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Immediately, I bring my hands to the front of me, rubbing the raw skin of my wrists where the ties bit into my flesh.

"Olivia," he says in that deep voice. "Now, we need to talk about what you saw."

SEVEN

Sam

"Ididn't see anything," Olivia says, her blue doe eyes flashing up at me. She's still seated in the chair, just like I told her, and there's something about her obedience that sends a spike of pleasure through me.

I want to see what other demands she'd obey, what those eyes would look like with my cock between her lips and her knees on the floor.

Jesus.I shake the images from my brain. I'm just sex deprived from being locked up for months, my mind running wild with these imaginary scenarios. But this isn't the appropriate time to be fantasizing. Right now, I need to make a decision about what I'm going to do with the girl.

It should be an easy one. Anyone else in my predicament would kill her. No witnesses, that's the way it needs to be. I have no desire to go back to prison just because some girl saw me put a bullet in my uncle while she was taking out the trash.

"We don't kill women, Sam. Ever."My father’s words ring through my head, a moral code he instilled in me. I've killedmany men in my life; my line of work calls for it, after all. But I've never killed a woman.

This cognitive dissonance leaves me in a frozen state. I can't have a witness, but I can't kill the girl.

She's still looking up at me, blue eyes shining brightly with hope as she waits for me to bestow her punishment for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Iwantto punish her. I’m coming up with all kinds of dirty images, but death isn't one of them.

"Tell me more about how you didn't see anything, Miss Marchese." I redirect my attention, tamping down the unwarranted thoughts.

Her pink lips press together, eyes dropping from mine as she considers her response carefully. "Well, I was taking out the trash, and the bag broke when I went to toss it into the dumpster." She exhales a heavy breath. "It was wrong of me to leave it there, but I did. I went back into the bar and began to prep for service." Her gaze returns to meet mine, reminiscent of a student anxiously waiting to know if they passed the test.

And she did. She's lying, but her lies tell me exactly what I need to hear. That she doesn't intend to tell anyone about what she saw in that alley.

She's innocent.

But trust is a hard thing to give out. Especially when I've been burned before. She may be innocent, but I can't risk letting her go, only for her to skip on over to the police station and tell them what she saw.

Excuse me, Officer, I watched Sam Costello murder a man, and then he had me kidnapped.

I twist the gold metal on my finger, the signet ring with the Costello family crest. It belonged to my grandfather before it was passed down to my father, and now it belongs to me.

Mybirthright.

I'm the head of this family. I'm the one who needs to protect us. And I can't do that from prison.

And still, everything in me tells me not to kill the girl.

Her tongue darts across her lips as her hands clench on her thighs. She's quiet, but her eyes show me how nervous she is, how badly she wants to get out of this predicament.

She's handling this surprisingly well. I've seen men tied to that same chair, sobbing and pleading for their lives. But Olivia isn't crying or begging. She's saying all the right things and looking up at me like I'm the only one in the world with the power to save her.

Once again, visions of her on her knees resurface.

You could keep her.

It's a nasty thought that rears its head. Indecent. I can'tkeepher.

But then again, itwouldsolve my problem.

EIGHT

Olivia