Read Online Play Me Right by Tracy Wolff - Free Book Online

I’ve ever seen them and for a moment—just a moment—he looks like Carlo did that night.
    A man on the brink. Self-control shattered. Rage running over.
    Again, I brace myself for the explosion. Again, it never comes.
    Instead he asks, his voice low and tight and gravelly, “What did he do to you?”
    “To me?” I’m confused at the question. What happened to me isn’t important. It’s what happened to James that matters.
    “I don’t believe he nearly killed a man with his bare hands and then just walked away from you without some kind of retaliation.”
    “No. Of course not. But it isn’t imp—”
    “Don’t tell me what’s important and what’s not!” Sebastian snaps at me. “I want to know what that son of a bitch did to you. Either it comes from you or I go ask him.”
    “No! You can’t.” Just the thought of him anywhere near Carlo terrifies me. Sebastian is smart, powerful, more than capable of holding his own in any normal situation. But Carlo…Carlo is a monster. And a devious one at that. He doesn’t play fair, doesn’t play by any rules I’ve ever heard of. He does what he wants when he wants to and because he’s a Valducci, no one ever tells him he can’t.
    “Then tell me what he did to you.”
    “It doesn’t matter. I’m fine.”
    “You’re not fine. And even if you were, I still need to know what happened.”
    “No.” No one needs to know that.
    “Tell me,” he orders, and this time he reaches for me, pulls me against him.
    I go, because I’m weak and useless and I don’t want to fight him. Not now, not on this. Not when I’ve just spent four days without Sebastian.
    “He hurt you.” It isn’t a question.
    I nod against his chest.
    His already taut muscles grow even stiffer. But the hand that strokes my hair is gentle, sweet. “Tell me.” This time it’s a request, an almost desperate one. And while it’s easy to defy Sebastian when he’s ordering me around, I can’t deny him anything when he asks. When he holds me this tenderly. Not even the story I’d do anything not to tell.
    “I thought he was dead. James, I mean. He was so bloody and broken and still…I was sure Carlo had killed him. I went crazy, started screaming at him. Two of his men were still holding me back and no matter how hard I tried to get away from them, how hard I tried to get to James, I couldn’t.
    “When he was finished with James, Carlo walked over to me. He was covered in my friend’s blood and there was this look in his eyes—this bloodlust—that hurting James had done nothing to alleviate. I knew it was going to be bad, but to be honest, I didn’t care. Something about seeing James lying there, thinking he was dead…I snapped. In that moment, I wanted Carlo to kill me. Wanted it to be over. In that moment, I couldn’t imagine spending the rest of my life living like that.”
    The admission hurts, but Sebastian wanted the truth. Besides, I’m just so sick of lying—to him and to myself. It’s past time for all my ugly secrets to come out.
    “He hit me and instead of apologizing like I normally did, I taunted him. I refused to back down. If he was going to kill me, then I wasn’t going to go out whimpering. Or at least, that’s what I figured.”
    “He didn’t kill you.” It’s more growl than actual words at this point.
    “No. But he came close. By the time he was done, he’d given me a concussion, broken three of my ribs and damaged my spleen. I was in the hospital for over a week. Two days before I was set to be released, when my parents came for their daily visit, I asked for their help. My dad said he’d talked to Carlo, and assured me that it wouldn’t happen again. He also told me he’d paid for James’s medical care and paid him—or scared him—enough to keep quiet. It wasn’t enough. Wasn’t nearly enough. And then my mom started in on wedding plans like we were at afternoon tea and not in my hospital room where I was recovering from being beaten half