My Stepbrother's Dirty Little Secret novel Chapter 591

Chapter 591

I looked at Cole again. He wasn’t even watching us. He was checking his phone.

Rage exploded inside me, “MMPH!”

I lunged forward as far as the ropes allowed.

“If she keeps doing that,” he said calmly, “she’ll reopen the wound.”

I wanted to claw his face apart. I wanted to scream. Instead, another muffled cry came.through the gag.

My eyes searched the room, then I saw them. All the girls were here, they sat against the opposite wall. All of them looked exhausted, terrified.

It wasn’t Mama D. It wasn’t Morgan. It wasn’t any of them.

It was him.

Cole Mercer.

Hatred settled inside me so quickly it almost burned.

He finally looked over, our eyes met and he smiled. As though everything had gone exactly the way he’d planned.

I wanted to spit at him.

I wanted to tell him Raphael would never entertain his petty little threats. That Vincenzo would tear Chicago apart. That Salvatore would never leave me here.

Instead, tears kept falling.

Raphael…

My chest tightened so hard it hurt. He would know by now. He’d gone to my room. He would’ve realized I wasn’t there.

He’d be looking for me.

The thought should have comforted me.

Instead… It made me feel sick.

I closed my eyes. I should’ve told him. I should’ve listened. He never kept things from me even when the truth was difficult, even when it hurt.

He always told me.

And I… I slipped out of the estate without a word, I snuck away.

My throat tightened behind the gag.

Then suddenly the room fell into a strange silence, Cole stopped and slowly looked up towards the ceiling.

I heard it too, heavy footsteps, fast and not just one person, dozens of them. The sound echoed above us, shaking dust from the ceiling. Every head in the room lifted toward the ceiling.

Relief hit so suddenly my eyes filled with tears. More footsteps came down the stairs. The first one I saw was Vincenzo. His eyes swept across the basement once before settling on me.

Dante appeared beside him, all traces of his usual grin gone. For the first time since I’d met him… he looked deadly serious.

A heartbeat later, Adriano came down after them. His eyes landed on me for the briefest second before moving through the room again, measuring everything.

Then…

Raphael.

The second I saw him, my chest cracked open. His hair was still damp, as though he’d left the house without caring what he looked like and his face held no expression at all.

But I knew him.

I knew that terrifying stillness, that he wasn’t calm. He was holding himself together one breath at a time.

His eyes found me immediately.

They stopped on the bandage wrapped around my head, then the ropes around my wrists, then my ankles, then the tears on my face.

The entire basement seemed to stop breathing.

Capone guards stood shoulder to shoulder around the room, weapons remained raised, not one barrel wavered.

Some were trained on Cole, others covered every person standing near him. The only sound left was the old basement light humming overhead and the uneven breathing of frightened people.