91. Solace.

Alex's Pov

My skin stung. My face hurts. My body ached. It kept aching long after he was gone. I huddled under the covers but they didn't provide much warmth. I shivered but not from the cold.

For a brief second, I'd seen my life flash before my eyes.

I'd seen Luca angry, enraged. But what I saw that day, the look in his eyes when he'd slapped my hands away from his legs... I'd seen a ruthless beast. The only time I'd seen a look close to it was the day he held a gun to my head about to shoot me for the unlucky coincidence of being there when he killed my landlord.

And even then... Even then, it hadn't been like this. The worse thing was, he'd kept talking about disobedience, but it felt like I had done something far worse. I couldn't shake the feeling that he knew about Ryan.

But if he did, then I should be dead by now. He'd held the promise of death over my head for as long as this contract had been standing.

And somehow, I was still alive.

I laid in bed for what