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I wouldn’t discard that possibility. She’d been living her idyllic life until I showed up at her house. All of this is a lot for her to take in, but she’s strong. I know she has a fire in her, and she’ll be fine.

She’s been alone with her thoughts for too long. Something like that used to happen to me sometimes, in moments when I had zero control over my life. She must be thinking about a way to escape, or she’s wondering what will happen to her.

I don’t want her to be uncomfortable around me, even though I don’t know if that’s possible anymore. The Chiara from Amore Bruciante will never be mine again, and deep down, that annoys me.

I go to the closet and pull out a pillow and blanket. As I toss it all onto the floor, Chiara looks at me.

“What are you doing?” she asks.

“I’m not leaving you alone.” I’ll just sleep on the floor here. If anything happens and she makes even the slightest sound of distress, I’ll wake up. My body is trained to know when I’m supposed to be on alert.

Her lips part in surprise, and I wait for her to protest.

“You must have a bunch of free rooms in this building,” she says.

“I do. And?”

She settles on her side, still watching me. “Nothing.”

“I won’t cuff you,” I say. “I’m sure you’re aware my men are right outside. I’m a very light sleeper, so if you try anything, I’ll throw you in the basement and you won’t like it there.”

I won’t do that even if she attacks me in my sleep. The basement is too dark, dirty, and damp. Not to mention all the blood that has seeped into the cracks and is too hard to clean.

And if I did that, then I’d have to be right there with her. But she doesn’t have to know any of that. To her, I’m a monster. She and I are completely different anyway.

I settle on the floor. Our gazes lock. She doesn’t look away, and neither do I. Her face is so beautiful in the dim light.

I wouldn’t mind lying down next to her, just breathing in her scent and feeling her warmth. If she was really my wife, I wouldn’t even mind. She now knows who I really am, we’re perfectly compatible in bed, and I still haven’t gotten bored of her.

Worse, I’ll have to let her go and I’ll never discover all of her secrets and what it is about her that makes her so attractive.

But she should have her idyllic life back. She’ll get over this and move on.

I’min the middle of nowhere. People pass me by, but I can’t see their faces. They’re all bigger than me. Huge. Everything is dark and full of shadows. One of the shadows steps forward. I recognize Gennaro’s face. He looms over me.

“Your parents didn’t want you. No one ever will. You only have me,” he says. “But that’s only for as long as your skills are useful to me.”

He disappears, and shadows start closing in on me. I want to move, but I can’t.

CHAPTER 20

Chiara

My eyes fly open.Adriano is mumbling something in his sleep. I eye him carefully. It’s dark, but I can see he’s in some kind of distress.

“Don’t leave me,” he whispers.

Is he having a nightmare? His breathing is ragged, and his body is shaking as if he’s trying to move but can’t.

“Adriano?” I say softly.

He doesn’t hear me. I want to go over to him, but I don’t want to end up in the basement. Snatching a pillow, I toss it across the room. My aim sucks, so it ends up landing nowhere near him.

But Adriano rolls over, jumps up, and aims his gun at the pillow and then at me. I gasp. Where the hell did that gun come from and how did he do all that so fast?

I lift my hands up, not daring to move. He looks around the room and turns on the lights. I squint at him. His forehead is beaded with sweat.

“What the fuck did you just do? Throw a pillow at me?” he asks.