“Am I?” I cock my head to the side. “I don’t see it that way. I’m telling you a truth. You want to give me away, and—”

“I can’t fucking marry you!” he roars.

The ferocity in his tone makes me freeze, and when I recover from the flinch and dare a glance up at him, I know this is the beast inside him coming out to play.

“I know you won’t.” I force the words up my raw throat. “You said you’d never marry at all. Tell me why, and then we’ll never discuss it again.”

He drags himself away from me, taking another long pull from his scotch. I haven’t ever seen Judge drink this much, and admittedly, it’s a little disturbing. But I know this might be the only time I get my answers from him.

“Because Theron was right.” His eyes are inky pools of black when he turns his gaze back on me. “You don’t understand the things I’m capable of. The darkness that lived in my grandfather lives in me too. I can only keep it caged for so long before it’s inevitable I end up hurting someone.”

“That’s not who you are,” I argue.

“It is.” He hurls the bottle of scotch at the wall, and it shatters, making me wince.

“We all have a monster inside us.” I rush to get the words out as the vein in his neck pulses, his anger rising. “But we have free will too. It’s up to you to decide—”

“You don’t know what he did.” His words echo off the walls, ricocheting around us like shrapnel. “To my mother. To my grandmother. They were subservient to his monster, and any wife of mine would be too. It’s the path I’m destined for.”

“Bullshit!” I hurl the words back at him, my voice choking desperately as he stalks toward me in a fury. “That’s not who you are. It’s just the lie you tell yourself.”

“Shall we test that theory?” He cages me in against the stone wall with his arms, his breathing ragged, his voice unrecognizable.

“Threaten me all you want.” I bring a trembling hand to his chest, settling it over his beating heart. “I know what’s in here. I’ve seen it.”

“God, you really are delusional.” He laughs mockingly.

“Fuck you.” I shove him hard to provoke him. “You want to be an asshole, then do it. Hurt me. Give it your best shot. But I should warn you, you better come prepared to top the great Lorenzo De La Rosa. Unless you carve scars as deep as his in my flesh, then I’ll see you as nothing more than weak.”

Judge’s nostrils flare, and he seizes my wrist, yanking me so close his breath feels like fire against my lips. “Do. Not. Fucking. Test. Me.”