Page 16

CHAPTER 16

Alessandro

I take several moments to admire her from the one-way glass wall. She’s in another of those two-piece lounge sets. This one is the most boring shade of beige, and it completely washes her out.

Still, she’s so achingly beautiful.

Sitting in the center of the bed with her legs crisscrossed, she has a book open on her thighs, and she’s staring down at it like she’s being forced to read it.

My brows furrow as I watch her.

Is that not what she likes to read?

Before I can think too much about it, I pull my phone out from the pocket of my pants and open the camera app. I take three shots and send them off to her father.

What the hell am I doing? I’m supposed to be letting Ivan drive himself mad with horrid thoughts of what I’m doing to his daughter.

I should stay far away from the temptation that is Sienna D’Addario and follow my plan.

This way lies ruin , a voice in my head warns.

Clenching my jaw with self-loathing, I unlock the door with my key card and walk in.

Her head snaps up at my entrance, and she narrows her eyes at me and opens her mouth to say something. If I have to guess, it’s probably something scathing she’s been reciting in her head since our last meeting.

At the last minute, though, she presses those plump lips tightly together and turns back to her book with feigned concentration, acting like I’m not even there.

“Look at me,” I order.

“No,” she retorts. “I didn’t know I was allowed guests in my prison. Or are you Mother Gothel?”

I don’t know what she’s talking about. “I’m your jailer. I can do whatever I want with you.”

“I know.” Her voice drips with bitterness. “You made that clear the other day.”

My hackles rise. “I clearly remember you being a very willing participant that day.”

I’m not about to let her get away with acting like I forced her into anything. She had wanted me just as much as I had wanted her.

Her only response is a huff as she fixes her gaze back on her book.

My phone pings in my pocket, and I immediately know who it’s from. “Don’t you like the book?” I ask.

To my surprise, red steals over her cheek, and she blinks up at me. “Why do you think I don’t?”

“You’ve been looking at it as if you want to chuck it out of the window.”

She snorts. “The only place it deserves to end up is in the fire.”

“They are your books.”

“No, they’re not.”

My instructions to Maurizio had been clear. Get into her apartment and write down the names of all the books lying on her bookshelf.

I would think she just kept the books for show, but through the cameras I installed in her house, I’ve watched her read those books.

“What do you—” The phone in my pocket buzzes again, and her gaze drops down to the visible outline of it.

“I hope you’re not ignoring your girlfriend on my behalf.” The words are unsure, and she immediately starts to gnaw on her bottom lip.

“Is there something you want to ask me, Sienna?”

“Pfft.” She rolls her eyes. “Like I give a damn if any woman is stupid enough to get herself entangled with a walking, talking red flag like you.”

“If I had told you to drop your panties and bend over for me in the middle of that gallery, you would have done it.”

Red climbs up her cheeks, and she ducks her head. “ I never knew you were the monster you are now!”

“And three days ago, when you were begging for my cock?” I raise a brow and then take a few steps to the nearby chair. “Let me guess, you were cursed from birth with the memory of a goldfish?”

She purses her lips, looking very unimpressed with my taunt. “You’re such a bastard.”

“From monster to bastard,” I tut. “I don’t know if I’m disappointed by the downgrade.”

“I’m shocked nobody’s shot you yet. If I was a mafia guy and I had a gun, you would have gotten a hole in your head a long time ago.”

I resist the urge to smile. Little does she know I’m a completely different person when I’m with her. She brings out something in me. This hatred floating over an ocean of desire that exists between us is both maddening and exciting.

Each sharp word and insult feels like foreplay. Like tiny little razor nicks that make me hold my breath and thrum with something I can’t explain.

Fuck my life, but I want her.

I want her under me and staring up at me with a mixture of burning hatred, shame, and hunger.

Blood begins to fill my cock, and I will my erection away with the most gruesome thoughts I can think up.

“The reason no one’s tried to put a hole in me yet is because they know I’ll crawl out of hell and take them back with me.”

She shuts her book, giving me her undivided attention. Why do I like it so much? The satisfaction that blooms inside me as her hazel eyes meet mine is cause for alarm.

“That’s the sort of campfire story they tell kids to give them nightmares.” She glares at me. “I’m not a kid. You can’t hurt anybody when you’re dead.”

I open my mouth to reply, and my phone buzzes again.

“Seriously?” Sienna throws her hands up in an exasperated gesture. “I’m really feeling like the other woman over here. Can you put it on silent, or better still, toss it out the window if you’re not going to check your phone?”

I reach for my pocket, and it’s only my fast reflexes that save me from getting a concussion as she hurls her book at me.

Leaping out of my chair, I rush toward her and haul her to her feet. “What the fuck was that?”

“That was me missing my opportunity to put you in a coma.”

