“Because I don’t think you’re a threat to her at all, not when I’m here.”
Laughing internally, I stared at her for a second, and then I swooped down on her in one swift move and snatched the gun out of her pants. She threw a fist at my face and tried to knee me in the balls, her other hand reaching for the gun. The car was too confined for her to fight properly, not with my size pinning her to the back of the seat, barely letting her move. I unlocked the gun and put it to her temple.
Her angry breaths—smelled like vomit yet better than many days I’d spent in Domenico’s cage—seared the little air between us, her breasts grazing my chest, her heart banging against mine.
I smirked at her blanching face, at her lips that were twisting and twitching with all the curses she wanted to throw at me. “Now, what would a psycho killer sick fuck do in a situation like this beautiful one?”
“I’m not afraid of you.”
“Yes, you are. I could just kill you right now and then go kill Tino and take your sister. When you opened that cage, you unleashed a monster, Nicky, and you know it. You deluded yourself that you have it all under your control, but you know you have none.”
“Do it. What are you waiting for?”
“Maybe I should.”
“We both know you won’t. You’re keeping me alive because you need me to get you home.” She stared right into my eyes. “And to impress Lina. To show her that you saved her sister while her husband had no problem selling or killing her.”
I glided the muzzle down her face, along her neck and the line between her breasts. “Or maybe I want to have some fun first.”
Her nostrils flared, and her eyes moistened most likely against her will. “If you think for one second that you can touch me, you sick bastard—”
“Your mouth is too pretty for swearing, Nicky.” Every single part of her was pretty. Tempting the demons in any man to come out and play. No wonder Domenico went through all that trouble to have her. She was a beauty to kill and torture and betray for.
“Get. Off. Me.”
“And if I don’t?”
“Try anything and you’ll see.”
I chuckled, the fire in her adding to my admiration. Then, after taking one more gaze at her perfect body, I put down the gun I’d never intended to use on her and shuffled back to my seat. “I’d never hurt you, Nicky, and not just because of Lina.” I handed her the gun by the grip. “I was just showing you how wrong you are. The psycho killer sick fuck could have killed you any time he liked, but he’s choosing not to, even though you’re helpless against him and might be a potential threat in the future.”
She yanked the gun out of my fingers and secured it back in her pants, huffing. “What do you mean?”
“I’m not stupid either. I know you’ve already planned to use that gun on me as soon as Tino is dead. You won’t even wait for his men to finish the job.”
Surprise flashed in her eyes for a second followed by flaming rage. “But now you spared me, and I should feel obligated to do the same.”
“Do you?”
Her lips curled in a low snarl, but then the remainder of color in her face faded, and her eyes rolled back. Abruptly, her head fell on the wheel.
“Cazzo. Nicky?” I shook her. Her face was cold as fuck. “Nicky! What the fuck happened to you?!”
CHAPTER 19
Ravenna
Covered in snot and sweat, I twisted my ankles and toes and heels and every movable muscle and bone I had to reach the damn keys and failed. It was as though Leo had made expert calculations of where exactly to throw the keys so I wouldn’t reach them. I had no other option but to sit and wait until someone came for me.
I was grateful for the food and water they’d left me, even if I had to open the bags with my feet and eat and drink like a dog. I was grateful for the jacket, too. The cold wind in this house was blowing in with abundance.
My mind raced through the events of the day, the unforgettable, altering moments that had redefined my life. Today, I was kidnapped. By the one man I’d wanted more than any. He was a psychotic murderer that I’d fallen in love with. He viciously and dubiously took my virginity as punishment and revenge not love. Then he abandoned me in confusion, granting me what could have easily been the most twisted, beautiful jealous, possessive gesture I’d ever received in my life—sheltering my body from the eyes of other men as if I was truly only his—yet leaving to avenge the wife he’d lost to another man. The woman he couldn’t take out of his mind even though I was offering him everything I had to give. Even though he would die in his quest of avenging and reclaiming her.
Tears pierced me every time I reached that part. Then I consolidated myself with the vivid memories of his touch. I could still feel him on me, inside me. His skin, his scars, his scent, his voice, his brutal masculinity…all over me. At least, we had that.
What else could I have possibly gotten?
Not only had I betrayed him, but I was, no matter how hard I denied or tried to hide it, part Seppi. A secret I couldn’t reveal to him. Even if he seemed to have punished me enough to forgive me for Filicudi and spare my life, knowing I remotely belonged to the family that killed his mother would have turned the brief course of our reunion fatal.
