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"Well, she's a bi…."
Angelo cuffed him before he could finish the sentence. "Don't," he said. "Disrespecting women is not tolerated in this household."
"It's not? I guess it's never really come up before, but…."
Bobby dodged another open-palmed slap, the cups clattering on the tray.
"What's she going to do, exactly?"
"I don't know," Angelo replied. "But I am sure whatever it is, we'll be very amused. Let's see what Digby thinks of all this."
"Oh, yes! Let's!" Bobby put on a fake accent and clapped his hands together.
Lord Digby did not look terribly aristocratic. He was naked aside from a pair of boxer shorts, and he was chained by an ankle to a very solid fitting in the floor, which gave him a radius of five feet to travel within. He had grown the beginnings of a beard, though it was patchy and not terribly healthy-looking.
Upon seeing Angelo, he straightened a little but knew better than to make anything along the lines of challenging eye contact. There were marks over his back, shoulders, and legs indicating if not torture, at the very least, torment.
"Your sister was here." Angelo wasted no time informing his captive of recent events.
"Gwendolyn came here?"
"No. Willow."
"Oh. Willow. Oh." Digby laughed. "Old man, you are in real trouble now. Willow is terrifying in a way words can barely begin to describe. She's not married, you know."
"Not married. How horrifying," Angelo deadpanned.
"It is. Do you know what a woman of her wealth and looks has to be like in order to avoid matrimony for as long as she has? Willow is the most terrifying creature on the planet. More venomous than an asp, she is. She wanted me; I'll bet."
"She did."
Digby's face became hollow in the shadows as he lowered his head and his voice to a hoarse whisper. "You can't give me to her."
That was not the response Angelo had expected. He had thought Digby would start crowing gleefully about his impending freedom.
"I cannot?"
"No! Gods no! I'd rather be here with your electrodes on my balls than in her custody. Willow is…" he shuddered. "If she had me, I'd be forced to do as she wills. I'd become her pawn in the House of Lords."
"And you'd rather remain a captive in my basement than vote the way your sister wants you to?"
"You don't understand. Willow has agendas on top of agendas. If she wants me back, it's not to have me back. It's because she has a use for me."
The more Angelo heard about Willow, the more familiar she sounded. It was like looking into a mirror, except it was a mirror made with words. Willow was far younger than he was, but she was clearly a threat - or Digby wanted him to consider her one.
Angelo turned on his heel and left the basement, his quivering captive none the wiser as to his decision on the matter.
Bobby was lurking at the top of the stairs. As usual, he had his tablet with him. It seemed to be impossible to extricate the boy from the tool.
"I'll take that." Angelo snatched the tablet out of Bobby's hands.
"Hey!"
"You are banned from the Internet from now on, boy. And I will have your ass over my desk for a good long reckoning soon enough."
"But…"
Angelo rounded on his mate, a shadow falling over Bobby's petulant expression.
"You know better than to share the intimate details of our lives with the world. You know the dangers involved with doing so. You know that the ultimate sin you could possibly commit is betraying me - betraying us by sharing what we do with the world. I can only assume you've been bored and are looking for some painful personal entertainment. Well, my boy, you shall have it."
"I'm not bored, Angelo. I'm lonely."
The simple sentence seemed to rock Angelo. His head jerked back. He looked down his nose at Bobby in concern and surprise.
"How could you possibly be lonely? We share an intimacy few know."
"Yes. We do. But there's nobody else outside us who knows anything. Mark used to be here, and then Tilly. It started to feel…."
"Like a family?" Angelo finished his sentence with surprising empathy. Or perhaps it was not surprising. Nobody could be capable of Angelo's level of cruelty without also being deeply empathetic.
"Maybe. Yeah." Bobby shrugged.
"I miss them too. But that baby, and that woman, are not safe unless we take on this mantle of secrecy. So you, my boy, are banned from the internet until further notice. If I find you so much as posting a cat meme, I will whip you until you can't sit for a month."
"Does that mean you're not going to do anything this time?"
"It does not," Angelo said, tapping him on the nose. "You are in trouble. But we have work to do first."
Hidden Moments
Willow's hands trembled slightly as she removed her gloves. The thrill of being inside the Vitali mansion had still not worn off, even after an hour by car. She had never encountered such a magnetic man before. Angelo was not what she had expected. She had anticipated violent threats, but Angelo acted as though he had never done anything violent in his life. He was laid back and calculating, deeply intelligent, and entirely the master of his domain.
