SWNOVELS The Marriage Debt: Chapter 2
Three years ago, age 18
While I drive as fast as I can, memories flash through my head of Luca fighting his brother. His knife still glints in the dark, blinding my view of the road.
“You’re not my fucking brother anymore!”
All because of me.
Fuck.
I wish I’d never left the house.
“JILL!” Luca’s voice echoes in my mind. “DON’T YOU FUCKING RUN AWAY FROM ME!”
I’ll never get him out of my head, no matter how hard I try.
What else was I supposed to do but grab Liam and drive off with him? I had to do something to stop them from fighting.
But when I look at Liam sitting in the passenger seat next to me, something doesn’t feel right.
Even though I saved him from Luca’s wrath, the pain in his eyes confuses me.
But there’s no time to think about what happened between us.
“I’ll fight it out with him, brother to brother,” Liam says.
“But what if you lose?” I ask, barely paying attention to the road anymore.
“Then I’ll lose, and he gets what he wants …”
The way he looks at me with those beautiful eyes of his unravels me. There is no darkness to be found.
Until he says the word, “You.”
Lightning suddenly strikes, blinding me. The car veers off the road.
It all happens so fast.
In a second, we hit the water. The crash is as loud as a gunshot.
Within a few more seconds, the car begins to fill with water and submerges.
Screaming is no use. No one can hear me.
The water is closing in fast.
I manage to break free from my belt, but Liam is floating in his seat, unconscious.
Why, why, why?
My fingers can’t find enough strength to free him, and my oxygen is fading fast. I search for the hammer, and I smash the window when I finally find it. I try to push Liam out one last time, but it’s not working. His clothes are stuck on the window. And with the last bit of my energy, I swim out of the car without him, despite the guilt eating me alive.
Despite the fact that I know he won’t survive.
But I don’t want to die down there with him.
I want to live.
No matter the cost.
Luca
Four days after Liam’s death
Goodbye, Liam.
It’s written on his tombstone, but there is no casket.
No body.
Nothing.
It’s as if he suddenly vanished into thin air after our messed-up fight.
Even though I know he didn’t.
Jill drove off with him and crashed her car off a cliff … straight into the water. His body might still be there.
I stand over the grave with my parents. There’s only a photograph of what was once my brother.
None of this feels real as I stare at the people around me. It was only days ago that I last saw him alive …
When he was kissing Jill.
My hands ball into fists as I gaze up at her, fury blazing in my eyes.
She drove him to his death. Literally.
All because she couldn’t handle me giving her the best orgasm she’d ever had, so she decided to kiss my brother instead.
Fuck.
Even though taking the crown from my brother, the perfect son, was all I ever fucking wanted, I won’t ever forgive her for killing him.
Present
All these years, I’ve waited until she’d finally fall into my clutches to pay for her crimes. I searched for her in vain when she disappeared, but now Jill Baas will be all mine.
I can’t believe she actually fucking came back to save her goddamn sister. Luck has never been on my side, but today, I own it.
Nothing compares to her hand locked in mine as I pull her closer onto the altar where I will make her my wife. Well, maybe one thing will … my cock locked in her wet, aching pussy.
But first, I’ll put my ring on her finger and make her submit.
Jasmine seemed like an easy win, but Jill? She’s a fiery one, and I can’t fucking wait to have a chance at taming her.
Her sister was just a distraction for me, a toy I could play with while my parents made more money off deals made by the Baas family. Of course they agreed to marry the girl off to me in exchange for the debt created when my brother died by Jill’s hands.
But I never expected Jill to show up and take care of matters herself.
What a fucking magical twist this wedding has taken.
Nothing, and I mean nothing, can steal this wicked smile off my face as I look her in the eyes, and say, “Jill …”
“Luca,” she hisses back so loudly it’s like she wants to bite my head off.
I know she hates me, but I don’t care. She destroyed my family and me, and now it’s my turn to annihilate her.
The notary my father hired, a mafia man who’s known to do marriages with unwilling brides, clears his throat. “Dearly beloved. We have gathered here today to celebrate the union of Luca De Vos and Jas—Jill Baas.” He clears his throat again. “To join this man and this woman in holy matrimony.”
Jill briefly glances to the back, where Jasmine is seated and crying her eyes out in silence.
But I want all of her attention.
All of it.
So I squeeze her hand, and whisper, “Look at me.”
She sneers, “I don’t want to.”
I lower my eyes. “Did you forget I’m carrying more than just a huge dick?”
Her pupils dilate, and it’s the best thing ever. God, even after three years, nothing has changed. I still can’t get used to how gorgeous she looks when she’s all riled up because of me.
