The Price (House of Sin #5) - Elisabeth Naughton Page 0,7

grunt as he tried to hold back a scream.

“You made an agreement with us,” Luc’s father said in that stone-cold voice as the Grande Cavaliere handed the weapon to a figure in black and stepped away. “You are now bound to that agreement.”

The leather slashed through Luc’s skin, echoing with a deafening clap over the chants. I winced with every blow, hot tears flooding my eyes as I watched Luc jerk and tremble with a pain I couldn’t even imagine.

“There are consequences to betraying us,” Luc’s father went on.

I knew there were. But I also knew, because of what Luc had done for me here tonight, that I was safe. The Entente operated within a very specific set of rules. Ancient, sacred rules I found abhorrent, but which these sick fucks followed above everything else.

“I’m not afraid of you,” I whispered, unable to look away from Luc through the blinding blur of tears, wanting him to know he wasn’t alone. “You can’t kill me. Not after this. Not after the agreement Luc made. We both know it.”

Another lash struck Luc’s perfect back. I jumped at the crack of leather biting into bare flesh, at the tortured groan from Luc’s throat and the way he trembled in the chains as his skin was torn open. My stomach pitched when I spotted the blood sliding down his legs.

“Perhaps not,” his father said at my side. “But if you break our agreement, then by the laws of this House, there are plenty of ways we can punish you. If that happens, you’ll live, but what you see here now won’t even compare to what awaits you then. And trust me, little wife, we will make sure Luciano has a front-row seat for that show.”

Another whip echoed through the vast room, followed by the crack of the leather. I jolted at the sound, but slowly turned my gaze up to Luc’s father’s.

He was staring down at me. Like a lion stalking its prey. And in his icy eyes I saw truth and the promise of a brutal retribution should I defy him. One I knew would break Luc in a way this depraved ritual here today never could.

A hard, vicious hatred brewed deep in my heart. One I’d never known I could feel. One that solidified everything inside me. If it was the last thing I did, I was going to hurt these people. I was going to make this man pay for what they’d done to Luc.

And I would enjoy every single moment of it regardless of what it meant for me.

2

Natalie

I wasn’t sure how much time had passed.

I was still shaking from what I’d seen and heard. From the things they’d done to Luc. From how bloodied and broken he’d been when they’d finally released him from those chains.

As they’d been taking him down, they’d whisked me out of that balcony and rushed me back to my cell. I didn’t know if Luc was alive or dead. He’d been limp through the last few lashes, barely even moving, and I’d been so hysterical I hadn’t been able to see straight. And every time I pictured all the blood staining the carpet beneath his feet…

That hysteria built in me all over again.

Bile rushed up my throat, forcing me to stop my pacing in the cold cell and swallow hard. I’d changed back into my pajama bottoms and tank, partly because I’d hated that dress, partly because I’d already gotten sick all over it. I told myself to hold it together. I was no help to Luc in breakdown mode. I had to focus on him. Had to focus on finding him and helping him and making sure he was okay.

The heavy door pushed open and clanged hard against the cement wall. Jerking toward the sound, I stared wide-eyed at the red-draped figure wearing a gold mask as he moved into the room.

My breath caught. The figure didn’t speak, just stepped into the room and stopped three feet in front of the door as he stared at me, blocking my one chance for freedom.

A chill rushed down my spine. The Grande Cavaliere—known for wearing red at the rituals—was the one I’d watched fuck that beta slave among the trees in Tuscany on my first trip to Italy. He was the one who’d overseen Luc’s lashing. He was the one, I remembered from my conversation with Luc in the South Pacific, who’d ordered the gang rape and murder of Vittoria, that girl Luc had tried