Betrothed To An Alpha? I Don't Think So!-Chapter 105: Bleeding

At the sound of those words, Valerio slowly turned and faced Luca.

Luca swallowed. He didn’t say a word, knowing that if he did, he would be questioned. But even regardless, Valerio proceeded to interrogate him.

"Lucas, do you know anything about this?"

He suspected him, and it was clear in his eyes. Luca was unsure whether to lie or tell the truth.

But if he told the truth, Valerio was going to kill him, there was no doubt about that. Lying was the only possible way to get out of this.

He gulped, shaking his head. "No."

"Lucas." His call was a warning one.

"Sir, I had no idea that Evelyn was missing. I only just found out now. I’ve been in the kitchen all day."

One of the guards nodded, vouching for him. "He has. He did plan to make meals for every one of us, which kept him very busy in the kitchen."

Valerio narrowed his eyes on him. He clearly wasn’t entirely convinced.

Luca stood as still as a statue, watching as the man began to lose it.

"Find her!’ Valerio ordered. "Outside the gate, search for her. She couldn’t have gone far. None of you should return her, not unless you find and bring her back to me, understood?"

"Yes sir!"

One of the two men took the order, hurrying off to gather the rest of his crew and go after Evelyn.

The remaining man asked, "What do we do in the meantime, sir?

Valerio looked at him. "How did she escape you?"

He went silent, not sure what even happened or how the woman they’d been guarding slipped away from under their noses.

He shook his head. "I’m not sure, boss. We were on guard since you left and not a single one of us left our post. We should have seen her, spotted her somehow, but it’s as if she poofed into thin air."

This made no sense. And especially to Valerio who eyed Luca. He was strongly eyeing the man.

"The CCTV camera," he said.

Luca’s stomach twisted, but he tried his best not to let it show on his face.

"Bring me the footage from today. Surely it must have captured how she escaped."

The bodyguard nodded, rushing off. While they waited, Valerio wouldn’t look away from Luca, deliberately making him uncomfortable with his gaze as if telling him that he knew he was the culprit.

But Luca was unwilling to fall for it. He was going to hold on to this lie until there was no way out.

Minutes more ticked by before the bodyguard finally returned.

He handed a tablet over to him. "The footage is on here, boss."

Valerio snatched the tablet, slowly watched every detailed movement from when he left the mansion.

Every second that ticked by, Luca grew more scared There was no way he wasn’t going to get cut. The CCTV footage existed. He hadn’t had the chance to erase them and it was only a matter of time before Valerio would see how he had helped Evelyn escape without being seen.

He’d been the only person Valerio had trusted enough to show that passage. And he used it against him.

Cold sweat dripped down his forehead. He gulped, parting his lips, wanting to—

Valerio lifted his gaze toward him.

They locked eyes and before Luca could even react, the tablet was thrown at him, the edge of it slamming into his temple.

The impact forced him to stagger back a bit, dizziness rippling through his body.

"I knew it was you," Valerio remarked. "I could smell the fear all over you, Lucas."

The bodyguard seemed shocked.

How had they not noticed? Come to think of it. It’d been weird when he all of a sudden wanted to make a meal for them, which was something Chef Lucas had never done before.

They’d wondered why he was being so generous, but shrugged it off. Who could have known it was to distract them?

"How dare you?"

Valerio questioned.

"Did you really think you could sneak my woman out of this mansion and I wouldn’t know? Are you that stupid?"

When Luca wouldn’t answer him fast enough, he punched so hard in the face that Luca saw the world tilt in his vision.

He stumbled back, falling to his knees. His hand came up to wrap over his nose which had begun bleeding profusely.

"Yo really sneaked her out through the passage I told you of, huh? Did you really think you would get away with fucking around with me?"

Luca breathed heavily, shoulders rising and falling in a rhythm. "Boss—"

Valerio snatched him by a good chunk of his brown hair.

"I’m going to need to teach you. To make you understand how bad what you’ve done is."

He dragged him across the floor.

Luca wasn’t a big man, nor was he too tall. He was barely 5’9 and lean, making it easy for Valerio to easily pull him around into the living room where he tossed him to the floor.

Before he could get up, the man kicked him so hard he spurted blood, coughing hard.

"Where did she run off to?" Valerio questioned. "Since you helped her escape, surely you must have given her somewhere to hide away from me, no?"

Luca could only keep coughing, unable to speak.

Valerio snatched his hair, made him look at him, and punched him hard against the face. "Answer me, you damn retard! Where the hell is she?"

Luca shook his head at him, forcing himself to respond, "I don’t...I don’t know." He spurted out the blood that had spread all over his mouth. "I only helped her escape, I-I have no idea where she went.

Valerio swung at his face again, beyond pissed off.

"You’re really testing my patience," he said, kicking him over and over again. "Where the fuck is my woman?! Where did you sneak her off to?"

When Luca couldn’t still answer, he punched, kicked, punched and kicked him again until the man could barely keep himself up now.

Valerio reached for the gun in the pocket of his pants, cocking and aiming it at him. "Should I just kill you?"

"Yeah, right, I should. Maybe that will make you talk, that is if you’re still alive when I do." His lips stretched into a grin.

Luca pulled himself up on his hands and knees, hunching over as he spat out more blood that kept rushing into his mouth.

"Tell me where she is, or you’re dead meat."

He couldn’t answer. His head was ringing and he felt he was going to collapse any minute from now.

Valerio approached closer to him, lowered the metal head against his temple, and proceeded to pull the trigger—

A shot was fired. One that had everyone going as still as a statue.

A beat passed before Valeri felt this excruciating pain travel up his entire system, jolting him. He lowered his gaze to his hand, taking a second to realize.

His hand was...

...Bleeding.