The notary flips through the pages, forcing us both to shut up. “Luca, do you take this woman to be your wife, to live together in holy matrimony, to love her, to honor her, to comfort her, and to keep her in sickness and in health, forsaking all others, for as long as you both shall live?”
I don’t take my eyes off hers even though she’s almost spitting fire at me. “I do.”
“And Jill, do you take this man to be your husband, to live together in holy matrimony, to love him, to honor him, to comfort him, and to keep him in sickness and in health, forsaking all others, for as long as you both shall live?”
Jill grinds her teeth and gazes at her parents, who do nothing but stoically stare ahead. Of course, they don’t care about her or her feelings. She betrayed them.
By running away from her obligations, she ran away from fate itself.
And fate always catches up with you one way or another.
“We’re waiting,” I say, raising a brow at her.
Too fucking late for second thoughts.
She was already mine the second she stepped into this church.
And now I’ll take what always belonged to me.
I pull out my gun and point it at Jasmine’s head. The entire room gasps.
“Say it,” I say through gritted teeth.
Jill blinks away a single tear that still manages to roll down her cheek. “I … do.”
The word spills out of her mouth as slowly as the tear falls to the floor.
At that moment, it’s as if the earth stands still, and all that’s left is my eyes connecting with hers as she begs me without words to spare whatever is left of her dignity.
A smirk forms on my face as I pull back the gun and tuck it back where it belongs. Everyone in the audience, especially Jasmine, breathes a sigh of relief. And I don’t know whether I’m happy or a little bit disappointed that she didn’t actually give me an excuse to shoot.
After all, my heart enjoys nothing more than hurting that family as much as they have hurt mine.
The little girl carrying the glitter steps forward with a pillow holding two golden rings in her hands. Jill’s face turns white as snow as the girl brings the rings forward and waits until we have both picked one up.
I don’t stop staring at Jill, not even as her whole body begins to shake at the thought of having to put that ring around the same finger that will be inside her pretty little pussy later.
But we’ll get there soon.
“With this ring, I promise to give you everything I have to give,” I say, my tongue darting out to wet my lips.
Her hand reluctantly rises to meet mine, her eyes quickly darting to her sister like she’s saying a final goodbye. I grasp ahold of her whole hand and squeeze it to make her look at me. No one gets her attention except me as I push the ring onto her finger, sealing my ownership over her.
She almost squashes my ring in her fist as I hold my hand out for her.
Grinding her teeth, she mutters, “With this ring, I promise to make your life a living hell.”
Her mother gasps, but I can only laugh.
It’s endearing she thinks I’ll be the one to regret my decision.
Oh no, little bunny … our fun has only just begun.
As she pushes it onto my ring finger, I lean in to whisper into her ear, “The second you ran away from me, you chose your own fate, Jill. And now I will never, ever let you go again.”
I can feel the rage burning off her body like a blazing fire, and it makes me as hard as a rock. I can’t fucking wait to go home, rip this tight wedding dress off her pretty little body and make her scream.
Suddenly, she leans in, catching me off guard as she tears the gun away from me and points it at me. “Make me the fastest fucking widow,” she spits.
CLICK!
The gun goes off.
But the fact that no bullets exit makes everyone, including Jill, stare in complete shock.
Except for me, of course.
I smile at the thought she actually believed she could kill me … and that she wanted to. Still the same spicy girl as I remember.
I snatch the gun from her hand and grab ahold of her wrist, forcing her to crash into me. “You thought I loaded that thing with actual fucking bullets?”
“I’m disappointed in you,” my mother seethes under her breath, and she gets up and walks off into the same door my father disappeared through.
It doesn’t matter to me, and I don’t fucking care who she’s disappointed in. I already knew long ago they preferred my brother over me. He was the perfect one, and I’m the fallen son who wants nothing more than to watch the world burn.
But right now? I want nothing more than to watch Jill’s eyes burn with a fire so bright it could set this whole church aflame.
“Fuck you.”
Jill spits in my face.
I close my eyes for a brief second and wipe it away before I throw her a final devilish glance.
“Yes … wife. I will fuck you as I wish in every goddamn orifice.” Then I pick her up and throw her over my shoulder.
She screams while I march toward the exit, but I ignore it.
I have other things on my mind that involve getting her chained up and on her knees.
Her side of the family gets up to watch us leave, mournful looks adorn their eyes, but none of them dare to say a word, let alone act. They know their place.
Their family owes ours, and this is the price they’ll pay.
I don’t care about their judgmental looks.
All I care about is that I’m going to make her pay for what she did … and mark her as mine.