Chapter 5 - Blood on the Venetian Marble"Find what you were looking for, Bianca?"
I whipped around, dropping the folder. The loose papers scattered across the polished marble floor.
Marius was standing in the doorway of the library. He was wearing a dark velvet smoking jacket, holding a glass of amber liquid. His eyes were cold, hollow, and completely devoid of surprise.
"You knew," I choked out, my voice trembling with a terrifying blend of rage and grief. "You knew who I was. My father... your family killed my father!"
Marius took a slow, deliberate step into the room, setting his glass down on a side table. "My father killed your father, yes. Marco Rossi was stealing from the Orlov vault to fund his gambling addiction. My father put a bullet in his head in an alleyway in Naples."
"And you brought me here?!" I screamed, tears finally spilling over my eyelashes. "You hired me! You made me serve you! You made me... you made me care about you!"
"I brought you here to keep you alive!" Marius bellowed, his composure finally cracking, his voice echoing off the high ceilings like thunder. "When my father died and I took the throne, the Moretti remnants wanted to slaughter everyone associated with the old regime—including the children of their accountants! I erased your identity. I paid for your mother’s treatments! I built a wall around you so thick that not even God himself could hurt you!"
"You lied to me!" I shoved his chest with all my strength. He didn't budge an inch. "You manipulated my entire life! I was never your assistant! I was your guilty conscience!"
"You were never my guilty conscience!" Marius grabbed my wrists, pulling me violently against his chest, holding me so tightly I could feel the furious, hammering beat of his heart against my ribs. "You were my salvation, Bianca! In a world of blood, lies, and filth, you were the only thing that was pure! The only thing I fought for that wasn't covered in mud!"
"Let me go!" I sobbed, twisting against his iron grip. "I hate you! I hate—"
BOOM!
The massive stained-glass windows of the library shattered inward in a violent spray of crystalline sharp shards.
The roar of automatic gunfire erupted from the courtyard. Bullets tore through the room, shredding the leather armchairs, shattering the mahogany bookcases, and plastering the plaster walls with deadly holes.
Before I could even scream, Marius hit the floor, dragging me beneath him, using his massive body as an impenetrable shield against the rain of glass and lead.
"Cover!" Marius roared into his lapel radio, his voice instantly shifting back to the cold, lethal commander of the Orlov empire. "Hostiles at the south perimeter! Execute Lockdown Protocol Alpha!"
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The smell of gunpowder and ozone filled the library instantly. Glass rained down on Marius’s back. He turned his head to me, his eyes fierce, wild, and utterly terrifying.
"Listen to me," he growled, grabbing my jaw, forcing me to look at him through the dust and smoke. "You can hate me all you want tomorrow, Bianca. But tonight, you stay behind me if you want to live!"
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