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Does he not know she’s in the house? No. He assumed I’d move Sloane after I became aware he knew where I was residing. But really, all he had to do was have his men enter the house. Why the fuck is he in charge of his people? He can’t even think his plans through correctly.
“What makes you think I have her?”
“Damn it, Mikhail. If you fucking hurt her—”
“If I hurt her, what?” I interrupt. “You don’t even know her. Shit, Giovanni, you had all the resources to find her, but you didn’t. You took your sweet time looking for her. If she’s so important to you, how did I get her first?” A smug smile crosses my face, only frustrating him even more. Anger is getting the better of him—I can see it in his eyes.
“What do you want? You want money?”
I want my land.
“Money?” I laugh. “What makes you think I want your money?” I step toward him. “No, I don’t want a goddamn thing from you.”
His hand reaches behind him slowly.
“I wouldn’t do that.”
I can tell Giovanni is used to how Kirill handled things, but my brother and I are very different. Kirill would have taken the money and got on with his day, but I won’t make a deal until I’ve made Giovanni sweat. I want to show up in his nightmares. I don’t want him to feel a moment of peace. While he’s lying awake at night wondering how he’s going to get his sister, I’ll be taking back what’s mine. I will have my section of the city by the end of this.
“If you deliver another body part, expect one of your sister’s in return.”
He straightens his back. He’s growing nervous. “You wouldn’t hurt her. You need her as leverage.”
“It’s almost as if ... that’s the whole point,” I say with a smile. “That’s why it’s called leverage. As long as I have her, you can’t really do anything, can you?”
My feelings for Sloane don’t make any sense to me, but that doesn’t mean my threats can’t be empty. He needs to get the hell out of here and run back home to his precious wife. He came all the way here for nothing. There’s no way in hell I’m giving him his sister.
“If Sloane is leverage, it means you want something. Just tell me what you want,” he says, sounding annoyed.
“Jesus fucking Christ, do I really have to hear this shit again?” I ask as a cruel laugh slips past my lips. “Do you honestly think I came here to hear you out? See what it was that you had to offer me?”
He begins to talk, but I shut him up.
“You sorry shits have no idea how good this feels for my ego,” I mutter to him and his men as I place my hand on his shoulder. “Get some sleep. You look like you need it.”
I turn around on my heel. Just as I’m about to leave the building, I turn around slowly. “Oh, Giovanni,” I mutter.
He stands with his hands by his sides. His jaw ticks as he challenges me with his eyes.
“Give Nina my best.”
* * *
The second I set foot in the house, I see Sloane standing in all her glory, crazy hair bundled on top of her head. She’s holding a bag in her hands, and she walks up to me and shoves everything into my arms.
“When you leave, you take me with you,” she demands. “It’s six in the morning and I woke up next to Max! Why?”
The bag is heavy, full of her things. I never expected Sloane to have a getaway bag ... I can’t help but feel intrigued.
I look down at her and smile. The little devil is becoming more and more like me each day that passes. “I had a meeting,” I tell her.
“And you couldn’t tell me that?”
“Yes, I could’ve—” I start, but I’m quickly shut up by her argumentative voice. She starts to ramble on about how I can’t just leave her alone because I’m the only connection she has to her family. I feel bad, but then I remember all the cruel things she’s said to me. While some of them may have been deserved, I do feel she can take it too far at times.
I want to talk back to her and tell her I can do whatever I want, but then I remember what Max just told me. I have to listen while I still can.
Standing in front of her with my arms filled with her things, I listen to her completely shit on my existence and find it incredibly sexy of her. As she starts to run out of breath, I laugh loudly, the sound shocking both of us.
