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Alessa grabs a fistful of my hair, wrenching my head back. Our faces are inches apart now, her breath hot on my lips. I'm panting and so is she, rage and twisted desire swelling between us, ready to detonate.

"You destroyed my life," she hisses.

"I did what I had to do," I hiss back.

Her eyes bore into me, seeking truth. Finding it. Her grip in my hair eases, the fury fading from her face. She looks torn, confused. Lost.

And seeing that vulnerability, my anger melts away. "Alessa..." I whisper.

Just saying her name unleashes a deluge of emotions inside me. The weeks of craving her, needing her. My despair when I realized how deep in I really was.

Alessa jerks back from those emotions bared naked on my face, conflict in her eyes.

"If you plan to kill me," I choke out, my throat tight, "just do it."

Without a word, she spins and strides from the room.

CHAPTER5

ALESSA

I practically run up the stairs and into the gardens, where I clench my fists and clamp my teeth together to stop the scream building up inside of me. It's too much. I look at her, and the fury inside me…

It dulls.

And I hate that. Ihatethat she can make me weak, that she can tame the tempest inside of me with just a soft look.

I leave her there for an hour to think about things, and then I descend again, determined this time. Determined to take my vengeance.

But again, when I get down there—rouse her from a light doze, it seems—and she looks at me, some weak part inside me softens. Shivers.

Opens up.

I stare at Special Agent Natalie Miller, taking in every detail of the woman who betrayed me. Her blonde hair is in a haphazard ponytail, no longer tamed in the elegant up-dos she wore as Natalie Moreau. The makeup and designer clothes are gone too, leaving her looking younger, softer. More like the woman underneath who was trying to play dress-up in my world.

As expected, Natalie recoils again when she sees me, her shoulders curling in defensively. Good.

"Alessa, please just listen—"

"You betrayed me!" My voice is harsh even to my own ears, and Natalie flinches. "You lied about who you were, wormed your way into my life under false pretenses. You made me—made mecarefor you." I swallow hard. I can't afford to look weak.

"I never meant to hurt you." Natalie's voice trembles. "I didn't know—I didn't know they planned to arrest you, and especially not in public, at the gala. I had no idea—"

"That it was all part of their grand plan?" I snarl, venom lacing my words. "You, the central piece of their operation—you hadno idea?" I widen my eyes in a mockery of innocence. Humiliation burns through me afresh. The stares, the whispers that night—and then the media circling for every scrap of dirt on the dethroned Mafia princess.

It was a meticulously planned takedown.

I lean in close. "I know how the FBI works. How long you spent burrowing into my life, whispering poison into my ear. Making me lower my guard. I wonder—do they know everything you did? Did they enjoy pimping you out, their obedient little whore, designed to entice? To entrap?"

Natalie shakes her head helplessly. "That's not…" She doesn't finish, her breath shaky.

The memory of her skin gliding against mine flashes through my mind. A flare of heat, quickly extinguished.

"So it was just part of the job for you, seducing me. Is that right?" My laugh sounds hollow to my own ears. "Tell me, how far would you have gone to get your evidence? There were no limits for the sake of your case, were there? Because someone planted evidence when they couldn't find what they were looking for. Was it you?"

Lucia told me in confidence that the only evidence they seemed to have against me was a bag full of cash, and a kilo of coke. Neither of those should have been in the Ruby Realm, and I told her as much; the casino staff never left money lying around in duffel bags, for God's sake, and drugs werealwaysprohibited throughout the entire club, specifically so there would never be cause for a raid.

I think Lucia even believed me. But now I'm starting to wonder who put them there.