Page 10

CHAPTER 10

Alessandro

“ I van D’Addario just left the police station with Catherina,” the man on the other end of the line informs me. “It’s the fifth station he’s been to today.”

A smile plays on my lips, but it quickly dies when I glance over at the woman on the bed. She’s curled up in the bed, her eyes blank.

What the hell is wrong with her?

I should be the one in that pathetic position. After all, I’m the one who was about to cross a line and kiss a woman I’m supposed to be destroying. After days of not seeing her and not even checking through the security feeds of the apartment, I thought whatever effect she had on me as Vincent, the businessman, would be gone.

But one glance at her lying at the foot of the stairs with her hair falling in untamed coils around her face and all my resolve comes crashing down around me like a house of cards.

Damn her.

Damn her to hell.

“He looks like a wreck, boss,” my informant continues, sounding amused. “I have pictures, and I’ll send them right after this call.”

“Good. Keep me posted if anything changes.”

“Yes, boss.”

I hang up, and a second later, my phone dings with the pictures from my informant. Each one shows Ivan looking even more drained than the last, new lines bracketing his mouth and lining his forehead. He looks like he has aged in the span of a few days.

The sight makes my heart pound in my chest. Imagine how he’ll look after a month. A year.

I wait for the satisfaction to fill my chest, but there’s only the mildest flicker of it. I dig deep within myself, confused.

This is what I want. I’m getting exactly what I’ve always wanted. So why does it make me feel like the type of monster I pride myself on not being?

Grinding my jaw together, I march toward Sienna and thrust the phone at her face. “There’s your beloved father.”

She raises her head slowly and stares at the phone screen. I see joy light up her eyes for a second before her sorrow replaces the expression.

“What have you done to him?” she roars at me, reaching for the phone.

I let out a mocking laugh and tuck the phone back into my pocket. “You’re the one who’s doing this to your father.”

“W—what do you mean by that?”

I shake my head in mock pity. “If you weren’t so gullible, so desperate to fall into a stranger’s bed, you wouldn’t have ended up here, and Ivan wouldn’t be wasting away with worry.”

She recoils, shame written on the lines of her face. “I—you’re just trying to manipulate me. This isn’t my fault! You’re the one who curated a false image and lured me in.”

“And now that you know who I am,” I retort, “do you hate me so much that you won’t spread your legs for me the first chance you get?”

Disgust twists her expression. “Never.”

I’m prepared for her denial, but what I’m not prepared for is the way it makes fury race through me. On the outside, my expression remains serene, but on the inside, I’m boiling.

There’s something wrong with me. I’m all twisted up over this woman who I should hate with every fiber of my being, and I want her to be as mindless as me with this cursed desire.

“I could never want a man like you,” she spits. “You’re so hell-bent on your destruction that you’ll let it destroy you. You may think you’re destroying us, but all three of us are going to burn in your flames of revenge.”

I shrug carelessly. “Maybe. But at least I’ll get to watch that bastard go up in flames first. When I burn, I’ll know I’ll be meeting Ivan in hell.”

She drops her head, and her fists clench the material of the grey wool pants she has on. The color washes her out, and I make a mental note to have one of my men get her something in a brighter color.

Shit!

Did I really just have that thought?

Sienna is my captive, and it’s time I make that clear. “And one more thing. The next time you pull a trick like that, you’ll lose your clothing privileges, and I’ll send your dear father photos. Do you know the kind of thoughts that would be in the prosecutor’s mind if he received photos of you stripped of all clothing?”

Her hazel eyes go saucer wide. “You won’t.”

“I’m a monster, remember,” I tell her. “Behave, Sienna. Or you won’t like what will happen to you.”

I turn to leave, and she leaps to her feet. “You won’t get away with this!”

I glance over my shoulder at where she’s standing, her chin thrust in the air and shoulders squared. She thinks she looks forbidding with her hands fisted and eyes flashing, but the only thing on my mind is pushing her face first against the wall and finding out if all that anger will translate into burning passion in the bedroom.

“I’m going crazy here, Alessandro. Please. You can’t leave me here. I can’t stay in here. I’m—” A sob rips from her throat. “Just please. I need something to do. Anything.”

A laugh escapes my mouth, and I turn to face her. “The quicker you begin to accept your fate, the better for you.”

There is a light knock on the glass door behind me, and I smirk. “It seems your present is here.”

“What present?”

The door clicks open, and the man in charge of watching over the building slips a box in through the small crack of the door. I pick up the box and open it.

Sienna takes a wary step backward, eyes fixed on the box in my hands.

“Come here,” I order.

“What’s that thing?” she snaps.

