Don's Darling Worth Killing For

Goldie's POV

The moment the silhouette appeared in the doorway at the top of the stairs, my heart sank. “Don’t look so grim,” Dominic scolded as he sauntered down into the room. “Your fiancé has come to claim you at last. You’re going home.” I didn’t know where Dominic planned to take me, but it wouldn’t be home. And he sure as hell wasn’t my fiancé.

“I’m not going anywhere with you,” I spat with as much venom as I could muster. But it was hard to sound tough when my hands were still bound to a chair. “Where did Octavia go?” She had left as soon as Dominic showed up without so much as a goodbye. I wondered what could be more important than keeping two women prisoner in this dank, depressing basement.

His eyebrows sprang upward. “You’d prefer to be down here with that crazy bitch over me?”

“You’re the one working with her.”

“Means to an end, darling,” he drawled. “Octavia is simply a means to an end.” I was the “end” he was talking about. But whatever Dominic was hoping would happen there that day, he was mistaken. I refused to let Dominic be the end of my story. I scanned the dungeon again. There were two doors: the main one Dominic had just come through and the locked side door where Octavia had dragged Calista’s unconscious body through earlier. Aside from those, there was no way out. Not unless I could kill Dominic and use his dead body like a battering ram. Which, hello—hands still bound in chains here.

“If Octavia is a means to an end, what is Calista?” I asked. “You haven’t checked on her in a while. She should be awake by now.” At least, I hoped she was awake by now. If she wasn’t, I wasn’t sure what that meant for her survival. Could people die from chloroform or whatever the hell they used to knock us out?

His eyes darted to the door, and his jaw flexed. “Gone.” My entire body went cold. “… Gone? What does that mean? She isn’t gone. She’s—”

“Alive and gone,” he corrected wearily, as if feigning human emotion was exhausting for him. “She isn’t useful, so we pawned her off. The going rate on pretty women with no family to search for them isn’t bad. You should remember that. If I get bored with you, you’ll end up in the same place.” She was alive. I should have been relieved, but it was cold comfort if the rest of what Dominic was saying was true. Calista, my best friend, trafficked to some sicko who thought they could own a human being. Calista, the life of the party who just wanted to be taken care of and loved, sold off to God only knows who. The horror of it was too much to process. Like so much else about that experience, I bottled it up and shoved it down deep. Salvatore would come for me. When he did, he would save Calista, too.

As if he could read my thoughts, Dominic shifted closer to me. He knelt down, his bony arms on his knees, his skin so pale it practically glowed in the gloom. "Was that hope I just saw in your eyes?"

Goldie's POV

"Was that hope I saw in your eyes?" Dominic twisted his face to the side.

"Unbelievable. After everything, you still thought Salvatore DeMarco would come save you."

"I knew he would." I lifted my chin, refusing to sink to Dominic’s games. He wanted to drag me down, but I couldn’t let him.

Dominic studied me for a moment longer. Then he laughed. The sound of it sent goosebumps shivering across my skin. It was repulsive. I couldn’t believe I had ever spent a single second by his side. That I had tucked my arm through his and let him lead me through dinner parties. That we had stood in a jewelry store and chosen a wedding ring.

"You’ve always been delusional, Marigold. Your expectations for your life were childish. Like you thought you lived in some fairytale."

"If you thought you were Prince Charming, you were out of your fucking mind." He bared his teeth, and his fist clenched. For a second, I th