world stops when the man fires one shot into my mother's chest. Before I can get over the shock, he pulls a long-bladed knife from his sheath and cuts Papa's head off before he can utter another cry.
Like a scene from a nightmare, both my parents lay dead before me. Papa's body, his head sitting next to it in a pool of blood and Mom still on fire. I can't stop screaming and crying.
"Do what you want with her, make sure you dispose of the body after," the man orders.
He means me.
Oh, God...
He's talking about me.
I'm going to die.
The men file out of the house and I scream harder when the clothes are ripped from my body and I'm pushed naked to the floor.
I scream and scream and scream as the man who is holding me gets on top of me. I try to fight, but he's too strong and fierce.
I can't form words; I'm just screaming and crying. Wailing for help.
One second the man's disgusting head looms over me, with his hot, raw breath husking. The next thing I see is his head falling from his body.
Before I can quite realize what's happened, blood sprays into my eyes, and the man's headless body collapses onto mine.
I blink and I can just make out Massimo's face before me. He's holding a long knife, blood is on his face too, and he's looking down at me in horror.
"Candace," he calls to me, but I'm screaming so much I can't answer.
Terror sets in as my mind tries to process what happened, and screams continue to pour from my body, coming from deep in my soul.
What did just happen?
My mother... my father.
They're dead...
"Candace, it's okay. It's okay," Massimo says, pushing the man's bulky body off me.
"Guys get in here," he shouts. Footsteps echo on the floorboards outside.
I can't see anybody. Tears and blood blind me.
My name is called again, and someone lifts me.
The tears and blood are wiped from my eyes, and I see him holding me.
Dominic...
His face looms before me, filled with panic as he looks me over.
"I got you, Angel. You're safe," he says and pulls me to his chest.
My head rolls to the side and my gaze meets my mother's wide, dead eyes.
One last scream rips from my soul and the air leaves my lungs.
Chapter One
Dominic
Present day …
There’s a good reason why people tell the good girls to stay away from the bad boys. The guys who are trouble. It’s the same reason why the angel isn’t meant to be with the devil. The angel is always too good for him, even when she tries to see the good in him. The devil is filled with too much darkness to see the light.
That’s me and her.
Me: Dominic D’Agostino. Devil, darkness.
Her: Candace Ricci. The angel… my light.
She was nearly mine.
Almost then never...
I watch her walking around in her kitchen, completely oblivious to me. Her long honey blonde hair in that fishtail braid bounces as she moves from the cupboard to the counter with a plate. She’s beautiful with the kind of beauty that gets stuck in your head. Her willowy body with curves in all the right places is the kind that would have a man on his knees begging to touch her. She wouldn’t know though.
She’s the girl next door type who’s beautiful and doesn’t know it.
Contrary to what she’s always thought, she’s never far from my thoughts. Not even when I have a million things on my mind.
In the two years I’ve been away, she’s never been far from my heart either.
My plane touched down at LAX less than an hour ago and I came straight here.
Like a stalker, I’ve been standing on the roof of the apartment building opposite hers, watching her with a pair of binoculars. Thankfully, I'm enveloped by the thick darkness of night so no one can see me.
I'm far away from her, so far away. Yet that rose-infused scent that's always lingering in her hair is right here with me. Her silky, smooth skin still sparks the nerve endings on my fingertips, and the taste of her still burns my lips enticing my hunger for things I shouldn't want, but still crave.
As I look at her now, I remember finally having my taste of her perfect body that night we spent together.
That night is etched in my mind on replay, the same as the night I ruined everything and lost her.
Candace Ricci...
I don’t have a single childhood memory that doesn’t include her face.