I take a step forward, and she takes an answering step backward. I don’t have time for her games, so in a flash, I rush toward her and grab her by the shoulder before twisting her around and pushing her against the wall.

She screams as she’s banged against the wall. “Please don’t hurt me. Please!”

I wrap her curls around my fist and use it to yank her head backward. When her neck is bared, I pull out the silver object from the box and clasp it around her neck. It locks with an audible click at the back of her neck, and then I back away.

She whirls around, her hands going to her throat.

“Beautiful,” I can’t help but whisper.

It’s a silver electronic choker that can only be unlocked by my fingerprint. With the device around her neck, she can try to run, but she won’t get very far. I considered putting a chip on her but changed my mind.

The device around her neck looks a lot like a collar, and a sense of ownership fills me at the sight of it.

I push the thought away.

Sienna is not mine.

At least not permanently.

“You can’t do this! You bastard! I’m not cattle that you can just put a tag on,” she roars, outraged.

“If I were you, I’d really watch the way you speak to me.” My mouth twitches. “If you play your cards right, Ivan can have an extra six months of life. But with the way you’re mouthing off, I’m beginning to think you aren’t all that interested in keeping him alive.”

“Six months.” Her voice is a broken whisper. I see in her eyes that the reality of her situation has finally caught up with her. There’s no escape. Only death.

As the glass doors begin to close behind me, I hear a choking sob leave her throat, like that of a dying animal. My feet keep me rooted in place, and I find that I cannot look at her. I can’t watch her break.

Years of waiting for this moment, and now that I have it, I can’t even savor it.

Jaw clenched, I cross the apartment in long strides until I’m at the elevator, then I swipe my key card over the panel. There is only one key card that can open this elevator. That precaution is the only reason Sienna didn’t succeed in her prison break today.

My threat and the collar that now sits prettily around her throat are extra necessary steps.

The elevator whisks me down to the barren lobby of the building, and I toss the key card at Maurizio on my way out of the building.

My matte black McLaren is waiting in the underground garage, the only car in the expansive space, and I climb into it. The engine purrs to life beneath me, and I gun it out of the garage, speeding over the deserted road as far away from Sienna D’Addario as I can go.

But that broken sound follows me all the way back to my house.

The wrought iron gates open as I approach it, and I speed in, ignoring my men patrolling the grounds.

“Boss, the crates of?—”

I ignore the man and storm into the house, expecting the calmness that the house gives me to erase any thoughts of the dark-haired woman. This place is my sanctuary. I’ve never brought a woman back here. With all the chaos in my world, I’ve made sure to keep this place exempt from all of it.

The bloodshed, the deceit, the backstabbing, the desperate women. None of it comes back here. I kick my shoes off at the door and climb the stairs barefoot across the cool tiles.

Stripping off my clothes at my bedroom door, I slip into the shower and turn the knob for hot water. But no matter how much it beats against my skin, there is no relief.

I almost wish I hadn’t killed Dayna. Almost.

With an irritated curse, I storm out of the shower and dry myself jerkily before falling into my bed. I can swear Sienna’s scent follows me here. Something fruity but sharp, like the first taste of citrus.

“Damn her,” I bite out.

I’m a busy man, and I don’t have time for this nonsense. I don’t have time to get my head jumbled up by a slip of a woman. I need to go to bed and wake up fresh and ready to jump back into the dark corners of my world.

Spreading my legs, I wrap my hand around my semi-hard length and squeeze, feeling the sensation tingle up my spine.

If I don’t think of her, then I can justify that my hard-on isn’t for her. I’m a horny bastard, that’s all this is. She has nothing to do with what I’m about to do.

My mind is screaming at me that I’m a bloody liar—and not a very good one at that—but I drown out the voice and begin to tug at my pulsing cock.

“Hmm,” I grunt as my fist moves faster and faster, pre-cum sliding out of my tip and providing lubrication for my hand.

My thumb slides over my leaking tip each time I move my fist and twist at the head. My orgasm is close, but there’s something missing.

I let out a moan as I push into my fist, my hips fucking upward until my balls draw up, aching for a release.

A sudden image flashes through my mind. Sienna is kneeling at my feet, wearing nothing but splatters of paint, the collar around her neck. She bites her lip and then glances up at me shyly from under her lashes.

I erupt with a thundering roar, ropes of cum shooting up into the air and landing on my stomach. I continue to fuck my fist, drawing it out until I’m too sensitive to continue.

My eyelids begin to droop with exhaustion, and I just manage to wipe myself down with the duvet and fling it off the bed.

The last thought I have before I give in to my orgasm-induced sleep is that I’m not as in control of this whole plot as I originally intended.