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At those moments, she thought she’d won this great victory, and I was caving to her charms. I can’t wait to tell her how much she sickens me.
There’s a soft knock on the door, and I turn my head to the sound. Better to hear it. “Hello?” a voice calls. I know her voice almost as well as I know Rose’s. It haunts my dreams.
I don’t answer her. Instead, I throw myself down on the bench, waiting.
“Hello? I know you’re awake in there. I’d like to come in and discuss terms.”
I make a noise low in my throat. “By all means, please, come in. I’d be happy to discuss my illegal incarceration and shove your face into the wall a few times.”
She laughs, actually laughs, like I’m not dead serious. “Oh, you naughty boy, I do like them with spirit.”
I curl my lip and stare toward the sound, waiting to find out what she really wants. She can come in, but that doesn’t mean I’ll play by her rules.
“I’m opening the door. Now, you behave yourself, or I’ll send one of the guards to see Ms. Barone. He likes them on the heftier side and would love to make her acquaintance.”
I drop my mouth open. “You kidnap us, and then you have the nerve to insult her? How dare you? I don’t want to hear her name in your mouth again.”
The door clicks open, and a sliver of light illuminates her thin frame from behind. “Remember what I said.”
I clench my fists. “Do you remember what I said? I will kill you. It might not be today, but soon. I warned you what would happen if you came after me.”
I try to stare into her eyes, so she knows I’m serious. “Besides, you can do what you want with Rose. She was only my way of gaining protection from the Chicago council. Which seems to be worthless anyway.”
She gives me a scathing look. “I didn’t take over this city by being an idiot. I know you and Ms. Barone married, and I know you, the consummate rake, wouldn’t stoop so low unless you actually had feelings for the girl.”
“Do you listen to yourself speak? Rake? Did you just call me a slut in crazy?”
I bring my knees up and hug them to my chest. There’s no reason to give her a free show, especially when she’s going to take it herself soon anyway.
Her eyes scan my body, the heat there turning my stomach. “Do behave, Kai, or I’ll be sure to pay Rose an extra special visit.”
I shrug. “As I said, she means nothing to me. You just happen to catch us both together. That doesn’t mean we are really together.”
“That may be true, but I know Adrian wouldn’t take kindly to his new bride’s cousin being maimed or killed and left skinned on his doorstep.”
That’s fair. Adrian’s word is law. Anyone in our world knows that. If Rose is hurt in any way, it will be my fault since I’m the one he trusted with her safety and, in the end, Valentina’s happiness.
She knows she has me now, her eyes crinkling as she smiles.
“What in the hell do you want from me? I’m not sleeping with you willingly, so there’s no reason for you to be here trying to negotiate.”
She crosses the room, and I hope she steps in the puke I left there. If there is a god in the universe, he’d make it happen. Sadly, she stops short of that area, her eyes scanning the cell and then landing back on me. “Oh, I think you will cooperate, but as you remember, I don’t need you to be willing. I just need you breathing to take what I want.”
I want to spit at her, launch myself across the room, and throw her headfirst into a wall. With her delicate frame, she’d break pretty easily. How would she react if the situations were reversed? But I get the desire to want to break someone, to bend to your will. I don’t want her broken; I want her fucking destroyed.
“How do you intend to make me cooperate?”
Her eyes call me an idiot while her smile promises pain. “Ms. Barone, of course. I told you I’m not stupid. I promise to keep her safe if you just come to my bed willingly.”
“The only reason she was in danger in the first place was because of your vendetta against me.”
She clasps her hands in front of her silk robe. “Well then, I guess you shouldn’t have dragged her into this by aligning yourself with her.”
It hits me…she’s fucking jealous.
Somehow, she found out I’d gone off alone with Rose to hide, and she got jealous. It’s the only thing that makes sense. The only thing that explains why she’d come after me so hard after she agreed with Adrian not to pursue me until after the hearing. I keep that little nugget to myself for the moment and try to think of how to use it to my advantage.
If I can get within a foot of her, I can snap her neck as easily as a twig. It was a lot harder when she tied you to a bed and rode you like her own personal saddle horse.
