater (Slater and Kylie)
Saving Emily (Noah & Emily - Novella)
Wrapped Up with Rise Up (Perception Novella - should be read after the Bound Series)
Enigma
Enigma (Isaac & Isabelle #1)
Unraveling an Enigma (Isaac & Isabelle #2)
Enigma The Mystery Unmasked (Isaac & Isabelle #3)
Enigma: The Final Chapter (Isaac & Isabelle #4)
Beneath The Secrets (Hugo & Ava #1)
Beneath The Sheets(Hugo & Ava #2)
Spy Thy Neighbor (Hunter & Paige)
The Opposite Effect (Brax & Clara)
I Married a Mob Boss(Rico & Blaire)
Second Shot(Hawke & Gemma)
The Way We Are(Ryan & Savannah #1)
The Way We Were(Ryan & Savannah #2)
Sugar and Spice (Cormack & Harlow)
Lady In Waiting (Regan & Alex #1)
Man in Queue (Regan & Alex #2)
Couple on Hold(Regan & Alex #3)
Enigma: The Wedding (Isaac and Isabelle)
Silent Vigilante (Brandon and Melody #1)
Hushed Guardian (Brandon & Melody #2)
Quiet Protector (Brandon & Melody #3)
Bound Series
Chains (Marcus & Cleo #1)
Links(Marcus & Cleo #2)
Bound(Marcus & Cleo #3)
Restrain(Marcus & Cleo #4)
Psycho (Dexter & ??)
Russian Mob Chronicles
Nikolai: A Mafia Prince Romance (Nikolai & Justine #1)
Nikolai: Taking Back What’s Mine (Nikolai & Justine #2)
Nikolai: What’s Left of Me(Nikolai & Justine #3)
Nikolai: Mine to Protect(Nikolai & Justine #4)
Asher: My Russian Revenge (Asher & Zariah)
Nikolai: Through the Devil's Eyes(Nikolai & Justine #5)
Trey (Trey & K)
The Italian Cartel
Dimitri
Roxanne
Maddox
Rocco
RomCom Standalones
Just Playin’ (Elvis & Willow)
The Drop Zone (Colby & Jamie)
Ain't Happenin'(Lorenzo & Skylar)
Short Stories
Christmas Trio (Wesley, Andrew & Mallory -- short story)
Falling For A Stranger (Short Story)
K (A Trey Sequel)
Coming Soon
Skitzo
Acknowledgments
This book was a hard one for me to write. We were in the middle of a pandemic, I found out my mother has cancer, and the entire world went to shit. Yet, here we are, at another acknowledgement page. It wouldn’t have happened without the support of my readers and those who continuously prop m
e up every day. My husband is my number one supporter and my mother slots right in next to him. Even with the unknown keeping her thoughts occupied, she read Dimitri’s first draft like she has every one of my books. She helped fix my many stuff ups (I’m infamous for them) and discussed what she thinks will happen in the next book.
Her strength the past month has been phenomenal. I hate that it takes something like cancer to truly understand how strong someone is, but it does make it undeniable. There’s no one stronger than her.
I hope you enjoyed Dimitri’s story, even with that cliffhanger ending. The second instalment will follow shortly.
Take care, and hug your loved ones.
Shandi xx
PS: A special shout out to my editing crew, Nicky and Kaylene at Swish Design and Editing. I can’t thank my cover designer, as that is me, but I can thank Jonny James for having such a sexy face. He adds to Dimitri’s dark and dangerous aura with an edge of sexiness I hope you can appreciate.
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