The first time I saw Sienna, I thought she was the sweetest woman on the planet. Her shy smiles and the way she blushed so easily deceived me into thinking this woman was anything but vicious.

First, she says she’ll make them chop my fingers off before putting me in an electric chair. Next, she wants to shoot me, and now she wants to put me in a coma.

I’m beginning to feel like the captive here.

“I won’t miss the next one,” she continues. “She can spend the rest of her life wiping you down in a hospital bed.”

“Who?”

Her chin thrusts in the air obstinately, and I’m about to shake the truth out of her when it suddenly hits me.

“Are you jealous?”

Her eyes widen so much that they’re practically circles on her face. “W—what? Jealous? Of what? You?”

I raise a brow, curious and amused at the same time. I’m mostly saying it to rile her up, but there’s a part of me that wants it to be true, too. “Well, are you?”

“N—no. Of course not. What gives you that idea?” She shrugs her shoulder out of my grip, trying to look nonchalant and failing miserably. Her gaze is ping-ponging around the room in a most obvious display of guilt.

The smile that curves my mouth is full of teeth.

“Stop smiling,” she barks. “Do you think I risked destroying a perfectly good book because I’m jealous of some unlucky woman?”

“I don’t know, Sienna.” Her eyes darken at my use of her name. I noticed it the very first time I said her name, and I have made sure to see that tiny reaction out of her as often as I can. “You tell me.”

“You’re the bad guy,” she responds softly.

It sounds an awful lot like she’s trying to remind herself.

“You’ve obviously killed people,” she continues.

“People who deserved it.”

Sienna wraps her arms around herself. “And the lives of the innocent who have been ruined by the drugs you push into the streets?”

A defense is on my tongue. If those people don’t buy those drugs from me, they’ll buy them from someone else. I don’t force them to ruin their own lives with deadly and expensive addictions.

But the words die before they can come out, and my teeth jam together. I don’t owe Sienna D’Addario an explanation. It doesn’t matter that I’m not the monster she thinks I am.

It won’t change the fact that I have a personal vendetta against the man she loves most on earth, and no matter how tempting she is, I will never let the prosecutor walk free.

“I didn’t know you were such an advocate for the innocent,” I sneer. “I thought you were a starving artist and not a human rights activist.”

She steps up to my face, tiny and fierce. “I’m not a starving artist. You may have walked away from The Revelation, but someone else thought they were good enough. You know, back then, I wished you had been my secret buyer, but now I’m glad you haven’t put your dirty paws on my babies.”

If only she knew.

“I want to show you something,” I say before I can rethink my decision.

I’ve never been one to make split-second decisions, but recently, it seems that’s all I ever do. All my careful planning and scheming go flying out the window whenever Sienna is involved.

When all of this is over, she’ll be gone. I’ll never have to see her again or deal with this discomfiting confusion. My life will go back to business as usual, everything in its rightful place.

Just the way I like it.

“What is it?” Her voice is wary, and I’m tempted to drag this out, but on the other hand, I want to get this over with. My phone feels like it’s burning a hole in my pants.

I stick my hand in my pocket and pull out my phone, her hazel eyes tracing my movement.

Not looking at the messages from Ivan before turning the screen to his daughter may just be the most stupid thing I’ve ever done.

“What does it say?” I ask her after several minutes of her just staring at the screen with a lost expression.

Tears cling to her lashes as she flicks them up to stare at me. “It says he’s coming for me, and he loves me.”

I finally bring the phone screen to my face.

“I love you more than all the planets stacked together,” I recite with a scoff. “What does that mean?”

“None of your business,” she answers, but her voice lacks the usual bite to it.

When my eyes meet hers, they are soft and adoring. As if I dragged the stars down from the sky and gifted them to her. If this is how easy it is to please Sienna, then I won’t…

I don’t allow myself to complete that train of thought. It’s not my duty to please her. The opposite, in fact.

“Stop looking at me like that,” I warn her.

“You sent him pictures of me.”

“Not for your sake or his,” I lie. “I just wanted to remind him that you’re at my mercy.”

“Thank you.”

I paste on a smirk. “As I said, my action is for neither of your benefit. It was a completely selfish act.”

“Regardless, thank you.”

I turn to walk out of the room, knowing that the longer I spend there, the more I give her a false sense of hope. I can’t imagine what’s going through her head. I only hope for her sake she doesn’t think I’m being redeemed.

The only redemption I require is Ivan’s grief-ravaged body.

“Alessandro.” Her voice is like a brush of a feather against my skin, and I ignore it, increasing my pace to the door. “Alessandro.” There’s an annoyed undertone to it now. “You coward.”

At those words, I spin around and retrace my steps toward her with my hands clenched at my sides. I don’t know what my plan is. I don’t know if I’m going to kiss her or strangle her when I get close enough.

But Sienna makes up my mind for me.

With her eyes holding mine spellbound, she drops to her knees before me.