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How did I forget about this? Of course Salvatore still thinks I’m his. What did he say to me the night he gave this to me… “Now you belong to me.” Fuck.
I curled my fingers around the antique key that I’d once held with such excitement and pride, and suddenly I felt ill to my stomach. I had to give it back. That was the last connection. That was the final thing that kept me bound to him.
I shoved the drawer shut and sat on my couch, staring at the key and thinking of what I would say when the clock finally hit ten, when I could go to the Wolfe’s Den and put an end to this once and for all. It was time to go back to where this all began.
WHEN THE TAXI pulled up out the front of the den, I steeled myself against what I would encounter once I got inside. Maybe he wouldn’t even be there tonight. But there was no way I was going back to his condo on my own, so this was my best option. Plus, I was pretty sure if he wasn’t there, the minute I was granted access, he would be alerted. That seemed his style.
I climbed out of the cab and, with no hesitation this time at all, marched up to the front entrance and swung the door wide. No one was going to get in my way tonight. Salvatore had wanted my attention, and now he had it.
I looked at the behemoth of a security guard. “Hey,” I said, refusing to give even the slightest hint of nerves. “How’s it going tonight?”
When he merely stared at me, I shrugged. He hadn’t thrown me out on sight, so at least Salvatore hadn’t issued that order for a second time. I walked up to the desk, clearly not in the appropriate attire required for the den, but when I handed over my key, the man didn’t even question me. He inserted it into the lock used to check it was authentic, and when it cleared, he grabbed one of the deposit boxes and opened it for me. I emptied my wallet and phone into the box then locked it with my fingerprint and waited for the doors to open.
It was funny how something that had once been so foreign to you could become achingly familiar after only a couple of visits. But as I stepped through the double doors and did a sweep of the Rendezvous Site, my eyes landed on the bar and the curved mirrored wall behind it, and I had a flash of memory over what had happened in Salvatore’s office.
“Jesse?”
I turned to look at the woman who’d given me a tour of the den on my last visit here. Trinity, that was her name. And being that she was Salvatore’s right-hand woman, she was exactly who I needed to talk to.
“Where is he?” I said, skipping over any niceties or formalities. This woman wasn’t stupid, and she certainly wasn’t ignorant, so I had to believe she was aware that I hadn’t been back to the den since I’d last seen her, and that her boss was likely acting…out of sorts.
“Jesse, I don’t think—”
“I didn’t ask you to think,” I said, getting sick and tired of people thinking they could tell me what to do, how to act, and yes, how to fucking think. “I asked where he is.”
One of her perfectly shaped eyebrows rose at my demand. “He’s down on level five, the—”
“Lair. I know.”
She stepped aside, and as I went to brush by her, she took hold of my forearm and stopped me. I glanced down at her hand and then up to meet her eyes, and noticed her lips were drawn tight as she stared at me. Her face was a serious, unreadable mask, and for a second I thought she was about to toss me out on my ass.
“I told him to stay away from you,” she said under her breath. “I knew this wouldn’t end well the minute I saw you.”
I clenched my jaw, wondering if she meant it wouldn’t end well for Salvatore or for me.
“You’re too much like him—”
“Like Lee?”
Trinity gave a quick nod. “Yes. Up until now, he only ever played with subs. He never got serious, and he certainly never slept with them. But the second I saw you, and his reaction to you, I knew you would be his undoing.”
She said it as though it were my fault. As though I had purposely come to the den in search of Salvatore to destroy him, when it had been the complete opposite. He had sought me out and set about destroying me.
I yanked my arm out of her grip and narrowed my eyes. “Is that all?”
“Isn’t that enough?”
“I suppose it is,” I said, and headed toward the stairwell, but before I got there, I looked back to her. “I assume you’ll call ahead so I won’t be stopped?”
