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I took a step back as he got closer, then another, but his legs were longer, his strides wider. He was standing right in front of me in just four big steps, and I’d backed myself up right through his doorway and into his room.
“Tell me the truth,” I said, grappling for composure as he stopped so close, I could feel his warm breath against my forehead.
“What truth?” he asked.
“Any of it. All of it.” Something to explain why the hell I hadn’t bolted when I’d had the chance.
“All right,” he said with a nod. “‘On the first day, God created light…’”
I huffed. “You killed a man. And you kidnapped me. But you say you want to keep me safe, and it seems everyone I conveniently run into sings your praises. And I…” I hesitated.
“You what?”
“I’m not a good judge of character, Amadeo. I’m a good judge of diseases, of trauma. I can recognize when a person is all but banging on Death’s door, but you…” I shook my head. “I don’t have a lot of experience reading people.”
The left corner of his lips pulled up in a smile that would have been a boyish grin if it weren’t for the very adult heat warming his amber eyes.
“I’m a killer. I hunt down assholes who take advantage of other people, and I take great delight in snuffing out their lives. I sell bad things to bad people. And I hurt people when I have to… and when I want to.” Desire flashed in his eyes, so vivid and so potent it left me feeling breathless and in no doubt about the context in which he enjoyed inflicting pain.
My throat had gone dry. I had to swallow before I could go on. “What is it you want from me, Amadeo?”
I hadn’t meant for the question to come out breathy and needy, but I had a feeling it had. The truth was, regardless of how we’d come to be standing here, I’d never been so blatantly attracted to a man. I could go days without thinking about the occasional fifteen minutes of quasi-enthusiastic sex with Elio, but this man, he was big and dangerous and powerful. It awoke something inside me that had forever been asleep. A part of me I wasn’t at all sure I liked.
“What I want from you right now,perla,is your help.”
My help? The words felt like a bucket of ice water.
“You want my help?”
He nodded, his heated gaze still fixed on mine.
Of course, he did. And wasn’t I just fool enough to give it?
Chapter Fifteen
Heidi
“What is it you need my help with?” I asked as I took a small step back from him and tried to regain my wits. Because this wasn’t desire radiating from him; this was seduction. He was trying to use my attraction to him to bend me to his will.
“I need you to take a look around those two properties I told you about, Heidi.”
I drew myself up taller, remembering our roles here. Not lovers. Not friends. Captor and captive.
“That seems like a rather odd request,” I said.
“You said you spent time there as a child. I need you to see if anything jumps out at you—a faux wall, a hiding spot in the floor.”
“Why on earth would you want me to–” I clamped my lips shut as the answer dawned on me. “You really think there’s money there—the money Elio was talking about. And you want it.”
I did my best not to feel slighted by the realization that money was all this man was after.
He shook his head and looked at me like I’d sprouted a second head. “I don’t give a flying fuck about the money,perla.I’ve got more than enough to last me several lifetimes.”
I eyed him doubtfully. From what I understood about rich men, one thing they all had in common was the desire to become richer.
“Then why?”
Instead of answering me, he stared at me. Perhaps he was grappling for a noble reason that might sway me.
