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“God, shut the fuck up.”
“Lucia?”
“You too, bitch.”
A burst of pain echoes through my head, and then darkness.
When the light comes back,I’m in a room. The silence is deafening and scary. I take in the room. I’m still bound, but this time to a bed. It feels like an altar of sacrifice.
The door creaks open, and my fear ratchets up as I wait to see who has me. A figure enters, and while on one hand I’m not surprised, on the other, I’m disappointed. He grabs a chair and sits next to the bed.
He runs a finger down my cheek as if to comfort me, but instead it sends a chill down my spine. I stare at my father, wondering how he can be so cruel to his own daughter.
“Has Leone made you his whore, Elena?"
My eyes narrow into slits, the only weapons I have left.
A part of me wants to tell him everything. How I sold my virginity so that even if I had married Romeo, he wasn’t getting a virgin. I want to tell him how Niko touched me and how much I liked it. Instead, I simply narrow my eyes at my father. I’m so filled with hate at this man. Not just for what he has done to me, but to Niko as well.
A slap comes swiftly, stinging my flesh. It makes me wonder if he read my mind. "You will never see the light of day again," he hisses, each word laced with venom.
"You’ve cost me money, power." He leans back, studying the impact of his words. “You were meant to settle a debt, but Leone ruined you, and now you’re worthless."
I am not worthless. I run it like a mantra. I know I have value. Niko helped me see that.
"Lucky for us, Romeo still wants you. Not as his wife, of course. You’re too tainted for that. He’s coming to collect what's rightfully his."
My father rises from the chair. “He promised me that he’d be easy on you when you married, but now that you’re ruined, well… he has free rein. I suspect Tiberius will want some of you too.”
Bile rises at the thought of those men touching me.
“Give him what they want and you should be okay.”
Should be okay? Romeo’s reputation comes to me, and I know that I’m likely dead.
My father’s footsteps retreat, leaving me alone. How much time do I have? Despair fills me. And guilt that I’d never told Niko how I felt about him. How he’ll never know about thetwins. I pull on my restraints. I rack my brain for a path of escape. The room is empty of solutions.
All I can do is wait.
25
NIKO
Isit in my office, staring at my computer but not seeing the numbers that tell me how my business is doing.
What the fuck did I do?
I offered Elena her freedom. I gave her permission to leave me. It’s a mistake. I know it by the way my chest aches. How I can’t seem to breathe. She is mine. She belongs to me.
Elena has ruined me, turned me inside out. Before her, I took what I wanted without question, ruled my kingdom with an iron fist. What other people wanted didn’t matter. Now look at me. Pathetic. Weak. All because of one woman. A woman I couldn’t stand to see unhappy. In a moment of weakness, I gave her what she wanted. Deep down, I think I hoped she’d turn it down. That old adage about if you love something, set it free and if it comes back it’s yours or is meant to be, or something. But she didn’t come back. She is choosing to go free.
I open the drawer in my desk and pull out a bottle of scotch, pouring several fingers, and down it, hoping it will burn away the emptiness and pain. But of course, it doesn’t. Elena has become more than my prize, a pawn in a sick game of revenge. I want her by my side, and I know I can make that happen. I canprevent her from leaving. I can force her to stay with me. But like a sucker, what I want is for her to choose to stay. For her to look at me as hers, not just as her captor.
"Fucking hell." The words come out in a growl, a release of frustration that echoes through the room.
There’s nothing I can do, so I make an effort to shift my mind to the darker path in front of me. Revenge. Giovanni Fiori's name burns my thoughts, Tiberius Abate's along with him. And now, Romeo, a name added to the list after his botched attempt on my life last night at my own club. They will pay for their transgressions with their lives.
Once they're gone, Elena will have no reason to stay, no looming danger to bind her to my side. I laugh bitterly. Doing nothing, I keep her with me for her safety. But succeeding, I lose her.
